Terms of Use

1. The Basics

What is NewsFlash?

NewsFlash is an iOS app that aggregates publicly available news from third-party RSS feeds, groups articles about the same event, and presents them as a single swipeable card with a neutral AI-generated summary and a bias indicator showing which outlets covered the story and where they sit on the political spectrum.

Who provides this service?

NewsFlash is operated as a sole-operator project. Throughout these terms, "NewsFlash," "we," "our," and "us" refer to that operator. You can reach us at support@jwsun.org. The marketing and legal home for the service is getnewsflash.app.

Eligibility

You must be at least 13 years old to use NewsFlash. By using the app, you represent that you meet this age requirement. If you are under 18, you may only use the app with the involvement and consent of a parent or legal guardian. The app is distributed through the Apple App Store and is currently available for iPhone only.

Accounts

An account is optional. You can use NewsFlash without signing in. If you choose to create an account, you may do so via Sign in with Apple or Sign in with Google. You are responsible for all activity that occurs under your account. We may suspend or terminate accounts that violate these terms (see Section 13).

2. Subscriptions, Free Trial, and Billing

Free tier

NewsFlash is free to download and use with a core set of features. No sign-up is required to access the free tier.

Premium subscription

NewsFlash offers an optional Premium subscription with the following pricing at the time these terms were published:

• Weekly: $2.99 per week
• Yearly: $29.99 per year, with a 3-day free trial

Pricing may change. Apple will notify you before any price change takes effect on your renewal.

Billing and Apple's role

All Premium subscription purchases, billing, renewals, and refunds are handled exclusively by Apple through the App Store (StoreKit). By subscribing, you agree to Apple's App Store Terms of Service and your iTunes Account terms. We do not process payments directly and do not have access to your payment card information.

Free trial

The yearly plan includes a 3-day free trial for new subscribers. You will not be charged during the trial period. If you do not cancel before the trial ends, your subscription will automatically convert to the paid yearly plan.

Cancellation and refunds

You can cancel your subscription at any time through your iPhone's Settings → Apple ID → Subscriptions. Cancellation takes effect at the end of the current billing period — you retain access to Premium features until then. Because billing is managed by Apple, all refund requests must be directed to Apple. We do not control and cannot process refunds.

3. AI-Generated Content and the Bias Indicator

How summaries are created

Each card's summary text is generated by an AI language model (Anthropic Claude Haiku) that reads multiple RSS article snippets about the same event and produces a short, neutral synthesis. This is editorial commentary — it summarizes what multiple outlets are reporting, not original journalism.

AI content disclaimer

AI-generated summaries can be wrong. The model may misread source material, conflate details, or produce text that does not accurately reflect what was reported. You should treat every card as a starting point, not a definitive account. Always tap through to read the original articles from the publishers themselves before acting on any information.

NewsFlash makes no warranty of accuracy, completeness, or fitness for any purpose with respect to AI-generated content (see also Section 8).

Bias indicator disclaimer

The bias indicator on each card places news outlets on a political-lean spectrum. These placements are derived from third-party media-bias rating organizations (such as AllSides, Ad Fontes Media, and Media Bias/Fact Check) and our own classification. The bias indicator is opinion, not objective fact. Reasonable people disagree about media bias. The indicator is provided to give you context about source diversity, not to make definitive editorial judgments about any publication.

4. Third-Party Content and Intellectual Property

What we own

The NewsFlash name, wordmark, app design, user interface, original code, and AI-generated synthesis text are owned by NewsFlash. These are protected by copyright and other intellectual property laws. You may not copy, reproduce, or redistribute them without our written permission.

What publishers own

All underlying news articles, headlines, photographs, and other original reporting displayed or referenced in the app are owned by their respective publishers. NewsFlash does not claim authorship over publisher content. We access article metadata via publicly available RSS feeds and display short factual summaries with attribution and a direct link to the publisher's own website. We do not host full articles.

Fair use and attribution

Our use of brief article excerpts and metadata for the purpose of creating transformative neutral summaries, with clear source attribution and link-out to the original, is consistent with fair use principles under U.S. copyright law. Each card prominently displays the name of each contributing source and links directly to that source's article.

Publisher opt-out

If you are a publisher and you want your content excluded from NewsFlash, please email us at support@jwsun.org with the subject line "Publisher Opt-Out" and we will remove your RSS feed from our ingestion pipeline promptly.

DMCA / Copyright notices

If you believe content in NewsFlash infringes your copyright, please send a notice to support@jwsun.org with the subject line "DMCA." Your notice should include:

• A description of the copyrighted work you claim has been infringed.
• A description of where the allegedly infringing material appears in the app.
• Your contact information (name, address, email, phone number).
• A statement that you have a good-faith belief the use is not authorized.
• A statement, under penalty of perjury, that the information in your notice is accurate and that you are the copyright owner or authorized to act on their behalf.
• Your electronic or physical signature.

We will respond to valid DMCA notices as required by law.

5. Acceptable Use

You agree not to:

• Scrape, crawl, or extract bulk data from the app or its underlying API.
• Reverse-engineer, decompile, or attempt to extract the source code of the app.
• Use the service to harass, threaten, or harm other people.
• Attempt to gain unauthorized access to any part of our systems or infrastructure.
• Use the app for any unlawful purpose or in violation of any applicable laws or regulations.
• Interfere with or disrupt the integrity or performance of the service.
• Impersonate any person or entity or misrepresent your affiliation with any person or entity.

We reserve the right to suspend or terminate access for any user we believe is violating these rules.

6. Privacy

Your privacy matters to us. Our Privacy Policy explains what information we collect (very little), how we use it, and your choices. By using NewsFlash, you also agree to our Privacy Policy. On-device features like reading history and card ranking stay on your device and are not transmitted to our servers.

7. License to Use the App

Subject to your compliance with these terms, NewsFlash grants you a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable license to download and use the app on an Apple device you own or control, for your personal, non-commercial purposes. You may not sublicense, sell, resell, or exploit any portion of the app or its content commercially.

8. Disclaimers and Limitation of Liability

As-is service

THE SERVICE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE" WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, ACCURACY, OR NON-INFRINGEMENT. We do not warrant that the service will be uninterrupted, error-free, or free of harmful components. We do not warrant the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of any news content, AI-generated summary, or bias classification in the app.

Limitation of liability

TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, IN NO EVENT WILL NEWSFLASH BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, OR ANY LOSS OF DATA, PROFITS, GOODWILL, OR BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES, ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH YOUR USE OF THE SERVICE, EVEN IF WE HAVE BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.

OUR TOTAL LIABILITY TO YOU FOR ALL CLAIMS ARISING UNDER THESE TERMS OR RELATED TO THE SERVICE WILL NOT EXCEED THE GREATER OF: (A) THE TOTAL AMOUNT YOU PAID TO NEWSFLASH (NOT APPLE) IN THE TWELVE MONTHS PRECEDING THE CLAIM, OR (B) FIFTY U.S. DOLLARS ($50.00).

Some jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion of certain warranties or limitation of liability for certain types of damages, so some of the above limitations may not apply to you.

9. Indemnification

You agree to indemnify, defend, and hold harmless NewsFlash and its officers, employees, agents, and contractors from and against any claims, liabilities, damages, losses, and expenses (including reasonable legal fees) arising out of or in any way connected with: (a) your access to or use of the service; (b) your violation of these terms; (c) your violation of any third-party right, including any intellectual property or privacy right; or (d) any content you submit or transmit through the service.

10. Apple-Specific Terms

The following terms apply because NewsFlash is distributed through the Apple App Store and are required by Apple's App Store Review Guidelines.

Parties to this agreement

This agreement is between you and NewsFlash only, not with Apple Inc. Apple is not a party to these Terms of Use and has no responsibility for the app or its content.

Scope of license

The license granted to you for the app is limited to a non-transferable license to use the app on any Apple-branded products that you own or control, as permitted by the App Store Terms of Service.

Maintenance and support

Apple has no obligation whatsoever to provide any maintenance or support services with respect to the app. All maintenance and support questions should be directed to us at support@jwsun.org.

Warranty

In the event the app fails to conform to any applicable warranty, you may notify Apple, and Apple may refund the purchase price (if any) for the app. To the maximum extent permitted by applicable law, Apple will have no other warranty obligation whatsoever with respect to the app, and any other claims, losses, liabilities, damages, costs, or expenses attributable to any failure to conform to any warranty are NewsFlash's sole responsibility.

Product claims

NewsFlash, not Apple, is responsible for addressing any claims you or any third party have relating to the app or your possession and/or use of it. This includes: (i) product liability claims; (ii) any claim that the app fails to conform to any applicable legal or regulatory requirement; and (iii) claims arising under consumer protection, privacy, or similar legislation.

Intellectual property infringement

In the event of any third-party claim that the app or your possession and use of the app infringes that third party's intellectual property rights, NewsFlash — not Apple — will be solely responsible for the investigation, defense, settlement, and discharge of any such claim.

Apple as third-party beneficiary

Apple and Apple's subsidiaries are third-party beneficiaries of these Terms of Use. Upon your acceptance of these terms, Apple will have the right (and will be deemed to have accepted the right) to enforce these terms against you as a third-party beneficiary. The terms are not intended to and do not create any other third-party beneficiary rights.

11. Governing Law and Disputes

These terms and any dispute arising out of or related to them or the service will be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the State of Georgia, United States of America, without regard to its conflict of law principles.

Any legal action or proceeding arising under these terms will be brought exclusively in the federal or state courts located in Fulton County, Georgia, and you hereby consent to the personal jurisdiction and venue of those courts.

Before initiating any formal legal action, we encourage you to contact us first at support@jwsun.org. Many disputes can be resolved quickly and informally.

12. Changes to These Terms

We may update these terms from time to time. When we do, we will update the "Last updated" date at the top of this page. For material changes, we will provide additional notice — typically by posting a notice on this website and, where feasible, via an in-app notification.

Your continued use of NewsFlash after the effective date of any updated terms constitutes your acceptance of those changes. If you do not agree with the updated terms, you should stop using the app and, if applicable, cancel your subscription through the App Store.

13. Termination

You may stop using NewsFlash at any time. If you have an account, you may delete it by contacting us at support@jwsun.org. Deleting your account does not automatically cancel any active App Store subscription — you must cancel that separately through Apple.

We may suspend or terminate your access to the service at any time, with or without notice, if we believe you have violated these terms or applicable law, or if continuing to provide the service to you would expose us or others to legal or reputational harm. Upon termination, the license granted to you under Section 7 will immediately end.

Sections that by their nature should survive termination — including intellectual property, disclaimers, limitation of liability, indemnification, and governing law — will survive.

14. Miscellaneous

Entire agreement

These Terms of Use, together with our Privacy Policy, constitute the entire agreement between you and NewsFlash regarding your use of the service and supersede all prior agreements and understandings.

Severability

If any provision of these terms is found to be unenforceable or invalid, that provision will be limited or eliminated to the minimum extent necessary, and the remaining provisions will remain in full force and effect.

No waiver

Our failure to enforce any right or provision of these terms will not be considered a waiver of that right or provision. Any waiver must be in writing and signed by NewsFlash to be effective.

15. Contact

If you have any questions about these terms, please reach out:

• Email: support@jwsun.org
• Website: getnewsflash.app