Privacy Policy
Last updated: October 14, 2026
Paperboy (“Paperboy”, “we”, “us”) is an iPhone app that turns the newsletters in your Gmail into a short daily audio brief. This policy explains what information Paperboy collects, how it is used, who it is shared with, and how you can delete it.
In short: Paperboy has read-only access to your Gmail and reads only the newsletters you choose. We use that content only to make your brief. We don't sell it, use it for advertising, or use it to train AI models, and you can delete everything from inside the app.
Information we collect
Your Google account
When you sign in with Google we receive your name and email address. We use them to create and identify your Paperboy account.
Gmail data
Paperboy asks for read-only access to Gmail (the gmail.readonly permission). It cannot send, delete, move or change any email. With this access Paperboy:
- Finds your newsletters by reading only the sender, subject, date and unsubscribe headers of recent emails, not their content.
- Reads the full content only of emails from the newsletters you select. Emails from anyone else are never opened.
We store the text of those selected newsletter emails, the list of newsletters found in your inbox and which ones you selected, and the summaries and scripts made from them.
Google access tokens
To check for new newsletters before each morning's brief, we store the access tokens Google issues when you sign in. They are encrypted on our servers and used only to read your selected newsletters.
Your brief's audio
Each brief is turned into an audio file. The app downloads it to your phone, and our servers delete their copy about 24 hours after the brief is made. If you save a brief to your archive, its audio is kept on our servers so it can be restored on another device until you un-save it or delete your account.
Settings and notifications
We store your preferences (voice, brief length, delivery time) and, if you allow notifications, a push notification token so we can tell you when your brief is ready.
Stored only on your phone
Your listening progress, playback speed and downloaded audio stay on your device and are not sent to us.
What we don't collect
Paperboy has no advertising, no analytics or tracking tools, and does not collect your location, contacts, or any email outside the newsletters you select.
How we use your information
We use your information only to provide Paperboy's features: finding your newsletters, writing and voicing your daily brief, delivering it at the time you choose, notifying you when it's ready, and keeping your account and archive working. We don't sell your information or use it for advertising.
Who we share it with
We share data only with the service providers that run Paperboy, and only what each needs to do its job:
- OpenAI receives the text of your selected newsletters to write your brief's summary and script. Under OpenAI's API terms, this data is not used to train their models.
- Google Cloud Text-to-Speech receives your brief's script to turn it into audio.
- Supabase hosts our database, sign-in, and audio storage.
- Railway hosts the Paperboy server.
- Expo and Apple Push Notification service deliver your “brief is ready” notification. They receive your push token and the notification text, not your email.
We may also disclose information if required by law. We will never transfer your data to anyone else, except as part of a merger or acquisition, and then only under this policy.
Google API Services User Data Policy
Paperboy's use and transfer to any other app of information received from Google APIs will adhere to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements. In particular:
- Gmail data is used only to provide and improve Paperboy's user-facing feature of making your audio brief.
- Gmail data is shared with third parties only as needed to provide that feature (as listed above), to comply with law, or as part of a merger or acquisition.
- Gmail data is never used for advertising, never sold, and never used to train general-purpose AI or machine learning models.
- No person reads your Gmail data unless you ask us to (for example, to help with a support request), it's needed for security or to comply with law, or it has been aggregated and anonymised.
How long we keep it
We keep your account information, selected newsletter text, and briefs for as long as you have a Paperboy account, so your archive keeps working. Brief audio is deleted from our servers about 24 hours after it's made unless you save the brief. Everything is deleted when you delete your account.
Your choices and deleting your data
- Delete your account: in the app, go to Settings → Delete Account. This revokes Paperboy's access to your Gmail and permanently deletes your account, newsletters, briefs, audio and tokens from our servers.
- Sign out: signing out revokes Paperboy's Gmail access and deletes our stored Google tokens. Your briefs stay until you delete your account.
- Revoke access from Google: you can remove Paperboy's access at any time at myaccount.google.com/permissions.
- Notifications: turn them off in your iPhone's Settings.
- Email us at kaerusupport@gmail.com to ask for a copy of your data or for it to be deleted.
Security
Data is sent over encrypted connections (HTTPS), Google tokens are encrypted at rest, and audio storage is private to your account. No system is perfectly secure, but we work to protect your information and limit who can access it.
Children
Paperboy is not meant for children under 13, and we don't knowingly collect information from them. If you think a child has given us information, email us and we'll delete it.
Changes to this policy
If we change this policy we'll update the date above, and for significant changes we'll let you know in the app before they take effect.
Contact
Questions about privacy? Email kaerusupport@gmail.com.