What we keep, and what we don't.

If you visit the site or the public demo

• You don't need an account, and we don't set any cookies.
• Like any web server, ours records each request: your IP address, the time and the page asked for. These logs are kept by our hosting provider for a limited time, for security and to fix problems.
• The demo's views load their typefaces from a web-font service, so your browser contacts that service too.

If you sign in to a workspace

• Your email address, which the workspace's owner added. We use it only to send you sign-in links.
• Sign-in links work once, for fifteen minutes.
• One cookie, which keeps you signed in for up to thirty days. It does nothing else, and you can sign out at any time.
• What you hold, keep and switch off: the papers in your working memory and your library, each with a copy of its title, summary and links, and the goals you switch off. They're saved to your account in that workspace's own database, so they follow you between devices. Other people in the workspace don't see them. Held papers fade after seven days unless you open them again; your library stays until you leave the workspace or ask us to remove it.
• The team shelf: papers you put on a project's team shelf belong to the workspace, not to you. Everyone in the workspace sees them, credited with your name or email address. They stay when you leave, credited to "a former member".

If you don't sign in

On the public demo, what you hold in working memory, your library and the goals you switch off are stored in your browser only. We don't receive them. Clearing your browser's site data removes them. If you later sign in on that browser, they move into your account.

If a workspace uses a language model

A workspace's owner can turn on a model judge. Then the papers' titles and abstracts, with the owner's goals and rubrics, are sent to the model provider the owner chose, under the owner's own account. The owner's keys are stored encrypted.

During the beta

• There are no analytics and no advertising.
• We don't sell your information. The providers below handle it only to run the service.
• The ranking doesn't learn from what you click or read.

Pool of Thought is in beta, and we're still working out a way to fund it that works for the project and for the people who use it. That could mean measuring how the site is used. If what we collect changes, we'll update this page first, and the date at the top will say when.

Who handles data for us

A hosting provider runs the service and its database, behind a network provider that protects it from abuse. A mail provider sends the sign-in emails.

Your choices

To have your email address and saved papers removed, or to ask what we hold about you, write to hello@poolofthought.com. When you're removed from a workspace, your own saved papers there are deleted with your access, unless you ask for your library to join the team shelf; what you put on a team shelf stays, without your name.