Privacy
Last updated: October 22, 2026
The short version
You can search MindButler without telling us who you are. No account, no sign-up, no cost. An account is optional and needs just your email.
What you type into Sage is never stored when your search works. It's used to find matching resources and then discarded — not in our database, not in our logs, not in our analytics. The one exception: if a search fails to understand you, or comes back with little or nothing to show, we may keep that message briefly to fix what's not working. That exception is explained in full further down this page.
We do collect some anonymous information about how the site is used — which pages get visited, which feelings get selected, whether people find what they came for. None of it identifies you.
If you choose to give us your email — for the newsletter, a donation, an account, or a Therapist Advisory Board application — we have that, because you gave it to us on purpose.
That's the whole thing. The rest of this page is the detail.
What we don't collect
Your searches, when they work. When you tell Sage what's going on and it finds you something real, that text is used to find matching resources and then discarded. It is never written to our database, never saved in a log file, never sent to our analytics. We verified this in the code, not just as a policy. There are two exceptions, both explained in full below: sending your message to Anthropic to be categorized ("How Sage understands what you write"), and what happens when a search fails or falls short ("When a search fails or falls short").
Your identity. No accounts exist for searching. No sign-up, no login, no profile.
Your IP address or device fingerprint — with one exception. Our application code doesn't capture either, except when you suggest a resource: we keep your IP address for 7 days to limit spam submissions. Note that our hosting provider maintains standard server logs the way essentially all web hosting does — that's infrastructure-level and outside what we control or access for any purpose beyond keeping the site running.
What we do collect
Anonymous usage analytics. We use Google Analytics to understand how the site is used in aggregate — pages visited, whether people reach results. Google Analytics sets its own cookies in your browser (see "What's stored in your browser"). We also keep our own anonymous, categorical logs of the same kind of activity in our database — which feeling, community, or support type was selected, whether a resource link was clicked, how many results were shown — tied to a temporary identifier that's discarded when you close your browser tab, never to your identity. We keep these logs for 24 months, then delete them automatically — long enough to compare year over year, not indefinitely. We also record in our own logs when a crisis resource is shown, as a bare count only — no context, no record of what was typed. When a crisis check matches, Google Analytics receives the event name and, where there is one, the pattern ID and tier; in Sage, it also receives whether you then chose crisis resources or to keep going. It never receives the text you typed.
Partner referrals. If you arrive via a link from one of our partners, we set a marker so we can measure how many people that partner sends us. It expires automatically after 30 days, and it never contains anything about you personally — just which partner referred you.
Anonymous resource feedback. When you mark a resource helpful or unhelpful, we store that vote alongside an anonymous identifier generated by your browser. It isn't tied to your name, email, or IP, and it doesn't follow you anywhere else. Clearing your browser data removes that identifier, so your votes can no longer be linked to your browser. The votes themselves stay, still anonymous.
Information you give us on purpose:
- Newsletter — your email address, stored with our newsletter provider. Unsubscribe any time using the link in any email.
- Donations — processed by Stripe. We never see or store your card number. We can see your name and email in Stripe's dashboard so we know who to thank.
- Therapist Advisory Board applications — name, email, license information, and what you wrote in the form. Used only to evaluate the application.
- Resource suggestions — the resource name, URL, and reason you gave for suggesting it, plus your email address. Used only to review the suggestion.
What's stored in your browser
A few small items are saved in your own browser to make the site work. None holds your name or anything you typed. Only the sign-in cookies, which exist only if you make an account, include your email address.
| Item | What it's for | How long it stays |
|---|---|---|
mb_event_session |
A random ID that groups our anonymous usage logs for one visit | Until you close the tab |
mb_session_started_fired |
Notes that this visit has already been counted once | Until you close the tab |
mb_nav_count |
Counts the pages you've opened in this tab, so the Back button knows whether there's a MindButler page to go back to. Never sent to us | Until you close the tab |
mb_spotlight_seed |
A random number that keeps the Resource Spotlight picks the same while you browse. Never sent to us | Until you close the tab |
mb_session_id |
The anonymous ID sent with your helpful/unhelpful votes | Until you clear your browser data |
mb_my_votes |
Which resources you voted on and how, so the buttons show your vote. Never sent to us | Until you clear your browser data |
mb_email_nudge_dismissed |
The date you closed the email sign-up banner, so it doesn't show again. Never sent to us | Until you clear your browser data |
mb_partner (cookie) |
Which partner's link brought you here, if any | 30 days |
| Supabase sign-in cookies | Keep you signed in, only if you make an account; one more is set briefly while a sign-in link is completed | Until you sign out, or up to 400 days |
_ga cookies |
Set by Google Analytics to tell visits apart | Set by Google; see Google's policies |
If you make an account
Searching never needs an account. If you want to save resources so they're there later, you can sign in with just your email. There's no password: we email you a sign-in link. That email is sent through Resend, our email delivery service, which receives your email address and the link itself. The link includes the page you'll return to after signing in and whether you ticked the newsletter box.
What we keep: your email address, the date your account was created, the resources you save, journal entries and mood check-ins if you use those tools, and whether you ticked the newsletter box when you signed in. Our sign-in provider, Supabase, also records the IP address and browser of each signed-in session.
Who can see it: our database rules let a signed-in account read only its own saved resources, journal entries, mood check-ins and profile, never another account's. MindButler's operators can reach the database directly to run and fix the site.
The journal's crisis check: before a journal entry is saved, the same crisis check runs in your browser. If it matches, we show crisis resources, and the entry is still saved to your account. Google Analytics receives the event name and the pattern ID and tier, never what you wrote.
The newsletter box: if you tick it, your email address is also sent to Beehiiv, our newsletter provider.
How long we keep it: until you delete it.
Deleting it: sign in and choose "Delete my account" at the bottom of your Saved Resources page. That permanently deletes your email address, saved resources, journal entries, mood check-ins and sign-in sessions right away. In the same step you can tick a box to delete your newsletter subscription with Beehiiv too; if you leave it unticked, the newsletter continues and you can unsubscribe from any email. Records that were never linked to your account, like anonymous usage logs, resource votes and donation records, aren't affected. You can also email us and we'll delete your account for you.
How Sage understands what you write
When you describe what's going on, we need to understand it well enough to point you somewhere useful. To do that, your message is sent to Anthropic, an AI company (unless the crisis check described below stops it first), which reads it and tells us which categories it fits — things like "anxious," "looking for a therapist," "a parent or caregiver."
Some things worth being clear about:
We still don't store it, on a search that works. Categorizing your message with Anthropic doesn't by itself save anything to our database or our logs. The one case where we do keep your message is described in "When a search fails or falls short," below, and it isn't related to this step — it happens (or doesn't) regardless of how the Anthropic categorization goes.
But it does leave our systems now. Anthropic receives the text in order to categorize it. That's a real change from how this used to work, and we'd rather say it plainly than bury it. Here's what we can say for certain: your message is retained by Anthropic for 30 days — during which it may be accessed by Anthropic for safety and security purposes — and then deleted. It is never used to train Anthropic's AI models; that's a contractual guarantee, not just a setting we chose. For Anthropic's complete policies, see trust.anthropic.com.
The AI doesn't choose your resources. It sorts your message into categories, then writes a short line introducing the resources a person already screened, working only from what our catalog says about them. That second step never sees what you typed. No AI gives advice or decides what you're shown.
Crisis detection doesn't use AI at all. It runs first, right in your browser, using fixed patterns we wrote and can audit. It doesn't depend on any outside service working. If it stops your message, we show crisis support and don't send the message to Anthropic unless you choose to keep going.
When a search fails or falls short
Most searches work: Sage understands what you typed, finds real matches, and nothing about what you wrote is kept anywhere. This section is about the exception.
When Sage can't understand your message, or when it finds few or no matching resources, we may keep the text you typed. Not to identify you — to see what's actually failing so we can fix it. This is the only situation in which anything you type to Sage is stored.
Crisis-flagged messages are excluded from this, always. If what you wrote trips the same crisis-detection patterns described above, it is never captured here — even if the search also failed or came back thin. That check runs before anything is ever written, not after, and it's enforced in two separate places in our code, not one, so a bug in either place alone can't create an exception to this.
What we keep: the text you typed, plus whichever feeling, support type, or community (if any) was detected, and how many resources were found. Nothing else — no name, no email, no IP address, nothing that identifies you beyond the message itself.
Why we keep it: to find and fix real gaps in how Sage understands people — the specific kind of problem we can't see just by counting how often it happens, which we already do anonymously (see "What we do collect"). It is never used for advertising, never sold, and never linked back to you individually.
How long we keep it: 30 days, then it's deleted automatically. We're treating that number as a starting point, not a permanent policy — it may change after a real legal review, and if it does, we'll update this page and say so plainly.
Who else is involved
MindButler runs on services provided by other companies, each of which has its own privacy practices:
| Service | What it does | What it touches |
|---|---|---|
| Vercel | Hosting | Standard server logs |
| Supabase | Database and account sign-in | Resource catalog, anonymous votes, TAB applications, resource suggestions; for accounts, your email, saved resources, journal entries, mood check-ins, and the IP address and browser of each signed-in session |
| Google Analytics | Usage analytics | Anonymous page and interaction data |
| Anthropic | Categorizes your message; writes the short intro above results | Your message text (not stored by us); the intro step gets only categories and catalog text |
| Stripe | Donations | Payment information (we never see card details) |
| Beehiiv | Newsletter | Email addresses of subscribers |
| Resend | Delivers resource suggestions and TAB applications to internal reviewers, and sends account sign-in emails | The full content of what you submitted — including your name, email, and (for TAB applications) license information; for sign-in, your email address and the sign-in link |
We don't sell your information. We don't share it with advertisers. There are no advertisers.
If you're under 18
MindButler is free to search for anyone, at any age. We think a teenager looking for help should be able to find it without asking permission or creating an account.
Because of that:
- Searching never needs an account, at any age.
- We don't knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 13. If you believe a child under 13 has sent us personal information, email us and we'll delete it.
- Searching stores nothing regardless of age, with the same one exception described in "When a search fails or falls short" — it isn't age-gated, and it applies to a teenager's message exactly the same way, including the same crisis exclusion.
Your choices
- Searching requires nothing from you, and stores nothing about you as long as the search works — see "When a search fails or falls short" for the one exception.
- Analytics can be blocked with any standard browser privacy setting or extension. The site works normally either way.
- Resource votes — clearing your browser data removes the identifier that links your votes to your browser. The votes themselves stay, still anonymous.
- Partner referral marker — clear your cookies to remove it early, or it expires on its own after 30 days.
- Everything stored in your browser — clearing your browser data for this site removes all of it. Items that last only for a visit are removed when you close the tab.
- Prefer not to have your message sent to Anthropic? Use "Browse on My Own" instead of typing — it never sends free text anywhere.
- Prefer your message never be captured even on a failed search? Same answer — "Browse on My Own" never sends free text anywhere, so there's nothing to capture either way.
- Account — delete it, and everything in it, from the bottom of your Saved Resources page.
- Newsletter — unsubscribe from any email.
- Anything else — email us and ask. If we have information about you, we'll tell you what it is and delete it if you want.
A word about crisis resources
If you're in immediate danger, call or text 988 (Suicide & Crisis Lifeline) or text HOME to 741741 (Crisis Text Line).
Those are independent organizations, not MindButler. When you contact them, you're covered by their privacy practices, not ours. We never see, log, or know that you reached out.
MindButler is a resource discovery platform. We are not a licensed mental health provider, not a crisis line, and not a substitute for professional care.
Changes
If we change how any of this works, we'll update this page and the date at the top. Anything that materially changes how your information is handled will be called out clearly rather than folded quietly into a revision.
Contact
Questions about anything here: hello@mindbutler.ai
MindButler™ is a product of Choose Joy Enterprises LLC.