Privacy Policy

1. Information We Collect

When you use Sachilo, we collect the following limited information:

• Browser fingerprint hash — a non-reversible composite identifier generated from your browser characteristics and IP address. This is not your IP address itself; it is a one-way hash that cannot be traced back to you.
• Submitted URLs — the article links you submit for fact-checking.
• Basic request metadata — timestamps and request counts used for rate limiting.

We do not collect names, email addresses, phone numbers, or any other personally identifiable information. There are no user accounts for public visitors.

2. How We Use Your Information

The limited data we collect serves these purposes:

• Rate limiting — fingerprint hashes enforce fair usage limits so the service remains available for everyone.
• Abuse prevention — detecting and blocking automated or malicious submissions.
• Service improvement — understanding aggregate usage patterns (e.g., total checks per day) to improve reliability.

We never sell, rent, or share your data with third parties for marketing purposes.

3. AI Processing

Our fact-checking pipeline uses large language models (LLMs) to extract claims from articles, evaluate evidence, and generate structured verdict reports. These AI systems process only the text content of the articles you submit — never any personal data about you.

The LLM providers we use (Google Gemini, Groq, OpenAI) receive article text for processing. They do not receive your fingerprint, IP address, or any identifying information.

4. Data Storage & Retention

Submitted URLs and generated verdicts are stored in a PostgreSQL database hosted on secure infrastructure. Published verdicts remain publicly accessible as part of our fact-checking archive.

Fingerprint hashes used for rate limiting are non-reversible — they cannot be decoded to reveal your identity or browsing habits. Rate-limiting records are retained only as long as necessary for abuse prevention.

5. Cookies & Similar Technologies

Sachilo uses minimal cookies:

• Cloudflare Turnstile — an invisible challenge that verifies you are human without tracking you across sites. It may set a short-lived cookie for verification purposes.
• Essential session cookies — set by our hosting framework (Next.js) for basic functionality. These are not used for tracking.

We do not use tracking pixels, third-party analytics cookies, or advertising cookies at this time.

6. Third-Party Services

We rely on the following third-party services to operate:

• Cloudflare — provides bot protection (Turnstile) and may serve as a CDN.
• Vercel — hosts our application and serverless functions.
• LLM providers (Google, Groq, OpenAI) — process article text for claim extraction and evaluation. They receive only article content, not user data.
• FingerprintJS — generates browser fingerprints client-side. The raw fingerprint never leaves your browser; only a hashed version is sent to our server.

Each of these services has its own privacy policy. We encourage you to review them if you have concerns about their data practices.

7. Children's Privacy

Sachilo is not directed at children under 13 years of age. We do not knowingly collect information from children. Since we do not collect personal information from any users, this risk is inherently minimal.

8. Your Rights

Although we collect very limited data, you have the right to:

• Request information about what data is associated with your fingerprint hash.
• Request deletion of rate-limiting records tied to your fingerprint.
• Ask questions about our data practices.

To exercise these rights, please reach out through our contact page.

9. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices or for legal and regulatory reasons. When we make changes, we will update the "Last updated" date at the top of this page. We encourage you to review this policy periodically.

10. Contact Us

If you have questions or concerns about this Privacy Policy or our data practices, please visit our contact page.

Sachilo is operated from Kathmandu, Nepal.