Privacy Policy

Last updated: 20 October 2026

This Privacy Policy explains how Data Concept Studio ("we", "us", "our") collects, uses, and shares information when you use the Briefcaster mobile application for iOS (App Store) and Android (Google Play) (the "App"). Briefcaster turns news topics, RSS feeds, websites and YouTube channels into short, personalized audio briefs written and voiced by AI.

1. Who we are

The data controller is Data Concept Studio, a sole proprietorship registered in Poland (MICHAŁ SZAREK DATA CONCEPT STUDIO, ul. Oświęcimska 9, 44-120 Pyskowice, Polska, NIP 9691673171, REGON 542296618). For any privacy question or request, contact us at contact@dataconceptstudio.com.

2. Information we collect

2.1 Account information

• Email address and display name — when you create an account with email and password, or sign in with Google or Apple.
• Password — if you register with email, stored only as a salted hash; we never store your plaintext password.
• Sign in with Apple — if you choose to hide your email, we receive only Apple's private relay address and never your real email.

2.2 Content you create

• Feeds and sources — the topics, RSS URLs, and YouTube channels you add, plus your schedule, language, and voice preferences.
• Generated briefs — the audio episodes we produce for you and your listening progress (so playback can resume).
• Sharing preference — whether you allow your briefs to appear anonymously in "Popular" (for your account and for each brief), and when you saw the in-app notice about this feature (see section 5).

2.3 Optional connections

• YouTube (read-only) — only if you tap "Connect YouTube", we request the youtube.readonly scope to list your subscriptions so you can turn them into a feed. We store the access grant on our servers for that purpose only. We do not post, modify, or delete anything on your YouTube account, and you can disconnect at any time (see section 8).

2.3.1 YouTube API Services

Briefcaster uses YouTube API Services to look up the YouTube channels you add, to list their new videos, and — only after "Connect YouTube" — to read your subscriptions. By adding YouTube channels you agree to the YouTube Terms of Service. Information obtained through YouTube API Services is also subject to the Google Privacy Policy. From YouTube we keep the channel identifiers, titles and thumbnail addresses of the channels in your feeds, and the titles and links of the videos a brief was built from (shown as its sources), and the written notes Gemini produced about a public video, cached so the same video is not analysed twice (these notes describe the public video, not you). We do not download, store or replay YouTube video or audio: a brief is an AI-written script read by AI voices, never a recording taken from YouTube. You can revoke Briefcaster's access to your Google/YouTube account at any time on Google's third-party access page. Deleting your account deletes your access grant and the YouTube channels and video links stored in your feeds and briefs.

2.4 Device & usage information

• Push notification token — if you enable notifications, so we can tell you when a brief is ready.
• Usage counters — how many briefs you have generated in the current period, to apply plan limits.
• Product analytics — a random identifier stored on your device, your account identifier once you sign in, and the in-app events listed in our code (for example "brief started", "brief finished", "feed created", ratings you give a brief), sent to PostHog (EU region). Events never contain what you said to the voice assistant, your search terms or the text of your sources. We switch off PostHog's IP-based location lookup, so analytics records no city or country.
• Technical data — like any internet service, our servers and providers receive your device's IP address and basic device information (operating system, app version, language, time zone) with each request. We use them to deliver the service, schedule your briefs at your local time, and protect against abuse; we do not use your IP address to determine your location.

2.5 No advertising

The App shows no ads and does not access your device's advertising identifier (IDFA on iOS, Android advertising ID). We do not track you across other companies' apps or websites. If we ever introduce advertising, we will update this policy and ask for your consent before any advertising identifier is used.

2.6 Voice conversation (optional)

• Your voice — only if you tap "Start conversation" in the optional voice setup assistant and allow microphone access. Your voice is streamed live from your phone to OpenAI for the duration of the conversation (see section 3). Our servers do not receive your voice audio, and Briefcaster does not record or store audio.
• Feed settings you accept — the topic, description, schedule and format discussed in the conversation are saved to your draft feed, like settings entered in the form.
• Session records — when a conversation started and ended, its length, its outcome or error code, its estimated cost and numeric technical measurements such as response delay. These records contain no audio and no transcript.

3. How we use your information

Optional voice setup assistant (AI)

Briefcaster can let you set up a feed by talking to an AI assistant. You are talking to an AI, not a person, and the App tells you so, and tells you where your voice is sent, before the conversation starts. The assistant may be rolled out gradually and may be available only to some accounts.

The microphone is switched on only after you tap "Start conversation" and allow microphone access on your phone (iOS or Android). From then on your voice is streamed live from your phone to OpenAI, which transcribes it and generates the assistant's spoken replies. While the conversation runs, our servers receive the text of what is said, in order to fill in your draft feed's settings and to show live captions on your screen. Language models operated by OpenAI process that text, and OpenAI's moderation service checks the topic and description that are saved. The conversation configures a draft only; you choose when to generate an episode.

The conversation ends when you end or save it, close the screen or leave the App, after a period of silence, or after a maximum length (currently 3 minutes). You can use the ordinary form without ever allowing microphone access.

Briefcaster does not record the conversation and does not save voice recordings or transcripts in its storage, logs or analytics; the text our servers see is held in memory only while the conversation runs. We save only the feed settings you accept and the session records described in section 2.6. We switch off OpenAI's optional storage of the session. Popular sharing is switched off for feeds created this way.

OpenAI acts as our processor. The limits above describe Briefcaster's own storage. OpenAI states that it keeps abuse-monitoring logs of API usage for up to 30 days (longer only where the law requires it) and that data sent through its API is not used to train its models unless the API customer opts in; see OpenAI's API data controls. We cannot delete those logs before OpenAI's own retention period ends. Voice conversations are processed in the United States (see section 11).

Our legal basis for processing your voice is your consent (Article 6(1)(a) GDPR), which you give by tapping "Start conversation" and allowing microphone access. You can withdraw it at any time by ending the conversation, or by turning off microphone access for Briefcaster in your phone's settings.

Reporting a reply. If the assistant says something you find offensive or harmful, tap "Report this reply". The text of the assistant's latest reply, as shown in the captions on your screen, is then sent with your report to our moderation team so that we can review it. This is the only case in which any wording from a voice conversation leaves your phone through Briefcaster; we keep it only as long as the review needs.

• To create your account and authenticate you.
• To generate personalized audio briefs from your chosen sources.
• To deliver audio playback, including in the background and on the lock screen.
• To send you notifications and account emails (for example, password reset).
• To enforce plan limits and prevent abuse.
• To pick and show a daily selection of popular briefs, anonymously, to other signed-in listeners (see section 5).
• To operate, secure, and improve the App.

4. How your briefs are generated

To produce a brief we send the text of your selected sources (news articles, RSS items, or YouTube metadata) to large-language-model and text-to-speech providers acting on our behalf — currently Google Cloud (Vertex AI / Gemini and Cloud Text-to-Speech), ElevenLabs and Boson AI (text-to-speech for some voices); some English voices run on a speech model we host ourselves on Google Cloud. For a public YouTube video, Google's Gemini model analyses the video at its public YouTube address and returns written notes, which the brief is then written from; we do not download or store the video or its audio. This content is processed to write a script and synthesize audio, entirely automatically and without human review of individual briefs before delivery. We do not send your account credentials to these providers. See our Terms of Service for how we disclose AI-generated content under the EU AI Act (Regulation (EU) 2024/1689).

5. Popular: anonymous sharing of briefs

The Home screen of the App includes a Popular section. Every day we pick a small selection (currently around eight) of briefs created by Briefcaster users, ranked by how many different listeners played them and how often they were listened to the end. The selection may also include briefs chosen and reviewed by our editors; these follow the same anonymity rules and sharing settings described below, and are never taken from paid or private sources. Signed-in users can play these briefs and read their transcript.

5.1 What other listeners see — and what they never see

Popular briefs are shown anonymously. Other users see only the episode itself: a title derived from the episode's content (not the name of your feed), the audio, the transcript, the show notes and article links (with query strings removed, and links to private or intranet addresses left out), the language, the duration, and the date. The audio is served from a separate anonymous copy whose address does not reveal any identifiers.

Other users never see your name, email address or account, the name or settings of your feed or brief, your list of sources or interests, or how many people listened to your brief. When you play someone else's brief, its author does not see that you listened.

5.2 Which briefs are never shared

• Briefs built from paid or private subscription sources.
• Briefs whose audio or transcript mentions the brief's own name.
• Briefs that have not passed our automated content moderation.
• Briefs removed by a moderator, and briefs reported by a listener — a report removes the brief from Popular.
• Briefs for which you, or your account settings, have switched sharing off.

5.3 Data we use for this, and why

To rank briefs we use the playback records we already keep for every account (which episodes were played and whether they were finished). When you play a Popular brief, that playback is recorded against your own account, as for any other episode, and counts towards its ranking. We also store your sharing preference and when you saw the in-app notice. No new service providers are involved; this data stays with the providers listed in section 6.

Our legal basis is our legitimate interest (Article 6(1)(f) GDPR) in helping listeners discover briefs that other people found worth hearing, while keeping authors anonymous. You have the right to object to this at any time, and you can do so directly in the App as described below.

5.4 Your choice — on by default, off at any time

• On by default. Sharing is switched on by default. We show you a one-time notice in the App. If you had an account before this feature launched, your briefs become eligible only after a grace period of about 7 days from when you see the notice — unless you switch sharing on yourself earlier.
• For your whole account: Account → "Share my briefs anonymously in Popular".
• For a single brief: the sharing switch in that brief's settings.
• Switching sharing off removes the brief from Popular immediately.

6. Service providers we share data with

We share the minimum data necessary with the following processors:

We do not sell your personal data or share it with data brokers.

Other users. If sharing is switched on, other signed-in Briefcaster users may see and hear your brief in the Popular section — only in the anonymised form described in section 5, never together with your name, email address, or account.

7. Data retention

We keep your account data and generated briefs while your account is active. When you delete a feed, its sources and episodes are removed. When you delete your account, your account, feeds, sources, briefs, device tokens and reports are deleted immediately, in the same request. A few things are kept for a limited time, as listed on the Delete your account page: episode audio files remain in encrypted storage for up to 180 days after they were produced (no longer reachable from the App or any link); playback and rating events are kept only in anonymised form; backups and server logs age out on their normal rotation; and we keep a record longer only where the law requires it.

Each daily Popular selection is kept for about 2 days. The anonymous audio copies used for Popular are deleted after at most 4 days. Your sharing preference is kept while your account is active.

Voice conversations: Briefcaster stores no audio and no transcripts. The session records described in section 2.6 follow the account retention rules above. OpenAI keeps abuse-monitoring logs for up to 30 days (section 3).

8. Your rights & choices

• Access & deletion — you can delete individual feeds and your entire account from within the App. To request a copy or full deletion of your data, email us. Step-by-step instructions, including deletion without the App installed, are on the Delete your account page.
• Notifications — you can disable push notifications in your device settings.
• YouTube — you can revoke Briefcaster's access to your Google/YouTube account at any time at myaccount.google.com/permissions, and remove YouTube channels from your feeds in the App.
• Voice conversation — you give your consent each time you start one, and you can withdraw it at any moment by ending the conversation or by turning off microphone access for Briefcaster in your phone's settings. The form works without the microphone. To have session records deleted, delete your account or email us.
• Popular (anonymous sharing) — you can object to, and stop, anonymous sharing of your briefs at any time: Account → "Share my briefs anonymously in Popular" for all your briefs, or the sharing switch in a brief's settings for a single one. Switching it off removes the brief from Popular immediately.

Depending on where you live (for example, the EU/EEA under the GDPR), you may have additional rights to access, correct, port, or erase your data, to object to or restrict its processing, and to lodge a complaint with your local supervisory authority — in Poland, the President of the Personal Data Protection Office (UODO, uodo.gov.pl).

9. Children

Briefcaster is intended for adults aged 18 and over and is not directed to children. We do not knowingly collect data from anyone under 18. If you believe a child has provided us data, contact us and we will delete it.

10. Security

We use industry-standard measures to protect your data in transit (TLS) and at rest. Passwords are stored only as salted hashes. No method of transmission or storage is 100% secure, but we work to protect your information and limit access to it.

11. International transfers

We process and store data on Google Cloud infrastructure located in the European Union (europe-west1). Some service providers may process data in other countries under appropriate safeguards. In particular, voice and conversation text from the optional voice setup assistant are processed by OpenAI in the United States.

12. Changes to this policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. We will revise the "Last updated" date above and, where appropriate, notify you in the App. Continued use of Briefcaster after changes take effect means you accept the updated policy.

13. Contact us

Questions or requests about this policy or your data: contact@dataconceptstudio.com.