privacy
Last updated 30 October 2026.
The short version
- You can explore and write without an account. Notes never show who wrote them.
- A note is public once it’s approved. It can’t be edited, and it stays even if you delete your account.
- “Private” means hidden from other visitors, not from us. We only look when we have to (see below).
- No ads, no tracking cookies, and we don’t sell data.
- Questions or requests: hello@thisworldandyou.org.
Who we are
This World and You is run by an individual in Victoria, Australia. “We” and “us” on this page mean them. Contact for anything about your data: hello@thisworldandyou.org.
What we collect, and why
When you explore. A visit count with no cookies and no ID: the page, what you clicked (like which galaxy or menu item), the site you came from (its name only), any campaign tag in the link, and your country. We don’t store your IP address with it. We use it to see what people use.
When you write a note. The note, the first name you write to, its colour and feeling, and when you wrote it. Your browser keeps a private key so you can claim the note later. We keep only a scrambled copy of that key (a one-way hash: it can’t be turned back into the key).
With an account. Your email address, to send sign-in links. A sign-in cookie keeps you signed in. We don’t store your IP address or browser details with it.
Memories you add. Words, photos (with any drawing on them), voice recordings and songs. Your browser shrinks photos and removes their location and camera data before upload.
Reports. What you tell us, and an email address if you choose to leave one.
Emails you send us. They land in our inbox.
Donations. Stripe handles them. We don’t see or keep your card details.
Abuse protection. To stop spam, we count requests per IP address, email or account. We store these counts scrambled and delete them within 2 days.
What’s public
Once approved: the note, the name it’s written to, its colour and feeling, and its date. Memories you mark public show after we review them. Recordings are never public. Nothing public says who wrote it.
A note can still give away who wrote it, or who it’s for, through what it says. Please leave out full names, contact details and anything private.
Public notes can travel: search engines can find them by name, link previews show them, and we may use them in images and videos about the site (see our terms). Removing a note here doesn’t clear copies others have already made.
Who can see private things
Private memories are hidden from other visitors, not from us. Our tools don’t open private files. We only look at your data when:
- you make something public and we review it;
- someone reports it;
- the law requires it; or
- someone’s safety may be at risk.
Every look through our admin tools is logged, and the log is kept. Work done directly in the database, for example on a safety case, goes in a private case log instead.
Moderation
Every note and every public memory is checked before anyone else sees it. Automated checks run first: the text, including the name it’s written to, goes to OpenAI’s moderation service and, for some notes, to an OpenAI AI model that reviews it. Some notes then go to a person.
If a note suggests someone may be in danger, we show help lines. If it was written while signed in, we may email that address once, by hand, to offer support.
Services we use
These companies handle data for us, under their own privacy terms:
- Cloudflare: hosting, database, file storage, bot checks (Turnstile), email forwarding and short-term error logs.
- OpenAI: checks note and memory text.
- Resend: sends sign-in emails.
- Hetzner: stores our encrypted weekly backups.
- Spotify: song search runs through our server. Spotify’s player loads from Spotify when you play a song, or when you open a galaxy page with songs on it. It may set its own cookies.
- jsDelivr: serves extra font files for letters our main font lacks. Your browser fetches them directly.
- Stripe: donations.
These services store data in many countries, including the United States, not only where you live. Cloudflare runs a global network.
Cookies and browser storage
We set one cookie, and only when you sign in. Your browser also stores your settings (like sound) and the keys to notes you haven’t claimed yet. These stay on your device. No advertising or tracking cookies.
How long we keep things
- Notes: for as long as the site runs. A removed note is hidden from the site, but we keep its text in our records.
- Memories: until you delete them or your account.
- Account email: until you delete your account.
- Sign-in links: 15 minutes. Sign-in cookie: up to 60 days.
- Visit counts: 400 days. Error logs: 3 days.
- Reports: kept while open. Once we close one, the contact you left is cleared within a day. The rest is deleted a year later.
- Moderation results: a year after the decision. Results about possible child abuse are kept longer.
- Safety case log: 2 years after the end of the year the case closed (an Australian online safety rule).
- Admin access log: kept.
- Backups: deleted data can stay in encrypted backups for up to 9 weeks.
We keep some records longer when the law requires it, for example material we must report to police or child-safety authorities.
Deleting your account
Delete it from My galaxies. Your email, memories and files go. Your notes stay as anonymous galaxies, with every link to you removed. You can download a copy of your data first.
Your choices
- See your data: “download my data” on My galaxies, or email us.
- Fix it: edit or delete memories any time. Notes can’t be edited.
- Remove a note: make a removal request. We’ll remove notes you wrote, and notes about you when there’s good reason.
- Ask a question or complain: email us. We’ll reply within 10 days.
If you’re not happy with our answer, you can complain to the privacy regulator where you live, such as the OAIC in Australia or the Privacy Commissioner in New Zealand.
If a note is about you
Notes are written to people, often by first name only. We don’t know who they are or how to reach them, so we can’t tell them a note exists. If a note is about you and you want it gone, make a removal request.
Age
This World and You is for people 18 and over. If we learn that someone under 18 has written a note or made an account, we remove it.
Security
All traffic is encrypted. Only our admin can reach the admin tools. Backups are encrypted. If a breach puts you at risk, we’ll tell you and the regulators the law requires.
Changes
When this page changes, the date at the top changes. Big changes will also show on the site.