Most news sites don't sell you news. They sell you to ad networks. Every time you load a page, dozens of third-party scripts fire — Google Analytics, Meta Pixel, AppNexus, The Trade Desk, Doubleclick, Criteo, Quantcast, Chartbeat — each one logging your page view, your scroll depth, your dwell time, your referrer, and increasingly, a fingerprint of your device that survives even when you clear your cookies.
WeSearch does not run a display-ad network, Meta Pixel, programmatic-ad tags, or fingerprinting library. We do use Google Analytics for limited operational audience measurement and Cloudflare for delivery and protection. Those services receive normal technical request data. We review analytics in aggregate to operate the site—not to personalize the feed, target advertising, or sell reader data.
What we do collect
- Story view counts per /s/<slug> page. Aggregate, not per-user.
- Reactions and comments you explicitly post. Linked to your local API key (which we hash before storing).
- API usage events for the developer side: which resource was called, how long it took, whether it succeeded. Used for fair-use limits.
- Server logs: IP, user-agent, requested path. Rotated within 30 days.
- Operational analytics: page views and basic technical context such as browser/device, approximate geography, and referrer.
What we do not collect
- Real names, addresses, phone numbers.
- A story-by-story reading profile tied to your WeSearch reader key or used to rank your feed.
- A purchased cross-site profile or retargeting audience assembled for advertisers.
- BYOK credentials. AI keys you provide for in-browser features (Tenor, OpenAI) are forwarded to the upstream provider per request and never persisted server-side.
- Anything that would let an ad network rebuild a profile of you.
Cookies and storage
WeSearch uses localStorage on your device for items such as your API key, OG-image cache, preferred feed category, BYOK keys, tour-completed flag, Mine feed list, bookmarks, and friends. Most values stay local; a value is sent when its feature needs it. Delivery, analytics, translation, and feature providers may use their own cookies or similar identifiers under their policies. WeSearch does not use browser storage for ad targeting.
Third parties we have to talk to
WeSearch is an aggregator, so some features proxy requests to upstream providers. When you check the weather, we forward the forecast location to a weather provider. Story images are generally fetched through our image proxy. A provider receives the data needed for the feature, not a WeSearch advertising profile.
Cloudflare sits in the request path as our CDN and DDoS shield and receives your IP, user-agent, requested path, and timing data. Google Analytics receives browser and page-view data for operational measurement. The homepage also loads Google Translate; loading or using it can send your IP address, browser information, page URL, and page content to Google. Stripe processes donations, and browser-vendor gateways process push notifications when you opt in. Each provider handles its data under its own policy.
How to verify the boundary
Open DevTools → Network and reload. You should expect WeSearch requests, Cloudflare delivery, Google Analytics, and—on the homepage—Google Translate. You should not see display-ad auctions, Meta Pixel, DoubleClick ad requests, Criteo, AppNexus, or other retargeting and programmatic-ad vendors. If that boundary changes, this page should change with it.
Why this matters
The tracker stack is what made the open web feel exhausting. Every page is a billboard, and the billboards are watching you back. The promise of "free news" came with a bill that was never disclosed: a profile of you, sold to ad buyers, fed back to recommendation engines, fed forward to retargeting systems, and ultimately reused for political advertising. Reading a paywall-free news site in 2026 should not require accepting a tracker payload that follows you across the web for the next year.
WeSearch's privacy stance is an editorial position: measure enough to keep the service useful and reliable, disclose the measurement honestly, and stop before reader activity becomes an advertising or personalization profile.
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Frequently asked
Do you use Google Analytics?
Yes, for limited operational audience measurement. We use the results in aggregate and not for advertising, personalized news ranking, or selling reader data.
What about Google Translate?
The homepage loads Google Translate for language access. Loading or using it can send your IP address, browser information, page URL, and page content to Google under Google's terms.
What about Stripe for donations?
Stripe handles checkout on the donation flow, and card details go directly to Stripe; we never see them. Other disclosed third-party surfaces include operational analytics and homepage translation.