Privacy

What we keep, and why.

Last updated 27 October 2026

100 Years From Now is a public time capsule. Most of what you give us is meant to be public: the message you send to 2126. This page explains everything else we collect, what we do with it, and the choices you have.

1. What we collect

Your account

To write a message you create an account with your email address and a password. Accounts are run by our hosting provider, Netlify, and passwords are stored only in hashed form. We use your email to sign you in, to make sure each person sends one message at a time, and to send account emails such as confirmation and password-reset links. We don't send marketing emails.

Your message (public)

When you send a message, we store and publish worldwide: the message itself, the name or nickname you sign it with, the country you choose, the question you answered, the date and your Human Nº. Anyone can read it, share it, and see it translated. Don't include anything you wouldn't want the whole world, and the people of 2126, to read.

An approximate position for your light

If the country you choose matches the country your internet connection appears to be in, we store a rough position so your light appears near home on the globe. It is rounded and shifted at random by roughly 10–25 km, so it never points to your address. We don't store your IP address with your message.

Reading and "Me too"

When a message is opened, we count it by the reader's country, so authors can see how far their message travelled. When you press "Me too", we store a random identifier kept in your browser and your country, so each browser counts once. Neither is linked to a name or an account.

Payments

Postcards to 2126 are paid through Stripe. Stripe collects your card details; we never see or store your card number. We receive and keep a record of the purchase: your email, the amount, any sales tax or VAT, the processing fee, the charity you chose and the payment status (including refunds and disputes).

Contact form

If you write to us, we keep what you send, including your email address, so we can reply.

2. Automated checks and translation

Every message is checked before it appears. The text, your nickname and the question are sent to an AI model provided by Anthropic, which suggests whether the message follows our rules and detects its language. Some messages are then read by a person before they are published or declined. When a reader asks for a translation, the message text is sent to an AI model to translate it, and the translation is stored so it can be shown again. These checks are not used to build a profile of you.

3. Cookies and browser storage

We don't use advertising or third-party analytics, and we don't track you across other websites. The site stores a few things in your own browser:

a sign-in session, if you have an account and are signed in;
your chosen language, and a cached copy of the interface in that language;
the random "Me too" identifier and the list of messages you pressed "Me too" on;
a note of which messages you've opened this session, so a reading is counted once.

You can clear these at any time in your browser settings.

We use a small number of providers to run the site. They process data on our behalf and only to provide their service:

Netlify: hosting, database, accounts and the contact form;
Anthropic: message checks and translation;
Stripe: payments and tax calculation.

These providers may process data in the United States and other countries. Charities receive money from us, never your personal details. We don't sell your data.

5. How long we keep it

Messages that are kept (founding messages, Today's messages and Postcards) are meant to stay public until 2126, unless removed. A free message that has faded is no longer shown, but stays stored unless you ask us to delete it.
Your account is kept until you ask us to close it.
Purchase records are kept for as long as tax and accounting law requires.
Contact messages are kept for as long as needed to deal with them.

6. Your rights

Depending on where you live, you can ask us to give you a copy of your data, correct it, delete it, or stop using it. This includes taking your message down. To do any of this, contact us from the email address on your account. You also have the right to complain to your local data protection authority.

7. Children

You must be at least 13 years old to create an account, or older if the law where you live requires it. Everyone can read messages.

8. Changes and contact

If we change how we handle your data, we'll update this page and the date at the top. Questions are welcome through the contact page.