What we keep, and what we never see

FeelingGuide has no accounts and asks for nothing about you. The one place you can hand us something personal is the identify tool, where you describe how you feel. This page says exactly what happens to that description.

The short version

• No account, no sign-up, no email address, no name.
• What you type into the identify tool is sent to Anthropic's Claude to search our library of feelings, and is stored so we can check whether the tool is answering people well.
• We do not store your IP address next to what you wrote. We store a one-way hash of it, separately, only to enforce a usage limit.
• Analytics cookies are off until you say yes. Nothing you type is ever sent to Google.
• We do not sell anything, and we run no advertising today.

Who to ask about any of this

FeelingGuide is a small site, run independently from Finland. For anything on this page, including the rights set out below, write to privacy@iamfeelingguide.com. That address reaches the person responsible for the site, who is the data controller under the EU General Data Protection Regulation.

What the identify tool collects

When you submit a description, we store:

• the text you wrote, exactly as you wrote it
• the answer our AI gave you, and the feelings it linked
• the searches the AI ran against our library, so we can tell a bad answer from a bad search
• your browser's user agent string, and a random conversation identifier generated in your browser

We do not ask for, and have no way to learn, your name or email address. The conversation identifier is random and is not linked to any other visit you make.

Why we keep it

To find out where the tool fails people. A September 2026 review of real conversations is what told us the search was missing words like “numbness” and “dissociation” entirely. Our lawful basis is legitimate interest under Article 6(1)(f): improving a free educational service. If you would rather we did not, do not use the tool. Everything else on the site works without it.

A word about sensitive information

A description of how you feel can reveal something about your mental health, and EU law treats that as a special category of data. So treat the box as public writing rather than a diary: please do not put your name, anyone else's name, or details that would identify you into it. We do not need them, and the tool works better without them.

What we do with your IP address

To stop one person or script from running up costs, we count requests per connection. We do this by storing a SHA-256 hash of your IP address, with IPv6 addresses reduced to their network prefix, in a table that holds nothing else about you. That row is deleted once the one hour window passes. The hash is never written next to what you typed.

How the AI processing works

Your description is sent to Anthropic, which runs the Claude model that reads it and searches our library. Anthropic acts as our processor and does not train its models on data sent through its API. An AI writes the answer you see. It is not a person, it is not a therapist, and it does not diagnose anything.

How long we keep it

Conversations are deleted after 90 days. The hashed IP used for rate limiting is deleted after one hour. Nothing here is kept indefinitely.

Analytics and cookies

We use Google Analytics to see which pages help people, in aggregate. It is switched off until you accept it in the cookie banner, and you can change your mind at any time. What you type into the identify tool is never sent to Google. Full detail is on the cookies page.

Where your data goes

• Vercel: hosting, and the database that stores conversations
• Anthropic: AI processing of your description
• Google: analytics, only if you consent

These providers may process data outside the EU. Where that happens, the transfer relies on an appropriate safeguard, such as the EU-US Data Privacy Framework or Standard Contractual Clauses.

Your rights

Under the GDPR you can ask us to:

• tell you what we hold
• correct it
• delete it
• give you a copy in a portable format
• stop processing it

Be aware of a practical limit: because we deliberately store nothing that identifies you, we usually cannot find your conversation unless you can tell us roughly when you used the tool and what you wrote. That is a consequence of collecting so little, not a refusal. Email privacy@iamfeelingguide.com and we will do what we can.

You can also complain to the Finnish Data Protection Ombudsman at tietosuoja.fi, or to your own national supervisory authority.

Children

FeelingGuide is not intended for anyone under 16. We do not knowingly collect data from children. If you believe a child has used the identify tool, contact us and we will delete the conversation.

This is not medical care

FeelingGuide is an educational resource. It does not diagnose, treat, or replace a qualified professional. If you are in crisis, call or text 988 in the US, or your local emergency number.

Changes

When our practices change, this page changes and the date at the top moves. Questions go to privacy@iamfeelingguide.com.