Where can I read Newsblur’s privacy policy? It doesn’t seem to be linked from the homepage or the FAQ. Thanks in advance.
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After searching further, it’s clear that NewsBlur does not have a published privacy policy. I did find a couple of Samuel’s tweets saying he is “not interested” in selling user data, which is good, but it’s no substitute for an official policy stating exactly what NewsBlur will and won’t do with our usage data.
For many people, a list of their news feeds can provide a very personal look into their lives and interests. If you are a political dissident under an oppressive government, gay and not yet out of the closet, undergoing treatment for mental illness – or if for any reason you do not want your reading habits to be known beyond the circle of people you choose to share them with – you should be very cautious about using NewsBlur, or any service that’s not completely upfront about what they will do with your data.
In the future, I hope Samuel will take this issue more seriously and make a real commitment to his users’ privacy.
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So, Samuel, how many requests have you gotten from law enforcement or other government agencies for user data?
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I think the OP really deserves a response. It’s not reasonable to expect a sole-proprietor to be able to fight back against over-broad government demands the way Twitter can, but there’s still a lot of other user protections that a written Privacy Policy can offer. The lack of one remains my biggest qualm about using NewsBlur.
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I don’t have an official privacy policy. The short and skinny of it would be that I don’t sell your data and I don’t double dip. In other words, your data is yours to export, I don’t resell any data, and I only make money off customers who pay for premiums subscriptions. The only public data you have are stories you explicitly share on your blurblog.
Also, I’ve had numerous requests for selling user data, and every time I happily say no.
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That’s an awesome policy. Why not make it official? 
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Having an “official” policy wouldn’t stop Samuel (or any future owner) changing it later, so I’m not sure what the point would be. Ultimately it’s a matter of trust either way.
As an aside, a lot of this government stuff seems to forbid complying companies from actually saying they’re doing it; companies have only admitted to it since the leak happened and it became public knowledge.
Well of course it wouldn’t stop him from changing it later. Witness the kerfuffle every time Facebook changes theirs. 
But it *would* mean that users would have a fair chance at knowing about it if Samuel or (more likely) a future owner changed their minds. That’s the point of having a written privacy policy.
So again… the policy above is awesome. Why not make it official?
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This is something important and a requirement on the Google Play Store.
Please make it official.
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