Privacy
Sediment is a small, non-commercial site for ideas, run by Kritt Tech in Texas, USA. This page explains what we keep about you, who else can see it, and how long we keep it. There are no ads, we don't sell anything, and nothing tracks you round the web. If anything on this page isn't clear, email us at kith@sediment.foo.
What we keep
Some of what we keep is stored encrypted. Wherever this page says that, it means it's locked with a key we keep on our server, separate from the database. Someone with only a copy of the database couldn't unlock it, but the server can.
Your account
We keep the basics: your username, display name and bio, your email address, your birth date and your password. Your password is stored scrambled, so nobody can read it back. We also note when you joined and when you last logged in, and keep your settings, such as your theme.
How you sign in
If you sign in with Google, Microsoft, GitHub, GitLab or Discord, we note which one you use, your account number there, and the email or username it gives us. We never keep any access to that account itself. For a passkey, we keep only its public half, which can't sign anyone in by itself. Your two-step sign-in secret is stored encrypted, and your recovery codes are stored scrambled.
What you post
Your ideas are kept, along with what you add to other people's, every earlier version, and the files you upload. So are your drafts, tags and +1s, who you share things with, your circles, and the collaborations you ask for or answer. Photos and recordings are saved without the location and camera details your device writes into them. Once you post a draft, we keep only a note of the idea it became, not the draft's own text. When you post (an idea, a new version, an addition or a stage note, or a change pulled in from a linked project), upload a file (a picture of your canvas sent to the assistant, or a file pulled in from a linked project, counts too), or download an export, a DXF, a parts list or a copy of your data, we note when, so one account can't do too many in an hour. When you send anything big, like an upload, we also note how big, so one account can't send too much at once; if one tries, staff can see which. Those notes are deleted after a day.
What moves ideas
When you open an idea while logged in, +1 it, add to it, ask to collaborate, run with it, ask AI about it, or work on it in its linked project, we note who did it and when, so the same thing only lifts the idea once a day. These notes aren't shown to anyone, and they're deleted after a day or two. Work in a linked project does show up in the idea's history, though, and there's more on that under Services you choose to use, below. We remember a +1 even after you take it back, though not when it was given, so it can only ever lift an idea once.
Where you're logged in
For each login, we keep what sort of browser and system it's on (like "Firefox on Windows"), when it logged in and when it was last used, so you can log it out from Settings. We delete these details when that login ends, which happens when you log out, when it goes unused for two weeks, or when your account is deleted.
Security events
We record logins, wrong passwords and codes, password and email changes and other events like them, along with the browser's name but never its internet address. We keep these for 90 days, except wrong passwords, which we keep for a day. During that day, each wrong password also counts against the account it was tried on, and against a scrambled form of the internet address it came from, so anyone guessing gets stopped. If the name doesn't match any account, it counts against a scrambled form of the name instead. Each link we send to confirm an email address, and each invite to join, also counts for a day against a scrambled form of that address, so nobody can fill someone else's inbox with them.
AI help, if you use it
Your own AI keys are stored encrypted and never shown again in full. We also keep what you asked, the answers, any pictures the AI made, and the themes you asked it to design. When you ask the assistant in a workspace, the work you have open goes to the AI along with your question. We delete our own copy of that work, and any picture of the canvas, once the AI has answered or the request has stopped.
Background work
We keep a list of what your AI or a linked project is doing for you. Each job is labelled with the start of what you asked, or with the project's name. A job asking your AI about someone's idea doesn't keep the idea's words: it shows the idea's title only while you can still see the idea. Finished work you've opened or dismissed is deleted once it's 30 days old. The site's own jobs, like sending an email, are deleted after a week, and whatever they were given to work with, like an email address, is wiped as soon as they've run.
Linked projects, if you link one
When you link a project, we keep the access you gave us to your GitHub, Google Drive or Dropbox (encrypted), your account name there, and whatever the project brings in. We check linked projects for changes every few minutes to every few hours.
Notifications, if you turn them on
We keep the address your browser gives us for sending them and the keys for encrypting them, which login that belongs to, and what you want to hear about. We also keep a note that you've been told about something, so it isn't sent twice. That note is scrambled, so it doesn't say which idea or person it was about.
Families
For families, we keep which accounts are parents and children, what each parent allows, and family invites. An invite that's declined, or that can't be answered, stays in its sender's list until they take it back. When one can't be answered, a note of who tried goes to the person it was about (or, for a child, to their parents) by email and on their Family page. It shows there for 30 days and is then deleted.
Reports
When someone reports something, we keep what they reported, why, what they wrote, and who they are, for as long as the post itself is kept (or longer, in the cases below). Who reported it and what they wrote are dropped 13 months after a moderator answers.
Invites
For each invite, we keep the email address it was sent to, who sent it and when it was used. Once an invite is used, it keeps only a shortened address, and it's deleted along with the account it made. An invite that's never used is deleted 30 days after its link runs out, or sooner if staff cancel it. The staff log keeps a permanent note that it was sent, with the first letter of the address and the part after the @.
Logs
Our database never stores your internet address. The servers in front of the site pass it on to the site only so it can count wrong passwords from one place, which it does with a scrambled form of it. They don't keep a log of the pages people open, and leave internet addresses out of their error messages. When something breaks, the site and the database each keep an error log saying what failed, on what kind of page and where in the code. Those logs are set up to leave out anything anyone typed or saved. Each part of the site keeps no more than 30 MB of them, and the oldest are dropped first. The person who runs Sediment may also get a short email about an error. It says what kind of page it was on, but nothing anyone typed, and it stays in their inbox.
Who else sees it
Other people
Other people see what you post, depending on how you share it. An idea shared with everyone and rated for all ages can be seen by anyone, even people who aren't logged in. If it's rated 13+, 16+ or 18+, only members old enough can see it. A limited idea is seen by the people and circles you pick, and by anyone collaborating on it.
Anyone can see your display name, username and bio on your page, whether they're logged in or not, though you can hide your bio from people who aren't. Your page also shows them whichever of your ideas they're allowed to see. Your name shows on what you post and on ideas you collaborate on. Your core sample, also on your page, shows anyone who can see your ideas which of those ideas you haven't opened or worked on for a week. You can turn that off in Settings.
People in a circle can see who else is in it. If you report someone, they're never told it was you.
Other people's AI and exports
Unless you lock an idea, any member who can see it can ask their own AI about it, or export it, either as a download or to their GitHub, Google Drive or Dropbox. What you add to someone else's idea goes along with it too. An AI gets the text and the names people show here, but not the files. An export takes the files as well. What their AI answers is theirs, like an export, so it stays with them if you delete the idea or your account later.
Parents
Parents can see a lot of what their child does. There's more on that under Children, below.
Our staff
Sediment's staff are Kritt Tech and the moderators and helpers it picks. They can see when you joined and last logged in, whether you're under 18, and how many ideas you have, without being shown the ideas. They see only part of your email address, though they can find your account if they're given the address. Each time they check an address against an account, it's noted in the staff log, though the address isn't. Staff who look after sign-ins can also see how you sign in, the browsers you're logged in on and your security events.
Moderators see what's been reported, with its files, and who reported it. A private idea only reaches them if someone who can see it reports it. They can then open it, along with its earlier versions, for as long as the report is waiting or the idea is taken down, and for 30 days after the report is answered. They can't open a child's earlier versions that a parent hasn't okayed, though, unless the child or a parent is one of the people who reported it.
An owner can also open a report on any post. This is for when someone writes in to us, for example with a take-down request or a copyright notice, and the report notes who wrote in and what they asked. Only owners can see those details, unless they pass the report to the moderators or it's still waiting a day later. Until then, if the post is private, owners are the only staff who can see it, unless someone else reports it too.
Whenever staff open an account page or a report, or an owner opens a database page, or any of them changes something, it goes into a staff log. Staff can't change or delete that log, and it's kept for good.
Owners
Owners (that's Kritt Tech) can also open the database pages for accounts. These show email addresses and the email or username you sign in with elsewhere (both shortened in lists), birth dates, circles and who's in them, family links and linked accounts. Ideas, drafts, additions, +1s, and AI questions and answers aren't there, and AI keys show only their last few characters. We no longer keep what owners search for there, though older entries in the staff log still have it. And since we run the server, we can get at anything stored on it, even what's encrypted.
Companies that run parts of Sediment
A few companies run parts of Sediment for us, and only see your information to do that:
- DigitalOcean runs the servers, in the US.
- Backblaze stores our backups, in the US. They're encrypted on our server before they go, so Backblaze can't read them.
- Resend sends our emails, in the US. Emails carry names, usernames, links and moderation reasons, but never what you posted, and Resend keeps its own copy of them for a while.
- Your browser's push service (Google, Apple, Microsoft or Mozilla, depending on your browser) delivers notifications. Notifications are encrypted on the way, so the push service only sees that Sediment sent your device something, and when.
- An email forwarding service passes what you write to kith@sediment.foo on to the inbox of the person who runs Sediment.
Services you choose to use
When you ask AI something, our server sends your question to the provider whose key you're using. It doesn't come from your browser, so the provider never sees your internet address. Along with your question, the provider can get the idea you ask about and its tags, and what other people added to it with the names they show here, as text but never their files. It can also get your earlier questions in that conversation, the work you have open in a workspace (plus a picture of it, if the AI can see), or old ideas of yours when you prospect. The provider keeps whatever it gets under its own rules.
When you link a project to an idea, we copy the idea, with its earlier versions and what people added to it, to GitHub, Google Drive or Dropbox. We then check it for changes every few minutes to every few hours, and any changes we find show up in the idea's history. You, your collaborators and a child's parents can see what changed and the name that whoever changed it goes by on that service. On Google Drive or Dropbox, that's often a real name. Other members who can see the idea can see that it's being worked on there, and who on Sediment a change was traced to.
If you use Google, Microsoft, GitHub, GitLab or Discord to sign in, that service learns each time you sign in to Sediment with it.
Anyone who sees your screen
Notifications say who did what, with the first words of the idea, a circle's name or the start of what you asked your AI, and anyone who can see your screen can read them. If you'd rather they didn't say that much, turn on Keep details off the lock screen in Settings, Notifications, and they'll only say what kind of thing happened.
When the law requires it
We report child sexual abuse material to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, as US law requires. We may also share information when the law requires it (a subpoena, court order or warrant) or to protect someone from serious harm. When the law asks us to keep something, such as a police request to preserve an account, we keep a copy for as long as it asks, even past the times below.
Cookies
We only use the cookies Sediment needs to work, and never for tracking or ads:
- one keeps you logged in, and remembers a sign-in or sign-up you're partway through
- one protects forms from being sent by other sites
- one remembers the theme you picked
- one remembers, for a year, that this browser has logged in to your account or set its password, so a stranger guessing passwords doesn't lock you out (a new password, or logging out everywhere, makes your other browsers forget)
- one stops someone too young from trying to sign up again for a day
- one carries a message like "Saved" over to the next page
Your browser also keeps your unsaved work on your device until you post it, save it as a draft, or press Log out in that browser. If you're logged out any other way, such as after two weeks unused, from another device or by deleting your account, it stays there. Your browser also remembers a few layout choices, like panel sizes, and holds on to the assistant's conversation until you close the tab.
How long it's kept
Unless this page says otherwise, we keep things until you delete your account. An idea that sinks isn't deleted, it just goes deeper.
Some of it you can delete yourself. You can throw away drafts you haven't posted, take back a request to collaborate with what you wrote in it (or delete what you wrote once it's been turned down or ended), and delete a single addition or earlier version, or a whole idea if nobody else has built on it. Settings, Your data lists what you've added to other people's ideas and your requests to collaborate, so you can do that even where you can't open the idea any more. If you're 18 or over, you can also delete an AI request and its answer, prospecting included, though the list of your old ideas a prospect dug up stays. Deleting an idea also deletes your AI requests about it, and prospecting that found new ideas in it. Anyone else who asked their AI about it keeps what it answered, though it no longer says which idea it was about. Deleting an earlier version leaves what your AI said about the idea back then, as that's an AI request of its own. And you can remove AI keys, themes (the ones you saved and the ones you asked AI to design), circles, linked accounts, sign-ins and passkeys. If you're a child, a parent deletes posts for you, and what you write asking to collaborate stays for your parents to see even once you take it back. If they delete an idea you asked your AI about or prospected with, you keep those AI requests and what they answered, though they no longer name that idea.
Whatever you delete disappears straight away. There's one exception: if you delete something you added to someone else's child's idea, it disappears for everyone else, the child included, but the child's parents keep seeing it until one of them deletes it too, the child has no parent here any more, or the child's account or yours is deleted. It's the same with what you wrote asking to collaborate on a child's idea, once you take it back, delete it or ask again with something new: their parents keep seeing it until one of them deletes it, the child has no parent here any more, or the idea, the child's account or yours is deleted. We erase what you delete within 30 days of it disappearing for everyone, and from backups within 30 days after that, unless it was reported or taken down or the law asks us to keep it. If we ever have to put the site back as it was at a backup, whatever was deleted since is deleted again before the site is back, whatever you stopped sharing stays unshared, and a post a parent turned down stays hidden, though anything posted or edited since is lost (and a post a parent approved since waits for them to look at it again). So an idea can go back to a version you deleted later: delete it again, or email us. Only if the database itself were lost, or couldn't be trusted after a break-in, would there be nothing to go by: then whatever was deleted after that backup could be back, and you'd need to delete it again, or email us. Copies other people have already made, like an export or what their own AI answered, aren't affected. For anything else, email kith@sediment.foo.
Deleting your account from Settings, Your data deletes everything above at once, along with what other people added to your ideas. What their AI answered about them stays theirs, as when you delete an idea. A few things work differently:
- If a post of yours has a report on it that's still waiting, or moderators took it down, it's kept with its reports, your username and email address, and whether you were under 18 (with your parents' accounts). Only moderators can see it. If the report is still waiting, we keep the post until a moderator answers it. If they leave it up, it's deleted then. If they take it down, it's kept for 13 months from that point. A post that was already taken down is kept for 13 months. That's because US law asks sites to keep what they report to the authorities for a year. All of this also applies to what you added to someone else's idea, if they delete their account.
- If something you posted was taken down as child sexual abuse, your account can't be deleted until 13 months afterwards, for the same reason.
- Reports you made stay, but without your name on them. As with every report, who made it and what they wrote are dropped 13 months after a moderator answers. The staff log keeps a permanent record of what staff did and why, in their own words. That record includes the usernames involved, the first letter and domain of each address an invite went to, and the web address of each database page an owner opened, though no longer what they searched for.
- If someone ran with an idea of yours, what they made is theirs, and it stays.
- Tags belong to the whole site. A tag someone else also uses stays, without your name, and one only you used is deleted within a day or so (apart from the few the site starts with).
- We also ask GitHub, Google or Dropbox to end our access to your account there.
- The email telling you your account was deleted waits to be sent with your address, and that copy of your address is wiped once the email has gone.
- Backups of the database and uploaded files are encrypted on our server before they go to Backblaze, and each one is kept for at most 30 days. A copy of the database made on the server just before an update or a restore, and of uploaded files just before a restore, is kept for a week. So anything deleted is gone from all of them within about a month.
- Anything the law asks us to keep is kept, as above.
Your choices
- From Settings, Your data, you can download your account, what you've posted, your drafts, your AI requests (with the themes you asked it to design) and your recent sign-in activity, or delete your account. For anything else we keep about you, email kith@sediment.foo.
- You can change your details, sign-ins and browsers from Settings, and change what you share from each idea itself. Locking an idea keeps it out of other people's AI and exports, though not your collaborators'. You can also turn off additions or collaborating for a single idea, or for all of them from Settings.
- In Settings, Notifications, you can choose what you're notified about, on which devices, and whether details show on the lock screen.
- You can email kith@sediment.foo with any question or request about your information. It goes to the inbox of the person who runs Sediment.
Children
You need to be 18 or over to sign up. A child can only have an account if a parent makes one for them, from Settings, Family, and a child can have up to two parents. A parent chooses what the child can do, can approve their posts if they want to, and can keep them off the public site, so that people who aren't logged in see nothing of theirs. A parent can also download or delete the child's account. A child can only download their own account if a parent lets them export, and only a parent can delete it.
Parents can see their child's ideas, private ones too, what they add and collaborate on (without naming someone else's idea the parent can't open), what they write asking to collaborate (even once they take it back), who asks to collaborate on their ideas or is collaborating on them (with what they wrote, even if they take it back, as above), what others added to their ideas and then deleted (as above), their circles, the accounts they sign in or link with (and the email or username there), and their 10 latest AI questions. A parent's download of the child's account also has the child's email address, birth date, +1s, drafts (but not ones kept from their AI's prospecting, or what's in ones it helped write), prospects, when they saved a theme (but not the theme, which their AI designed), browsers, notification settings, sign-in activity and every AI question (apart from themes they asked it to design). We never show parents what the child's AI answered.
Parents can also take away the child's passkeys, other sign-ins and two-step sign-in, set a new password for a child who has no confirmed email address, and turn down a request to collaborate on the child's ideas or end a collaboration there. To whoever asked, that looks just like the child saying no or ending it.
A child can't add AI keys. Instead, a parent adds one for them, and the child uses it without ever seeing the key. That means the child's questions and the AI's answers go through that AI provider under the parent's key. The provider, or a server the parent runs, may show the parent its own record of both. If the key goes to a server the parent picked rather than a provider we list, the child can only use it on ideas the parent can see too, and not on ones someone else has locked.
When the child turns 18, the account becomes their own.
If you think a child has an account without a parent, please email kith@sediment.foo and we'll look into it.
Changes
If we change this page in a way that matters, we'll tell everyone with an account before the change takes effect.