Privacy policy
Ask Daniel Brain is a ChatGPT plugin that answers questions about my work from my resume, posts, talks, patents, press coverage and open-source code. It has no accounts and does not sell or share personal data for advertising. This page explains exactly what the plugin handles.
What the plugin collects, and why
- Messages you send me. If you use “Message Daniel”, the plugin collects your message and, only if you choose to give them, your name, an email address and what the message is about. It uses them for one thing: delivering your message to me so I can read it and, if you gave an email, reply.
- A daily message count. If you give an email address, the plugin keeps a count of messages sent from it that day, to limit each address to a few messages a day.
- Your plugin settings. If you change the plugin's settings (which collection search starts in, whether Hacker News discussions are included, how sources are cited), the plugin stores your choices.
- Update notifications. If you ask ChatGPT to notify you when I post an update, ChatGPT gives the plugin an address to send notifications to and a secret used to sign them. The plugin stores both to deliver updates.
Settings and notification subscriptions are linked to an anonymous identifier that ChatGPT provides for each user. The plugin stores only a one-way hash of it, never the identifier itself, and never your name, email or ChatGPT account details for these features.
The plugin does not store your questions, searches or conversations. ChatGPT sends the plugin only what it needs to answer each request, and the plugin does not try to reconstruct your chat history.
Who receives it
- Slack delivers messages sent with “Message Daniel” to my private Slack workspace.
- Cloudflare hosts the plugin and stores the daily counts, settings and subscriptions. Like any web host, it processes technical request data such as IP addresses, under Cloudflare's privacy policy.
- OpenAI runs ChatGPT. What you type in ChatGPT is covered by OpenAI's privacy policy.
I do not sell personal data or share it with anyone else, except where the law requires it.
How long it is kept
- Messages: kept in my Slack for as long as I need them to read and reply, and deleted on request.
- Daily message counts: deleted automatically after 2 days.
- Settings: kept until you change them. They are linked only to the hashed identifier, so they cannot be traced back to you.
- Notification subscriptions: each lasts at most 7 days unless ChatGPT renews it, which it does while the notification is on. Turning the notification off removes it; a lapsed one stops being used and is cleared out with the next change to the list.
Your choices and rights
Name, email and topic are optional when you message me; only the message is required. You can turn update notifications off in ChatGPT at any time. You can ask me to show you, correct or delete anything the plugin holds about you, including messages you have sent, by emailing [email protected]. If you are in the UK or the European Economic Area, you have these rights under data protection law, and you can complain to your local data protection authority. My legal basis for handling a message is that you asked me to deliver it; for settings and notifications, it is providing the feature you asked for.
The providers above may process data in the United States and in other countries where they operate.
Children
The plugin is not directed at children under 13.
Changes and contact
If this policy changes, the updated version will appear on this page with a new date. Questions go to [email protected].