Sift RSS — Privacy Policy

Effective date: June 20, 2026 · Last updated: June 20, 2026

1. Introduction

This Privacy Policy describes how Sift RSS (“Sift,” “we,” “us,” or “our”), a product operated by Lacher Ventures, LLC, a Michigan limited liability company, collects, uses, and protects information when you use the Sift RSS web application (the “Service”).

Sift is a feed reader built privacy-first. We designed it to need as little of your data as possible: we don’t store passwords, we don’t run analytics or trackers, and we don’t sell or share your information. The sections below are an exhaustive description — anything not listed here as collected is something we don’t collect.

2. The information we collect

Account identity. When you sign in with Google, we receive and store your Google account identifier (a stable, opaque ID) and your email address. That is the entirety of what we keep about who you are.
Your reading data. The feeds you subscribe to, the folders you create, your triage decisions for each item (read, saved, dismissed), and your settings (such as theme, layout, sort order, and feature toggles). This is the data the Service exists to store on your behalf so the reader works.
Limited server logs. Our web server records access logs for security and operations. The client IP address is anonymized (the last segment is masked) before it is written. These logs contain the request line, status code, user agent, and referrer, and are rotated and deleted on a short schedule.
Application error logs. We log warnings and errors only — never request contents, and never a record of which items you read.

3. The information we do NOT collect

No password. Authentication is handled by Google; we never see, receive, or store a password.
No Google account access. We request only the openid and email scopes — enough to learn who you are at sign-in. We do not request or hold access to Gmail, Drive, Contacts, or any other Google data, and we do not retain Google access or refresh tokens after sign-in.
No analytics, trackers, or advertising. There are no third-party analytics scripts, no advertising networks, no marketing pixels, and no behavioral profiling.
No telemetry or crash reporters that phone home.
No sale or sharing of your personal information with third parties for their own purposes.

4. How we use the information we have

To provide the Service: authenticate you, fetch and display your feeds, and remember your subscriptions, folders, triage decisions, and settings.
To operate and secure the Service: keep it running, diagnose errors, and protect against abuse.

We do not use your reading data to build advertising profiles, and we do not use it for any purpose other than operating the reader for you.

5. Feed fetching and post images

Our server fetches your feeds — not your browser. A single server-side fetch serves every subscriber, so the publishers you follow do not see you, your IP, or your reading schedule when their feeds are polled.

Post images are off by default. If you turn on “Show post images” in Settings, images are loaded directly from the publisher by your browser, which lets that publisher’s server see your IP address and that you viewed the post (similar to an email tracking pixel). We suppress the referrer on these requests, but the trade-off is real, which is why the setting is opt-in. With it off, no post images are loaded.

6. Third-party services we interact with

Google (Sign-In). Used solely to authenticate you. Your use of Google Sign-In is also governed by Google’s privacy policy.
DigitalOcean (hosting). The Service runs on a private server hosted by DigitalOcean, which provides the underlying infrastructure.
Anthropic (development tool only). We use Anthropic’s AI tools to help build and maintain the Service’s software. This is a development-time tool and does not receive your personal data or your reading activity from the running Service.

7. How we secure information

All traffic is encrypted in transit with HTTPS/TLS.
Each user can access only their own data; subscriptions, folders, and triage decisions are strictly scoped to the signed-in account.
We store no passwords, so there are none to leak.
We keep the server’s operating system and dependencies updated and restrict network access.

No system is perfectly secure, but we keep the amount of sensitive data we hold deliberately small.

8. How long we retain information

Your account identity and reading data are retained while your account is active.
A browsable reading history is off by default; your triage decisions are stored because the reader needs them to keep handled items out of your stream, and are visible only to you.
Anonymized access logs are rotated and deleted on a short schedule (currently kept for up to 14 days).
If you ask us to delete your account, we delete your account identity and associated reading data.

9. Your rights

9.1 EU/EEA/UK users (GDPR). You have the right to access, correct, delete, and obtain a portable copy of your personal data, and to object to or restrict certain processing. We do not sell personal data.

9.2 California residents (CCPA/CPRA). You have the right to know what personal information we collect, to request its deletion, and to non-discrimination for exercising your rights. We do not sell or share your personal information.

9.3 Other US states and regions. Where applicable law grants similar rights, we honor them on the same basis.

To exercise any of these rights, contact us at privacy@lacherventures.com.

10. Changes to this Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. We will revise the “Last updated” date above and, for material changes, take reasonable steps to notify you.

11. Children’s privacy

Sift is not directed to children. The Service is intended for users 13 years of age or older (16 in the EU/EEA), and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under those ages.

12. AI disclosure

We use AI-assisted development tools to write and maintain the software behind Sift. These tools operate during development and do not process your personal data or reading activity from the running Service.

13. Contact

For privacy questions or to exercise your rights, contact Lacher Ventures, LLC at privacy@lacherventures.com. For general support, see support@lacherventures.com.