Privacy policy

Last updated 22 October 2026

Operator: Council, councilwhat.com ("we", "us")
Contact: support@councilwhat.com

Council, on councilwhat.com and in the Council app, is a place to ask for honest views on decisions, answer other people's, share stories anonymously, receive anonymous messages through your own link, and read books of faith. This policy explains what Council collects, why, who else handles it, how long it's kept, and what you can do about it. The terms of use say what you agree to when you use Council; this says what happens to your information.

1. What we collect

Your account. How you sign in decides what we keep:

• Email and password: your email address, and your password run through a one-way hash (scrypt), so it can't be read back, by us or anyone.
• A passkey (your device's fingerprint, face or PIN): only the passkey's public key, which can check a sign-in but can't be used to make one. No email and no password. Your fingerprint or face never leaves your device.
• Google, Microsoft or Facebook: the identifier that company gives us for your account, and the email address it shares.

Your sign-in. Being signed in is a cookie holding a random token. We keep only a scrambled (hashed) copy of the token, so a copy of our database can't be used to sign in as you. You're signed out after 30 minutes without using Council, and a sign-in lasts at most 30 days.

Your profile. A username, if you choose one, and whether it shows on what you post; a profile picture, if you upload one (up to 5 MB, saved under a random name, without the details the camera wrote into it, such as where it was taken; only which way up it goes is kept). Your username is what your link uses (councilwhat.com/@yourname).

Your date of birth. Asked once, after you create an account. Council is for people 13 and over: a date that makes you younger than 13 is refused and not kept. It decides what's for 18 and over (answering other people's questions, photos and videos, your anonymous inbox, paid extras, search engines). It's visible only to administrators, never to other users, and never on anything you post. It can't be changed in the app; write to us if it's wrong.

Your faith (optional). We don't ask about faith when you sign up. If you choose to, you can set one from Profile, Faith communities or Religion Wise: Buddhism, Christianity, Confucianism, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, Sikhism or Taoism, or "Another religion", "No religion" or "Prefer not to say". It chooses your daily meditation in Reflections and the book the verse of the day comes from, and puts you in that faith's community, which lets you answer the faith questions that ask it. We show only how many people are in each community (a small one shows as "fewer than 5"), never who. You can change it or clear it at any time. Your answer itself is never shown to other people. If you answered our earlier questions (whether you are a Christian and, if not, whether you would like to become one), those answers are kept as you gave them.

Your experience (optional). In Profile you can say what you can speak from, from a fixed list (for example "Married 10+ years" or "Parent of teenagers"). It lets you answer questions that asked for that experience. It's on your word, and we don't check it. It shows only beside an answer you give on a question that asked for it, and nothing lists who has which. The list leaves out health, sexuality, ethnicity and religion. You can change or clear it at any time.

What you post. Questions, answers, replies and stories, in full, and the two answers of a quick vote if you add one to a question. Stories are handled differently from everything else: see section 3.

Photos, videos and audio. Switched off for now. When they're on, people 18 and over can add them to posts, and before a file is stored Council removes the details it carries about where, when and on what it was made (such as a photo's location or a recording's title). It can't change what a photo shows or how a voice sounds.

Votes.

• Helpful, signed in: a record that your account marked that answer, so you can't vote twice and can take it back.
• Helpful, signed out, and every quick vote: your browser makes a random key the first time you vote, and we keep only a scrambled copy of it beside the vote (and, for a quick vote, which answer you picked). It's never linked to an account, even when you're signed in, and clearing your browser's storage forgets it.

Nobody can see who voted for what; only the counts are shown.

Anonymous messages sent to you. If someone uses your link to send you a message, we store the message and who it was sent to, and nothing about who sent it: no account, no IP address, no identifier of any kind. Nothing in Council's database can trace a message back to its sender. Our hosting provider's request logs (below) do record the IP address of the device that sent one, when, and whose link it went to, though not what it said. If your link asks something of its own (a prompt or a vote), we store what it asks, and each message or vote records which prompt it answered and, for a vote, which choice was picked.

What you keep. Meditations you save and notes you write in Sitting with, and your bookmarks, highlights and collections in the Religion Wise library. Only you can see them. Notes aren't checked or reviewed, because nobody else sees them.

Notifications. If you turn them on: which kinds you want and when, and the address your browser gives us for sending them (with the keys that encrypt them). See section 4 for who delivers them.

Payments. Asking and answering are free. If you pay for a Boost or for hearing only from people with an experience, Stripe takes the payment on its own page, so your card details go to Stripe and never to us. We keep a record of the payment: which question it was for, what was bought, the amount, Stripe's reference and whether it went through. We send Stripe only the amount and the name of what was bought, never your question or your account details.

What stays on your device. Council keeps a few things in your browser's own storage, on the device you use, and none of it is sent to us:

• where you were (the chapter you were reading, the conversation you had open, your place in the day's meditation) and anything you started writing and didn't send, filed under the account that's signed in. Kept for up to 30 days;
• each story's delete key, which is how you can delete a story from that device at any time (we keep only a scrambled copy);
• your voting key (see Votes above), and small settings such as which tips you've already seen.

Technical information.

• Your IP address is used in memory only, to apply rate limits (for example, how many sign-in attempts or anonymous messages an hour). It isn't written to our database and is forgotten shortly after.
• Our hosting provider keeps its own logs of requests to the site, which include IP addresses, times and the addresses requested, but not what you wrote.
• Council's pages load fonts from Google Fonts, and the sign-in buttons' code from Google, Microsoft and Facebook, as the page opens. So those companies receive your IP address and browser details when you visit, even if you never use their sign-in.

2. How we use it

• To run your account: signing you in, showing you your own posts and inbox, and keeping your settings.
• To show what's posted to the people it's for, on Council and on each question's own web page (section 7).
• To check what's posted for anything that breaks the house rules, and to hold back what may need a person to look at it first.
• To apply rate limits and reduce spam and abuse.
• To send the notifications you asked for, and, when a notification can't reach you, to email you that someone answered your question: only at a confirmed address, at most once every six hours for each question, with the start of your question and never the answer.
• To send the emails an account needs: confirming your address, resetting your password, and confirming that you want your account deleted.
• To apply what you paid for, and keep the payment records our accounts and tax obligations need.
• To write things automatically with an AI system (Claude, from Anthropic, our service provider):
  • the Council Summary, once a question has 25 answers: we send the question and the answers' text, and nothing about who wrote any of them. Summaries on Council's own example conversations were written by Council, not by the AI system;
  • the daily fact comparing traditions in Religion Wise, which uses no personal information at all;
  • which daily notification to send you and its title: we send the religion you chose, if you chose one, which kinds of notification you asked for, which kind you got yesterday, and the day's options (the verse, the fact, the meditation's question). Never your name, email, account, or anything you wrote. One choice is made for everyone with the same answers, not for each person.

We don't sell your information, and we don't use it for targeted advertising. Any advertising on Council is the same for everyone, not chosen using your information.

3. Stories: anonymous, and then untraceable

Stories are anonymous unless you choose to put your name on one. Here is exactly what links a story to you, and for how long.

• An anonymous story is linked to your account for 10 minutes after you post it, so that you can edit it or delete it from your account. Then the link is erased for good. From then on nothing in Council's database connects the story to your account: not other people, not an administrator, not us. It can't be edited any more.
• A story with your name on it shows your name for 3 days, and you can edit it during that time. Then your name comes off and the link is erased in the same way. The story stays up, anonymous like the rest.
• Deleting it stays possible after that, from the device you posted it on, which holds the story's delete key. We keep only a scrambled copy of the key, which can't be traced back to you.
• What's erased is erased from the file, not just hidden: Council's database is set to overwrite what it deletes.

What we're honest about:

• During those 10 minutes (or 3 days), the link exists, and someone with access to our database at that moment could see it.
• Backups. Our hosting provider makes an automatic copy of Council's disk every day and keeps each copy for at least 7 days. A copy made while a story was still linked holds that link until the copy is replaced, within about a week.
• Request logs. The hosting provider's logs record that a device posted something at a certain time (section 1), though not what was posted.
• What a story says can still identify you, or someone else. Nothing we do can change that, so write with care.
• Replies you write under a story, your own included, are replies like any other, linked to your account as any reply is.

4. Who else handles your information

We use these services to run Council. Each handles only what it needs.

5. How long we keep things

• Your account and what you've posted: until you delete them, or until something is removed for breaking the terms.
• A new account whose email isn't confirmed: 2 hours from signing up. If the emailed link hasn't been used by then, the account is deleted, with everything in it, and the address can be used to sign up again.
• Something you delete goes from Council at once (after a few minutes in which you can undo it), and from the automatic backups within about a week.
• A story's link to you: 10 minutes, or 3 days with your name on it (section 3).
• Sign-ins: until you sign out, after 30 minutes unused, or after 30 days at most.
• Anonymous messages sent to you: until you delete them.
• What you keep (Sitting with, bookmarks, highlights, collections): until you remove it, or delete your account.
• Payment records: as long as the law requires for accounts and tax. When you delete your account, the record stays without saying whose it was.
• Something removed for breaking the terms may be kept as long as the law requires or allows for dealing with it.
• Counts with nothing in them that says who or what (how many questions were asked in a week, for example) may be kept.
• On your device: up to 30 days for where you were and what you were writing (section 1).

6. Your choices and your rights

• Delete a post at any time. You can undo it for a few minutes.
• "Delete everything I've written", in the Menu, erases every question, answer and story of yours that can still be linked to you, and keeps your account. Stories whose link has already been erased can only be deleted from the device that holds their key.
• Delete your account from Profile. Council emails you a link to confirm (when it can send email); then the account and everything linked to it are erased: your posts, your inbox, what you kept, and your Helpful votes.
• Notifications: turn them on or off, by kind, in Profile; per question when you ask it; or in your device's settings.
• Search engines: decide when you ask whether a question can be found from a search engine once it's answered, and change it at any time.
• Your username can be shown or hidden on what you post from now on, and changed. Your faith and your experience can be changed or cleared at any time.

Depending on where you live, laws such as the EU's General Data Protection Regulation, US state privacy laws like California's, China's Personal Information Protection Law and Russia's law on personal data give you rights over your information: to see it, correct it, get a copy, object to how it's used, or have it deleted. Write to support@councilwhat.com to use them.

7. Who can see what

• Questions, answers and replies can be seen by anyone using Council. Your username shows on what you post only if you have one and leave it on.
• Each question has its own web page (councilwhat.com/q/...) with its answers, so its link works wherever it's pasted, and a chat app or social network fetching it gets a preview picture of the question.
• Search engines may list a question's page once it has an answer, unless the asker turned that off. They never list stories, Council's own example conversations, or questions from people under 18, and the preview picture for a story or a question from someone under 18 carries no words from it.
• Stories can be seen by anyone using Council, and say who wrote them only for the 3 days a name is on one.
• A picture of a conversation made with "Share as a picture" carries the question and its summary or top answer; on a story or a question from someone under 18 it carries no words from them, except a story for the person who wrote it.
• Anonymous messages sent to you, and what you keep, are visible only to you.
• Your faith is never shown to other people.
• Your date of birth is visible only to administrators.
• On a question asked by someone under 18, administrators can see the username and email of each person who answers, so that whoever speaks to a child can be held to account.
• Anything flagged, automatically or by a report, is seen by administrators so they can decide on it. Administrator accounts need two-factor authentication: a password alone is never enough.

8. Children

Council is for people 13 and over. A date of birth under 13 is refused and not kept, and if we learn an account belongs to someone under 13, we may close it. If the law where someone lives says they need a parent's or guardian's permission to use a service like this at their age, they need it before they use Council (in some countries that is everyone under 14, 15 or 16). People under 18 can ask questions and read every answer; they can't answer other people's questions, add photos or videos, receive anonymous messages or buy paid extras; their questions are marked as asked by a young person, and are never shown to search engines.

9. Security

Passwords and sign-in tokens are stored only as hashes. Sign-ins live in a cookie that the page's own script can't read. Administrator access needs two-factor authentication, with no exceptions, and removing an administrator's second factor needs that factor. What's deleted from the database is overwritten, not just hidden. Council is served only over HTTPS. No system is perfectly secure, and we can't promise that nothing will ever go wrong; see the terms of use for the limits of what we can promise.

10. Changes to this policy

When this policy changes in a way that matters, the date at the top changes, and, where the law requires, we'll tell you directly.

11. Contact

Questions about this policy or your information: support@councilwhat.com.

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