Foundation

How your privacy works.

What you share in Foundation is yours, whether it was given to you or you chose it for yourself. This page says plainly who can see what, with nothing left out.

What the person who gave it can see

If Foundation was a gift, the person who gave it has the first name they wrote on it and the day they gave it. That is all.

They are not shown whether you opened it, whether you began, your email address, the summary you approve, or any letter you are sent. Foundation has no screen that shows those to them or to anyone else.

If your gift came by email, the person who gave it typed your address so that one email could be sent. Foundation did not save the address. The company that delivers the email keeps its own record of sending it.

What your answers are used for

One thing: writing your letters. An AI writing assistant (Claude, made by Anthropic) reads what you share and writes each letter from it. Every letter is checked before it is sent: Scripture against the King James text word for word, facts against their sources, and your own off limits list.

Anthropic's published policy is that it does not use what is sent through this kind of service to train its models by default. You can read it in their own words.

Nothing you share is sold, and nothing is shared with anyone for any other purpose.

What is kept

The summary you approve is kept, because your letters are written from it. The words of your first conversation are deleted as soon as you approve that summary. Names of the people in your life are kept only if you say they may be used.

How it is stored

Your answers, the summary you approve, your letters and the note written to you are encrypted before they are saved. What sits in the database is scrambled text. The key that unscrambles it is kept apart from the database, and it is used only to write your letters and to show your own words back to you.

Your email address and first name are stored as they are, because they are needed to reach you and to greet you.

If something you write sounds like you may be in danger

The conversation stops and you are shown where to get help right away. Nobody is told what you wrote. You are asked whether you would like the person who gave you this gift to know you could use a call. Only if you say yes are they told, and then only that you asked for a call.

Deleting everything

One tap deletes all of it: your answers, your summary, your email address and your plan. Your link stops working and nothing more is sent. Delete everything.

If you only saved a place on the list

Then all that is kept is your email, your first name if you gave it, and whether you want Foundation for yourself or as a gift. It is used for one email when the doors open. Reply to that email, or write to the address in it, and you are taken off the list.

If you pay for Foundation

You pay on a page run by Stripe, the payment company. Your card number never reaches Foundation. What is kept is a record that you paid: your email address, the amount and the date. If you buy it as a gift, the person you give it to is never shown what you paid, and you are never shown what they share.

Who runs Foundation

Foundation is made and run by Mello. It is built so that he is never shown what you share, and what is stored is encrypted, so the database itself shows only scrambled text. As the person responsible for the system, he keeps the key secured, and he has given his word that he does not use it to look inside. Your information is stored with the services that host the site and its database and deliver your email, and they are used for nothing but that.

Foundation is a daily letter. It is not counseling or medical care, and it is for adults, 18 and over.