Privacy Policy

Effective Date: April 10, 2026 · Operated by Bespinite LLC (New Jersey)

Overview

TruthLens is a browser extension that analyzes news articles and social media posts for propaganda techniques and political bias. We take privacy seriously.

Short version: We don't store the articles you analyze. We don't sell your data. Ever.

What We Collect

Information You Provide (if you create an account)

Email address: Used to identify your account and track your daily usage quota. We do not send marketing emails without your explicit consent.
Password: Stored as a one-way bcrypt hash. We cannot recover your password — only reset it. Your plaintext password is never stored.

Account creation is optional. TruthLens can be used anonymously (up to 10 analyses per day per IP address) without providing any personal information.

Information Collected Automatically

Article/page text: When you click "Analyze," the text of the current page is sent to our server for analysis. This text is processed and immediately discarded — it is not stored.
Page URL: Sent alongside the text to enable caching (so the same article isn't analyzed twice). The URL hash is stored in a short-term cache (up to 24 hours) to avoid redundant API calls. The full URL is not retained beyond the cache window.
Daily usage count: If you have an account, we track how many analyses you have performed today to enforce your plan's daily limit. This count resets at UTC midnight.
IP address: Used for rate limiting anonymous (non-account) users. Not stored persistently.
Extension settings: Your preferences (Student Mode, highlight mode) are stored locally in your browser using Chrome's storage.local API. They never leave your device.

What We Do NOT Collect

We do not store the article text or analysis results you generate
We do not collect your browsing history
We do not use cookies
We do not use third-party analytics or tracking pixels
We do not sell, rent, or share your personal data with advertisers
We do not collect data from children under 13

How Your Data Is Used

When you analyze a page:

The page text is sent from your browser to the TruthLens server (operated by Bespinite LLC on a Linode VPS)
The server forwards the text to Anthropic's Claude API for AI analysis
The result (bias score, propaganda techniques) is returned to your browser and displayed
The article text and analysis result are not stored on our servers

If you have an account, your email, hashed password, account tier, and daily usage count are stored in a PostgreSQL database on our server. This data is used solely to authenticate you and enforce usage quotas.

Data Retention

Account data (email, password hash, tier, usage count): Retained for as long as your account is active. Deleted within 30 days of an account deletion request.
Analysis cache (URL hash + result): Retained for up to 24 hours to avoid redundant API calls, then automatically purged.
Article text: Never retained beyond the duration of a single request.

Third-Party Services

Anthropic (Claude AI)
Article text is transmitted to Anthropic's API for AI analysis. Anthropic's privacy policy applies to data processed through their API. We transmit only the article text — no personal identifiers are included.
Anthropic Privacy Policy →

Data Security

All data in transit is encrypted via HTTPS/TLS. Passwords are hashed using bcrypt (cost factor 12) and are never stored in plaintext. Our server infrastructure is hosted on Linode (Akamai Cloud) in the United States.

Your Rights

If you have a TruthLens account, you have the right to:

Access: Request a copy of the data we hold about you
Deletion: Request that your account and all associated data be permanently deleted
Correction: Update your email address or password at any time

To exercise any of these rights, contact us at privacy@truthlens.us. We will respond within 5 business days.

Anonymous users (no account) have no personal data stored with us — there is nothing to access or delete.

Children's Privacy

TruthLens is not directed at children under 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you believe a child under 13 has created an account, please contact us at privacy@truthlens.us and we will delete the account promptly.

Changes to This Policy

We may update this policy as TruthLens evolves. If material changes are made, we will update the effective date above. Continued use of the extension after changes constitutes acceptance of the updated policy.

Contact

Bespinite LLC
New Jersey, USA
Email: privacy@truthlens.us