Privacy policy

Last updated 11 October 2026 · Terms of use

What this policy covers

Perch is open source: anyone can build it, change it and run their own server. The official services are a non-commercial project run by one person, Arif Çınar Tekin (“we”), as an individual. This policy covers only what he runs and publishes:

• Our services: perch.ws, app.perch.ws (the web reader), account.perch.ws (Perch accounts) and sync.perch.ws (the sync relay). We are the data controller for these.
• demo.perch.ws, a separate test server for App Review and anyone trying “Sync with a Perch Server”. Unlike app.perch.ws it keeps the library of each account on it, in plain text, so don't use it for real reading; it may be reset at any time.
• The apps we publish in the App Store, Google Play and the browser extension stores — that is, what they do on your device and which sites they contact.

It does not cover Perch Servers or sync relays run by other people, or builds of Perch published by others. If you sign in to someone else's server, its operator is the data controller and their own policy applies. We have no access to those servers and can't see, change or delete anything on them. The apps show which server you're connected to, and that server's own policy when it has published one.

Questions, requests and complaints about our services: [email protected].

Using Perch without an account

The browser extension and the iPhone and Android apps work without any account. Your subscriptions, categories, read and starred articles, settings and notes are stored only on your device (in the browser's extension storage, or in the app's files on your phone, left out of cloud backups on Android). Nothing is sent to us.

To show you your feeds, your device itself connects to other sites:

• The sites you subscribe to. Your device downloads each feed, and the full article when you open one, directly from the publisher. Like any visit, that site sees your IP address.
• Images and videos inside articles load from wherever the publisher put them, without telling them which page you came from. Embedded YouTube and Vimeo players load from those services and are subject to their policies.
• No favicons. Perch doesn't fetch site icons, which would tell each site that you follow it. Feeds get a coloured letter instead.

Some things never leave the device at all: the app lock's PIN (kept in the iPhone's Keychain, Android's Keystore or the browser), the fingerprint or face that opens it (checked by the phone, never seen by Perch), the camera picture when you scan a chain's QR code (read on the phone and not kept), the app icon and background picture you choose, and the starter packs and Explore list, which ship inside the apps, so choosing one tells no server anything.

The extension asks for no site access when installed. It asks for one site at a time when you add a feed from it, or for all sites only if you turn on automatic feed discovery. It reads a page only when you open Perch on it, and only the feed links the page names.

The web reader (app.perch.ws)

The reader at app.perch.ws works like the extension: your subscriptions, reading and notes are stored in your browser, and a sync chain links it to your other devices. A web page isn't allowed to fetch other sites itself, so it asks our server to fetch feeds and article pages for it. These requests carry no account or cookie, and the server keeps no record of who asked. It keeps each fetched page for 10 minutes in a cache shared by everyone, so a popular feed is fetched once: the server can tell which feeds are popular, not who reads them. Images inside articles still load straight from the publisher.

Sync chains (sync.perch.ws)

A sync chain links your devices without an account. Everything is encrypted on your devices with a key derived from the chain code, which never leaves them. Even feed addresses and record names are hidden. Our relay stores:

• a hash of the chain's access token (not the code, and not the key);
• the encrypted records, each with an opaque slot name, a timestamp and its size;
• when the chain was created and, roughly to the hour, when it was last used.

We can see how many records a chain has, how big they are and when they change. We cannot see what they contain. Read state is forgotten after 60 days, deleted items after 90 days, and a chain no device has used for 180 days is deleted with everything in it. You can delete a chain at any time from Settings → Sync.

A Perch account on account.perch.ws

A Perch account is your name for sharing notes as public pages. It isn't needed to read, and it doesn't sync your library: your feeds, what you read and your notes stay on your devices (and in your sync chain, encrypted). The server keeps only this:

Shared notes

Notes are private. When you share one, Perch publishes a copy at a random address (app.perch.ws/shared/…) that anyone with the link can read. The page shows your note, the article's title, link and source, your @username and the dates. It asks search engines not to index it, but anyone who has the link can copy it. Editing the note updates the page; deleting the note or choosing “Stop sharing” removes it.

Each shared page has a report form. A report stores the reason, what you write and, only if you give it, a way to reach you. We use reports only to review the page, and delete the contact address once the report is dealt with.

No email

account.perch.ws doesn't ask for an email address and never sends email. A forgotten password is replaced with your recovery code. We have no way to write to you, so there are no newsletters, announcements or reminders.

Instead of an email check or a CAPTCHA, signing up asks your device for a few seconds of computation (a “proof of work”). It sends nothing about you; it just makes creating accounts in bulk expensive.

Perch Servers run by other people can be set up to send email for sign-up and password reset. That's their choice and their responsibility.

If someone took our server

We try to keep as little as possible, so that a stolen disk or a leaked backup says little about you. Here is exactly what it would contain:

• Sync chains: only encrypted data. Without your chain code it can't be read.
• Email addresses: none — we never ask for them.
• Passwords and recovery codes: none — only hashes (of a key derived from the password, and of the code).
• Accounts on account.perch.ws: usernames, signed-in device names, and the notes people chose to share, which are public anyway. No feeds, reading or private notes.

Deleted data is overwritten in the database rather than left on disk, and is gone from backups within 14 days. How to check which code our server runs is on the transparency page.

What we don't collect

• No analytics, telemetry, usage statistics or A/B tests.
• No advertising, ad identifiers or tracking pixels.
• No third-party SDKs for crash reporting, marketing or anything else.
• No access logs: the web server writes no record of requests.
• No stored IP addresses. To stop abuse (password guessing, sign-up floods), the server counts recent requests per IP address in memory. Those counters vanish within an hour, or when the server restarts, and are never written to disk.
• No reading history beyond the read and starred flags above.
• No location, contacts, photos, camera or microphone.
• We don't sell or rent data, don't share it with advertisers or data brokers, and don't use it to train AI models.

The server's own output contains start-up messages and error messages; these don't include IP addresses or what you read.

Cookies and local storage

account.perch.ws sets one cookie when you sign in there: your session, HTTP-only and sent only to account.perch.ws. The reader at app.perch.ws sets none; it keeps your Perch account's sign-in in your browser's storage, like the extension. There are no other cookies, so there is no cookie banner. This site (perch.ws) sets no cookies; it remembers your language choice in your browser's local storage, which never leaves your device.

Who else is involved

• OVHcloud hosts our server (app.perch.ws, account.perch.ws and sync.perch.ws). It is currently in Canada; we plan to move it to the EU. Accounts, shared notes and encrypted chain records are stored there.
• Cloudflare provides DNS for perch.ws and hosts this site. Traffic to app.perch.ws, account.perch.ws and sync.perch.ws does not pass through Cloudflare.
• Apple, Google, Microsoft and Mozilla distribute the apps through their stores under their own policies. If you choose to share analytics with app developers on your iPhone, Apple may send us anonymous crash reports. The Android app contains no analytics or crash reporting of its own; Google Play may show us aggregate install and crash counts.

Using our servers therefore means your data is transferred outside Türkiye and the EU. If you don't want that, use Perch without an account, or run your own server.

How long we keep things

• Account data: until you delete it or the account.
• Sessions: 180 days after last use.
• Chains: as described above (60 / 90 / 180 days).
• Backups: the server keeps daily database backups for 14 days. Something you delete is gone from the backups within 14 days.

Deleting your data

You can delete your Perch account yourself: on account.perch.ws, in the iPhone and Android apps (Settings → Perch account) or in the extension (Settings → Perch account). It deletes your account, its sessions and the notes you shared at once. Data on your devices stays there until you remove it or uninstall the app. You can export your subscriptions as OPML at any time.

Your rights

Under Türkiye's data protection law (KVKK, article 11) and, where it applies, the EU GDPR, you can ask what we hold about you, get a copy, have it corrected or deleted, and object to how it is used. Most of this you can do yourself in the app; for anything else write to [email protected]. We answer within 30 days. You can also complain to the Personal Data Protection Authority (KVKK) or your local data protection authority.

The legal basis for what we store is that it's needed to provide the service you asked for (KVKK art. 5(2)(c); GDPR art. 6(1)(b)), and, for abuse protection, our legitimate interest in keeping the service working.

Children

Perch accounts are for people 13 and older.

Changes

If we change what we collect, we'll update this page first and announce it here and in the apps — we have no email address to write to you. Every version of this page is in the project's history.