Likes, ratings and anonymous comments
No sign-in is required. A random cookie lasts one year; the server stores only its hash to remember your likes and ratings and prevent duplicate comments, without linking it to your account. Clearing cookies or switching browsers loses this identity. Aggregate votes are public; comments are published as “Anonymous” after moderation. Unpublished comments are visible only to administrators. Your words may identify you, so avoid private information.
To limit spam, the server uses salted, time-windowed IP hashes for short-lived rate limits, without storing raw IP addresses in interaction records. Expired counters are removed on subsequent writes; the longest active window is one hour. Votes and comments remain until withdrawn or removed by an administrator. You can withdraw votes in the original browser; request comment deletion through website feedback with the app name and comment text.
No tracking
This website uses no advertising, analytics scripts, fingerprinting or marketing cookies. Browsing and downloading never require an account. Account cookies are used only when you sign in; app reviews also use the anonymous cookie described above to remember votes.
Hosting and downloads
The site is hosted on Cloudflare Pages. Like any network service, Cloudflare may process standard connection metadata for security and troubleshooting, such as request time, IP address, path and User-Agent. Website download links keep aggregate daily initiation counts by Beijing date, app and version, without storing visitor IP addresses, User-Agent strings, cookies or account information. Repeated clicks count again. Known crawlers and prefetches are excluded, but not all automated requests can be identified. These counts do not prove completed downloads; historical counts before activation are unavailable. Most installers are hosted on GitHub Releases, while some historical installers are served by Cloudflare Pages. GitHub’s privacy policy applies when downloading from GitHub.
Accounts and sign-in
Signing in is optional and is used for features that need to know who you are, such as submitting feedback. The website supports Google and GitHub; the iPhone app also supports Sign in with Apple. We never receive your password for those services.
- What we store: the user ID, display name, avatar URL and verified email address (if the provider shares one) from the provider, plus when your account was created and last used.
- Sign-in state: a 30-day session cookie, renewed when you return near expiry (HttpOnly, unreadable by page scripts; the server keeps only its hash), a “signed in” marker cookie with no personal data, and a temporary 10-minute cookie during sign-in. A separate cookie remembers the last successful sign-in provider (Google or GitHub) for 180 days, including after sign-out; it contains no account details or token. These cookies are not used for tracking.
- For session security we record the browser User-Agent at sign-in. Avatar images load directly from Google or GitHub.
- Feedback: the app, type, title, description, optional app and OS versions, and screenshots you submit are stored with your account, used only to handle your feedback, and visible only to you and the developer.
- Data is stored in Cloudflare D1 and is never sold or shared. You can delete your account at any time from the account menu in the navigation bar; your profile and everything you submitted are permanently deleted immediately.
- iPhone app: your session token is kept in the device Keychain and expires after 90 days of inactivity. With Sign in with Apple, Apple may provide only a relay address that hides your real email. To revoke the app’s Apple authorization when you delete your account, we store the authorization token returned by Apple in encrypted form; on deletion we call Apple’s revocation API and delete it. You can also delete your account from the Me tab in the app.
- After you sign in to the app, a device with notifications enabled is linked to your account so you can be notified when the developer replies to your feedback; the link is removed when you sign out or delete your account.
iPhone app and notifications
The Aether Native iPhone app shows news and app information from this website’s public data; no account is needed to browse. The app contains no advertising or third-party analytics SDKs.
- Notifications: once you allow notifications, the app sends the device push token assigned by Apple, the interface language (Chinese / English), app version, push environment, and your subscription settings (announcements, and which apps’ stable and beta releases) to this website to decide what to notify you about.
- The device is identified by a random installation ID generated by the app; changing subscriptions requires a device key created at the same time (kept in the device Keychain; the server stores only its hash). None of this includes your name, email or location, and it is not linked to any account unless you sign in.
- Notifications are delivered by a push service operated by the developer through the Apple Push Notification service (APNs), where Apple’s privacy policy applies.
- Retention and deletion: uninstalling the app invalidates the push token, which is deleted automatically on the next delivery attempt; devices unused for 180 days are also deleted. You can turn off notifications at any time in the app’s notification settings or in iOS Settings.
- The app caches fetched news and app icons on the device for offline viewing; they are never uploaded.
Local preferences
If you switch to dark appearance, that choice is stored only in your browser’s local storage and is never sent to a server.
App privacy policies
For how each app handles data, see its own privacy policy: