Privacy Policy

The Sluice ("we", "us", "our") is a product idea discovery tool. We take your privacy seriously and aim to collect only what's necessary to operate the service. This policy explains what data we collect, why, and how you can control it.

Search queries

When you search a topic, we store the topic name (e.g. "personal finance") to power our idea database and cron-based research. We do not associate topic searches with individual users or IP addresses.

Upvotes

To prevent duplicate votes, we store a one-way hash (SHA-256) of your IP address combined with a secret salt. This hash cannot be reversed to identify you. We do not store raw IP addresses.

Email address (optional)

If you subscribe to email updates, we store your email address to send you digests of new product ideas. This is entirely optional and you can unsubscribe at any time.

What we do NOT collect

• Names or account information
• Browsing history or tracking cookies
• Device fingerprints
• Payment information

• Topic names are used to generate and cache product ideas via Claude (Anthropic's AI) and to drive our nightly research job
• IP hashes are used solely to enforce one vote per idea per user
• Email addresses are used only to send the digest you signed up for

We do not sell, rent, or share your data with third parties for marketing purposes.

We use the following third-party services to operate The Sluice:

• Supabase — database and authentication (supabase.com/privacy)
• Anthropic Claude — AI-generated idea summaries (anthropic.com/privacy)
• Vercel — hosting and infrastructure (vercel.com/legal/privacy-policy)
• Hacker News Algolia API — public post data, no personal data sent
• Reddit JSON API — public post data, no personal data sent

• IP hashes in upvote logs are retained indefinitely to prevent vote manipulation
• Email addresses are retained until you unsubscribe or request deletion
• Topic and idea data is retained to power the service

Depending on where you live, you may have the right to:

• Request a copy of the data we hold about you
• Request deletion of your email address from our subscriber list
• Object to processing of your data

To exercise any of these rights, email us at thesluiceapp@gmail.com. We will respond within 30 days.

The Sluice does not use advertising or tracking cookies. We use a session cookie only if you log in to the admin area. This cookie is essential for authentication and is not used for tracking.

We may update this policy from time to time. The "last updated" date at the top of this page will reflect any changes. Continued use of The Sluice after changes constitutes acceptance of the updated policy.

Questions about this policy? Email us at thesluiceapp@gmail.com.