Privacy Policy

This Policy applies to talksearch.io, TalkSearch developer accounts and APIs, TalkSearch-operated search and feedback services, cached media served for search results, and the content-reporting process. It also applies when the same services are made available through another TalkSearch-operated hostname.

TalkSearch is an independently operated, non-business project. It is not a company or other incorporated entity. The project is operated under the name NotATether (referred to as “TalkSearch,” “we,” “us,” or “our”). For privacy requests, contact support@talksearch.io with “Privacy” in the subject line.

This Policy does not govern Bitcointalk, an advertiser or destination you visit, a cryptocurrency network, or an independent payment or swap provider. Their own notices apply to their services.

We obtain information from four main sources:

• From you: searches, account details, key settings, payments, feedback, reports, support messages, and other information you choose to submit.
• From your browser or application: request metadata, session information, browser preferences, and API usage.
• From public sources: publicly accessible Bitcointalk posts, topics, profiles, images, links, and associated forum metadata.
• From service providers: invoice status, security-challenge results, hosting events, and other records needed to operate or protect the service.

TalkSearch independently indexes public Bitcointalk material. Indexed fields may include usernames, user identifiers, profile information, post and topic identifiers, post text, signatures, quoted material, links, images, dates, board membership, activity, merit and reply information, and other metadata visible from the public forum.

We also create derived information such as search vectors, language classifications, spam and quality signals, image labels, nearby-reply relationships, ranking features, and cached or converted representations. These automated signals can be wrong and are not statements of verified fact.

Public forum material can contain opinions, allegations, contact details, financial addresses, or sensitive information. We do not ask forum users to provide that material and do not control what they publish. We process it to operate a searchable public-forum index, preserve source context, prevent abuse, and respond to removal or correction requests. Where applicable law requires a legal basis, we ordinarily rely on our legitimate interests in operating and securing a public-information search service. If special-category information is involved, we process it only where a valid additional condition applies, including where the person concerned manifestly made it public.

TalkSearch is independent from Bitcointalk. Removing an item from TalkSearch does not remove it from the forum, and removing an item from the forum may not immediately remove a previously indexed copy. Use Report content to request review.

We process a search term and selected filters to retrieve and rank matching records. Search terms appear in the page address on the public website. This means they may be present in browser history, copied links, ordinary network requests, hosting logs, and—where analytics is enabled—analytics page-location data. Do not search for information you need to keep secret.

Ordinary search does not require an account. We do not intentionally associate a public search with a developer account unless you use an authenticated API or voluntarily submit feedback linked to that search.

If you mark a result helpful or not useful, we store the raw and normalized query, selected reason, relevant post and topic identifiers, displayed rank and page, language and ranking context, event time, and a one-way hash of a random feedback-session identifier stored in your browser. We use this information to evaluate and improve ranking, language selection, and spam or safety controls.

The nearby-replies feature uses a separate random browser identifier to rate-limit and operate contextual requests. Clearing TalkSearch site data in your browser resets these identifiers.

Creating a developer account requires an email address and password. We store a protected password-verification record, not the password you entered. We also store account status, credit balance, creation and update times, and records necessary to administer the account.

When you sign in, we create a necessary secure session cookie. The server stores a one-way record of the session token, its creation and expiration times, recent activity time, a limited user-agent value, and a keyed one-way representation of the source IP address. These records let us authenticate the session, show account activity, investigate misuse, and expire access.

You are responsible for keeping account credentials secure. Please contact us promptly if you believe an account or API key has been compromised.

For each API key we store its name, prefix, protected one-way verification record, owner, creation and last-use times, optional expiration, revocation state, and any IP addresses or CIDR ranges you choose as an allowlist. The complete API key is shown when created and is not retrievable from its stored verification record.

We process the source IP address transiently to enforce an IP allowlist. Infrastructure and security systems may also process it as described in section 9.

For metered API activity, we store a request identifier, account and key identifiers, operation type, status, duration, credits charged, time, and a keyed one-way fingerprint of the request rather than the plaintext query in the billing record. The plaintext request still has to be processed by the search service to return results and may temporarily pass through proxies and operational logs.

When you create a top-up, we store the account, selected amount, credits, internal order identifier, invoice identifier, checkout address, status, and relevant creation, update, and settlement times. The account email may be included in invoice metadata so that a completed invoice can be matched to the correct account.

TalkSearch uses a self-hosted BTCPay Server checkout. Depending on what you choose at checkout, a cryptocurrency network, Monero service, or independent swap route such as Trocador may process payment addresses, transaction information, exchange details, network metadata, and other information under its own terms. Cryptocurrency transactions are normally public or observable on their respective networks even when TalkSearch does not publish an account-to-payment association.

Donation checkout is separate from developer billing but may use the same payment infrastructure. Do not include unnecessary personal information in payment notes.

A content report may contain a post or topic identifier, TalkSearch URL, content category, description, confirmation about source deletion, contact email, and Bitcointalk username. We use it to investigate the request, verify source status, communicate with the requester, prevent abuse, and document the result.

If you contact support, we process the address or account used to contact us, the message and attachments, related account or service records, and our response. Do not send identity documents, private keys, passwords, seed phrases, or unrelated sensitive information unless we specifically explain why they are required and provide a secure method.

When you access TalkSearch, our hosting, proxy, and security systems may process the IP address, time, requested hostname and path, response status, referrer, user agent, protocol, and security or rate-limit events. Search parameters can be present in request addresses. We use this information to deliver the service, diagnose errors, enforce limits, prevent fraud and attacks, and maintain audit records.

Developer registration and login use Cloudflare Turnstile. Turnstile processes browser and device signals needed to distinguish people from automated traffic and returns a short-lived verification result. Our server may provide the source IP address when validating that result. Cloudflare states that Turnstile does not read form entries or other page inputs. See Cloudflare's Privacy Policy and Turnstile Privacy Addendum.

TalkSearch uses the following first-party storage:

You can clear local storage through your browser. Blocking the necessary session cookie prevents developer-account sign-in. Security providers may use additional browser storage as described in their notices.

TalkSearch does not use Google Analytics or another third-party browser analytics service. We may use aggregate operational measurements derived from short-retention server records, without creating a cross-site profile or sending search terms to an analytics provider.

TalkSearch may display sponsored or promotional material. Our own campaign-delivery service can receive ordinary request metadata such as IP address, time, referrer origin, and user agent. We do not intentionally provide search terms, account emails, or API keys to advertisers, and we do not use sponsored content to build cross-site behavioral profiles.

Following a promotional link takes you to another service. That destination receives information normally sent by your browser and applies its own privacy policy.

Where data-protection law requires a legal basis, we use the bases below. The basis can differ by jurisdiction and context.

TalkSearch uses automated ranking, language detection, spam filtering, image labels, and related signals. These systems affect result ordering and visibility but are not intended to make decisions about a person that produce legal or similarly significant effects.

We do not sell personal information. We do not share it for cross-context behavioral advertising. We disclose information only as reasonably necessary in these categories:

• Infrastructure and security: hosting, network, content-delivery, monitoring, database, email, and anti-abuse providers, including Google Cloud and Cloudflare.
• Payment processing: our BTCPay Server and the cryptocurrency, Monero, or swap route selected at checkout.
• Professional assistance: legal, accounting, security, or other advisers who need information to provide their services.
• Legal and safety: when reasonably necessary to comply with law or a valid legal process, investigate fraud or attacks, protect a person, or establish and defend legal rights.
• Change of operator: if responsibility for operating TalkSearch is transferred, subject to appropriate confidentiality and notice where required.

Search results and API responses disclose public forum information to the requesting user. This is the purpose of the search service, not a disclosure of account data.

TalkSearch and its providers operate systems in multiple countries. Information may therefore be processed outside the country where you live, including in the United States and countries where our infrastructure or providers operate.

Where law requires safeguards for an international transfer, we use an available lawful mechanism appropriate to the provider and transfer, such as an adequacy decision, contractual safeguards, or another permitted basis. Contact us if you need information about safeguards relevant to your data.

We keep information only for the service, security, accounting, dispute, and legal purposes described in this Policy. The normal schedule is:

Vendor-held information follows the vendor's applicable retention settings and obligations. Deletion from a live system may not immediately remove a protected backup copy; backup data is not returned to normal use and expires through rotation.

Depending on where you live and the circumstances, you may have rights to request access, correction, deletion, restriction, portability, or an explanation; object to processing based on legitimate interests; withdraw consent; and complain to a data-protection authority. Withdrawing consent does not affect processing already carried out lawfully.

Send a request to support@talksearch.io. State what service and information the request concerns. We may ask for information reasonably necessary to authenticate an account holder, confirm that a forum-data request concerns you, protect another person's rights, or prevent a fraudulent request.

We may be unable to associate you with anonymous or one-way records. For example, we cannot reconstruct a query from a keyed one-way billing fingerprint. Rights are also subject to lawful exceptions, including security, freedom of expression and information, legal claims, accounting requirements, and the rights of other people.

You can revoke API keys in the dashboard, log out to end the current session, clear local storage through your browser, and decline voluntary result feedback. TalkSearch does not currently use third-party browser analytics.

EEA, United Kingdom, and similar jurisdictions. Sections 12, 14, 15, and 16 describe the usual legal bases, transfers, retention, and data-subject rights. You may complain to the supervisory authority where you live or work, or where you believe a violation occurred.

California. If California privacy law applies to TalkSearch and your information, the categories collected during the preceding 12 months may include identifiers; account and commercial information; internet or electronic-network activity; information you submit in communications; public forum content; and inferences used for search ranking, fraud prevention, or service improvement. Sources and purposes are described in sections 2 and 12, and recipient categories in section 13. We do not sell personal information or share it for cross-context behavioral advertising. We do not discriminate against a person for exercising an applicable privacy right, and we treat a recognised Global Privacy Control signal as an opt-out request where legally required.

These regional paragraphs do not concede that a particular law applies when its statutory scope or thresholds are not met.

We use administrative, technical, and organisational measures intended to protect information in light of its sensitivity and the service's risks. Measures include access controls, protected credential and API-key records, encrypted transport, restricted internal services, security monitoring, service-recovery controls, and the ability to revoke credentials.

No internet service or storage system is completely secure. Keep API keys out of browser-delivered code and public repositories, use unique account credentials, apply key expiration and IP restrictions where appropriate, and notify us promptly about suspected compromise.

TalkSearch is a search and developer service for a general audience and is not directed to children under 13. Paid and account features are not intended for a person who cannot legally enter the applicable agreement. If you believe a child supplied non-public account information without valid permission, contact us so we can investigate and take appropriate action.

We may update this Policy when services, providers, retention practices, or legal requirements change. The dates at the top identify the current version. For a material change, we will provide reasonable notice through the website, developer dashboard, or registered email before it takes effect unless an urgent security or legal reason requires faster action.

We will not use previously collected personal information for a materially incompatible new purpose without providing the notice or choice required by applicable law.

Send privacy questions, rights requests, objections, or complaints to support@talksearch.io with “Privacy” in the subject. Include enough information for us to understand the request, but do not email passwords, API keys, private keys, seed phrases, or unnecessary identity documents.

For removal or correction of indexed forum content, use Report content. For the contractual rules governing the service, read the Terms of Service.