1 · What it does
On a supported site, Vaarta reads your feed on your device, works out what each post is about and how it's framed, and shows how your feed's slant and quality compare to other people's — on every topic it finds. You never hunt for a topic; the list is already yours.
2 · How bias is revealed
Bias isn't one axis. A topic is scored on several independent dimensions — emotional tone, factual quality, us-vs-them framing, and more — and you can match a different group of people on each one. You might be mainstream on factual quality but sit with the most outrage-heavy 10% on tone.
3 · Same event, different words
The deeper goal: when two people aren't getting the same information about the same thing, name exactly what differs and how it's engineered to affect you. One version says “forced” and “ban”; another says “new rule, phased in over five years.” Same event — one is ~3× more loss-framed, tuned to induce anger. Vaarta catches that wording-level manipulation and says so plainly, with the evidence one tap away.
4 · Why & how it's private
- On-device first. Handles, emails, phone numbers and links are stripped and the text truncated on your machine before anything is sent.
- Pseudonymous. No captured content is tied to your identity; handles leave only as salted, weekly-rotating hashes.
- k-anonymity. A slice is shown only when enough different people contribute to it.
- Differential privacy. Served counts are noised; exact numbers are never exposed.
- Retention limits. The transient snippet is purged shortly after classification.
- Right to erasure. Delete your install and every contribution at any time.
- Verifiable. The extension is open source — everything that leaves routes through one documented module. Privacy is provable, not promised.
5 · What we can't see — and getting started
We only ever see the feeds of consenting Vaarta users — never “everyone”, and never any individual's feed. The classifier is a model, not an oracle; it judges manipulation and imbalance, never which side is “right”. To start: install the extension, choose what to share, and open a supported site (X today; more coming). Nothing is captured until you opt in.