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Privacy Policy

How AskAncients collects, uses, and protects your data.

Effective: August 21, 2026

AskAncients ("we," "us," or "our") is committed to protecting your privacy. This policy explains what data we collect, how we use it, and your rights. By using AskAncients, you consent to the data practices described in this policy.

1. Scope

This Privacy Policy applies to users located in the United States. The Service is operated from and intended for use within the United States. If you access the Service from outside the United States, you do so at your own risk and are responsible for compliance with your local laws. By using the Service, you consent to the transfer and processing of your data in the United States.

2. What We Collect

When you create an account or sign in, we collect:

  • Email address — used to identify your account, authenticate your login, and send password reset emails.
  • Display name — shown as your greeting in the app. Provided by you at signup or pulled from your Google profile if you use Google sign-in.
  • Consent record — when you create an account or continue as a guest, we record that you accepted the Terms of Service and this Privacy Policy and confirmed you are 18 or older: the version you accepted, a timestamp, and a salted, non-reversible hash of your IP address, kept as a legal record of your agreement.

When you use the app, we store:

  • User-generated content — saved perspectives, reflections, ratings, and activity data (streaks, challenge progress, debate picks). Tied to your account so you can access them across devices.
  • Questions you submit — sent to the Anthropic Claude API to generate responses. These are processed in real time and are not stored separately by us as conversation transcripts, beyond what Anthropic's data processing terms allow. (For Pro subscribers, see "Profile memory" below.)
  • Profile memory (Pro personalization) — for Pro subscribers, we use an AI model to distill a short, generalized summary of your consultation inputs (for example, your general role or life stage, the kinds of situations you tend to bring, and recurring themes) and store it on your profile to make future guidance more personally relevant. We store only this short summary — never the full text of your conversations. You can view, edit, clear, or turn off this personalization at any time from your Account page.
  • Anonymous usage analytics — via PostHog. These events track feature usage (e.g., "a user saved a perspective") but never include your name, email, or the content of what you write.
  • Feedback and testimonial consent — if you voluntarily submit feedback and complete our optional consent form, we record your name, email, the permissions you granted (how you wish to be credited and where we may use your feedback), your typed signature, and a timestamp, as a record of your consent.

3. What We Don't Collect

  • We do not store anything you write in The Vent. It is never saved, sent to a server, or logged anywhere.
  • We do not store the transcripts of your consultations. Your questions are processed to generate a response — and, for Pro subscribers, to update your short profile memory — and the underlying conversation text is not saved.
  • We do not access your Google contacts, calendar, drive, or any data beyond your email and name.
  • We do not collect or store payment card information directly. Paid subscriptions are processed by Stripe; we store only a Stripe customer/subscription identifier — never your card number.
  • We do not sell, rent, or trade your personal information to third parties for marketing purposes.

4. How We Use Your Data

  • To provide and personalize the AskAncients experience (serving your saved items, reflections, streaks, and philosophical profile).
  • To generate wisdom responses using the Anthropic Claude API. Your questions are sent to the API to produce philosopher perspectives.
  • For Pro subscribers, to maintain a short "profile memory" that personalizes your consultations. You control this feature and can turn it off at any time (see Section 2).
  • To improve the product using anonymous, aggregated analytics.
  • To communicate with you about your account (password resets, critical service updates).
  • With your express, opt-in consent, to use feedback and testimonials you have provided in our marketing and related materials, in accordance with the choices you made when giving that consent. This is optional, is never required to use the Service, and you may withdraw your permission for future use at any time by emailing us.
  • To enforce our Terms of Service and protect against fraud or abuse.

5. Cookies and Tracking Technologies

AskAncients uses the following tracking technologies:

  • Supabase session tokens — stored in your browser to keep you logged in. These are essential for authentication and cannot be disabled while using the Service.
  • PostHog analytics — may use cookies or local identifiers to track anonymous usage patterns. No personally identifiable information is collected through these analytics.

We do not use advertising cookies or share tracking data with advertisers.

6. Third-Party Services

We share data with the following third-party service providers solely to operate the Service. Each provider processes data according to their own privacy policy:

  • Supabase — database and authentication. Your account data and app data are stored here. Supabase Privacy Policy
  • Anthropic (Claude API) — processes your wisdom questions to generate responses, and for Pro subscribers also distills your profile memory from your inputs. Anthropic's commercial API terms state that API inputs are not used for model training. Anthropic Privacy Policy
  • Google — if you choose "Sign in with Google," Google shares your email and name with us via OAuth 2.0. Google Privacy Policy
  • PostHog — anonymous product analytics. PostHog Privacy Policy
  • Vercel — hosts the application. Vercel Privacy Policy
  • Resend — sends transactional emails on our behalf, such as account confirmations and password-reset messages. Processes your email address to deliver these messages. Resend Privacy Policy
  • Stripe — payment processing for paid subscriptions. Stripe collects and processes your payment details directly to bill your subscription (we never receive your card number). Stripe Privacy Policy
  • Porkbun — our domain registrar; provides email forwarding for our contact addresses, forwarding messages sent to our @askancients.com addresses to our inbox. Porkbun Privacy Policy

This section reflects our current service providers. We may add or change providers as the Service evolves, and we update this list accordingly.

7. Data Security

We implement reasonable security measures to protect your data, including:

  • Row Level Security (RLS) in our database — each user can only access their own data.
  • All connections use HTTPS encryption in transit.
  • Only the public (anon) API key is used on the frontend — never the service-level key.
  • Authentication tokens are managed by Supabase with industry-standard practices.

However, no method of transmission or storage is 100% secure. We cannot guarantee absolute security of your data. You use the Service at your own risk.

8. Your Rights

You have the right to:

  • Delete individual saved items, reflections, and collections from within the app at any time.
  • Request a copy of the personal data we hold about you by emailing us.
  • Request full deletion of your account and all associated data by emailing us. We will process deletion requests within 30 days.
  • View, edit, clear, or disable your Pro profile memory at any time from your Account page.
  • Sign out at any time, which ends your session immediately.

If you are a California resident, you may have additional rights under the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA). To exercise any rights, contact us at the email below.

9. Data Retention

We retain your data for as long as your account exists. If you delete your account, all associated data is permanently removed from our database within 30 days. When you delete your account, we keep a minimal internal record of the deletion itself — a non-reversible identifier, a timestamp, and how the request was made — for compliance and audit purposes; this record contains no readable personal information. For Pro subscribers, your profile memory is retained while your account exists and is deleted with your account. Anonymous, aggregated analytics data that cannot be linked back to you may be retained indefinitely.

10. Age Requirement

AskAncients is intended solely for adults aged 18 and older. We do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 18. If we become aware that we have collected personal information from a person under 18, we will take steps to delete that information promptly. If you believe someone under 18 has provided us with personal information, please contact us at the email below.

11. Do Not Track

Some browsers send "Do Not Track" (DNT) signals. AskAncients does not currently respond to DNT signals, as there is no industry standard for how to do so. Our tracking practices are the same regardless of DNT settings.

12. Changes to This Policy

We may update this policy from time to time. If we make material changes, we will take reasonable steps to make them known, such as posting a notice in the app or updating the "Effective" date at the top of this page. We encourage you to review this policy periodically. Your continued use of the Service after changes take effect constitutes your acceptance of the revised policy.

13. Contact

Questions about this policy or requests regarding your data? Email us at privacy@askancients.com.