Terms of Service & Privacy Policy

1. Copyright & Content Policy

MostReadNews.com is a news aggregator. All headlines, article metadata, and media displayed on this platform remain the intellectual property of their respective publishers. This platform operates in accordance with the EU Copyright Directive (2019/790), including Article 15 regarding the protection of press publications concerning online use.

Our core dataset is the positional ranking of articles within publishers' own publicly displayed "Most Read" indices. We assert that any reproduction of article headlines constitutes use of very short extracts within the scope of the Article 15(1) exception, and that our primary function is to direct traffic back to the original source. We do not reproduce full article text, and we do not store publisher images beyond what is minimally necessary for score derivation.

2. Acceptable Use & Algorithmic Integrity

Our "Popularity Scores" are the result of proprietary calculations. We do not use AI curation or human editors to rank news; our system is 100% data-driven, based exclusively on reader-attention metrics derived from publicly available "Most Read" indices.

Automated scraping, crawling, or systematic data extraction of this platform — for any purpose whatsoever — is strictly prohibited without prior written consent from the data controller. Our popularity scores and derived datasets constitute proprietary work product.

3. Privacy & EU Data Rights

Data Controller

The data controller for this platform is Rene Roost. For all data protection enquiries, contact: contact@mostreadnews.com.

Data We Process

This platform is designed to minimise personal data collection. We process the following categories of data:

• Server & Access Logs: IP addresses and standard HTTP request metadata are retained by our server infrastructure for security and rate-limiting purposes under a legitimate interest basis (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR). These logs are deleted after a maximum of 30 days.
• Contact Enquiries: Our contact form constructs a draft in your local email client via a mailto: link. No form data is transmitted to or stored on our servers. Any email correspondence you initiate is used solely to respond to your enquiry, on the basis of Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR.
• Cookies & Tracking: We do not deploy first-party analytics scripts or set first-party tracking cookies. Cloudflare, as our CDN provider, may set functional cookies necessary for its security and performance services; these are governed by Cloudflare's own privacy policy.

Infrastructure & Sub-Processors

• Hetzner Online GmbH (Germany): Our primary server infrastructure. Access logs containing IP addresses are held here. Hetzner operates under EU law and GDPR.
• Cloudflare, Inc.: CDN, DNS, and DDoS protection provider. Cloudflare processes request metadata as part of its services per their Privacy Policy. International transfers are covered by the EU–US Data Privacy Framework and Standard Contractual Clauses.
• Supabase: Database infrastructure used exclusively to store scraped article metadata (headlines, source URLs, popularity scores). No personal user data is stored in this database.

Your Rights Under GDPR

If you are located in the EEA, you have the following rights regarding any personal data we hold about you:

• Right of Access — obtain a copy of your data (Art. 15).
• Right to Rectification — request correction of inaccurate data (Art. 16).
• Right to Erasure — request deletion under qualifying grounds (Art. 17).
• Right to Restriction — request that processing be restricted (Art. 18).
• Right to Data Portability — receive your data in a portable format (Art. 20).
• Right to Object — object to processing based on legitimate interests (Art. 21).

To exercise any of these rights, contact contact@mostreadnews.com. You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the Estonian Data Protection Inspectorate (aki.ee), or the supervisory authority in your country of residence.

4. Third-Party Links

This platform links to external news publications and third-party websites. We are not responsible for the content, accuracy, privacy practices, or availability of any linked third-party site. Following an external link is at your own discretion.

5. Disclaimers & Limitation of Liability

The service is provided "as-is" without warranties of any kind, express or implied. We are not responsible for the accuracy, completeness, or timeliness of any external news content surfaced by this platform. Our rankings are mathematically derived from publicly observable data and do not constitute editorial endorsement of any publication, article, or viewpoint.

To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, we exclude all liability for any direct, indirect, incidental, or consequential loss arising from your use of, or inability to use, this platform.

6. Governing Law

These Terms of Service are governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of Estonia. Any disputes arising under or in connection with these terms shall be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of Estonia.

7. Changes to These Terms

We reserve the right to update these terms at any time. The "Last Updated" date at the top of this page reflects the most recent revision. Continued use of the platform following any update constitutes acceptance of the revised terms. For material changes, we will make reasonable efforts to display a notice on the platform.