America Forever Bytes
Site information
AFBytes is a read-only news aggregation site operated by its publisher (the "data controller"). We have no user accounts, logins, or posting features. The only personal data we process is the limited technical information our hosting infrastructure records automatically (such as IP address, browser type, and request logs) plus one optional first-party timezone-preference cookie. We do not use analytics or advertising trackers, and we do not sell or share personal information. Privacy questions or rights requests: contact-us@afbytes.com. Last updated June 1, 2026.
AFBytes operates the website at afbytes.com and is the controller responsible for the limited personal data described below. Because the site neither offers accounts nor processes special categories of data at scale, we are not required to appoint a Data Protection Officer. You can reach us about any privacy matter at contact-us@afbytes.com.
AFBytes provides read-only browsing of aggregated reporting. There are no user accounts, logins, comments, or public posting tools, so we do not ask you to create a profile or submit personal details to use the site. The only information you actively give us is whatever you choose to put in an email you send us.
Our hosting and infrastructure providers automatically log technical data needed to deliver and protect the site: IP address, browser and device characteristics, referring page, requested URLs, timestamps, and security telemetry. We also store one optional first-party cookie (afbytes_timezone) to remember your preferred display timezone. If you email us, we process the address and content of your message to respond. We do not collect names, payment data, or precise location.
Under the GDPR we rely on our legitimate interests (Article 6(1)(f)) to operate, secure, monitor, and improve the site and to keep hosting-level logs for abuse prevention and troubleshooting. Where you contact us by email, we rely on your consent and our legitimate interest in answering you. The timezone cookie is a functional cookie set only when you use the timezone control, so it does not rely on consent for tracking because it performs no tracking.
AFBytes sets a single first-party functional cookie, afbytes_timezone, flagged Secure and SameSite=Lax, lasting about twelve months. It stores only a timezone identifier for display and is never used for advertising or profiling. We use no analytics cookies, no advertising or social pixels, and no cross-site trackers. Full detail is in our Cookie Policy.
We share technical data only with the infrastructure providers that run the site (for example our cloud hosting and TLS certificate provider), acting as our processors under contract. We may disclose information if required by law or to protect the site's security and rights. We do not sell personal information and we do not share it for cross-context behavioral advertising.
The site is hosted in the United States. If you visit from the EEA, the UK, or Switzerland, the limited technical data described above is processed in the United States. Where required, such transfers are covered by appropriate safeguards such as the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses offered by our hosting providers.
Hosting and security logs are retained only as long as needed for operations and abuse prevention, typically up to 90 days, after which they are rotated or deleted. The afbytes_timezone cookie expires about twelve months after it is set, or sooner if you clear it. Emails you send are kept only as long as needed to handle your request.
Subject to applicable law, you have the right to access your personal data and to request its rectification or erasure, to restrict or object to processing (including processing based on legitimate interests), and to data portability. Where processing relies on consent you may withdraw it at any time. You also have the right to lodge a complaint with your local data protection supervisory authority.
California residents have the right to know what personal information we collect and why, to request access to and deletion or correction of that information, and to opt out of the sale or sharing of personal information. AFBytes does not sell or share personal information and does not use sensitive personal information for profiling, so there is nothing to opt out of, and we will never discriminate against you for exercising your rights.
Send any access, deletion, correction, or objection request to contact-us@afbytes.com and tell us what you would like us to do. Because we hold little more than short-lived technical logs, we may ask for information to locate relevant records. We aim to respond within the timeframes required by the GDPR and CCPA/CPRA.
When a reader clicks a 'Read full story' or equivalent link, the click is routed through an AFBytes redirect endpoint before the browser is sent to the original publisher. For each click AFBytes records: the AFBytes article identifier, the destination publisher's hostname, the source publisher's hostname, the HTTP referrer, a truncated user-agent string, any 'utm' campaign parameters present in the URL, and a salted, truncated pseudonymous hash derived from the visitor's IP address. The raw IP address is not retained in the click log; the hash uses a per-deployment secret and is treated as pseudonymous personal information. Click rows are retained at full fidelity for up to 180 days for abuse detection and editorial prioritization, after which they may be deleted or aggregated. The log is used to understand which publishers AFBytes readers find valuable so AFBytes can prioritize coverage; it is not used to build advertising profiles, score individual readers, or sell or share information about readers. Clicks that follow links not routed through the AFBytes redirect endpoint (for example, links from social media posts) are not recorded in this log.
AFBytes uses third-party AI providers — currently xAI (Grok) for text-based enrichment (briefs, perspective lenses, ranking signals, SEO metadata) and OpenAI's image-generation API for category and topic cover imagery — to produce editorial scaffolding. The data sent to those providers consists of publisher article content (titles, descriptions, source metadata, and extracted article text where available) and editorial configuration. AFBytes does not transmit reader IP addresses, device identifiers, click metadata, or other reader-identifying information to AI providers as part of the editorial pipeline described in this section. Article-content payloads submitted to AI providers are subject to those providers' published data-handling terms; AFBytes does not control their internal handling of submitted content. AI provider selection may change; this section will be updated.
When you visit AFBytes, your browser registers a service worker that may cache static assets, previously-viewed pages, and the offline fallback page in your browser's local CacheStorage so the site loads faster on repeat visits and continues to render previously-viewed pages when your device is offline. AFBytes may also store a single localStorage entry named 'afb-pwa-install-dismissed' to remember that you dismissed the 'install AFBytes' prompt so the prompt does not re-appear for thirty days. CacheStorage and localStorage entries created by AFBytes live entirely on your device and are not transmitted back to AFBytes. You can clear them at any time through your browser's site-data controls. See the Cookie Policy for the full storage inventory.
Some article pages may embed third-party content (for example, posts from X/Twitter). When such content is present, the embedding platform loads scripts and may set cookies as the reader's browser interacts with that platform's infrastructure. AFBytes does not receive or control data exchanged directly between the reader's browser and a third-party embed host. On pages where an X embed is present, AFBytes relaxes its Content Security Policy to permit X's widgets script and the network calls X needs to render the embed.
Residents of other US states with comprehensive privacy laws — including Texas (TDPSA), Virginia (VCDPA), Colorado (CPA), Connecticut (CTDPA), Utah (UCPA), and Oregon (OCPA) — have rights to access, delete, correct (where applicable), portability, and to opt out of sale, targeted advertising, and profiling. AFBytes does not sell or share personal information and does not engage in targeted advertising or profiling that produces legal or similarly significant effects, so several of these rights have no purchase against AFBytes' practices. To exercise any of these rights, email contact-us@afbytes.com with the words 'State Privacy Request' in the subject line, identify your state of residence, and describe the right you wish to exercise. AFBytes does not discriminate against readers who exercise these rights, to the extent required by applicable state law.
AFBytes is intended for a general audience and is not directed to children, and we do not knowingly collect data from children. Because we run no behavioral advertising or cross-site tracking, we honor Do Not Track by simply not tracking. AFBytes treats a Global Privacy Control (GPC) signal as an opt-out of any sale or sharing of personal information, to the extent applicable; because AFBytes does not sell or share, GPC requires no further behavioral change. We may update this policy as the site evolves and will revise the "last updated" date above when we do.
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