Nautilus for Hacker News

Privacy Policy

Last updated: July 5, 2026

The short version. Nautilus has no servers, no accounts with us, no analytics, no advertising, and no tracking of any kind. Nothing you read is logged or shared. Everything the app remembers stays on your device.

Who we are

Nautilus is an independent, third-party reader for Hacker News. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or operated by Hacker News or Y Combinator. This policy explains how the app handles information.

What we collect

Nothing. We do not operate any server or backend, and we do not collect, receive, store, or transmit any personal information about you. There is no account to create with us, no analytics or crash-reporting SDK, no advertising identifiers, and no third-party trackers in the app.

Reading Hacker News

To show you stories and comments, the app requests public content directly from Hacker News services — the official Firebase Hacker News API and the Algolia Hacker News Search API. As with any app that loads content from the internet, those services necessarily receive the network request (including your device's IP address) in order to respond. We do not add identifiers to these requests, and we receive nothing back beyond the public content itself.

Signing in to Hacker News (optional)

Voting, commenting, favoriting, and similar actions require your own Hacker News account. If you choose to sign in:

Your Hacker News credentials are stored only on your device, in the system Keychain.
They are sent only to news.ycombinator.com, and only to perform actions you initiate.
They are never sent to us or to any other party — we have no server that could receive them. Signing out removes them from your device.

On-device intelligence

Optional features such as summaries, translations, and explanations run entirely on your device using Apple's on-device models. The content you read is not uploaded anywhere for these features.

What's stored on your device

To make the app work, some things are saved locally on your device only — for example your settings and chosen theme, read/hidden markers, saved stories, and any articles you pin for offline reading. This information stays on your device and is removed when you delete the app.

Purchases

Nautilus is free. Optional purchases (a tip, or the one-time Editions unlock) are handled entirely by Apple through the App Store and StoreKit. We never see or receive your payment details. The Editions unlock is tied to your Apple ID so it can be restored across your devices.

Third-party services

Two third parties are involved, each under their own privacy policy:

Hacker News / Y Combinator — for reading content and any actions you take on your account. See Y Combinator's Privacy Policy.
Apple — for App Store distribution and purchases. See Apple's Privacy Policy.

Children's privacy

Nautilus does not collect personal information from anyone, including children. It is a general-audience reading app and is not directed at children under 13.

Changes to this policy

If this policy changes, the updated version will be posted on this page with a new "last updated" date.

Contact

Questions about this policy or the app? Email guanjun_ksjs@outlook.com, or reach the developer on GitHub at github.com/PetrGuan.