Privacy

Micwyn is a small, independent discussion site ("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, if you sign in with one, 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; the host sees only its domain (the part after the @), to know which companies and schools people come from.
Passkeys and Lightning wallets, if you sign in with one instead: only its public key (a passkey's, or the key your wallet makes just for Micwyn), what it's called (like "iCloud Keychain"), and when you added it and last used it. Your face, fingerprint and screen lock never leave your device, and we never see a wallet's balance, payments or other keys. An account with no email gets no email from us.
How you found Micwyn: the site or link that first brought you here (for example a search engine or an invite link) and how many separate visits you've made, so the host can see what's working. A circle invite link is recorded only as "a circle invite link", never which circle. The host also sees how many circles you're in, never which ones.
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.
Where a photo was taken, if the photo carries it or you tap "Add where I am". We keep the spot and show the place (a restaurant, a park, a shop) on the photo, or only the town when no named place is near, never the exact coordinates or a street address of a home. The photo file itself is stripped of location data. Tap 📍 on the photo before posting to leave it off, or use the photo's place menu afterwards to remove it; the host can remove it too. Location is never kept for photos in private conversations.
Roughly where you are, worked out from your internet connection (a city, region and country, often a nearby town, never a street address). We keep your last-known city on your account and the city each question was asked from, so a house AI knows your local date and time ("tomorrow") and can answer "what's the weather?" or "pizza near me" for your city. If a public question names no place, its answer may name your city. The Front Page uses your area (your state or province) to show local stories under Near you; Iris (once called Herald), the house AI that writes it, is told only which areas have members and how many, never who. The city you set in Settings › Your city always comes first, ahead of your connection (which a VPN can move).
Your settings and what you follow, so the site works the way you set it. Whom and what you follow is private: only you can see your list (on your Following page); other people see only how many followers someone has.
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. Their words, saved translations and voice-message transcripts are encrypted before they're stored, with a key only the Micwyn app holds: the database and its backups keep only scrambled text, and notification emails and phone alerts say only who wrote, never what. They are not end-to-end encrypted: the app unlocks a message to show it to the people in the conversation. Photos, files and recordings in them are stored as files reachable only by their private link. Anyone in a conversation can clear it or delete it, which removes the messages for them only; once everyone in it has cleared a message, it is deleted from our servers, along with any photo, file or voice message that nothing else on Micwyn uses. Anyone can also give a single message a self-destruct timer (5 minutes, 1 hour, 24 hours or 7 days), or turn on disappearing messages for a whole conversation (24 hours, 7 days, 30 days or 90 days): messages sent while it is on are deleted from our servers when their time is up, the same way. It can't stop someone from taking a screenshot or copying a message first, and a copy of a message someone reports is kept for the host.
How to call me (Settings): the phone numbers, usernames and meeting links you list for FaceTime, WhatsApp, Signal, Telegram, Zoom or Google Meet. They're shown only to people in a private conversation with you, in its 📞 Call menu: never on your profile, never to someone still waiting in your Requests, and never between people where one has blocked the other. Take one off by emptying its box; they're deleted with your account.
Dictation (the microphone in the message box) uses your browser's own speech-to-text: Apple's in Safari, Google's in Chrome and Edge, under their privacy terms. Micwyn never receives the sound, only the words that end up in the box, and only if you send them.
Circles (private groups): only a circle's members know it exists, see who is in it, or read it. (If an owner opens a circle to their company, people signed in with an email at that company's domain also see its name, logo, description and invite note, so they can join.) A circle's owners can download its conversations and member list (never private messages between members); each download is recorded in the circle's activity log. To make a circle's attached files searchable by its members, their text is copied into the circle's search; PDFs are read by a house AI for this only when the owner lets the house AIs organize the circle. Owners can also have conversations deleted for good after a set time without new posts; members see that setting on the circle's page. Nothing in a circle appears in search, on Google, in feeds, on profiles, in the weekly digest or on the moderation log, and the house AIs that look after the public squares (through Micwyn's API) never read it. Inside the circle, three settings decide what the house AIs do, each on unless the circle's owner turns it off: organizing (filing conversations into topics, suggesting new topics and keeping each topic's summary), tags (a few topic tags on each conversation, read from what was written and from a recording's transcript; circle tags are kept apart from the public ones and only members see them), and replies (when no house AI has joined a new conversation after 45 minutes, one reads it and replies once). Everything they write stays inside the circle, and members see a note saying what's on. With all three 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.
Shared documents (Docs): only the people the document's owners add can open one. Everyone in a document sees what the others write as they write it, and who is there. The house AIs never read them, except Athena when someone in the document asks her for help in it: then its text (and what they selected) goes with that one question to Anthropic's AI, for that answer only, and isn't kept. The host doesn't look at them; like everything else they are part of the nightly encrypted backup, and like private conversations they are private but not end-to-end encrypted. Photos added to a document are kept the same way, seen only by its people; each is checked once, automatically, before it's stored, and turned away only if it is sexual, sexualizes a minor, is graphically violent or hateful (the check is done by Anthropic's AI, as described below). Anyone in a document can leave it; an owner can delete it, which deletes it and its photos from our servers for everyone (backups roll off within 90 days). If you delete your account, documents you were the only owner of are deleted; the ones you shared ownership of stay with the other owners.
Asking Athena about your screen: when you ask Athena, Micwyn's guide, for help with the page you're on (her bubble's "About this page"), your browser sends what's on that page (and any words you selected) with your question to Anthropic's AI, for that answer only. It isn't posted or kept, and only the number of words used is counted. Questions asked with "About this page" off become conversations like any other question.
Your Notes, Lists and Files (tabs on your own profile): notes, lists and files you keep for yourself. Only you can open them, signed in; they have no public link, never appear in search or anywhere else on Micwyn, and the house AIs never read them, except Athena when you ask her for help in a note you're writing (that note's text goes with your question to Anthropic's AI, for that answer only, and isn't kept). The host doesn't look at them; they are part of the nightly encrypted backup, like everything else. Each photo you keep there is checked once, automatically, for one thing only: images sexualizing a minor, which no site may store (the check is done by Anthropic's AI, as described below, and nothing else about the photo is judged). A PDF you keep there opens in Micwyn's reader, which remembers your bookmarks and the page you were on. If you have Premium and press "Make bookmarks for me" or ask the file a question, that one file is sent to Anthropic's AI to read (and kept there, so your next question doesn't send it again, until you delete the file); nothing else in your Files is ever sent. Like private conversations, they are private but not end-to-end encrypted. Deleting a note, list or file deletes it from our servers (backups roll off within 90 days); deleting your account deletes all of them.
Looks: photos you ask Look about (What is this?, Translate, Find it, Copy the text) and what it found. They are never posted; only you can see them, in Your Looks. The photo has its location removed on your device before it's sent, gets the same one safety check as photos kept in your Files, and is sent to Anthropic so a house AI can look at it. Delete any look, and its photo, any time; they're deleted with your account.
Redesigns and rooms: a 🛋 Redesign sends a small copy of your photo, with the style you picked and what you typed, to Anthropic (a house AI plans the change) and to Cloudflare Workers AI (an image model makes the new picture); the new picture gets the same safety check and is kept with your Looks. A room you save (its name, notes, budget and measurements) and the photos in it are only yours. Delete a redesign or a room any time; they're deleted with your account. A 3D scan you add to a room is kept privately the same way and deleted with it. 🔒 Check for private details (Help me choose) sends the pictures you tick to Anthropic the same way; they become public only when you post them.
Bookmarks: the conversations and links you save, in collections you name, with tags (a few the AI suggests, and your own) and any names you give them. Only you can see them: never on your profile, never in anyone else's search, never to the host. To show a public link's title and picture and let you search inside it, our server opens that page once and keeps its title, description and some of its words; the site learns nothing about who saved it. A link only you can open (a Claude or Google document, say) isn't opened at all. Remove anything from Saved, or a whole collection, any time; it's deleted with your account.
Mneme, your AI memory (Settings › Mneme): your AI profile is what Micwyn's house AIs know about you so they can pitch their answers to you: what you write there yourself, and (unless you turn learning off) what they pick up from your public activity: the squares you follow, the squares you post in most and your recent public questions. Never your circles, private questions or private messages. Where you are decides the starting point: connecting from the United States, learning from your public activity and your searches is on until you turn it off; anywhere else (or when we can't tell where you are), Micwyn asks you first, nothing is learned until you say yes, and each of the two is its own choice. We keep a record of each yes or no (what you chose, when, and from which country) so we can show what you agreed to. Unless you turn Learn from my searches off, it also keeps what you search Micwyn for while signed in (your last 50 searches, for up to 90 days; not each letter as you type), so search results and answers fit you better. It's used only to shape an answer or a search for you, never shown to anyone else or mentioned in a reply; you see all of it there, can change it, have it forget what it learned, or turn it off. Your notebooks are notes that your own AIs (Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini or others you connect) read and add to. An AI you connect gets a key you make, that sees only the notebooks you pick (and your profile only if you tick it); you can disconnect it any time and its key stops working at once. What a connected AI reads from your notebooks goes to that AI's company under its own privacy terms, as anything you tell that AI does. Your profile and notes are encrypted when stored, like private messages, and are deleted with your account.
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.
How many people read each conversation, shown as its view count. A visit counts once every six hours; to tell repeat visits apart we keep a scrambled code made from your network address and browser, never the address itself, and delete it within two days.

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. Once you've signed in on a browser, one more stays after you sign out: it says only that this browser has an account here, so the sign-in page offers to sign you in rather than make a new account. 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. On a first visit, one more notes the site that sent you, for 30 days; if you join in that time it's copied to your account (see How you found Micwyn above). 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. If you let a "near me" answer use your device's location, one more holds that spot, rounded to about a block, for 30 minutes; we don't keep it. No advertising or tracking cookies, and no session recording.

Advertising

No ads are showing on Micwyn. We plan to show Google ads (Google AdSense) on some public conversations, to help pay for the site. Before the first one shows, this page will say so and give the date. This is how it will work:

Only on public conversations that search engines can read, and only when the automatic ad check (or a moderator) says they fit. Never in circles, private messages, private questions, your settings or your account's pages. Ads are switched off for a few days on conversations about deaths in the news, and for good on graphic, sexual, crude or hateful ones.
Google chooses the ads. Google and its partners use cookies to show ads based on your visits to Micwyn and to other sites on the internet (how Google uses information from sites that show its ads). We don't give Google your name, email address, posts or anything else from your account; Google sees only what any site showing its ads passes on: the page, your browser and your network address.
Your choice: turn off personalized ads in Google's Ads Settings, or opt out of other companies' personalized ads at aboutads.info. In the European Economic Area, the UK and Switzerland you're asked first, and ads that rely on cookies show only if you agree.

Who else handles your information

Cloudflare hosts the site, its database and uploaded files (videos through Cloudflare Stream, which prepares them for playback), writes out recordings and voice messages as text (a speech-to-text model run by Cloudflare; the transcript is shown only where the recording is), and runs the invisible check that tells people from bots.
Amazon Web Services (SES) delivers our emails.
OpenStreetMap services (Photon, run by komoot, and Nominatim, run by the OpenStreetMap Foundation) receive a photo's location, and nothing else about you, to tell us which place is there, and the place a weather answer is about, to find it on the map. For a "near me" answer they also receive the spot it searches around (your device's, if you allowed it), to find the closest places.
Open-Meteo receives the coordinates of the place a weather answer is about, and nothing else, to send the forecast.
Anthropic provides the AI behind the house AIs. When you ask a question, the question (and any photo with it, with your approximate city and local time) is sent to Anthropic so a house AI can answer, a post or private message someone chooses to translate (or has set to translate automatically) is sent there to be translated, each photo is sent there once to be checked against the house rules before it's posted, the reason given with a 👎 Not helpful goes there so the house AI can rewrite its answer, the title, site and description of something you save go there so a house AI can file it in one of your collections, and a PDF from your Files is sent there only when you ask the AI to make its bookmarks or answer a question from it. Under Anthropic's commercial terms this is not used to train their models.
Jitsi Meet (run by 8x8): 📞 Start a video call creates a meeting link there and posts it in your conversation. The call itself happens on Jitsi, under its own privacy terms; Micwyn doesn't carry, record or see it.

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

Children

Micwyn is for adults. You must be at least 18 to join. If you believe someone under 18 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, passkeys and wallet keys, name, photo and settings, and your Notes, Lists, Files and calendar entries, and the documents only you owned. 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 Micwyn, 4730 University Way NE, Ste 104 PMB 5303, Seattle, WA 98105.