Privacy Policy

CipherBot ("CipherBot", "we", "us") is a Discord bot and web dashboard at cipherbot.us that helps communities stay safe. This policy explains what information we handle, why, and the choices you have. CipherBot is not affiliated with or endorsed by Discord Inc.

The short version

We collect only what we need to run the protection features you or your server's admins turn on.
We never sell your data and we don't run ads or third-party analytics trackers.
Your IP address is used only to check for VPNs, proxies and Tor while you verify. It is not saved to our database.
Card details go straight to Stripe — they never touch our servers.
Activity logs are deleted after 90 days, and a server's data is deleted 30 days after CipherBot is removed from it.

What we collect

When you log in to the dashboard

You sign in with Discord. We receive your Discord user ID, username/display name, avatar, and the list of servers you're in (with your permissions there) so we can show you the servers you can manage. This is kept in a signed, encrypted-in-transit session cookie that lasts up to 7 days. We don't store your server list in our database.

When CipherBot is in a server

Settings that the server's admins choose (for example, which roles and channels to use and which protections are on).
Activity logs: a short record of actions CipherBot took or events it saw — such as a member joining, passing or failing verification, a message removed by a filter, or a lockdown starting — with the Discord user ID involved, a timestamp and a brief reason. Logs do not contain the text of messages.
Verification state: which new members are still waiting to verify, and when they joined.
Server structure snapshots for the Recovery feature: names of roles, channels and categories, their order, and permission settings (including the IDs of roles or members those permissions refer to).
Counters, such as how many messages the AI mode checked today.
Raid cleanup (only if a server's admins turn it on): CipherBot notices when many channels are created at once and deletes the new, unprotected ones. It uses channel IDs and the server's Protected list; it doesn't read or keep the channels' contents.

Messages

To apply filters, anti-spam and anti-scam protection, CipherBot reads messages posted in servers it is in, using Discord's Message Content intent. Messages are examined in memory and are not saved by us. On Premium servers with AI mode on, message text is also sent to an AI service — see AI mode.

Payments

Premium is billed by Stripe. Stripe collects your payment details and email. We store only your Discord user ID linked to a Stripe customer ID, subscription ID, plan (monthly or yearly), status, and renewal date.

If you feed the cat (a one-time donation), Stripe processes the payment and we store a record of it — the Stripe checkout ID, amount and date, plus your Discord user ID only if you were logged in, so we can show your 🐟 Cat Feeder badge.

Technical data

Like any website, our servers and network providers process technical data such as IP address, browser type and requested pages to deliver the site and keep it secure. Server error logs may incidentally contain IP addresses and are rotated automatically. We also record anonymous health checks of our own services (no personal data) for the public status page.

How we use it

To provide the features: verification, anti-raid and lockdown, raid channel cleanup, spam and scam protection, member insights, and server recovery.
To show moderators the activity log and member information for their own server.
To run subscriptions: unlock Premium features and manage billing.
To keep CipherBot reliable and secure, fix problems, and prevent abuse.
To comply with law and enforce our Terms of Service.

The server's admins decide how the protections are configured; they act as the decision-makers for their community's moderation. CipherBot processes the information on their behalf.

Verification & your IP address

To verify, a member presses the Verify button in Discord and receives a private link to cipherbot.us/verify. No login or password is needed: the link itself contains the member's Discord user ID and server ID, signed so it can't be altered, and it works once and expires after 15 minutes. We then scan the connection they're using. During the scan:

Your IP address is checked against the public Tor exit-node list and sent to two third-party lookup services, proxycheck.io and ip-api.com, to find out whether it belongs to a VPN, proxy or datacenter.
The result is kept in memory only for up to an hour so we don't repeat lookups. Your IP is never written to our database or activity logs — if you're blocked, the log records only the reason (for example, "blocked: Tor").
We also check that you're using a normal browser (not an automated tool).

Because the website is delivered through Cloudflare, Cloudflare sees your IP address as part of providing its service.

AI mode (Premium)

If a server owner turns on AI mode, the text of messages sent in that server (up to 600 characters each, with user mentions replaced by "@user") is sent to Google's Gemini API to be classified as safe or unsafe. We do not send usernames, user IDs, server names or attachments, and we don't store the text or the AI's answers beyond a short in-memory cache (up to an hour) used to avoid re-checking identical messages.

Google processes that text under its own terms. Depending on the API plan in use, Google may retain submitted content for a limited period and may use it to improve its services. Server admins should tell their members that AI mode is on. If you don't want your messages analyzed, ask the server's admins to leave AI mode off or leave the server.

Deep scan (Premium)

When a moderator of a Premium server runs a deep scan on a member, CipherBot looks that Discord account up in three places:

Discord — we ask Discord for the account's public record (for example, whether Discord has flagged it as a likely spammer).
A community-maintained list of reported malicious accounts (public domain). We download this list and check it on our own server, so the member's ID is not sent to the list's publisher.
CipherBot's own records — how many times CipherBot removed scam or spam posts from the same account in other CipherBot servers during the last 90 days. Only counts are shown: no server names, message content or other details are revealed.

The result is shown to the moderator who ran it and isn't stored. These are signals, not proof; see the Terms.

Watchtower (live channel view)

Watchtower lets a server's admins watch a channel live from the dashboard. It is strictly read-only. While someone is watching, CipherBot fetches recent messages from that channel through Discord and keeps them in memory only — for as long as the viewer is there and for about two minutes after. Nothing is written to our database, deleted messages are blanked immediately, and the memory is cleared automatically.

Who can see what: the server owner and members with Administrator can watch any channel, which they can already read in Discord. Everyone else can only watch channels that Discord already shows them — Watchtower never bypasses Discord's permissions.
Free servers can watch one randomly chosen channel, which changes every 5 hours (the previous channel becomes unavailable). Premium servers can watch every channel.
Accountability: each viewing session is recorded in the server's activity log (who started watching which channel, and when) so owners can see it.
Server admins should tell their members that admins can view channels this way. CipherBot cannot read direct messages.

We use these service providers, only as needed to run CipherBot:

Discord — sign-in and the bot platform itself.
Cloudflare — network, security and delivery for cipherbot.us.
Stripe — payments, subscriptions and the billing portal.
Google — the Gemini API for AI mode, and Google Fonts, which loads fonts in your browser (your browser contacts Google to fetch them).
proxycheck.io and ip-api.com — VPN/proxy lookups during verification (IP address only).
Our hosting provider — the servers CipherBot runs on.

We may also disclose information if required by law or to protect the safety of our users and service. We do not sell personal information.

Cookies: we use one strictly-necessary cookie to keep you logged in. We don't use advertising or analytics cookies.

How long we keep it

Activity logs: deleted after 90 days.
Recovery snapshots: kept for up to 14 days (we always keep the 10 most recent).
AI counters: 30 days. Health-check data: 35 days.
Server data (settings, logs, snapshots, verification state): deleted automatically 30 days after CipherBot is removed from a server. Re-adding the bot within that time restores your settings.
Billing records: kept while your subscription is active and as long as needed for tax, accounting and legal reasons (Stripe keeps its own records).
Login session: up to 7 days, or until you log out.

Your choices & rights

Log out any time from the site; remove CipherBot from your server whenever you like.
Manage or cancel Premium from the billing portal (Dashboard → Manage billing).
Ask us to access, correct or delete personal information we hold about you, or to delete a server's data immediately instead of waiting 30 days. Depending on where you live (for example the EEA, UK or California) you may have additional rights, including to object to or restrict processing. We'll respond within a reasonable time and won't discriminate against you for using these rights.
Messages and member lists you see in Discord itself are controlled by Discord and your server's admins — contact them about that content.

Security

The site is served over HTTPS, access to our servers and secret keys is restricted, payment details never reach us, and webhooks are signature-verified. No system is perfectly secure, so we can't guarantee absolute security; if we learn of a breach affecting you we'll notify you as the law requires.

Children

CipherBot is for people old enough to use Discord under Discord's own rules (13 or older, or the higher minimum age in your country). We don't knowingly collect information from younger children; contact us if you think we have and we'll delete it.

Changes to this policy

We'll update this page when our practices change and revise the "last updated" date above. For significant changes we'll make reasonable efforts to notify users, for example on the dashboard.

Contact

Questions or requests about privacy? A contact address is being set up and will be listed here shortly. Please include your Discord user ID (and server ID if it's about a server) so we can find your information.