Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy explains how WCN News ("we", "our", or "us") collects, uses, and protects your personal information when you use our website.

1. Information We Collect

1.1 Information You Provide

When you register, comment, or contact us, we may collect your name, email address, username, and password (stored as a secure hash). We never store plain-text passwords.

1.2 Automatically Collected Information

When you browse our site, we may automatically collect your IP address, browser type, device type, pages visited, and reading history (if logged in) to improve the user experience and power our AI Recommendation Engine.

1.3 Cookies

We use cookies to remember your theme preference (dark/light mode), your login session, and your language preference. We do not use third-party advertising cookies. You may disable cookies in your browser settings, but some features may not function correctly.

2. How We Use Your Information

• To deliver and improve our news service
• To personalize your news feed using our AI Recommendation Engine
• To send you newsletters (only if you explicitly subscribe)
• To respond to your comments and contact form submissions
• To detect and prevent abuse or fraudulent activity
• To generate aggregated, anonymous analytics (we never sell individual data)

3. AI & Data Processing

Our AI Engine (powered by Groq/LLaMA) processes article content to generate rewrites, translations, category assignments, and trust scores. Your personal data is never sent to external AI APIs. Only news article content is processed by our AI pipeline.

Your reading history is stored locally in our database to power the "For You" recommendation feed. This data is never sold or shared with third parties.

4. Data Sharing

We do not sell, trade, or rent your personal information to any third party. We may share data only in the following circumstances:

• With your explicit consent
• When required by law or a valid court order
• To protect the rights and safety of our users

5. Data Security

We implement industry-standard security practices including HTTPS encryption, hashed password storage (bcrypt), and prepared SQL statements to prevent injection attacks. Despite our efforts, no method of internet transmission is 100% secure.

6. Your Rights

You have the right to access, correct, or delete your personal data at any time. To exercise these rights, please contact us at privacy@whitecodernews.com. We will respond within 30 days.

7. Children's Privacy

Our service is not directed to children under 13. We do not knowingly collect information from children. If you believe a child has provided us information, contact us immediately.

8. Third-Party Links

Our articles link to original source articles on third-party websites. We are not responsible for the privacy practices of those sites. We encourage you to review their privacy policies.

9. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy periodically. We will notify registered users of significant changes via email. Continued use of the site after changes constitutes acceptance.

10. Contact

For privacy-related questions, contact us at privacy@whitecodernews.com or via our Contact page.