Privacy Policy

1. Introduction

grindfi ("we," "our," or "us") operates the grindfi Discord bot and web dashboard at grindfi.app. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, disclose, and safeguard your information when you use our service.

This policy explains what we collect, why, and on what legal basis (see Section 3.1). Some processing - in particular fraud prevention - is carried out on the basis of our legitimate interests rather than your consent. You may object to it (see Section 7.2); we then stop unless we can show compelling grounds that override your interests. If you do not agree with our policies, please do not use our service.

2. Information We Collect

2.1 Information from Discord

When you interact with our bot or authenticate via Discord OAuth, we collect:

• Discord User ID - Your unique Discord identifier
• Username and Display Name - Your Discord username
• Email Address - Only when you log into our dashboard (via Discord OAuth)
• Server (Guild) Information - Server ID, name, and member count for servers where you use grindfi
• Avatar URL - For displaying your profile in our dashboard

2.2 Activity Data

To provide our engagement and rewards features, we collect:

• Message Activity - Message counts for points calculation. Points are calculated from counts alone; the text of your messages is not stored for this purpose.
• Message Content (anti-scam) - To protect servers from phishing and impersonation attacks, our anti-scam system analyses the text of messages sent in the server channels our bot can access. This analysis runs automatically and is not retained. Only when a message is flagged as a likely scam do we keep an excerpt of it (up to 500 characters), together with the reason it was flagged, so that server moderators can confirm or dismiss the action. Flagged excerpts are also shown in the server's moderation log channel. The text of messages that are not flagged is not stored.
• Message Content (community analytics) - If a server administrator enables our optional community sentiment feature, a sample of recent messages from that server is sent to a third-party AI provider to produce an aggregate summary of community mood. This feature is off by default. When no channel list is configured, only channels visible to everyone are sampled; an administrator may instead choose specific channels, which can include private ones.
• Quest Submissions - Content you submit for quests (tweets, screenshots, etc.)
• Points and Achievements - Your earned points, streaks, and achievement progress
• Anonymous Polls - When you vote in a server's anonymous poll, we record that you voted (to stop double votes) separately from the answer totals; we never store which answer you chose. That record holds a keyed hash of your Discord ID, not the ID itself; the key is deleted when the poll closes and the record itself 30 days after. For a poll limited to the top members of a leaderboard, we also keep the list of members (their Discord IDs) who were eligible to vote when it opened; this says nothing about how anyone voted. If you send an optional comment (up to 500 characters), we keep the same kind of keyed-hash record that you commented (to allow one comment per member, deleted 30 days after the poll closes), and the comment text is stored without your name and shown only to that server's administrators after voting ends; comments are deleted 90 days after the poll closes.
• Twitter/X Data - When you connect Twitter for verification: Twitter handle and tweet URLs you submit

2.3 Payment Information

Payment processing is handled entirely by Stripe. We do not store your credit card numbers, bank account details, or other financial information. We only receive:

• Subscription status and plan tier
• Payment confirmation (success/failure)
• Stripe customer ID for managing your subscription

2.4 Technical Data

• IP address (for security and rate limiting)
• Browser type and device information
• Access timestamps and logs

2.5 Fraud Prevention Data

Where a server operates a rewards or ambassador program, we analyse data we already collect (described above) to detect multi-account abuse (commonly called "sybil" activity), in which one person operates several accounts to claim rewards intended for separate participants. For this purpose we use:

• Activity timing - Timestamps of check-ins, submissions, engagement actions, and reward claims
• Account metadata - Discord account creation dates and the date an account joined a server
• Program submissions - The links and content you submit for quests, and the application form answers you provide
• Blockchain addresses you provide - Any wallet address you submit for rewards, together with its publicly available on-chain transaction history. On-chain data is public information that we read; we do not create it.

We compare this data across accounts to identify accounts that appear to be operated by the same person. We do not use it for advertising or for profiling unrelated to fraud prevention.

3. How We Use Your Information

We use the collected information to:

• Provide the Service - Track points, manage quests, display leaderboards, award achievements
• Process Payments - Manage subscriptions and billing through Stripe
• Improve Our Service - Analyze usage patterns, fix bugs, develop new features
• Communicate - Send service-related announcements and respond to support requests
• Ensure Security - Detect fraud, spam, and abuse; enforce our Terms of Service
• Protect Reward Integrity - Detect multi-account abuse in rewards and ambassador programs, and determine eligibility for rewards
• Comply with Law - Meet legal obligations and respond to lawful requests

3.1 Legal Basis for Processing (EU/EEA and UK)

Where the GDPR or UK GDPR applies, we rely on the following legal bases:

• Performance of a contract (Art. 6(1)(b)) - Where you are the person who signed up: providing the Service to you, including your subscription and your rewards
• Legitimate interests (Art. 6(1)(f)) - Where a server administrator installs grindfi and we then record your message counts, points and participation: operating the community features that server has chosen to run. You may object (Section 7.2).
• Legitimate interests (Art. 6(1)(f)) - To prevent fraud and multi-account abuse, protect the integrity of reward programs, and ensure rewards reach the participants who earned them. We consider this necessary because reward programs are a direct target for abuse, and undetected abuse takes rewards away from legitimate participants.
• Legal obligation (Art. 6(1)(c)) - To retain payment records and respond to lawful requests

You have the right to object to processing based on legitimate interests (see Section 7). Where you object, we will stop unless we can demonstrate compelling legitimate grounds that override your interests, or the processing is needed to establish, exercise, or defend legal claims.

3.2 Human Review and Consequences

Fraud analysis may flag accounts for review. A fraud flag is reviewed by a person before any action is taken - we do not decide that accounts are operated by the same person, or withhold rewards on that basis, by automated means alone.

Separately from fraud analysis, a server may enable automatic scoring of quest submissions, in which an AI evaluation can approve or reject a submission and award points without a person reviewing it. That is a server setting, it applies to the quality of a submission rather than to any judgement about you, and you can ask the server's moderators to review the result.

Where a review concludes that accounts are operated by the same person in breach of program rules, consequences may include withholding or cancelling rewards, removal from the program, and redistribution of the affected rewards to other participants. If this happens to you, you may contact us to contest the decision and provide your own explanation.

4. Data Sharing and Disclosure

4.1 Third-Party Services

We share data with these service providers who help us operate grindfi:

4.2 Public Information

The following may be visible to other users in your Discord server:

• Your username on leaderboards
• Your points, tier, and achievement badges
• Your streak status

4.3 Legal Requirements

We may disclose your information if required by law, court order, or government request, or if we believe disclosure is necessary to protect our rights, your safety, or the safety of others.

4.4 We Do NOT

• Sell your personal data to third parties
• Share your data for advertising purposes
• Read your direct messages. Our bot does not request Discord's direct-message permission and cannot see your DMs or any conversation outside a server it has been added to.
• Store the text of server messages that our anti-scam system does not flag
• Use your message content to train our own machine learning or AI models

5. Data Retention

We retain your data for as long as necessary to provide our services:

• Active Users - Data is retained while your server uses grindfi
• After Bot Removal - When grindfi is removed from a server, that server's data is scheduled for deletion and erased after 30 days. This includes anti-scam review records and the message excerpts they contain. If the bot is added back within those 30 days, the deletion is cancelled and the server keeps its history. Five things are deliberately kept: the billing record (retained for tax and legal compliance, as below), payment-processing records that prevent a payment being applied twice, our internal log of administrative actions taken by our own staff, our read-only mirror of a record held by the server operator in their own Google Sheet where a server runs an ambassador program (we cannot erase the operator's own Sheet on their behalf, and a later re-sync may restore the mirror), and prize-draw records for a closed raffle, which name the drawn winner and the address they supplied, and which we keep as evidence of how the draw was settled - including entries that were never paid, because the record of an unpaid or replaced draw is part of that evidence. Everything else belonging to that server, including its settings, is removed.
• Anonymous Polls - The record that you voted or commented, and the list of who was eligible to vote, are deleted 30 days after a poll closes; comment text is deleted 90 days after it closes; answer totals are kept with the poll.
• Account Deletion - Upon request, we delete your data within 30 days
• Payment Records - Retained for 7 years for tax/legal compliance
• Fraud Prevention Analysis - The fraud analysis described in Section 2.5 is performed on the activity and submission data already listed above, and is retained on the same terms as that data. Where a review has concluded that accounts breached a program's rules, the server's administrators keep a record of that decision so it can be applied consistently across reward seasons and so we can respond if it is contested; that record names the accounts and the outcome, and is held by the server operating the program.

6. Data Security

We implement appropriate security measures to protect your data:

• Encrypted database connections (TLS/SSL)
• Secure OAuth 2.0 authentication
• Access controls and monitoring
• Regular security updates

However, no method of transmission over the Internet is 100% secure. While we strive to protect your information, we cannot guarantee absolute security.

7. Your Rights

Depending on your location, you may have the following rights:

7.1 For All Users

• Access - Request a copy of your data
• Deletion - Request deletion of your data
• Correction - Request correction of inaccurate data
• Objection - Object to certain processing of your data

7.2 For EU/EEA and UK Users (GDPR / UK GDPR)

You have additional rights under GDPR including data portability and the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority.

Because we process fraud-prevention data on the basis of legitimate interests (Section 3.1), you have a specific right to object to that processing under Art. 21. If you object, we will stop unless we can demonstrate compelling legitimate grounds that override your interests, or we need the data to establish, exercise, or defend legal claims. You also have the right under Art. 22 not to be subject to a decision based solely on automated processing that significantly affects you - as set out in Section 3.2, reward-eligibility decisions are reviewed by a person, and you may contest a decision and give us your own account of it.

7.3 For California Users (CCPA)

California residents have the right to know what personal information is collected, request deletion, and opt-out of sale (we do not sell data).

To exercise any of these rights, contact us via Discord or email (see Contact section below).

8. Children's Privacy

grindfi is not intended for users under 13 years of age (or the minimum age required by Discord in your country). We do not knowingly collect data from children. If you believe a child has provided us with personal information, please contact us immediately.

9. International Data Transfers

Your data may be processed in countries outside your own, including the United States and Germany (where our servers are located). We ensure appropriate safeguards are in place for international transfers.

10. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. We will notify you of significant changes by:

• Posting a notice on our website
• Updating the "Last updated" date
• Announcing in our Discord server for major changes

Continued use of grindfi after changes constitutes acceptance of the updated policy.