Privacy Policy
Overview
We believe that privacy is an absolute right.
Particls has no features or behaviours that could be classified as malware.
It also comes with a simple uninstall process that will completely remove it from
the system.
Sometimes, however, collecting information can be helpful to improve the user experience.
So, to strike a balance, we ask you to give us permission (both when you first start
Particls, and then at any time by using the Setup screens) before Particls or any
of our bundled adapters collect any significant information or send any information
about you to our servers.
The following is a list of features that may impact your privacy and security. Each
of them can be turned off at your discretion.
Usage Data
Usage data allows us to gauge the level and type of Particls usage. This helps us
improve Particls in a number of ways.
- Providing the development team a broad understanding of how the features are used
to help us set priorities for new features and enhancements.
- Providing the development team specific information about any errors experienced
so we can proactively work to correct them in new versions.
The type of information sent includes:
- The version of Particls you use
- The package of Particls you use (E.g. if you are using the general distributable
from the Particls homepage, or a version that is distributed by one of our partners)
- The number of subscribed sources
- Any errors you encounter while using the program
- How often you use Particls
You can turn the Usage Data feature off when you first run Particls (in the 'First
Start Wizard') or at any time in the setup screen.
Automatically Checking for Updates
This feature pings our server asking for the latest Particls version number and
compares it to the version you are running. You can also configure the level of
user intervention before the update is actually downloaded and installed.
You can turn this feature off in the settings area.
Automatic Attention Profiling
In order to automatically determine and continue to refine a model of your interests,
Particls can scan your computer looking for key concepts and areas of interest based
on all available data. The entire process is optional, or you may choose to turn
on certain aspects while turning off others.
While the Automatic Attention Profiling feature does not send any information to
our servers, other features and 3rd party services may choose to utilize this information
by asking you to submit/synchronize it with a server. Particls will ask for your
explicit permission should this ever be necessary.
Further, Particls's Attention Profile is stored in a human readable, documented
format called APML. Your APML
file is located in the "%appdata%\Particls" folder in case you wish to see exactly
what has been saved or use this file with supported 3rd-party sites and services.
You can turn this feature off in the settings area.
Pebbles
The Particls Pebbles Adapter and Publishing Service is, by its very nature, designed
to publish your Particls Item Stream to a publicly accessible hosted RSS feed. For
this reason the Pebbles Adapter is turned off by default. Please note that opting
into using Pebbles does make it available via the internet via an open RSS feed
- we may add authentication later.
3rd Party Adapters
Please note that while these guarantees apply to Particls and our bundled adapters,
it is the responsibility of 3rd-party adapter authors to provide their own privacy
policy for their own adapters.