Privacy Policy

1. Who We Are / About Us

We are NewSage ApS, the company behind Flare ("we", "our", or "us").

NewSage ApS (c/o Flare)
Kronprinsensgade 1, 2
1114 Copenhagen, Denmark
CVR no. 45603024
Email: privacy@flare.co

This notice explains what personal data we collect, why we collect it, how we use it, and what rights you have regarding your data.

About Flare

Flare is a collaborative verification platform that helps make the internet more trustworthy. Our technology detects factual claims across the web and matches them to supporting evidence from credible sources. A community of contributors then verifies these claims, building a traceable record of what we collectively know to be true. The resulting dataset is used to improve the quality of information online and to support the development of more reliable AI systems.

To provide this service, we process personal data from the people who use our platform: readers who view verifications, contributors who verify claims, and visitors to our website and browser extension.

What Personal Data We Collect

Account information

• Email address
• Username
• Profile settings
• Expertise areas

Technical data

• IP address
• Browser type and version
• Device information
• Cookie data
• Product usage and interaction events (collected through our analytics provider, see Section 3)

Public available data

We collect personal data related to the public sources we fact check. To be able to verify we need to process information.

Sources may be articles, posts, news stories etc. and may include personal data.

2. Why We Collect Data (Legal Basis)

To perform our contract with you — Article 6(1)(b)

• Creating and maintaining your account
• Providing the core Flare service: detecting claims, matching them to evidence, and letting you submit, review and record verifications.
• Publishing your username, verifications, votes and reputation metrics on the public parts of the platform.
• Sending you service messages.

Our legitimate interest — Article 6(1)(f)

For each purpose below we have weighed the interests, rights and freedoms of the individual.

• Keeping the platform secure and free from abuse, spam and manipulation
• Maintaining, debugging, and developing the platform
• Calculating reputation metrics and expertise indicators from contributions
• Producing verified datasets from community contributions

Upon your consent

• Send notifications about claim updates
• Set analytics cookies and measure how the platform is used (via PostHog, see Section 3 and Section 7)

3. How We Use Your Data

• Platform functionality: detect claims, match to evidence, enable verification
• Reputation building: create portable professional profiles showing your expertise
• Data quality: generate verified training datasets (anonymized for AI companies)
• Service improvement: analyze usage patterns, fix bugs, develop features
• Communication: send updates about claims you've verified (if enabled)

Third Parties and Processors

We use PostHog as our product analytics provider to understand how people use Flare so we can fix bugs and improve the product. PostHog acts as our data processor under a data processing agreement and processes our analytics data on servers located in the EU (Frankfurt). PostHog analytics rely on cookies and a persistent identifier that lets us recognize a browser across sessions, and we enable them only where you have given consent. See Section 7 for how to give, refuse, or withdraw that consent.

We may use other third-party providers to operate the platform. Where a provider processes personal data on our behalf, they do so as our processor under a data processing agreement.

What We Don't Do

• We do NOT sell your personal data
• We do NOT use your data for advertising
• We do NOT share personally identifiable information with AI companies

Public Information

• Your verifications and votes are visible to other users
• Your username and reputation metrics are public
• Specific claims you've verified appear in your profile

4. Data Storage & Security

Location: All data is stored in the EU (Denmark / EU data centers). Our analytics provider, PostHog, also processes and stores data in the EU (Frankfurt). We do not transfer your personal data outside the EU.

5. How Long We Keep Data

• Active accounts: data retained while account is active
• Deleted accounts: personal information deleted within 30 days, including from our analytics provider
• Verified claims: anonymized contributions may remain in the public dataset
• Legal requirements: some data retained for compliance (e.g. 6 months for GDPR)

6. Your Rights (GDPR)

You have the right to:

• Access: request a copy of your data
• Rectification: correct inaccurate information
• Erasure: delete your account and data
• Restrict processing: limit how we use your data
• Data portability: export your data
• Object: opt out of certain processing
• Withdraw consent: change permission settings anytime, including analytics cookie consent

How to exercise rights: email privacy@flare.co or use account settings.

7. Cookies & Tracking

We use cookies and similar technologies (including local storage and a persistent identifier) on flare.co and in our browser extension. Strictly necessary cookies are set without consent, as permitted under section 3(2) of the Danish Cookie Order (bekendtgørelse nr. 1148/2011). All other cookies are set only after you have given consent.

We do not use advertising or cross-site tracking cookies.

We ask for your consent through a cookie banner before setting any analytics cookies. You can give, refuse, or withdraw consent at any time through the cookie banner or the cookie preferences available on our site. Withdrawing consent is as easy as giving it, and refusing analytics cookies will not affect your ability to use the platform.

You can also disable cookies in your browser settings, but some features may not work.

8. Children's Privacy

Flare is not intended for users under 18. We do not knowingly collect data from children.

9. Changes to This Policy

We may update this policy periodically. We will:

• Post the new version with an updated date
• Notify you via email for material changes
• Require fresh consent if data use changes significantly

10. Contact & Complaints

• Questions: privacy@flare.co
• Supervisory Authority: you have the right to lodge a complaint with your local data protection authority. In Denmark, this is Datatilsynet.

Datatilsynet
Carl Jacobsens Vej 35
2500 Valby
Tlf. 33 19 32 00
dt@datatilsynet.dk

11. Browser Extension Permissions

Our extension requires these permissions:

• Read the DOM: to detect claims
• Storage: to save your settings
• Network access: to retrieve evidence from sources

We do NOT:

• Track your browsing outside the platforms where the extension is active
• Access your personal messages
• Monitor your searches

12. Where You Can Find Us

NewSage ApS (c/o Flare)
Kronprinsensgade 1, 2
1114 Copenhagen, Denmark
Email: privacy@flare.co