Privacy
This is a plain, honest account of what MANIFOLD GATES stores, who else handles it, what we never do, and the control you have over your own records. If anything below is unclear, the shorter version is: your questions are yours.
Who is responsible
MANIFOLD GATES is operated by Tosia Stewart, an individual based in the United States, who is responsible for the personal data described on this page (its “controller”). You can reach us at the address at the end of this page.
What is stored
Your casts — what each one produced (the figure, what changed, and where it arrived, or the cards drawn), the random values behind it, and the commitment, server seed and your entropy that let anyone verify it — are recorded so your history and the verify page work.
The text of your question, if you write one, is encrypted at rest with AES-256-GCM, and so is any question you leave in the book. The key is kept outside the database, and the server decrypts your question only to show it to you or to send it with a reading you ask for. A question left in the book while you have no session on the site is stored with no link to you, which also means you cannot delete it later.
The readings you request, and any follow-up questions you type, are stored with their cast so you can return to them. They are not encrypted, and a reading may restate your question.
Journal entries — the notes you add later, when you return — are stored with the cast they belong to. They are not encrypted either.
If you create an account, we also store the email address or phone number you sign in with, a password hash if you set a password (never the password itself), your nickname, your points history, your purchases and subscription status, and any feedback you send us.
If you use the site without an account, your history is tied to the mg_session cookie in that browser; anonymous histories unused for about 180 days are deleted automatically.
What we never do
We do not show ads. We do not sell or rent your data, and we do not share it with anyone for their own marketing. Your question text is never used to train any model: we do not train models, and we choose AI providers whose API terms exclude data sent through the API from training.
No part of the practice is funded by anything we learn about you.
AI processing
A reading is generated only when you ask for one. At that moment, and only then, your question text and the structural facts of that specific cast — and, for a follow-up, your follow-up question and the conversation so far — are sent to the configured language-model provider to produce the reading. Nothing is sent in the background, and no cast is processed by the model unless you request its reading.
Services that handle data for us
Cloudflare: every request to the site passes through Cloudflare's network, which protects and delivers it; Cloudflare also forwards mail sent to our addresses and may run a bot check on sign-in forms.
Resend: delivers sign-in links and the weekly digest, so it receives your email address and the message.
Google (Gmail): mail you send to our addresses is forwarded to, and answered from, a Gmail mailbox.
AI providers: receive what is described under “AI processing” above, only when you request a reading.
Payment providers: handle checkout and your payment details when you buy something; we receive only the result of the purchase.
Google and GitHub sign-in: only if you choose to sign in with them; we receive your verified email address and your account ID with that service.
The site and its database run on a server in the United States. Our service providers, including Cloudflare's global network and the AI providers, may process data in other countries.
Cookies & analytics
We set no cookies for advertising or for tracking you across sites. Three are needed for the site to work: mg_session keeps your history and sign-in (180 days); NEXT_LOCALE remembers your language until you close the browser; mg_oauth_state protects a Google or GitHub sign-in while it is in progress (10 minutes). A fourth, mg_ref, is set only when you arrive through an invitation link, so the person who invited you can be credited (30 days). Cloudflare may also set a short-lived security cookie to tell people from bots.
Your browser's local storage also keeps your theme choice, a note that you have checked in today, and whether you have dismissed the short guide on the result page; none of these is sent to us.
If we turn on aggregate analytics, they are cookieless and anonymous (Plausible): page counts and coarse events only, no personal identifiers, no cross-site tracking, nothing stored on your device. Plausible sees your IP address only briefly, to count unique visits, and does not store it.
Logs and backups
Our server keeps standard access logs — IP address, the address requested, the referring page, the time, and the browser type — for about 14 days, and application error logs, which can include an IP address after a failed sign-in, for about 28 days. Both are kept for security and troubleshooting and are then deleted.
The database is backed up every night, and backups are kept for up to 28 days. Data you delete therefore disappears from our backups within 28 days.
The weekly digest email
If you subscribe to the weekly article digest, we store the email address you give us for that single purpose. Subscription is double opt-in — nothing is sent until you confirm from your inbox — and every digest carries a one-click unsubscribe link that stops the digest immediately. We keep the address marked as unsubscribed so it is not mailed again; write to us if you want it erased entirely. The address is never used for anything else, and never shared beyond the email-delivery service named above.
Children
The service is not directed to children under 13 (under 16 in the European Economic Area and the United Kingdom), and we do not knowingly collect their data. If you believe such a child has given us personal data, contact us and we will delete it.
Deleting everything
You can erase all of your records — every cast, reading, journal entry, feedback note, and question left in the book — with a single action. Deletion is permanent and takes effect immediately on the site; the deleted data then ages out of our backups within 28 days. That control lives on your History page. You can delete your whole account from the Account page; if Pro is active, cancel it first — deletion becomes available when the paid period ends.
Your rights
Wherever you live, you may access, export, correct, and delete your data, as the GDPR (EU), CCPA/CPRA (California), and similar laws provide. Deletion is self-serve and immediate (above); for anything else, or any question about this page, write to us and we will reply within 30 days. You can also complain to the data-protection authority where you live. If we change these practices, we will update this page and the date below.
Contact: [email protected]