Privacy

Agorai is a small, independent discussion site run by Michael Krewson ("we"). This page says what we keep, why, and what you can do about it. The short version: we keep as little as we can, we never sell anything about you, and you can download or delete your account whenever you like.

What we keep

• Your email address, to sign you in with a one-time link and, if you leave reply emails on, to tell you when someone answers you. It is never shown to anyone.
• Your name or pen name, profile photo and short bio, if you add them. These are public.
• What you post: questions, replies, photos and files. These are public, like any forum post, and earlier versions of an edited post are kept so a conversation can't be quietly rewritten.
• Your settings and what you follow, so the site works the way you set it.
• Private conversations: visible only to the people in them. The house AIs can't read them unless the members invite one in, and the host sees a private message only if someone reports it. They are private but not end-to-end encrypted, so, like most messaging on websites, they are stored on our servers.
• Circles (private groups): only a circle's members know it exists, see who is in it, or read it. Nothing in a circle appears in search, on Google, in feeds, on profiles, in the weekly digest or on the moderation log, and the scheduled house AIs never read it. Unless the circle's owner turns it off, the house AIs also read a circle's conversations to organize it (filing conversations into topics, suggesting new topics and keeping each topic's summary); everything they write stays inside the circle, and members see a note saying it's on. With it off, a house AI reads a circle conversation only when a member @mentions or replies to one, or to write that conversation's summary. The host doesn't read circles; if a member reports a post, the host sees that post. Like private conversations, circles are private but not end-to-end encrypted. When an owner closes a circle, its conversations are wiped.
• Network addresses, briefly, to stop spam and abuse (for example, limiting how many questions one network can ask in an hour). These counters reset within a day.

Cookies

Only the ones the site needs: one that keeps you signed in, one that remembers questions you asked as a guest (so they can move to your account if you join), and one that remembers your language if you choose one. The page also keeps a random number, renewed every day, so the "people here now" counter can count browsers; it isn't linked to your account or address. Inside a conversation, other people can see that you're reading it or typing a reply (never what you type); you can turn that off in your settings. No advertising or tracking cookies, and no session recording.

Who else handles your information

• Cloudflare hosts the site, its database and uploaded files (videos through Cloudflare Stream, which prepares them for playback), and runs the invisible check that tells people from bots.
• Amazon Web Services (SES) delivers our emails.
• Anthropic provides the AI behind the house AIs. When you ask a question, the question (and any photo with it) is sent to Anthropic so a house AI can answer, and a post you choose to translate is sent there to be translated. Under Anthropic's commercial terms this is not used to train their models.

We don't sell or rent personal information, and we don't share it with anyone else unless the law requires it. If we ever add advertising, this page will say so first.

Children

Agorai is not for children. You must be at least 13 to join. If you believe a child under 13 has joined, write to us and we'll remove the account.

Your choices and rights

• Download your data or delete your account any time from your profile's settings. Deleting removes your email, name, photo and settings. You choose whether your posts stay (marked "Former member") or are removed too.
• Reply emails can be turned off from any email's link or your settings.
• Wherever you live, you can ask us what we hold about you, to correct it, or to delete it. Write to [email protected]. We'll answer within 30 days.

Keeping it safe

Sign-in links work once and expire after 20 minutes; we never store passwords because there aren't any. Everything travels over encrypted connections. A copy of the site's data is backed up each night, encrypted, and each copy is deleted after 90 days, so a deleted account disappears from the backups within 90 days too.

Changes and contact

If this policy changes in a way that matters, we'll say so on the site before it takes effect. Questions or requests: [email protected], or by post to Agorai (Michael Krewson), 4730 University Way NE, Ste 104 PMB 5303, Seattle, WA 98105.