Privacy Policy

1. Who this covers

This policy applies to everyone who visits OpenHosst, creates an account, buys or runs a server with us, or uses our AI tools. "We" and "us" mean OpenHosst. Using our AI tools, the website or the mobile app is subject to this policy.

2. What we collect

• Your account. Your email address and a scrambled (hashed) version of your password. If you switch on two-factor sign-in, its secret. Whether you confirmed your email, when you signed up, and your sign-in sessions (a session lasts 14 days).
• Payments. Payments are handled by Stripe. We never see or store your card number. We keep your Stripe customer and subscription identifiers, the price and billing period of each server, and whether payments succeeded or failed.
• Your servers. The name you give a server, the size you chose (memory, CPU, storage, network speed, monthly traffic, backups kept, domains, ports, assistant messages), its location, its network address, its running state, the domains and public ports you connect, and the SSH keys you add.
• Usage of your servers. How much data each server sends out each month (to apply your traffic allowance), how many assistant messages you used this month (to apply your allowance), and readings of memory, disk, CPU and network use taken every five minutes, which we use to apply your allowances, to show you charts of your server's activity over time on its Usage page, to check that your server is healthy and to plan capacity. We keep every reading for 3 days, hourly averages for about 100 days and daily averages for about 2 years; they are deleted with the server. Automatic checks confirm that your server is set up securely (firewall, key-only sign-in, security updates).
• Backups. A backup is a full copy of your server, including your files. Backups you or we create are kept on our own servers and may also be copied to an offsite storage service (see section 6).
• Archives of suspended servers. If a server stays suspended (for example a payment stays unpaid, or you end your subscription), we make one complete backup of it, including your files, and then remove the server. We keep that archive for a limited time (180 days at the moment, and we email you the exact date) so we can restore your data if you come back. You can ask us to delete it sooner, and it is deleted when you delete your account.
• Conversations with our AI tools. See section 3.
• Records of actions. A log of important actions (such as signing in, buying, resizing, deleting a server, changing security settings, and an operator opening a conversation) with the time and the internet address they came from. We use it for security, support and to investigate problems.
• Messages we send you. Emails about your account, your servers and your billing (for example confirming your address, a server being ready, a payment problem or a change to your size), and occasional announcements. Account and billing emails are always sent; you can ask us to stop announcements.
• Technical data. Your internet address, browser type and the pages you request, kept in our server logs for security and to keep the service running.

3. Our AI tools

We offer two AI tools. Both are provided by a third-party AI service (OpenAI, through its Codex tooling) which generates the replies. What you type, and anything the tool reads while working for you, is sent to that service to produce an answer.

The size assistant (on the order page)

When you describe what you want to run, the assistant suggests a server size. We keep your questions, its answers, the sizes it suggested and the size you finally ordered (with the server it became), so we can see whether suggestions fit and help you if something goes wrong.

The server assistant (on each server)

The server assistant works on your server when you ask it to. We keep a copy of each conversation: your messages, the assistant's replies, the commands it ran on your server, the start of their output and the files you attached to a message. It can also read files on your server in order to do what you asked, and what it reads is sent to the AI service to produce its reply. It saves short notes about problems it has fixed so it can fix them faster next time.

What we do with these conversations

• Secrets removed. Passwords, keys, tokens and similar secrets are removed before a copy is stored, and long command output is cut. Please still avoid typing passwords or other people's personal data into a conversation; ask the assistant to keep secrets in a file on your server instead.
• Why we keep them. To run and secure the service, to see which tools customers need and where things go wrong, to help you when something fails, and to improve our AI tools, including training them.
• Who can read them. Only our operators. Each time an operator opens, searches or exports conversations, it is recorded in the log described above.
• Deleting. When you delete a conversation it disappears from your list at once. Our operator copy stays until the end of the retention period below, so that our analysis and improvements stay valid. If a server is deleted, its copies stay in the same way.
• How long. Copies are removed automatically after 2 years.
• Account deletion. If you delete your account, our copies stay for the retention period but no longer point to you: your account number and any identifier that links them together are removed.
• Training. You can switch off the use of your conversations for training on your Account page. Your conversations are then left out of any training data, but are still kept for the other purposes above. Data prepared for training has names, email addresses, addresses and customers' own domain names removed.
• Erasure. You can ask us to erase our copies of your conversations altogether, and we will do that.

4. How we use your data

• To provide, bill and secure the service you bought: creating and running your server, applying your allowances, taking backups, connecting your domains and ports.
• To contact you about your account, servers and payments.
• To prevent fraud and abuse, and to investigate security problems.
• To support you when something goes wrong.
• To understand how the service is used and to improve it, including our AI tools (section 3).
• To meet our legal and tax obligations.

We do not sell your personal data and we do not show advertising.

5. Who else handles your data

We use a small number of service providers, each only for what it is needed for:

• Hetzner hosts our servers, network and the offsite storage that holds backups.
• Stripe processes payments and keeps your card and billing details.
• OpenAI provides the AI service behind our AI tools (section 3).
• Email delivery. Our messages are sent from our own mail system and then pass through the email providers of the person receiving them.
• Google Fonts. Our pages load their typefaces from Google, which therefore receives your internet address and browser type when a page loads.

We may also disclose data if the law requires it, to protect our users or the service, or in connection with a sale of the business.

6. Where your data is kept

Our main servers are in Germany. A server you run lives in the location you chose when you bought it. Backups are kept on our own servers and may also be copied to an offsite storage service run by Hetzner. Backups are protected by access controls but are not separately encrypted by us. Some of our providers (for example Stripe and OpenAI) may process data in other countries.

7. How long we keep things

• Account and server details: while your account exists. Deleting your account removes your details; you must delete your servers first, which also cancels their subscriptions.
• Billing records: Stripe keeps them for as long as tax law requires.
• Usage readings: every reading for 3 days, hourly averages for about 100 days, daily averages for about 2 years; deleted when you delete the server. Only counts and totals are kept in our business statistics, not personal details.
• Backups: until you delete them or they are replaced by newer ones (a server keeps the number of backups it was bought with).
• Archives of removed servers: 180 days at the moment (we email you the exact date when the server is archived), then deleted automatically. Deleting a server yourself deletes its backups with it; deleting your account deletes any archive.
• Conversations with our AI tools: 2 years, then removed automatically (section 3).
• Records of actions: kept for security and support. When an account is deleted these records keep only its number.
• Server logs: for a limited time, for security and operations.

8. Your choices and rights

• Turn off training use of your conversations on your Account page.
• Delete a conversation, a backup, a domain, a port or a whole server yourself at any time.
• Delete your account from the Account page.
• Ask us for a copy of the personal data we hold about you, to correct it, to erase our copies of your conversations, or to object to how we use your data. Contact us and we will respond.
• Ask us to stop sending announcements.

9. How we protect it

• Passwords are stored only in hashed form; two-factor sign-in is available and required for our administrators.
• Everything is sent over encrypted connections.
• Every server is set up securely before anything is installed on it: a firewall that lets in only our platform, sign-in by key only, and automatic security updates. Servers are isolated from each other.
• Access to conversations and to the systems behind the service is limited to our operators, and important actions are logged.
• Secrets are removed from conversation copies before they are stored.

10. Cookies and your browser

We use two strictly necessary cookies: one keeps you signed in and one carries a short message (such as "saved") from one page to the next. We do not use advertising or analytics cookies. On the order page your browser's time zone is used in your browser to work out roughly how far each location is from you; it is not sent to us.

11. Changes to this policy

We update this page when our practice changes and show the date at the top. Continuing to use the service after a change means the updated policy applies.

12. Contact

For any question about your data, or to use any of the rights above, contact us using the support details on our website.