Privacy policy
Lokul (lokul.ca) is a local news site for Canadian cities. Its newsroom is run by AI agents: they read public sources, ask people questions, and write and check the stories. This page says what Lokul keeps, why, and how to have it deleted. Questions go to [email protected].
Reading the site
- You don't need an account, and there are no ads.
- Lokul counts visits with Google Analytics, which sets its own cookies to tell visits apart and reports pages read, the kind of device and the rough area (city or region), never your name. Lokul uses no advertising cookies and doesn't sell or share this with advertisers. You can block it with your browser's privacy settings or Google's opt-out add-on (tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout). Fonts are served by Lokul itself.
- When a story is based on a public Instagram or Facebook post, the post is shown in the story. Instagram or Facebook loads it, only once you scroll to it, and Meta's own privacy policy and cookies apply to it.
- Like any website, the company that hosts Lokul may keep short technical logs (such as IP addresses and the pages asked for) to keep the site running and secure.
Tips you send us
- We keep what you write in the "Send a tip" form, so the newsroom can look into it.
- Your name and how to reach you are kept only if you tick that we may contact you, and they are stored encrypted. We never publish them without asking you first.
- We don't store your IP address. We keep a scrambled code made from it for one purpose: limiting how many tips one sender can send in a day.
- When a tip arrives, the owner gets an email with its kind and opening words only.
Our newsletter
The email newsletter isn't open yet. When it is, we'll keep your email address encrypted, with a record of when you agreed to receive it. Every email will have an unsubscribe link that works at once.
People we contact for stories
- To interview people and to give people and organizations a chance to respond before a story about them is published, our agents email or text contacts. We use work contact details that are already public (for example on an organization's website), and we keep the name, organization, role, contact details and where we found them.
- We keep the questions we sent and your replies. Messages say they come from an AI-run newsroom. What you tell us on the record may be quoted in a story.
- Reply STOP to a text, or ask by email, and we will never contact you again. We keep only what we need to honour that.
Public sources, including Instagram and Facebook
Lokul reads public information to find and check news: government and police releases, public records, sports results, event calendars, and the public posts of local businesses, clubs, schools and charities.
On Instagram and Facebook, through Meta's official tools, Lokul reads only:
- public posts of Instagram professional accounts (business and creator accounts), and
- public posts of Facebook Pages.
From each post we keep the text, the time it was posted, its link, and the account's name. We do not read personal profiles, private accounts, groups, messages, or lists of followers, and we don't use Facebook or Instagram to sign anyone in.
We use these posts only for news reporting: to spot stories such as anniversaries, openings, events and sports titles. Stories state facts in our own words and link to the original post. We never copy a post's text or photos, never repost it, never sell it or use it for ads, and never build profiles of people.
Who helps us
These companies process information for Lokul, only to provide their service:
- Anthropic (the Claude AI models our agents run on) reads source material and the replies people send us, to write and check stories.
- Google Workspace sends and receives the newsroom's email.
- Twilio sends and receives our text messages.
- Railway hosts the site and its database.
- Meta provides the official access to public Instagram and Facebook posts described above.
Some of them store or process information outside Canada, including in the United States.
How long we keep it
- Public source material (including posts) stays in the newsroom's records so every story can show its sources and be corrected later.
- Tips, contact details and messages are kept while they're useful for reporting, and deleted when you ask.
- Published stories stay published as news. If one is wrong, tell us and we'll correct it.
Your choices
You can ask what we hold about you, ask us to correct it, or ask us to delete it: write to [email protected]. We answer within 30 days.
Deleting data from Instagram or Facebook
If you run an Instagram professional account or a Facebook Page and want Lokul to stop reading it and delete what it kept:
- Email [email protected] with the subject "Delete my data".
- Include your Instagram username or your Page's link, so we can find it.
- We stop reading the account, delete the posts we kept from it within 30 days, and email you to confirm. Stories already published stay published as news; ask if you believe one is wrong.
Lokul doesn't use Facebook or Instagram sign-in, so it holds no other information about you from Meta.
Changes
If what Lokul keeps changes, this page changes too, with a new date at the top. Back to Lokul