Privacy Policy

01 Information We Collect

The Secretary collects the following categories of data when you interact with the bot or configure it in your server:

• Guild (Server) IDs — Used to associate configuration settings, premium status, and features with your Discord server.
• User IDs — Used for autorole assignment, giveaway entries, LOA management, blacklist enforcement, and premium grant tracking.
• Role IDs — Stored to power reaction roles, autorole, and ping prevention features. Cleaned up automatically when roles are deleted.
• Channel IDs — Used to store submission channels, embed channels, LOA list channels, and approval channels as configured by server administrators.
• Message IDs — Stored specifically for reaction role messages and LOA list messages to enable persistent functionality across bot restarts.
• Message Content (limited) — Ghost ping detection temporarily caches the mention data (user IDs mentioned) in active messages to detect deleted-ping events. This cache is discarded within 5 minutes and is never written to persistent storage.
• Configuration Data — Server-specific settings such as form questions, embed titles, embed descriptions, and module configurations as entered by server administrators.

We do not collect: message content for general logging, voice data, direct message content (except as part of the DM form flow where content is relayed directly to your configured submission channel), or personal information such as email addresses or phone numbers.

02 How We Use Your Information

All collected data is used exclusively to operate the features of The Secretary bot. Specifically:

• Guild and user IDs are used to identify and route configurations, premium entitlements, and feature state to the correct server and user.
• Role and channel IDs are used to execute automated actions such as assigning roles on join, sending embeds, or routing approvals.
• Form submission content is relayed to the designated submission channel in your server and is not stored by the bot beyond that relay.
• Giveaway entry data is stored temporarily until the giveaway ends and is cleaned up automatically after 20 minutes post-conclusion.
• LOA list data is stored in an associated Discord message embed and is not duplicated in persistent database storage beyond the message ID reference.

We do not use your data for advertising, profiling, analytics, or any purpose outside of directly operating the bot's stated features.

03 Data Storage and Security

All persistent data is stored in a MongoDB database (SecretaryDB) hosted on a cloud provider. Access to this database is restricted to the bot's backend process and authorised developers only.

We implement the following security practices:

• Database access credentials are stored exclusively as encrypted environment variables and are never hardcoded or exposed publicly.
• The database is not publicly accessible and requires authenticated connections.
• Communication between the bot and database uses encrypted connections (TLS/SSL).
• Access to production systems is limited to authorised personnel only.

While we take reasonable measures to protect your data, no system is completely immune from security risks. In the event of a data breach affecting your information, we will take prompt action to mitigate impact.

04 Data Retention

Data is retained only for as long as necessary to provide the service:

• Server configuration data is retained while The Secretary is active in your server. It can be deleted upon request or automatically cleaned when the bot leaves the server.
• Giveaway data is automatically purged 20 minutes after a giveaway concludes.
• Ghost ping cache is held in memory only and expires after 5 minutes with no persistence to disk or database.
• Premium records are retained for the duration of the subscription period and for a reasonable grace period thereafter.
• Blacklist records are retained indefinitely for operational safety purposes but can be appealed via our support server.

You may request deletion of your server's data at any time by contacting us through our official support server.

05 Data Sharing and Disclosure

We do not sell, trade, or rent any data to third parties. Data may only be disclosed in the following limited circumstances:

• Service providers — Our cloud infrastructure provider (Render.com) and database host (MongoDB Atlas) process data as necessary to host and operate the bot. These providers operate under their own privacy policies.
• Legal requirements — If required by applicable law, regulation, or valid legal process, we may disclose data to comply with such obligations.
• Protection of rights — We may disclose data to protect the rights, property, or safety of The Secretary, its users, or others, where legally permissible.

The Secretary does not integrate with any advertising networks, analytics platforms, or data brokers.

06 Your Rights and Choices

As a user or server administrator, you have the following rights:

• Access — You may request a summary of what data we hold associated with your server or user ID.
• Deletion — You may request deletion of all data associated with your server at any time. Removing the bot from your server and submitting a deletion request will result in complete data removal.
• Correction — Configuration data can be updated at any time using the bot's built-in setup commands. For data corrections outside of command scope, contact us directly.
• Opt-out — You may remove The Secretary from your server at any time, which will cease all data processing for that server going forward.

To exercise any of these rights, please open a ticket in our official Discord support server at discord.gg/jEbCezXfuS.

07 Third-Party Services

The Secretary interacts with the following third-party services in the course of its operation:

• Discord — The bot operates entirely within Discord's platform and is subject to Discord's Privacy Policy and Terms of Service.
• Top.gg — We submit server count statistics to Top.gg for bot listing purposes. No user-identifiable data is transmitted.
• Render.com — Our bot and web server are hosted on Render's infrastructure. See Render's Privacy Policy.
• MongoDB Atlas — Database hosting provider. See MongoDB's Privacy Policy.

We are not responsible for the privacy practices of these third-party services.

08 Children's Privacy

The Secretary is not directed at children under the age of 13. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children under 13. Discord itself requires users to be at least 13 years of age to create an account.

If you believe we have inadvertently collected information from a child under 13, please contact us immediately and we will take steps to delete such information promptly.

09 Changes to This Policy

We reserve the right to update this Privacy Policy at any time. When we make material changes, we will update the "Last Updated" date at the top of this document and may announce the changes in our official Discord support server.

Your continued use of The Secretary after any changes to this policy constitutes your acceptance of the updated terms. We encourage you to review this policy periodically.

10 Contact Us

If you have any questions, concerns, or requests regarding this Privacy Policy or the data we hold, please contact us through the following official channel: