Privacy Policy

WordVote lets you type a thought and see how many other people have said something similar. We collect as little as we can to make that work. We don't ask for your name, email or account, we don't show ads, and we don't sell your data.

What we collect

• What you post. When you click Type, the text you wrote is saved along with the time you posted it. Posts are public: they can appear, without your name, in other people's search results and in the post counts.
• What you search. When you click Search, your text is used to find similar posts. We don't save searches.
• A scrambled version of your IP address. We don't store your IP address itself. We store a one-way scrambled version (a “hash”) alongside your posts, so we can apply posting limits and stop one person from flooding the site.
• A random browser ID. Your browser keeps a random ID in its local storage. We store a scrambled version of it with your posts for the same purpose. It isn't linked to your identity, and clearing your browser's site data removes it.

We don't use tracking cookies, analytics trackers or advertising networks.

How we use it

• To find posts with a similar meaning and count them.
• To enforce posting limits and prevent spam and abuse.
• To review and hide posts that break our Terms of Use.

Who we share it with

We use a few service providers to run WordVote. They process data only to provide their service to us:

• OpenAI: the text of each post and search is sent to OpenAI's API to work out its meaning, so it can be compared with other posts. Under OpenAI's API terms, this data is not used to train their models by default.
• Railway: hosts our server and database.
• Vercel: hosts the website. Like most web hosts, it may keep standard server logs, such as IP addresses, for security and reliability.

We may also disclose information if required by law.

How long we keep it

Posts and their associated scrambled IDs are kept for as long as WordVote runs, so that counts and trends stay accurate over time. Posts we hide for breaking our rules stay stored but are no longer shown or counted.

Your choices

Don't include personal information, such as names, addresses or phone numbers, in your posts. To ask us to remove a post you made, or with any privacy question, email hello@wordvote.org with the exact text and roughly when you posted it. Because we don't collect your identity, we may not be able to confirm a post is yours, but we'll review every request.

Children

WordVote is not meant for children under 13, and we don't knowingly collect information from them.

Where WordVote is available

WordVote is currently available only in the United States, and data is processed in the United States.

Changes to this policy

If we change this policy, we'll update the date at the top of this page. Using WordVote after a change means you accept the updated policy.

Contact

Questions about privacy? Email hello@wordvote.org.