Your question should not become our collection.

Questions are processed for the answer

Your question and optional first name are sent to the server to perform safety checks and create a fortune. When live generation is enabled, that text may be processed by configured model and moderation providers. Whale Fortunes does not place the raw question or first name in ordinary application logs, analytics, or share cards.

There is no saved-fortune collection

Whale Fortunes offers sharing, copying, and downloading, but it no longer keeps a collection of fortunes in your browser. If you used the earlier Saved Fortunes feature, the old browser-only collection is removed when you return to the main experience.

One narrow account-backed exception applies to an earned Whalesong that completes with Pure Clarity. The service keeps that finalized Whalesong—never the raw question or first-name field—so an interrupted response can return the same result without spending another Whalesong or generating different prose. Only the signed-in account may retrieve it.

Private Messages in a Bottle

A signed-in sender may seal one short note per Whale-day and share its private link through a channel of their choice. The final note and optional display names are encrypted by the application before database storage. Unsealed exact drafts remain in the sender's browser and are not saved. The service keeps content-free account, Whale-day, mode, state, and timing records to enforce the daily limit, support recall and expiration, and process safety reports.

Exact notes are checked for safety but not rewritten. The sender must approve the final note before sealing. The final note and optional names are checked again before storage.

The optional Salty Whale path draws from a reviewed collection and accepts no draft, tone direction, or names during selection. It does not call a generation model. Optional display names added afterward are safety-checked and encrypted with the final payload. Drawing records the collection version, a selection key that identifies the reviewed message, the attempt number, and Whale-day, but no sender draft, direction, or names. A successful seal links and spends one earned Whale Coin and records the Salty Moon Collection unlock; neither is shown to the recipient.

A recipient does not need an account or email, and no recipient identity is attached to the bottle. Hosting and security providers still process ordinary request information such as a network address. Anyone holding the complete link can open the note. The link secret is not sent with the initial page request and is removed from browser history. When the recipient chooses Open, the browser sends the secret in a same-origin request; the server converts it to a keyed digest, and only that digest is stored in the database. An ordinary open is not shown to the sender; only the recipient's optional, explicit acknowledgment creates a sender-visible ripple. A recipient may also hide the note locally or report it by a bounded category, which erases the note and disables its link.

Account sign-in, daily fortunes, and the mood game

Your first complete fortune and one Read the Mood play per browser per Whale-day can be created without an account. Read the Mood asks for email verification only after an exact answer, so the earned Whalesong can be kept in an account and follow you across visits and devices. The service briefly records the generated fortune ID, Whale date, guessed and actual mood, result, and expiration needed to enforce one first guess. It stores no question, fortune text, email, network address, or raw authentication identity in that reading record. An exact result is linked to the account only when you claim it.

If you sign in for ordinary daily fortunes or claim a Whalesong, your verified email address is used to create and recover your account. You may verify it with Google, Apple, or a six-digit code sent by email. The service records whether the day's account fortune was used, while your account stores its mood-game results, earned Whalesongs, and Moon Collection. Collection records contain the Whale date, guessed and actual mood identifiers, whether the read was exact, earned moon and milestone identifiers, and whether you have seen a new-moon notice. They do not contain a question, fortune, bottle message, name, or email address. A completed Pure Clarity Whalesong is also retained for replay and recovery. Your raw fortune questions and first-name field are not added to that account record. The Whalesong form does not collect the optional first name, and the server omits any client-supplied name before a Pure Clarity generation.

Result email is optional and separate from sign-in. Choosing it permits one message when that guess resolves without revealing the answer in the email. It is not consent to marketing, and you can leave the option off when making a guess. If you later turn the choice off, any unsent result message is canceled.

The missed-day reminder is a separate, unchecked choice. If you opt in and later miss one full Whale-day after using a daily fortune, we may send one no-spoiler message shortly after 09:09 in the morning, Denver time. We do not send another reminder until you return for another daily fortune, and never send more than one missed-day reminder in seven days. Turning the choice off cancels a pending reminder and deletes the activity marker used to decide whether a reminder is due.

If you choose Email this fortune to me, the fortune—not your question—is queued for delivery to your verified account email. That one-time request does not subscribe you to marketing. The delivery copy is scheduled to expire after seven days and is erased after successful delivery, terminal failure, or the first successful outbox cleanup after expiration.

Whale Fortunes neighborhood updates are one separate, unchecked marketing choice covering community events, new shops and stories, neighborhood shop sales and promotions, product news, and occasional sponsored messages. Whale Fortunes sends those messages; participating businesses do not receive your email address.

We keep a dated record of marketing opt-in and withdrawal, including which form recorded the choice and the consent-language version. Every marketing message identifies advertising or sponsored content when applicable, includes our mailing address, and provides a link that stops all Whale Fortunes marketing. We do not sell your email or share it with participating businesses or third-party advertisers.

A signed-in account can change all optional email choices from the email preferences page. Signing in to that page does not turn any choice on.

Security and abuse information

The service may process short-lived technical identifiers and privacy-safe operational measurements such as request IDs, route results, status, latency, token totals, and estimated cost. These controls are intended to prevent abuse and unexpected provider spending. They are not used to build advertising profiles.

Necessary cookies, no advertising cookies

A first-party, secure, HttpOnly cookie records that this browser profile received its introductory fortune. It prevents the ordinary interface from repeatedly offering the introductory generation and is not an advertising or cross-site identifier. Clearing browser data may remove it, so this is a practical device control rather than a claim to identify a person.

Read the Mood uses separate first-party, secure, HttpOnly cookies to remember that this browser used today's play, protect its first answer, and carry an exact result through email verification. The play marker contains only the Whale date and expires within three days. The answer and winning markers expire within two hours and do not contain the actual mood.

Account sign-in uses a first-party, secure, HttpOnly session cookie so the site can recognize your verified account on a later visit. It is necessary for the feature and expires after 30 days; it is not used for advertising or cross-site tracking. The current preview does not use advertising trackers, behavioral analytics, or nonessential cookies. If that changes, this notice and any required choices must change before those tools are enabled.

Companies that help operate Whale Fortunes

The following companies process information for the features described in this notice. Their roles depend on what you choose to use:

• OpenAI receives your question and optional first name to run a safety check and write a fortune. When Bottles are enabled, OpenAI also receives the final note and optional display names only for automated safety classification. Exact Bottles do not use that text for generation. The Salty Whale selection also uses no generation.
• Netlify hosts the site and runs the server code, so it handles the request itself, including your network address.
• Upstash stores the short-lived counters that enforce rate limits, the daily spending cap, and one fortune per verified account per Whale-day. It holds one-way, keyed hashes of network and account identifiers, never the identifiers themselves and never your question.
• Supabase provides account authentication and the application database. It stores verified account email, account and session records, game and collection state, email preferences and delivery status, and other records described in this notice. For Bottles, it stores content-free sender and lifecycle records plus the application-encrypted final note and optional names during their limited lifetime. It receives no recipient email or raw private-link secret.
• Google and Apple authenticate you when you choose their sign-in option. They receive the information needed to run that sign-in flow; Whale Fortunes receives the verified account identity and email address they return.
• Resend carries email sign-in codes and the optional emails you request or separately choose. It processes the verified delivery address, email content, and ordinary delivery information needed to send and troubleshoot those messages. It receives no raw fortune question or Bottle link.
• OpenStreetMap provides the interactive map on the walking-tour page. When that map loads, the browser makes a direct request to OpenStreetMap and sends ordinary request information, including the network address and referring site. Whale Fortunes does not send a question, name, email address, account identifier, or precise visitor location with that request.

Each may retain or review data under its own terms, security practices, and abuse-monitoring requirements, and each is outside our control. Do not enter anything you would not want a third-party model provider to process.

How long things are kept

Whale Fortunes does not write your raw question to its application database, ordinary logs, analytics, or share cards. OpenAI may retain API content under the service settings and policies that apply to our account. Abuse counters expire on their own, generally within two days or less. Daily account-use markers expire within about two days.

A fortune queued at your request for email delivery is scheduled to expire after seven days; its message body is erased on successful delivery, terminal failure, or the first successful outbox cleanup after expiration. Delivery status metadata is scheduled for removal after 30 days and is deleted by that cleanup. Mood-result email contains no saved message body or result, is scheduled to expire after seven days if unsent, and follows the same 30-day cleanup for status metadata. A missed-day reminder stores no message body, is scheduled to expire after one day if unsent, and follows the same status-metadata cleanup; its activity marker is deleted when you turn that choice off. Expired, unclaimed Read the Mood records are removed when a later valid reading is graded. A claimed reading remains as the source of its account Whalesong under the account retention rules. Moon Collection activity and unlocks remain with the account so the collection follows you across devices. Account, game, collection, email preference, and consent-history records remain until the account is deleted or applicable retention rules require removal. A completed Pure Clarity Whalesong remains until account deletion and is erased when the account is anonymized or deleted.

A sealed Bottle is scheduled to expire 30 days after sealing. Its encrypted note, optional names, and link digest are erased on the first later open attempt or successful scheduled cleanup. Recall, recipient report, or account anonymization erases that payload and disables the link sooner. Curated-selection attempt records, including the reviewed-message selection key but no sender draft or names, are removed after about 35 days. Recalled, reported, and expired bottle metadata, including a bounded report category, is removed after about 90 additional days.

Retention by the companies above is governed by their own policies rather than ours, and a model provider may hold API content for a period for abuse monitoring.

Your privacy rights

Depending on where you live — including under the Utah Consumer Privacy Act, and comparable laws in California, Colorado, Connecticut, Virginia and elsewhere — you may have the right to know what personal data is held about you, to obtain a copy, to correct or delete it, and not to be discriminated against for asking.

If you use the mood game, we hold the account and game records described above. To request access to, a portable copy of, correction of, or deletion of account data, write to us using the details below. Do not send a Bottle link, private note, password, or sign-in code with a request.

We may verify a request through the account's verified email or ask only for information reasonably necessary to protect the account. An authorized agent may submit a request with proof of authority. We generally respond within 45 days and will explain any extension or denial allowed by applicable law. If we deny a request, reply with “Privacy appeal” and the reason you disagree. We will reconsider the request and provide a recorded written decision. Some erased or expired Bottle content cannot be reconstructed; we will explain what remains and what was already permanently removed.

We do not sell personal data, and we do not share it for targeted advertising.

Children

Whale Fortunes is not directed to children under 13 and is not designed for them. We do not knowingly collect personal information from a child under 13. A person under 13 must not use Whale Fortunes, including submitting a question or name, creating an account, requesting email, or sending a Message in a Bottle. If we learn that a child under 13 provided personal information, we will disable the related account where applicable and delete the information we are not legally required to retain. A parent or guardian who believes a child provided information should write to us using the details below.

Questions or deletion help

Contact Houndtrust LLC at hello@whalefortunes.com, 7533 S Center View Ct, Ste N, West Jordan, UT 84084.