deepnews reader privacy policy

Last updated 10 October 2026

deepnews reader is a browser extension that shows what is new across the feeds you follow. It needs a licence: a seven day free trial starts the first time you open it, then it costs $10 a year for up to three computers. This page says what it stores, what it sends, and what it never does.

What it stores in your browser

• The list of publications you follow, with each one's name, when you added it and whether it is switched on.
• The posts it has read from those publications over the last 30 days: title, subtitle, date, link and text.
• Your refresh interval and, if you connect a deepnews account, a token that identifies that connection.
• Your licence: the signed token the licence server gives this install, the date your trial started, and a random install id.

All of this lives in the extension's own local storage on your machine. Removing the extension removes it, except for the small licence cookie described under Permissions, which is there so that reinstalling does not count as a new computer.

How it reads publications

The extension requests each publication's pages and public data directly from that publication's own website, using your browser's existing login there. That is how a post you pay for arrives in full: the publication serves it to you because you are signed in, exactly as it would in a normal tab. The extension does not sign in on your behalf, store your passwords, or read the cookies of any publication.

Searching for authors uses Substack's own directory, again through your existing Substack login.

What it sends to Realizer Labs

Once a day the extension sends Realizer Labs, the studio behind deepnews, its version number, a random install id made on your machine, and whether this install is licensed (yes or no), so we can count installs and know which versions are in use. Never what you follow or read.

When you register, the extension sends your email address and licence code, with the install id, to the Realizer Labs licence server to check the licence and to record which computers are using it. If you ask for a link by email or press Buy, the address you type is used to send that email or to take payment through our payment processor. The server replies with a signed token that the extension checks and refreshes from time to time, and deactivating a computer tells the server to free its place. Your licence details are used only to run the licence.

What it sends to deepnews

Nothing else, unless you connect a deepnews account. If you do, the extension sends only the list of publications you follow, their on and off state, and your refresh interval, so that another machine signed in to the same account can pick them up. It never sends the text of any post, paid or free, and never sends your Substack login.

What it never does

• It does not send post text anywhere.
• It does not sell, share or analyse your reading.
• It does not show advertising or use tracking.
• It does not act on any site except the publications you follow, Substack's directory, deepnews, the install counter and the licence server.

Permissions it asks for

Access to websites: needed so that adding a publication on any domain works without a prompt each time. The extension only ever contacts the publications you follow, substack.com, deepnews.live and the Realizer Labs install counter. Storage: for the data above. Alarms: for the scheduled refresh. Cookies: used only to keep this install's id, licence and trial start as a cookie on the licence server's own address, so that removing and re-adding the extension keeps its registration. It does not read or set the cookies of any other site.

Contact

Write to deepnews@realizerlabs.com.