Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy explains how Matters (“Matters,” “we,” “us” or “our”) collects, uses, shares and protects personal information when you visit getmatters.org, use the Matters application at profile.getmatters.org, read stories we publish, or otherwise interact with us (together, the “Service”). It also explains the choices and rights you have.

Matters is a digital product available to people around the world. By using the Service you acknowledge that you have read this Privacy Policy. If you do not agree with it, please do not use the Service. This policy should be read together with our Terms of Service.

1. Summary

• We collect the information you give us (such as your name, email, phone number, education details and interests) and information about how you use the feed, so that we can build and improve a personalized news feed for you.
• We do not sell your personal information, we do not share it for cross-context behavioral advertising, and we do not show third-party ads.
• We use a small number of service providers (for hosting, databases, email and analytics) who process data only on our instructions.
• You can access, correct or delete your information at any time by writing to support@getmatters.org.

2. Information we collect

2.1 Information you provide to us

• Account information: your name, email address and password. Passwords are stored by our authentication provider in hashed form; we never see or store your password in plain text.
• Profile and onboarding information: your education level (for example, high school, undergraduate, postgraduate, PhD or working professional), country, phone number and country dialing code, goals (for example, getting into university, finding an internship or studying abroad), the topics and countries you choose to follow, and, if you add them, your university, field of study and graduation year.
• Communications: information you send us when you contact us or use the “Report a problem” form, including your name, email address, your message and the page you were on.
• Subscription information: your plan, trial and subscription status and dates. If paid plans are offered, payments are handled by a third-party payment processor; we receive only a customer and subscription reference and never receive or store your full card details.

2.2 Information collected automatically

• Activity in the Service: when you are signed in, we record interactions such as stories shown to you, opened, read, saved, liked or disliked, searches you run (including the search text), and changes you make to your profile or interests, along with the time they occurred.
• Device and technical information: when you submit a problem report, we record your browser’s user-agent (the browser and device type). Our hosting and authentication providers also keep standard server logs, which may include your IP address, browser type, and the date and time of requests, for security and reliability purposes.
• Analytics: we use privacy-focused, cookieless analytics to understand aggregate usage and page performance (for example, page views and load times). This analytics does not use cookies and is not used to identify you or to follow you across other websites.
• Cookies: see Section 8.

2.3 Information we do not collect

We do not ask for government identification numbers, precise location, or special categories of personal data (such as health, religion, political opinions or biometrics). Please do not send us such information. The Service does not let you upload files or publish public posts.

3. How we use your information

We use personal information to:

• create and manage your account, and authenticate you when you sign in;
• personalize your feed, by selecting and ranking news based on your education level, country, goals, interests and activity;
• operate, maintain, secure and troubleshoot the Service, including preventing fraud, abuse and unauthorized access;
• respond to your requests and problem reports, and send you service messages such as password-reset codes and important notices about your account or these policies;
• send you news digests and updates about the Service, which you can opt out of at any time (see Section 9);
• manage free trials and, where offered, subscriptions and payments;
• understand how the Service is used and improve it, including by developing and training our own models for selecting and classifying news. For this purpose we use aggregated or de-identified information (for example, the total number of times a story was opened or saved), not information that identifies you;
• decide which topics and countries our news discovery should cover, using aggregated counts of what our readers follow; and
• comply with law, enforce our Terms of Service, and establish, exercise or defend legal claims.

We do not use your personal information to make decisions that produce legal or similarly significant effects on you solely by automated means. Personalizing which news stories you see is not such a decision.

4. Legal bases for processing

Where laws such as the EU or UK General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”) apply, we rely on the following legal bases:

• Contract: to provide the Service you signed up for, including your account and personalized feed.
• Legitimate interests: to secure, understand and improve the Service, prevent abuse, and send service-related communications, where these interests are not overridden by your rights.
• Consent: where required, for example for certain marketing communications. You can withdraw consent at any time without affecting processing carried out before withdrawal.
• Legal obligation: where we must process information to comply with the law.

Where India’s Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 applies, we process your personal data on the basis of the consent you give when you create an account and provide your information, and for other legitimate uses permitted by that Act.

5. How we share information

We do not sell or rent your personal information. We share it only as described below.

5.1 Service providers

We use trusted providers that process personal information on our behalf and under our instructions, bound by confidentiality and data-protection obligations:

We may change or add providers as the Service evolves; this list will be updated accordingly. Services we use to discover news receive only topic and country search terms, never information about you.

5.2 Other sharing

• Legal reasons: if we believe in good faith that disclosure is required by law, regulation, legal process or a governmental request, or is necessary to protect the rights, property or safety of Matters, our users or the public.
• Business transfers: in connection with a merger, acquisition, financing, reorganization or sale of all or part of our business, in which case your information may be transferred subject to this Privacy Policy.
• With your consent or at your direction.
• Aggregated or de-identified information that cannot reasonably be used to identify you.

Stories in your feed link to third-party publishers. When you open a link, you leave the Service and the publisher’s own privacy policy applies. We are not responsible for the practices of third-party websites.

6. International data transfers

Matters operates globally, and our servers and service providers are located in several countries, including Japan and the United States. Your information may therefore be transferred to, stored and processed in countries other than the one where you live, which may have different data-protection laws. Where required, we rely on appropriate safeguards for such transfers, such as standard contractual clauses approved by the relevant authorities, and we take steps to ensure your information remains protected in line with this Privacy Policy.

7. How long we keep information

We keep personal information for as long as your account is active or as needed to provide the Service, and afterwards only for as long as necessary for the purposes described in this policy, including to comply with legal obligations, resolve disputes, prevent abuse and enforce our agreements.

• When you ask us to delete your account, we delete your profile, interests, saved stories, reactions and activity history, generally within 30 days, except where we must keep some information to comply with law or resolve disputes.
• Problem reports and correspondence may be kept for up to three years so that we can handle follow-up questions and keep records of support issues, unless you ask us to delete them sooner and we have no legal reason to keep them.
• Server logs kept by our providers are retained for limited periods according to their own practices.
• Aggregated or de-identified information, which no longer identifies you, may be kept indefinitely and used to improve the Service.

8. Cookies and similar technologies

We use only cookies that are strictly necessary to run the Service. We do not use advertising cookies or third-party tracking cookies.

• Authentication cookies keep you signed in securely. If you choose “Stay logged in,” they last for up to three days; otherwise they expire when you close your browser.
• A preference cookie remembers whether you chose to stay logged in.

Because these cookies are essential, the Service will not work properly if you block them. The getmatters.org website itself sets no cookies.

9. Your choices

• Profile and interests: you can review and update your profile, education details, countries and interests at any time in your account settings.
• Emails: you can opt out of news digests and other non-essential emails at any time by replying to the email or writing to support@getmatters.org. We will still send essential service messages, such as password-reset codes and important notices about your account.
• Do Not Track and Global Privacy Control: we do not sell or share personal information for targeted advertising, so there is nothing for these signals to opt you out of.

10. Your rights

Depending on where you live, you may have some or all of the following rights regarding your personal information:

• to access it and receive a copy;
• to correct inaccurate or incomplete information;
• to delete it (“erasure”);
• to receive it in a portable format;
• to object to or restrict certain processing;
• to withdraw consent at any time, where processing is based on consent;
• to nominate another person to exercise your rights in the event of your death or incapacity (for users in India); and
• to lodge a complaint with your local data-protection authority or, in India, the Data Protection Board of India, after first raising it with us.

To exercise any of these rights, email support@getmatters.org from the address linked to your account. We may need to verify your identity before acting on a request. We will respond within the time required by applicable law, and in any case within 30 days. We will not discriminate against you for exercising your rights.

Additional information for residents of the United States

Under California and other US state privacy laws, you have the right to know what personal information we collect, use and disclose; to request deletion and correction; and to opt out of the sale or sharing of personal information and of targeted advertising. In the past 12 months we have collected the categories of information described in Section 2 (identifiers, education information, internet or other electronic activity information, and inferences about your interests), for the purposes in Section 3, and disclosed them only to the service providers in Section 5. We have not sold or shared personal information, and we do not knowingly sell or share the personal information of consumers under 16. You may use an authorized agent to make a request on your behalf.

11. Children and young people

The Service is designed for students and young professionals and is not directed at children under 13. You must be at least 13 years old, or the minimum age required in your country to consent to the processing of your personal data (for example, 16 in some countries of the European Economic Area), to use the Service. If you are under 18, or under the age of majority where you live, you may use the Service only with the involvement and consent of a parent or legal guardian, who should review this Privacy Policy with you.

We do not knowingly collect personal information from children below these ages without the consent required by law, and we do not track, behaviorally monitor or serve targeted advertising to children. If you believe a child has provided us with personal information without appropriate consent, please contact us at support@getmatters.org and we will delete it.

12. Security

We use reasonable administrative, technical and organizational measures to protect personal information, including encryption in transit (HTTPS), hashed passwords, database access controls that limit each user to their own data, and restricted access for our team. However, no method of transmission or storage is completely secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security. You are responsible for keeping your password confidential. If we become aware of a personal data breach that affects you, we will notify you and the relevant authorities as required by law.

13. Changes to this Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. When we do, we will change the “Last updated” date above, and if the changes are material we will give you reasonable notice, for example by email or a notice in the Service. Your continued use of the Service after an update takes effect means you accept the updated policy, to the extent permitted by law.

14. Who we are and how to contact us

The Service is operated by Matters, an enterprise registered under the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) framework in India. Matters is the controller (or “data fiduciary”) responsible for your personal information under this policy.

For any questions, requests or complaints about this Privacy Policy or your personal information, including grievances under Indian law, please contact our Grievance Officer at support@getmatters.org. We will acknowledge grievances promptly and aim to resolve them within 30 days.