Teatome is a small, independent community project — not a company, and not commercial. This page describes, plainly, what information the site collects and what happens to it. It's written to accurately reflect how the site actually works, not as a generic template.
What we collect
When you create an account:
- Username — public. This is the only identity shown next to anything you post.
- Email address — private. Used only to log you in and, if you ever need it, to recover your account. It's never shown publicly.
- Password — stored as a one-way cryptographic hash (bcrypt). We can't see or recover your actual password, and never store it in plain text.
When you use the site:
- Content you post — recipes, ingredient wiki entries, comments, and any photos you upload. All of this is public by design and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0, as noted wherever it's shown.
- IP address — used briefly to prevent abuse (e.g. limiting how many accounts or comments can be created in a short burst from one source). It's not linked to your account profile or used to track you around the site.
How it's used
- Your session cookie keeps you logged in between visits.
- Your username is shown publicly on anything you author (recipes, wiki edits, comments).
- New recipe submissions are automatically checked by Anthropic's Claude AI to confirm they're genuine tea/tisane recipes before publishing — only the recipe's text content (title, description, ingredients, steps) is sent for this check, never your email or account details.
- Rate-limit counters prevent spam and abuse (see IP address, above).
We don't sell, rent, or share your personal information with advertisers. There are no ads on Teatome, no analytics trackers, and no marketing emails.
Cookies
Teatome uses exactly one cookie: an encrypted session cookie that keeps you logged in. It's not used for tracking, advertising, or analytics, and nothing is set until you log in or sign up.
Who else sees this data
Teatome runs on a small set of service providers that any hosted website needs:
- Railway — hosts the site, the database, and any photos you upload.
- Anthropic — processes new recipe text for the automated moderation check described above.
If you choose to donate via the Support tea workers page, that takes you to THIRST's own site — Teatome never collects or sees any payment information.
Your data, your choices
There's no self-service account deletion yet — if you'd like your account or content removed, contact the admin and it'll be handled by hand. [TODO: founder — add a contact method here, e.g. an email address or a link.]
Children's privacy
Teatome isn't directed at children under 13, and we don't knowingly collect information from them.
Changes to this policy
If how the site handles data changes in a meaningful way, this page will be updated and the date at the top will change.
This page describes Teatome's actual data practices in plain language rather than as a legal template — it's not a substitute for professional legal advice.