Privacy notice

RelayAsk is responsible for the data described in this notice. It applies to the RelayAsk website, private Ask delivery, relays, introductions, Gatherings, service emails, and sign-in. For questions or to exercise a privacy right, write to [email protected]. You do not need an account to contact us.

This is the most important thing on this page. A person can enter your first name and email address to send you one relevant RelayAsk message. You may therefore hear from us without ever having used the service and without having agreed to anything first.

The message identifies the person who caused it to be sent and includes a way to stop future invitation messages. When you opt out, we place a one way hash of your address on a suppression list. We need that protected record so the service can recognise the address and prevent somebody from adding it again.

• From you, when you sign in, write or respond to an Ask, relay it, suggest somebody, offer help, report something, join a Gathering, or contact us.
• From a person who knows you, when they enter your first name and email address or write why you came to mind.
• From your browser and our systems, when a page or link is opened, a form is submitted, a message is queued or delivered, or a security limit is checked.
• From service providers, such as whether an email was accepted, rejected, or bounced.

• Your first name, as typed by you or by the person who entered you.
• Your email address. We use it for sign-in and service messages, and disclose it only through the consent flows described below.
• The asks you write, including the Ask itself in your own words, rough place or online scope, status, timing, and private delivery history.
• The age range and gender option you provide to help RelayAsk avoid irrelevant delivery, including a prefer-not-to-say option for gender.
• An optional private profile, including interests and a short description you choose to add.
• Responses and relay content, including context, why somebody came to mind, how a person knows them, an offer to help, and whether somebody wants the same thing.
• Consent and service events, including invitations, link opens, responses, passes, introductions, private outcome feedback, Gathering decisions, reports, blocks, closures, and opt-outs.
• The text and delivery status of service messages, so delivery problems, consent, and abuse can be traced.
• Authentication and security records, including a hash of a session or access token, sign-in attempts, and a one way hash of the IP address used to submit a form.
• An approximate city or region supplied by hosting metadata, when available, to prefill an editable location field. We do not use precise device location.
• Messages you send to our privacy or support address and any information needed to answer them.

Access links are stored as a SHA-256 hash, not in the form that appears in the email or copied link. The IP address used for a form is converted to a keyed hash for rate limiting; we store no name, address, or message text in that rate-limit value. Suppression and block lists also use protected hashes so they cannot be read back as an address book.

You can create an account, and you never have to. Everything an invitation message asks of you works from its link. Writing an Ask may require sign-in.

There is no password. We send a six digit code to your email address. The code is stored only as a keyed hash, expires within minutes, works once, and stops working after a small number of wrong attempts. Signing in creates no profile. There is still nothing about you for other users to browse or search.

RelayAsk uses strictly necessary, HTTP-only cookies to keep you signed in, carry an Ask through sign-in, restore a form briefly after an error, and move a newly created private relay link to the page that shows it. The temporary Ask and form cookies last about ten minutes; the new-link cookie lasts about one hour; the session cookie lasts until its configured expiry unless you sign out sooner. We use no analytics, advertising, or tracking cookies.

• Private delivery. An Ask is sent privately to a small set of people selected for relevance. A recipient can see the author's first name, Ask sentence, rough place or online scope, and context, but not the author's email address.
• Private relays. A person holding a valid link can see the Ask and the limited context needed to respond or pass it on. They may be able to share that link within the relay limit.
• One-to-one introductions. We do not disclose an email address until both people have separately agreed. Before that, the Ask's author sees only the suggested person's first name and the explanation supplied by the person suggesting them.
• Gatherings. Everyone shown together in an automatic Gathering has published a relevant active Ask. Members see first names and Ask context inside RelayAsk, not one another's email addresses, and can leave at any time. A separate introduction still requires both people to agree before contact details are disclosed.

We do not publish profiles. Optional interests and private profile details remain private and are used only to find relevant people; other users cannot browse or search them. There is no directory, no people search, and no visible map of who knows whom. We do not tell another user that you opted out, declined, blocked, or reported them.

Where privacy law requires a lawful basis, the basis depends on what we are doing:

• To provide the service you request, including sign-in, creating an Ask, relaying it, recording a response, and making a consented introduction: performance of our agreement with you or steps you ask us to take.
• To privately identify relevant people and deliver an Ask, send one message requested by a person who says they know you, learn from outcome feedback, keep accurate consent records, prevent loops and misuse, secure links, enforce limits, investigate reports, and maintain suppression records: our legitimate interests in operating a useful and safe relay service.
• To open a first-name-only Relay Chat or Gathering between people who published relevant active Asks: performance of the connection service they requested. To disclose contact details through a separate introduction: each person’s agreement to that disclosure.
• To respond to lawful requests, preserve evidence, and comply with regulators or courts: compliance with a legal obligation or our legitimate interests in establishing and defending legal claims.

Our legitimate interest is limited by the product's design: one relevant message at a time, no public directory or email address, short relay chains, clear context, rate limits, and a permanent opt-out. You can object at any time. An objection stops future invitation messages, but we may still keep the minimum suppression, safety, or legal records needed to honour it and protect the service.

• Other RelayAsk users and link recipients, only as described in the private delivery, relay, introduction, and Gathering disclosures above.
• Our email provider, which receives an address and message body to deliver service email. Our emails carry no tracking pixel and use no redirect-wrapped links.
• Cerebras, which may receive Ask text and optional context to generate clarification questions, extract a compact relevance summary, or review a small set of strong candidate Ask summaries. We do not send names, contact details, or exact addresses for this review.
• Our hosting and database providers, which process service data on our behalf.
• Professional advisers, regulators, courts, law enforcement, or another party when disclosure is required by law or reasonably necessary to protect rights, safety, and service integrity.
• A successor operator if RelayAsk is reorganised, sold, or transferred, subject to appropriate confidentiality and notice where required.

The email itself does not tell us whether you opened it. RelayAsk may record the first time its secure destination page is opened so the relay can show that the link reached somebody and prevent inconsistent actions.

We do not sell or rent personal data, share it for cross-context behavioural advertising, or build advertising profiles. RelayAsk does not make a solely automated decision that determines your rights or access to an important service. Private Ask delivery uses topic, intent, rough place, recency, prior activity, delivery frequency, optional private profile details, and outcome feedback. An external model may structure Ask meaning and review the strongest candidate summaries, including relevant private profile details, but blocks, location rules, confidence thresholds, and Gathering limits remain enforced by RelayAsk. Relevant active Asks may open a first-name-only Relay Chat or Gathering automatically; anyone can leave. People still decide what to say, whether to share contact details, and whether to meet. When an Ask is too broad, the model may also generate two questions and a proposed rewrite that the person can edit.

Hosting, database, or email providers may process data in countries other than the one where you live. The countries involved depend on the providers used for the deployed service. Where law requires a transfer safeguard, we require an appropriate mechanism from the provider. Write to [email protected] for current information about providers, processing locations, and applicable safeguards.

An Ask remains open until you close it or it is blocked for safety. A successful outcome does not close it automatically. Closing an Ask is not an erasure action. Inactive service records remain until you use the deletion control or ask us to erase them, unless we still need a limited record for suppression, safety, security, legal claims, or the integrity of another person's relay chain.

The in-product deletion control replaces your name and email address, redacts service messages to you and referral text you wrote about others, revokes access links and sessions, and suppresses the address from future invitations. Ask text and limited service-history rows may remain inactive. If an Ask or other remaining text identifies you, write to [email protected] to request its erasure. We will remove it unless a lawful reason requires us to retain it.

Records that no longer identify you remain, such as limited audit rows recording that an action happened. We keep them where needed to investigate abuse and preserve the consistency of other people's relays. The raw access token is never stored, sign-in codes expire within minutes, and the temporary browser cookies have the short periods described above.

• Stop invitation messages. Use the stop link in a message. You can still request a sign-in code later because that is a message you asked us to send.
• Close an Ask. You can close it from its management page and stop further delivery or relays.
• Delete or correct data. Use the deletion control where available or write to [email protected].
• Block or report. Relevant request pages let you block the sender or report a concern without naming you to them.
• Exercise a legal right. Depending on where you live, you may request access, correction, erasure, restriction, portability, or object to processing. You may withdraw consent where consent is the legal basis. Withdrawal does not undo a disclosure already made.

We may need to verify your control of an email address before completing a request. You may also complain to the data protection authority where you live. We will not discriminate against you for exercising a privacy right.

RelayAsk uses random, signed, expiring, single-purpose links; hashed access and session tokens; short-lived one-time sign-in codes; server-side authorisation checks; rate limits; suppression and blocking controls; and audit records. Email addresses are never placed in a RelayAsk URL. No system is perfectly secure, so we cannot guarantee that unauthorised access will never occur. If you believe a link or account has been compromised, write to [email protected].

RelayAsk is for adults and is not intended for anyone under 18. We do not knowingly collect data about a person under 18. If you believe a minor's data has been entered, write to [email protected] and we will investigate and delete it where appropriate.

We may update this notice as the service, providers, or law changes. The date at the top identifies the current version. If a change materially affects how we use existing personal data, we will provide additional notice where required.