Everything this site keeps about you, and the clock on each of it.
BeamDesk is an operating and market infrastructure company, not an advertising one. Nothing here is sold, and nothing is shared with an advertiser. What is stored is stored because a feature you used needs it.
Signing in and commenting are the only things that store anything about a person.
Reading this site stores nothing beyond what your browser does on its own, unless you accept analytics. Everything below follows from signing in to comment on an article.
| What | Why | Kept |
|---|---|---|
| Email address | Identity of record. Verified through Google or GitHub; never shown publicly. | Until you delete the account |
| Display name | Shown beside your comments. This is the only thing about you a reader sees. | Until you delete the account |
| Sign-in provider and its account id | So signing in with Google today and GitHub tomorrow is recognised as one person. | Until you delete the account |
| Session token (hashed) and its expiry | The cookie that keeps you signed in. The token itself is never stored, only a hash. | 30 days |
| Comment text and its timestamp | The comment. Public by definition. | Until you delete it or the account |
| IP address and browser user agent | Investigating abuse, and only that. Never used to build a profile. | 90 days, then erased |
| Moderation decisions | Accountability. Hiding somebody's words without recording why is what an audit trail is for. | Retained; records the decision, not the content |
The 90-day clock on IP addresses is a job that runs, not a sentence in a policy. A retention promise with nothing behind it is a claim, and the point of this site is that claims are checkable.
Three, and two of them need no permission.
- The session cookie — set only after you sign in, so that you stay signed in. It is HttpOnly, which means no script on the page can read it. Strictly necessary for a feature you asked for.
- Your analytics choice — remembers whether you accepted or declined, so you are not asked again.
- Google Analytics — set only if you accept. Until then every storage purpose is declared denied before the tag is configured, so nothing is written to your device. Declining keeps it that way. BeamGround, at ground.beamdesk.space, asks the same question under the same rule. Each site keeps its own answer, so each asks once. BeamGround never sends Google the part of an address after a question mark, which is where a sign-in link carries its token.
Google and GitHub, and neither is told anything about you.
Signing in happens through Google or GitHub. They tell BeamDesk your email address and, if you have one set, a display name. BeamDesk tells them nothing — not which article you were reading, not what you wrote. A verified email is required, which is why GitHub is asked for the scope that releases your primary address.
Google is also the processor behind Firebase Authentication and, if you accept it, Google Analytics. Transfers outside the EEA rely on the European Commission’s standard contractual clauses.
Deleting everything is a button, not a support request.
You can delete your account from your profile at any time. It removes the account, the sign-in links, the sessions, and every comment you have written, in one operation and immediately. A record that a deletion happened is kept, without any of the content.
You may also delete individual comments while keeping the account. Under the GDPR you have rights of access, rectification, erasure and objection, and the right to complain to a supervisory authority. Deleting the account exercises erasure directly, which seemed better than describing a process.
The lawful basis for the account is performance of the service you asked for. The basis for keeping an IP address for 90 days is legitimate interest in operating a comment section that is not overrun. Analytics rests on your consent and nothing else.