What we store, and why

Who is responsible

The data described on this page is handled by Mustafa Pat, who operates EduFabTech (see Who runs this site). Questions about your data go through the contact form.

Reading the site

You can read everything published here without an account. Server logs record the request, the time and the IP address for security and abuse handling, and are kept for a limited period.

Links in an article's Sources box go through a short address on this site (/go/…) before they open the source. We count how many times each source is opened per day — only that number. No IP address, cookie or account is stored with the count, and nothing is passed to the source's website beyond the normal visit.

Accounts

If you create an account we store your email address, your username, a hashed password and a display name (your username until you change it) — nothing else is required. We email you a link to choose your password; that link also confirms the address and works for 24 hours. Optionally, you can tell us what you do (for example “university student”) and your year of birth — only the year, never the full date. Both are shown to no one, are used only to understand in aggregate who reads the site, can be cleared at any time in your account, and are deleted when you close it. Your account carries no location unless you add one yourself in the travel and hosting profile described below; a listing you publish carries the country and city you chose for that listing, and you can change or remove it at any time.

You stay signed in until you sign out. When you sign in, your browser keeps a random sign-in key; we store only a scrambled version of it, never the key itself. Signing out deletes it. Changing your password, or using “Sign out on all other devices” in your account, signs out every other device.

For each device you are signed in on, we keep a short name made from your browser and system — for example “Chrome on Windows” — and when it was last used, so that you can see your devices and sign any of them out from your account. We do not keep your browser’s full details or the device’s IP address for this. When you sign in while another device is still signed in, we tell you on screen, in your notifications and by email, so that a sign-in you did not make does not go unnoticed.

Cookies

Only what is strictly necessary: signing you in, protecting forms, and remembering the choice you made on the cookie page. Every single one is listed by name, with what it does and how long it lives, on the cookies page.

What we do not do

No advertising trackers, no third-party analytics scripts, no selling or sharing of personal data. Pages are rendered on the server, so there is nothing loading in the background that we have not told you about.

When you use the contact form or report a listing without an account, you answer one short question and your browser does about a second of arithmetic in the background, to show that a person, not a program, is writing — nothing is sent to anyone else. We keep only a scrambled fingerprint of the form for one day, so the same form cannot be sent twice; it says nothing about you. A message that looks like advertising is filed as spam rather than refused, and a person can still read it.

A contact message from someone without an account reaches us only after they confirm it from the email address they gave: we send one email there with a confirmation link and nothing else in it. We look up whether the address's domain can receive mail at all. A message that is not confirmed is deleted unread after seven days. Once an address is confirmed, messages from it arrive without a new link for 180 days — we keep no separate list for that; the confirmed message itself is the record, and deleting it ends it.

Listings

A published listing contains what you put in it: title, description, price, category, the country and city you chose, photographs, whether you posted as a person or as a business, and the contact method you picked. A listing is public and can be found by search engines.

The contact detail itself is different: it is shown only to a signed-in member who asks for it, and it is never part of the page’s source, so it cannot be collected in bulk. If you choose to be contacted through messages on EduFabTech, no contact detail is published at all.

You can also pin a listing on a map. We store the exact point you pin, but only you see it, when you edit the listing. Everyone else sees an area of about 400 metres around it, whose centre we move by a random distance once, when you save — unless you post as a business, whose address is public anyway; then the pin is shown exactly. Distances such as “about 4 km away” are measured from that area, not from your pin.

An event also carries its date, time and time zone, whether it happens in person or online, and — only if you give them — the venue and its address. Those are public, like the rest of the listing. An online event has no pin of its own: if you give a city, it is shown at that city’s centre. “Add to calendar” builds a calendar file from the public listing when someone asks for it; nothing about who downloads it is kept.

A space to rent can also carry how many people it fits, its opening hours, its equipment and what it has (Wi-Fi, step-free access and so on) — only what you fill in, and public like the rest of the listing.

Maps are drawn from OpenStreetMap tiles that our server fetches and keeps, so your browser never contacts OpenStreetMap and your IP address is not passed on. If you search an address while pinning, our server sends the text you typed — nothing about you — to OpenStreetMap’s address service (Nominatim), and keeps the text and the answer for 30 days — without any link to who searched — so the same search is not sent twice. “Use my location” asks your browser, which asks you first; the point is used only to place the pin and is not stored unless you save the listing with it.

Photographs are re-encoded on our server, which removes the camera information they carry — including where the photo was taken. We store the IP address a listing was posted from, for abuse handling only.

A listing ends after seven days (an event, when it ends) and is deleted, with its photographs, thirty days later. We process no payments and never ask for card or bank details. If you report a listing without an account and leave an address so we can reply, we delete that address within 90 days.

Messages

Members can send each other private messages, usually about a listing. A message is stored on our server so that both of you can read it. It is not end-to-end encrypted, but nobody at EduFabTech reads your messages — the site has no screen for doing so. The one exception is a message that is reported, described below.

A message cannot be edited or taken back once it is sent. We store what you write, when you sent it, which listing the conversation is about and how far each of you has read. We do not keep a record of the IP address each message was sent from, and the other member is never shown whether or when you read their message.

When a message is shown to the person who received it, the site checks it for the signs of the most common scams — being asked to pay in advance, to share a code you were sent, or to move to another app — and shows a warning under it. The check runs only while the page is shown to the recipient; its result is not stored and nobody else sees it.

Alerts about new messages, on your device or by email, only say that a message is waiting. They never contain the message, the sender’s name, the listing or anyone’s contact details. You can turn the emails off in your message settings.

If you report a message, a moderator sees that message and up to ten messages before it in the same conversation, from both of you — nothing else. That copy is kept while the report is open and for 180 days after it is closed, then deleted. Every time a moderator opens a report, that is logged.

If you block a member, neither of you can message the other, and they can no longer see the contact details on your listings. They are not told. We store only that you blocked them, with no reason, until you unblock them or one of you closes the account.

Deleting a conversation removes it from your inbox; the other member keeps their copy. A message is erased from our server once both of you have deleted it. A first message that was never answered is erased after 30 days, and every conversation is erased twelve months after its last message. Copies can remain in our server backups for a limited time after that.

Stay records

If you and another member keep a stay record, we store which listing it is about, the listing’s title and city as they were when you confirmed, which of you is the guest and which the host, the arriving and leaving days, and when each of you proposed, confirmed, cancelled or said the stay did not happen. A stay record contains no price, no payment, no number of people and no address, and we keep no IP address for any of it.

Only the two of you can see a stay record — in your conversation and on your stays page. It is not on your profile, on the listing, in search or visible to other members, and the site has no screen for staff to look at stay records. The reviews you write after a stay are public — see Stay reviews — but the record itself is not. A moderator sees a line about a stay only if it is among the messages you share by reporting one. Each step also appears as a short line in your conversation; alerts about it only say that something is waiting — never the dates or the place.

Dates that were proposed but never confirmed are deleted 30 days after they lapsed or were withdrawn or declined; a stay that was cancelled, replaced by new dates or set aside, 30 days after that; and a confirmed stay twelve months after its leaving day — even if the conversation is deleted sooner. If a published review rests on a confirmed stay, the stay is kept for as long as that review is shown. Copies can remain in our server backups for a limited time after that.

Stay reviews

After a stay you both confirmed, the guest can review the host and the host can review the guest, for 14 days after the leaving day. We store the star rating, the text, which stay it is about and when it was written — no IP address. Reviews are blind: until both of you have written yours, or the 14 days are over, nobody can read either review — not the other member, not other members and not our staff. Then both are published together and cannot be changed or taken back.

A published review appears on the profile of the member it is about, with the reviewer’s name and the month of the stay — never the exact dates. A guest’s review of a host also appears on that listing’s page, with the listing’s title. If one of you said the stay did not happen and the other did not, that is not shown anywhere; if you both said so, neither review is shown.

Signed-in members can report a published review. Moderators then see the review, its rating, the month of the stay and the listing’s title — not the stay’s dates or your conversation. They can remove a review that breaks the rules (its author is told which rule) or set the stay aside if it appears not to have happened (both of you are told why, and neither review is shown). Alerts about reviews only say that something is waiting — never the place, the dates or a name.

Notifications

If you turn on device notifications, we store the address your browser gives us for that one browser, the two keys needed to encrypt messages to it, and the sections you picked. We do not learn your device, your phone number or your location from it, and the message itself is encrypted end to end — the push service that carries it cannot read the text. Turning it off, in the browser or on the notifications page, deletes the record.

Email

We keep a copy of each email we send you — sign-in links, alerts, the newsletter — for 30 days, so that we can see whether it was delivered, and then delete it.

Newsletter

A subscription stores the address, the sections you chose and how often you want it. Nothing is sent until you confirm the address; an address that is not confirmed within 7 days is deleted. When you create an account, the newsletter box is ticked for you — untick it if you do not want it, and every email carries a link that stops it in one click. Unsubscribing deletes nothing else about you.

Travel and hosting profile

If you want to host other members or travel with them, you fill in a travel and hosting profile in your account: your gender, your year of birth, what you do, the languages you speak, the city or district you live in, and a confirmation that you are 18 or older. We ask for the city or district only — never a street or an address. If you would like to host, you can also write a home card: where a guest would sleep, who lives at home, your house rules, how many guests and nights you can manage, and whom you would like to host.

None of this is part of your public profile, and none of it is visible to visitors or to search engines. Signed-in members see it only where you choose to take part, and then in a reduced form: an age range (for example 25–34) instead of your year of birth, and never an address. A home card you have not opened to guests is shown to no one. We use the city you live in to show you travellers coming your way; it does not appear on a trip you announce. Moderators do not browse these profiles; they see one only when it is part of a report.

Trips. When you announce a trip, every signed-in member can see it: the cities or districts you are going to and the days, how many of you are travelling, what you are open to, your note, the country you are travelling from, your languages, and for each traveller the gender, an age range and what they do. Your own details come from your travel profile and cannot be different on a trip; for the people travelling with you, you give only gender, age range and what they do — no names. Visitors who are not signed in see only how many trips are announced for a city and the month, never who. Members you have blocked, and members who have blocked you, do not see your trips. You can close or delete a trip at any time; a trip is deleted 90 days after its last day.

Offers. When you offer to host, meet or invite a traveller, only that traveller sees your offer: your message, what you are offering, your gender, age range and what you do, your languages, the city you live in and, if you offer a place to stay, your home card. No other member can see who has made offers for a trip, or how many. If the traveller accepts, a conversation opens between the two of you and your message becomes its first message; if they decline, nothing opens. Moderators read an offer only when the traveller reports it. You can withdraw an offer until it is answered. An offer that was declined or withdrawn is deleted after 30 days; the others go when the trip is deleted.

Calendar. Your calendar puts your trips, the offers that were accepted, your confirmed stays and your own events on one page, together with the days you mark as available or not available and the short note you may add to them. Only you can see your calendar: no other member, and no moderator, sees the days you marked or your notes. We read those days only to decide what to show and send to you — for example, to remind you on a trip page that you marked those days as taken. A day you marked is deleted 90 days after it has passed, and you can remove it at any time.

You can change every part of it, close your home card or delete it at any time. Closing your account deletes all of it.

Profile photo

A profile photo is optional. The crop happens in your browser; we then re-encode the result as a small square image, so the original file and its hidden details (camera, date, location) are never kept. It is shown next to your name. Removing it, or closing your account, deletes the file.

Signing in with another account

You can sign in with Google, Apple, Microsoft, LinkedIn, GitHub, Discord or Facebook. When you choose one, that service tells us your name, your email address, whether it has confirmed that address, and a permanent account number it gives our site. We keep only the service's name, the account number and the email address, to recognise you next time; your name is used once to fill in your display name, which you can change. We never see your password there and we get no access to your mail, contacts, posts or files, and we post nothing on your behalf. We only accept an email address the service has confirmed. You can disconnect any of them from your account at any time, as long as you keep at least one way to sign in, and closing your account deletes every link. If you use Apple's “Hide My Email”, we only ever see the private relay address Apple creates for us, and our emails reach you through Apple.

Passkeys

A passkey lets you sign in with your fingerprint, face or screen lock. The private key and anything biometric never leave your device; we store only the public half of the key, a counter, the date it was added and a name such as “Chrome on Windows”. You can remove a passkey from your account at any time, and closing your account deletes them all.

Signing in with an email code

If you ask for a sign-in code, we email a 6-digit code to the address you typed. We keep only a scrambled copy of the code for 10 minutes, tied to the browser that asked for it, and delete the record within a day. We do not store the address you typed; if it has no account, no email is sent and the screen looks the same, so nobody can use this form to find out who is a member.

Invitations

Every member has a personal invite link. If you join through one, we record which member invited you and when. The inviting member sees only how many people joined with their link — never who. Closing your account deletes this record.

Polls

A vote stores which member voted, so that one account cannot vote twice. Published results are aggregate only — individual votes are never shown.

Your control

You can edit your name, profile photo and bio at any time from your account, and you can close your account from the same page. Closing is immediate and cannot be undone. You can edit, renew or take down your own listings whenever you like. You can mute or delete any conversation, block any member, and choose who may start a conversation with you in your message settings. You can withdraw or decline proposed stay dates at any time, and cancel a confirmed stay until the day before arrival, from your conversation or your stays page.

Closing deletes your email address, name, username, password, profile photo and bio, your travel and hosting profile, home card, trips and the offers you made, the days you marked in your calendar, who invited you, your connected accounts and passkeys, along with your notifications, saved searches, follows, newsletter subscription, your listings and their photographs, your copy of every conversation, stay dates that were never confirmed and stays that were cancelled, replaced or set aside, the members you blocked and who blocked you, our record of the emails we sent you, and any browsers you had turned notifications on in. You are signed out everywhere and the account can never be used again.

Five things deliberately stay. Forum topics and replies you posted remain where they are, shown as “Removed account” — removing your words from other people's conversations would take their side of the discussion with them. Your poll votes stay counted, with nothing linking them to you; published results are meant to be citable, so they must not change after the fact. Messages you sent stay in the other member’s copy of each conversation, shown as “Removed account”, until they delete it or twelve months pass without a new message — that conversation is their record as much as yours, and it may be what protects them if something went wrong. And a stay you confirmed with another member stays on their stays page — the listing’s title, the dates and when each of you confirmed — shown as “Removed account”, until twelve months after the leaving day, until they cancel it before arrival, or until it is set aside because you both said it did not happen; it is their record as much as yours, and closing an account must not undo dates you both confirmed. If they have closed their account too, it is deleted. A stay review you wrote stays on the other member’s profile — and, if you were the guest, on the listing — shown as “Removed account”, because other members may rely on it; reviews written about you are no longer shown anywhere, because your profile is gone. Messages of yours that are part of a report — the reported message and up to ten before it, including in a report you made yourself — also stay with that report until 180 days after it is closed. Your name and account are removed from all of these, but anything you wrote inside a post or a message — a phone number, for example — stays as you wrote it.

If you would rather have your email address changed than close the account, or you want something else removed, ask us.

Contact

Questions about any of this: get in touch.