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Last updated: 11 September 2026
SocialTrends (“we,” “us”) operates the website at socialtrends.app (the “Service”). We built SocialTrends to be private by default: it works fully anonymously, stores your preferences on your own device, and uses no third-party analytics or tracking tools. It is free to use and funded by advertising: some pages show ads served by Google, described under “Advertising” below. This policy explains what limited data is involved and the choices you have.
By default, what you do here is stored locally in your browser (via localStorage and sessionStorage) and is not sent to us. This includes:
You can clear all of this at any time by clearing your browser’s site data for socialtrends.app.
Search is not purely local: to return results, the words you type are sent to our own server. (It is not the only thing that leaves your browser — saving or sharing an item sends an anonymous signal, and we receive first-party performance and security reports; both are described below.) See Search below.
If you choose to Sign in with Google (an optional feature to sync your saved items across devices), sign-in is handled by Google Firebase Authentication:
Google’s handling of this data is governed by the Google Privacy Policy. You can stop syncing by signing out, and you can delete your synced data (see “Your choices”).
If you enable “Trend Surge Alerts,” your browser creates a push subscription. We store only what is needed to deliver notifications: an opaque per-browser push endpoint URL, the public encryption keys your browser generates, and the country you selected (so we only send alerts relevant to that region). This is not linked to any account, and the country is your chosen setting — it is not derived from your IP or location.
Notifications are delivered through your browser’s push service (for example Google’s FCM on Chrome, Mozilla on Firefox, or Apple on Safari), which necessarily sees the delivery endpoint. Payloads are encrypted so only your browser can read them. You can turn alerts off in Settings at any time, which unsubscribes your browser and deletes the stored subscription.
To power the “Community Picks” board (what people save and share most), when you save or share an item we send our own backend the item’s details plus a one-way SHA-256 hash of a random identifier generated on your device. The hash lets us count one vote per device without identifying you — there is no account, cookie, name, email, or IP tied to it.
Search looks across the trend data we have already gathered. To return results, your browser sends the words you type to our own server. Results update as you type, so what you have typed so far can be sent before you have finished — a search you began and then deleted may already have reached us. It is not one request per keystroke: we wait for a brief pause in your typing, ignore repeats, and send nothing at all until you have typed at least two characters. Searching is optional: the rest of the Service works without it.
One case is worth calling out, because the search term need not be yours: opening a shared or bookmarked /search?q=… link runs that search immediately, with no typing at all. If you would rather send us no search term, do not open such a link and do not use Search.
What you type has exactly two uses, and we would rather name both than write “only” and be wrong. The first is answering your search. The second is that the request is recorded in the standard server log described under “Server logs & IP address” below, which we use to keep the Service running and to find and fix problems with it. Beyond those two, nothing: it is not written to a database, not attached to your saved items or to a signed-in account, not used to build a profile of you or to target advertising, and not sold. We do not give search terms to advertisers or to data brokers. Our servers run on Google Cloud, which does receive these requests, and keeps the logs described under “Server logs & IP address” below, in order to run the Service for us — as our hosting provider, on our instructions, and not for its own purposes.
Two consequences are worth stating plainly. First, your search appears in the page address (?q=), so your browser can keep it in its own history and it will be included if you bookmark or share that link. Second, as described under “Server logs & IP address” below, the platform that hosts us records a standard log entry for each request, and that entry contains the requested address — which for a search contains the words you searched for. Those entries are kept for a limited operational period, and we use them only to run and secure the Service, to monitor whether it is working properly, and to diagnose and fix problems with it. Because those entries exist and are kept, we describe search terms as collected, rather than as discarded the instant your results come back.
To keep the Service fast and secure, your browser may send us:
These are sent only to our own systems and appear in our server logs; they are not shared with any third-party analytics provider. We use no third-party analytics or tracking SDKs; advertising is described in its own section below.
Like virtually all websites, our servers and hosting provider (Google Cloud) record standard request logs. Each entry includes your IP address and the address that was requested — which may contain the country you are viewing and, when you run a search, the words you searched for. Because the pages you see fetch their data through our own server, a search you run here is recorded by that front-end server and by the backend it calls.
We use your IP address transiently to rate-limit abuse; we do not use it to build a profile of you or to determine your location for content. We use these logs to run and secure the Service, to monitor whether it is working properly, and to diagnose and fix problems with it — not to mine them for what people search for. They are kept for a limited operational period set by the hosting platform, which processes them on our behalf as our hosting provider.
SocialTrends displays content from other platforms. When that content loads in your browser, the relevant third party can see your IP address and which items you viewed (standard for any embedded content). These include:
wsrv.nl) and directly from the source platforms’ image servers (e.g. YouTube, Dailymotion, Reddit, Twitch). To resize a thumbnail, the image service receives the source image URL.youtube-nocookie.com domain; YouTube’s player script is loaded from youtube.com. When an embedded player loads — including when a shared video link opens it automatically — the provider receives the player request and may set its own cookies. Playing or interacting with the video may send additional information to the provider. Your use of these players is subject to YouTube’s and Dailymotion’s policies.Our fonts are self-hosted (not fetched from Google), and all trend data is fetched through our own server, so your browser does not talk to our backend directly.
SocialTrends is free to use and is funded by advertising. Some pages show ads served by Google AdSense. Ads do not appear in the video player, in article and trend readers, in Search, in your saved items, or on the settings and policy pages.
When an ad loads, Google receives your IP address, the address of the page you are on, and the information your browser sends with any request. Google and its certified partners may use cookies or similar identifiers to measure ads and — where you have consented, or where the law otherwise allows it — to personalise them based on your visits to this and other sites. How Google uses this data is described in Google’s advertising page and in how Google uses information from sites that use its services.
Your choice. If you are in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom, or Switzerland, a consent dialog appears before personalised ads are shown; you can decline there and keep using the Service. Change or withdraw that choice at any time via “Your privacy choices” in the page footer (in some US states that same control opens the “do not sell or share” choice). Anywhere else, you can opt out of personalised advertising at Google Ads Settings or aboutads.info. Ads still appear, but they are not based on your interests.
We do not give Google, or anyone else, your search terms, your saved items, or your account details for advertising. An ad request carries only what your browser sends when it loads any page.
SocialTrends is not directed to children under 13 (or the equivalent minimum age in your country), and we do not knowingly collect their personal information. Note that trending content aggregated from third parties is not curated for children.
The optional Google/Firebase features and our Google Cloud hosting may process data on servers located in various countries. By using those optional features you understand your data may be processed outside your country of residence.
We may update this policy from time to time. Material changes will be reflected by updating the “Last updated” date above; significant changes may be highlighted in the Service.
Questions or requests? Email medhamdan@gmail.com. See also our Terms and Disclaimer.