SITREP Privacy Policy

Last updated: 2026-09-12
Effective date: 2026-05-29

1. Who We Are

SITREP is a personal portfolio project developed by Chris Schmidt. It is a free mobile and web application that delivers AI-generated geopolitical intelligence briefings. SITREP is not affiliated with any government agency, military organization, or intelligence service.

Contact: p.christopher.schmidt@gmail.com

2. What Information We Collect

SITREP collects no personal information. We do not require account creation, login, or any form of personal identification.

2.1 Analytics (Mixpanel)

We use Mixpanel to understand how the app is used. Mixpanel automatically assigns each device an anonymous identifier (a UUID) to distinguish unique devices without identifying you personally. We track the following events:

Event	What it records
`app_open`	App was launched
`briefing_view`	A briefing was opened (includes region and title — no personal data)
`region_filter`	A region tab was tapped
`pdf_view`	The PDF viewer was opened
`pdf_share`	The Share button was tapped

No names, emails, locations, or device identifiers are associated with these events.

2.2 Crash Reporting (Sentry)

We use Sentry to capture crash reports when the app encounters an unexpected error. Sentry may collect:

Stack trace of the crash
Device type and operating system version
App version

Sentry does not collect personal information, location data, or the content of any briefings you viewed.

2.3 What We Do NOT Collect

Name, email address, or any contact information
Location data
Device hardware identifiers (IMEI, MAC address, etc.)
Contents of your reading history beyond event names
Payment information (the app is free)
Any data that identifies you personally

2.4 What Stays on Your Device

Two things are stored locally and never sent anywhere:

Item	Why it is stored
Briefing cache	The last briefings you opened are cached in the app's local storage, so the app still works when the backend is unreachable or you are offline
Downloaded PDFs	A PDF is saved to the app's cache or documents folder only when you tap Share or Save

Both are removed when you uninstall the app. Neither contains personal data.

3. How We Use the Information

Analytics data is used solely to understand feature usage and improve the app. Crash data is used solely to identify and fix bugs. We do not sell, share, or monetize any data.

4. Third-Party Services

SITREP uses the following third-party services, each with their own privacy policies:

Service	Purpose	Privacy Policy
Mixpanel	Anonymous analytics	mixpanel.com/legal/privacy-policy
Sentry	Crash reporting	sentry.io/privacy
Railway	Backend hosting	railway.app/legal/privacy
Supabase	Postgres store for the generated briefings (no user data)	supabase.com/privacy
OpenRouter	AI model routing for briefing synthesis	openrouter.ai/privacy

4.1 What the Backend Does With Data

The backend serves briefings. It accepts nothing from your device except a read request.

It collects public news content from open sources: public feeds and pages from outlets such as ISW, Defense One, Breaking Defense, War on the Rocks, The War Zone, Al Jazeera, Foreign Policy, CFR and Americas Quarterly, plus the Guardian Open Platform API, the GDELT project, and US and UK government releases. No user data is sent to any of them.
It sends that collected article text, and nothing else, to OpenRouter for AI synthesis. Content you read in the app is never sent back to a model provider.
It stores the generated briefings in Supabase, so a container restart does not lose them. The briefings hold no user data.
It serves briefings and PDFs read-only. There is no account, no upload, and no user identifier in the request.

5. AI-Generated Content

All briefings are generated by artificial intelligence from publicly available open-source news articles. The primary model is DeepSeek V4 Flash (deepseek/deepseek-v4-flash) through OpenRouter, with DeepSeek V3.2 and Kimi K2.5 as fallbacks when a call fails. The AI processing happens on our backend servers — content you read is not transmitted back to any AI provider.

Briefings are generated once a day and may not reflect events after that day's run.

6. Data Retention

Anonymous analytics events are retained by Mixpanel per their standard retention policy. Crash reports are retained by Sentry for 90 days by default. We do not maintain any separate data store of user behavior.

7. Children's Privacy

SITREP is not directed at children under 13. We do not knowingly collect information from children.

8. Changes to This Policy

We may update this policy when features change. The "Last updated" date at the top reflects the most recent revision. Continued use of the app after updates constitutes acceptance.

9. Contact

Questions about this privacy policy:
p.christopher.schmidt@gmail.com