Privacy Policy
This describes exactly what repoherald stores, why, and how to get rid of it. It is written to match what the software actually does.
What we collect
When you sign in
Sign-in is GitHub-only — we never see or store a password. GitHub gives us, and we keep:
- Your GitHub numeric ID, username, display name, and avatar URL.
- Your email address, used for account-related mail and any alerts you opt into.
- Your account-created date, public repository count, and follower count. These are used only to judge whether an account is established enough to earn credits, which is how we keep fake accounts from minting them.
- An access token, so we can confirm you really starred a repository you claim credit for. It is encrypted at rest with AES-256-GCM. We request read-only scopes (
read:user,user:email) — we cannot write to your repositories, and we cannot star anything on your behalf.
When you use the site
- Repositories you post, lists you create, and comments you write — all public by design.
- Likes, star claims, credit ledger entries, and highlight purchases.
- Support messages you send us, including the email address you give.
Usage measurement
We count page and repository views ourselves, without cookies and without a third-party analytics vendor. Instead of storing who you are, we derive a visitor number: your IP address and browser user-agent are combined with a secret that rotates every day and run through a one-way hash. We store only that hash.
Your IP address is never written to our database. Because the secret changes daily, the same person on two different days produces two unrelated values, so the record cannot be used to follow anyone over time. We also reduce referrer URLs to the hostname alone and drop known bots. You can switch this off entirely — see Cookies & local storage.
Payments
Card details go directly to Stripe and never touch our servers. We keep the Stripe identifiers for your purchase, the amount, and its status, because we need them to grant what you paid for and to handle refunds.
The browser extension
Our Chrome and Firefox extension shows whether the GitHub repository you are looking at is listed here. Browsing GitHub sends us nothing. The extension periodically downloads the public list of listed repositories and checks it on your own machine, so we never learn which repositories you visit.
It contacts us in only two cases: to refresh that public list every few hours, and to fetch the public details of a repository that is already listed here — information anyone can see on our feed. Those requests carry no cookies and no account identifier, and we do not record them as page views. The extension stores your dismissals and the cached list in your browser; nothing about it is sent to us.
What we do not collect
- No passwords — authentication is delegated to GitHub.
- No card numbers — those stay with Stripe.
- No advertising or cross-site tracking identifiers, and no data sold or brokered.
- No private repository contents, and no write access to anything you own.
- No location beyond what a hostname or hashed visitor number implies.
Who else processes your data
| Service | Purpose | What it receives |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub | Sign-in and star verification | Your OAuth session and token use |
| Neon | Database hosting | Everything described above, at rest |
| Vercel | Application hosting | Standard request logs, including IP |
| Stripe | Payments | Your payment details and email |
| Resend | Outbound email | Your email address and message content |
| Sentry | Error monitoring | Diagnostics when something breaks |
Each is a processor acting on our instructions. We do not sell personal data, and nothing here is an advertising network.
How long we keep it
- Account data: until you delete your account.
- Credit ledger and audit records: retained after deletion, under an anonymised identifier. These are financial records — we keep the amounts and keep them accurate, but they stop being connected to you.
- Usage measurements: aggregated counts only; the daily hash is meaningless after its day.
Your rights
Depending on where you live you may have rights to access, correct, export, or erase your personal data, and to object to some processing. We honour these regardless of where you live.
- Delete your account. Signed in, go to your wallet and use “Delete account”. This removes your tokens and personal details immediately and hides your listings.
- No account, or cannot sign in? Send a deletion or access request through support. We will respond within 30 days.
- Stop the emails. Sponsor alerts are off unless you turn them on, and every one carries a one-click unsubscribe link.
Children
repoherald is not directed at children. You must be at least 13 to hold an account, which matches GitHub’s own minimum. We do not knowingly collect data from children under 13; if we learn that we have, we delete it. If you believe a child has given us data, contact us and we will remove it.
Security
Traffic is served over HTTPS. GitHub access tokens are encrypted at rest. Administrative actions that touch money, credits, or roles are recorded in an audit log.
Changes
If we change this in a way that materially affects you, we will update the date below and, where the change is significant, tell account holders by email.