Version 2026-10-07
Privacy Policy
Joseph Michael Mercurio III runs The Pollionian and is responsible for your information here. We collect as little as the site needs to work, we don't run ads, and we never sell or rent anyone's information. Questions or requests: [email protected].
What we keep, and why
| What | Why | Who can see it |
|---|
| Your email address | To sign you in (we email a link and a code; there are no passwords) and, rarely, to tell you about your account | Only us |
| Your name | Asked once, at sign-up. It's also your first pen name. | Only us, unless you post under it. A name's public page appears only once something public is posted under it. |
| Pen names | To credit your work as you choose | Everyone, once used. Which account a pen name belongs to stays confidential. |
| What you post: stories, every saved version, feedback | To publish it, and keep a dated record of authorship | As you set: public, members only, or private (just you) |
| Daily practice answers | To run the daily practice and its rankings | Other players that day, anonymously; then everyone, under the pen name you chose |
| What you read to the end, your votes and practice judgments, the awards you give | To count reads, allow votes only after a full read, and show totals | Totals are public; who read or voted is not. Award ribbons are public but don't show who gave them. |
| Reports you send | So moderators can act on them | Only moderators. The author is never told who reported. |
| Phone verification, if you use it | So each phone verifies only one account, keeping votes honest | We keep only a scrambled, keyed fingerprint, never the number |
| Your IP address | To limit sign-in attempts and stop abuse | Only us; deleted after 24 hours |
| Sign-in links and codes | To sign you in. Each works once, for 15 minutes; we store them scrambled. | Only us; deleted after 24 hours |
| The date you agreed to these policies | A record of which version you accepted | Only us |
Cookies and tracking
We use one cookie, and only to keep you signed in and protect your forms. It ends when you close your browser. There are no advertising or analytics cookies, no tracking pixels, and nothing from social networks. Fonts and images come from our own server, so loading a page doesn't tell any other company you visited.
Who else handles information for us
These companies process information only to provide their service to us, under their own privacy commitments:
- Cloudflare carries all traffic to the site, protecting it from attacks, and stores our encrypted backups.
- DigitalOcean runs the server the site and its database live on, in New York City, United States.
- Resend delivers our sign-in emails.
- Twilio, only if you choose phone verification, sends your code; it sees your number to do so.
We share information otherwise only if the law requires it, for example a valid court order. Where we can, we'll tell you first.
AI
We never use your work to train AI, and we never let anyone else do so. Each work's settings say whether our AI critics may give feedback on it; without your permission, they never see it. Right now the site doesn't send anyone's work to an AI service at all.
How long we keep it, and deleting it
We keep your information while you have an account. You can delete your account at any time. Deletion takes effect at once, and removes your email, name, pen names, feedback, votes, reading history and reports, and your stories unless you choose to leave them up credited to "[Deleted]".
For safety we keep copies of the database: a copy before each site update, and a continuous backup. Your information can remain in those copies until they're replaced. If we ever had to restore one, every deletion made since would be automatically carried out again before the site came back. The record that makes this possible holds no personal information.
Moderation records stay after an account is deleted, but no longer say whose account it was.
Your rights
Wherever you live, you can ask us for a copy of the information we hold about you, ask us to correct it, or delete your account yourself. Write to [email protected] and we'll answer within 30 days. If you're in the European Union or the United Kingdom, you also have the right to object to or restrict how we use your information, and to complain to your data protection authority. We rely on providing the service you asked for, and our legitimate interest in keeping the site safe and fair, as the legal bases for what's described here.
Children
Accounts are for people 13 and older. If we learn that someone younger has an account, we'll delete it. If you believe a child under 13 has given us information, please tell us.
Security
The site is served only over encrypted connections. Sign-in links and codes are stored scrambled and expire quickly, phone numbers are never stored, and we keep only what's listed above. No system is perfectly secure. If a breach affected your information, we'd tell you promptly.
Changes
If we change this policy in a way that matters, we'll update the version above and ask you to agree again on your next visit.