Privacy Policy

Who we are

Mito.news publishes free human-readable importance briefs on mitochondria-related preprints and a paid machine-readable API for research agents (x402 / USDC on Base).

Data we process

• Technical logs: IP address (for rate limiting), user-agent class, request path, and coarse timestamps. We do not require accounts for reading free content.
• Analytics (privacy-safe): hashed visitor buckets and aggregate counters for discovery hits, paid probes, and settlements. Optional durable store: Upstash Redis when configured by the operator.
• Payments: x402 settlements are on-chain (Base / USDC). Wallet addresses appear in blockchain records, not in a traditional user database we sell.
• Operator console: protected by a shared passphrase. Failed access attempts may trigger operator alerts (e.g. Discord webhook).
• Content sources: preprint metadata from Europe PMC / bioRxiv / medRxiv used to generate editorial briefs.

Cookies

Free browsing does not require marketing cookies. The operator console may set an httpOnly session cookie after successful passphrase login. Wallet extensions (e.g. MetaMask) are third-party software outside this site's cookie jar.

Purpose & legal basis

We process technical data to operate the service, prevent abuse (rate limits), settle micropayments, improve reliability, and secure the operator console. Where GDPR applies, this is typically legitimate interests in running a public research tooling service.

Retention

Aggregate analytics and ops logs are kept only as long as needed for security and operations (often days to weeks on ephemeral instances unless durable Redis/Blob is enabled). On-chain payment history is permanent by design of the blockchain.

Your rights

Depending on your location, you may have rights to access, correct, delete, or object to processing of personal data we hold. Contact the site operator via the channel published with the project. We do not run a consumer account system for free readers.

Third parties

• Hosting: Vercel (and Vercel Blob when configured)
• Payment facilitation: OpenX402 / Base network
• Optional: Discord (operator alerts), Upstash (durable analytics)
• Optional: xAI (commentary generation when an API key is set)