Privacy

Anything you upload is public

A board is protected by its link, not by a password. Anyone who has the link — or who is given it by someone else — can open the board, read every file on it, and download them. There is no sign-in on any of this. Boards are excluded from search engines, and the links are long enough not to be guessable, but that is the whole of the protection: treat a board link the way you would treat the files themselves. Don't upload anything you would mind a stranger reading, and don't upload other people's personal information.

What we store

• The files you upload, their original filenames, and each file's size, kept on our server until someone deletes them.
• A display title for a file if you typed one instead of using the filename (optional, free text).
• The time each file was uploaded, shown publicly on the file's row.
• The board name you typed and the link derived from it.
• The course code and title the owner created.
• An uploader name, only on files uploaded while SlipNote still asked for one (it no longer does).
• Whether a file was uploaded by the board's owner (not shown on the board), and whether the owner pinned it.
• A one-time manage token for each upload. It is what the "delete your own file" link contains, so it stays with the file until the file is deleted.
• A content fingerprint (SHA-256 hash) of each file, used to skip duplicate uploads and to stop files the operator removed from being re-uploaded. Fingerprints of operator-removed files are kept after the file itself is gone; a fingerprint can't be turned back into the file.
• If you report a file: the report reason and your IP address, used only to review the report.
• If you suggest a feature: your message, the page you sent it from, and a reply address only if you choose to give one. No IP address is stored with it.
• Your IP address as a rate-limit counter when you create a board, upload a file, report a file, send a suggestion, or try the operator login. These counters live in a short-lived cache and exist to blunt automated abuse, not to identify you.
• When a board was last opened. One timestamp per board, overwritten each visit — it tells the operator which boards are still in use. It records no visitor details.
• The days a board was opened by someone other than its owner. One row per board per day, nothing about who, kept for 90 days. It tells the operator whether a class is using a board, as against its owner alone. Your browser's session remembers that it has been counted today, so you are counted once a day.
• The board's owner secret, and an upload passphrase if the owner sets one — both stored only as one-way hashes, so we can't read them back.
• A note from the operator to a board's owner, if one has been left, and when the owner first opened the board after it was left. It is shown only in owner mode on that board, and the operator can remove it.
• An optional recovery email if the owner opts in. It is stored encrypted at rest and used only to send a fresh owner link when requested.
• Daily visit counts. When someone opens the site or a board from outside it, a counter goes up by one for that day, that board, the visitor's country, and where the visit came from (for example "google", "direct", or the referring website's address). Only the number is stored: no IP address, no browser details, no cookie, and nothing that tells one visitor from another. The country comes from our network provider's routing, not from looking you up.
• Standard server logs (IP address, request path, timestamp), used for security and debugging, not analytics.
• A session cookie to remember owner-mode unlocks and passphrase entries within a single visit, and the session record it points at on our server. That record holds your IP address and your browser's user-agent string (browser and operating system version), which is how the session is kept secure. It is deleted when the session expires.
• A small browser-side recent boards cookie if you open a board in owner mode, so this browser can show shortcuts back to boards you've recently managed.
• A short-lived referral cookie if you arrive through a campus ambassador's link, holding only that ambassador's code. It is used once, when a board is created, to note which ambassador introduced it, and is then removed. It records nothing about you.
• A small browser-side last visited cookie recording when this browser last opened each course, so files added since can be marked as new. It holds course ids and timestamps only, and never leaves your browser except to load the page.
• A browser-side theme preference (light, dark, or system) stored locally on this device only.

How long we keep it

Files are never deleted automatically. Files, boards, and course details are kept until someone removes them — an uploader deleting their own file, the owner deleting files or the whole board, or the operator removing content or a whole board. The one exception is an empty board: a board with no files that nobody opens for 30 days is removed, with its courses. If the board has a recovery email, its owner is emailed a week before, and opening the board keeps it. A board with any file in it stays until someone removes it. Report details, including the reporter's IP address, are retained only for as long as needed to review the report and are not used for anything else. Daily visit counts are kept as totals and hold nothing personal. Suggestions are kept so the operator can read them, and you can ask the operator to delete yours. The two things that do expire on their own are session records and the IP rate-limit counters, both of which are short-lived and discarded automatically.

Age

SlipNote is intended for students in higher or further education and is not directed at children under 13. We don't knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you believe a child has uploaded personal information, report the file or contact the operator and it will be removed.

Your rights

Depending on where you live (for example under GDPR or CCPA), you may have the right to access, correct, or delete personal information about you, or to object to its processing. Because SlipNote holds so little — no accounts, no profiles — most of this is self-service: delete your own file with its delete link, or ask the board owner or site operator. For anything else, contact the operator of the specific site.

What we don't do

• No analytics product, no advertising, no profile building, and no tracking of you across boards or visits. The usage figures kept are a "last opened" timestamp per board, the days a board was opened by someone other than its owner, and the daily visit counts above, none of which records anything about who visited.
• No selling or sharing of data with third parties.
• No account, password, or email is required to browse, create a board, or upload files.

Email delivery

If the operator enables recovery, recovery emails are sent through the site's configured mail provider. That provider may process message metadata needed to deliver the email. SlipNote itself does not use recovery emails for marketing or mailing lists.

Telegram notifications (optional)

If the site operator has configured Telegram, a one-line notice (course, section, filename, link) is posted to the configured channel on every new upload, and each feature suggestion (the message, the page, and any reply address you gave) is posted there too. This is set by the operator, not per board.

Deleting your data

An uploader can remove their own file via the one-time delete link shown after upload. The board owner can delete any file on their board, and can add, change, or remove the board's recovery email. The owner can also delete the whole board from Board settings: the board, its courses and every file on it are deleted at once and can't be restored. The site operator can delete a board too, for example one that breaks the Terms or whose owner asks for it to be removed.

Contact

SlipNote is open source. The code is at github.com/otatechie/slipnote. For privacy questions on a specific deployment, contact the operator of that site.