Privacy Policy

Effective 5 October 2026 · Version 2026-10-05

This policy covers the Ding Publishing website, app registration, publisher administration and notifications sent through its API. Ding is a project by vāyumaṇḍala. Contact the service operator for privacy requests at email@ding.social.

Information we handle

• Identity and sessions: your AT Protocol DID and handle, sign-in handoff data, and a Ding website session. Publisher sign-in requests identity access only. It does not request permission to publish records or read Contrails history. Your identity provider handles your password; Ding does not receive it.
• Publisher registration: app name, description, website, ownership DID, private contact email, email and domain verification state, Terms version and acceptance time, review decisions and operational timestamps.
• Notification processing: message title, body, link, app identity, idempotency information, and recipient DID for personal alerts. Ding maintains connections and notification permissions, inbox records, and delivery records needed to route messages. Push delivery uses registered device tokens.
• Operational information: security and request logs, request IDs, errors, email queue metadata, and administrator actions. Cloudflare and our hosting providers may process IP addresses and technical request data to deliver and protect the service.
• Correspondence: verification and review emails, messages you send to our public contact, and information needed to address them.

Why we use it

We use information to authenticate publishers, verify contact and website ownership, review apps, enforce recipient choices, deliver requested notifications and service emails, handle support, prevent misuse and maintain the service. Where applicable data-protection law requires a legal basis, these activities rely on performing our agreement, legitimate interests in operating and securing the service, and legal obligations. Optional choices about receiving app notifications are controlled by recipients.

What is visible

Approved app names, descriptions and websites are visible to signed-in Ding users discovering connected apps. Your contact email, email-verification data, publishing keys and review administration are not included in that catalogue. Authorised Ding administrators can view registration and review information. Publishers do not receive subscriber lists, Ding sessions or device tokens through the publishing API. A recipient DID supplied by a publisher is processed for that request.

AT Protocol handles, DIDs and repository records may already be public on the network. Registering an app with Ding does not create a public publisher-profile record in your AT Protocol repository. Email verification does not make your email public.

Service providers and disclosures

Cloudflare hosts the publishing website, protects requests, and sends and routes email. Our server hosting provider stores backend data. Expo and the relevant Apple or Google push services process notification delivery, including message content and device-routing information where necessary. AT Protocol identity and network services process identity requests. Providers may process information in countries different from yours under their own service arrangements.

We do not sell publisher contact information or use it for advertising. We may disclose information when legally required, to investigate abuse or security incidents, or to protect people and the service. Any transfer of service operations must remain subject to appropriate privacy safeguards and notice where required.

Cookies and browser storage

The publisher website uses an essential Secure, HttpOnly session cookie on the account API with an eight-hour lifetime. Browser session storage temporarily holds the sign-in verifier and, when needed, an email-verification proof. Publishing keys are shown once and held in page memory until dismissed; they are not saved to browser storage by Ding. The publisher website does not include advertising trackers or analytics scripts.

Security

We use HTTPS, access restrictions and origin checks. Publishing keys and website-session tokens are stored as hashes. OAuth credentials used by other Ding account features and queued email contents are encrypted using a server key stored separately from the database. Access is limited to service functions and authorised operators. No system can guarantee absolute security; report concerns to email@ding.social.

Retention and deletion

Registration and review information is retained while the app is registered and as needed to operate the service and address abuse or disputes. Disabling publishing stops access but does not itself delete registration or past notifications. Email-verification links expire after one hour; sending another link invalidates the earlier proof. Queued email content is cleared after a successful send, and completed or failed email queue records are removed after 30 days. Terminal push-delivery records are normally pruned after 30 days and administrator audit entries after 90 days.

Recipients’ inbox history and some retry/deduplication information have different lifetimes and are not automatically deleted by disabling an app. Disconnecting a Ding account removes its account-local data, invalidates owned publisher apps, and clears publisher contact and queued email data. Public network records and recipients’ copies are not recalled. Server backups and provider logs may retain copies according to their operational schedules; this policy does not promise immediate removal from every backup.

For deletion of publisher registration information, contact email@ding.social. We will verify ownership and explain any information we must retain for legal, security or dispute reasons.

Your choices and rights

You can edit app details and contact email, replace keys, or disable publishing in your dashboard. Changing contact email requires verification again. Contact us to request access, correction, export or deletion of personal information, or to object to or restrict processing where applicable. We will verify your identity and respond under applicable law. Where available, you may complain to your local data-protection authority. Do not send passwords or publishing keys with a request.

Children and changes

Publisher registration is intended for adults able to enter the Publisher Terms. Do not provide children’s personal information through the publishing service without the permissions and protections required by law. We will update this page with an effective date when practices change and notify registered publishers of material changes through their contact email or dashboard.