acorn.
Privacy Policy
Effective July 2, 2026
The short version: Acorn stores your account details and the
links you save so the app can work. We use basic analytics to understand how
Acorn is used. We don't sell your data, and you can delete your account — and
everything tied to it — from inside the app at any time.
What we collect
- Account information — your email address and display name,
via email/password sign-up or Sign in with Google / Apple.
- Saved content — the links you save to Acorn, plus metadata
we fetch about them (title, author, thumbnail, article text, and read time).
- Preferences — the languages, platforms, and role you choose
during onboarding, and your newsletter setting.
- Reading activity — which of your saves you've marked read,
your save counts, and your reading streak.
- Usage analytics — events like app opens, sign-ups, and
saves, collected through PostHog and associated with your account.
How we use it
- To run the app: sync your saves across devices, fetch link previews, and
keep your library organized.
- To power community features: the links Acorn users save contribute to
aggregate features like Top Stories save counts and rankings. Public
metadata about saved links (title, thumbnail, save counts) may be visible
to other signed-in Acorn users. Your reading status and personal notes are
always private to you.
- To improve Acorn: analytics help us understand which features are used
and where things break.
- If you opt in, to send you a weekly email digest. You can turn this off
in Settings at any time.
Services we rely on
Acorn is built on trusted third-party processors:
- Google Firebase — authentication, database, and hosting.
- PostHog — product analytics.
- Content services — when you save a link, its URL is sent
to services such as Jina Reader and platform APIs (e.g. YouTube) to fetch
public metadata like the title and thumbnail. Only the link itself is
shared — never your identity.
We don't sell your personal information to anyone.
Deleting your data
You can delete your account in Settings → Delete account.
This permanently removes your account, your saved items, your preferences, and
your reading activity. Aggregate community statistics (like a story's total
save count) are adjusted accordingly. Analytics data is retained in aggregate
form only.
Children
Acorn is not directed at children under 13, and we don't knowingly collect
personal information from them.
Changes
If we make meaningful changes to this policy, we'll update this page and
the effective date above.
Contact
Questions? Email us at hello@readacorn.com.