What we keep

This site has no advertising, no third-party analytics and no third-party scripts or fonts.

Visitor count

Your browser stores a random identifier so that you are counted once. The server keeps only a keyed hash of it. We also keep a running total of broad regions, taken from the first part of your browser’s time zone, such as “Europe”. It is not tied to you.

Your IP address

We use a keyed hash of your IP address, which changes every day, to limit abuse. It is deleted when its limit expires and is never stored with your letter. Our hosting may keep ordinary short-lived server logs.

Temperature

Your answer is stored with a hash that changes every day, so one answer cannot be linked to your answers on other days.

Your letter

We keep what you write, with any pen name and place you give. Please leave out anything that could identify you or someone else. A person reads every letter. Only letters you allow us to publish count towards the moods and themes shown here. It appears on the site only if you allowed that and an editor approves it. If you agreed, approved letters may shape the Observer’s future conversations and may be sent to an AI model provider for that purpose.

You must be 16 or over to send a letter.

Withdraw your letter

When you send a letter you receive a receipt code. Enter it here and the text, pen name and place are permanently deleted from the site’s database. Daily backups are kept for 14 days, so the text may remain in them until then. Totals already counted in published statistics do not change.