Privacy policy.

1. Who is responsible

Buy The Time operates this registry and is the data controller for the personal data described here. For any privacy matter, write to privacy@buythetime.co. We answer within 30 days.

2. What we collect

Account data. Your email address, and a password only if you choose to set one. Sign-in links are sent to that address.

Record data. The display name, message, link, dedication, custom address, and any photo, video, or audio you attach to a minute. This content is public by design — see section 4.

Payment data. Our payment provider processes your card details. We never see or store the card number. We store the amount, the currency, the status, and the provider's transaction identifier.

Technical data. Server logs with IP address, browser type, and requested page, kept for security and abuse prevention. Your chosen time zone is stored in your browser only, not on our servers.

3. Why we process it and on what basis

To create and keep your record and your account, and to take payment: performance of a contract (Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR). To keep the registry secure, prevent abuse, and handle reports: legitimate interest (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR). To keep accounting documents for the period required by tax law: legal obligation (Art. 6(1)(c) GDPR). Optional AI-generated historical context and optional media uploads are processed on your consent, given when you select them (Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR).

4. What becomes public

A claimed minute is a public record. Its display name, message, link, dedication, and media are visible to every visitor and to search engines, and may appear in AI summaries of the web. Your email address, your payment data, and your account details are never published. Do not put anything into a record that you would not want to be permanently public.

5. Who processes data for us

Hosting, database, authentication, and file storage run on our cloud infrastructure provider. Payments are handled by Stripe. AI-generated context, when you request it, is produced by a language-model provider that receives only the date of the minute and no personal data. Each of these acts as a processor under a data processing agreement. Some of them operate servers outside the EU; transfers rely on the European Commission's standard contractual clauses.

6. How long we keep it

Public record content is kept for the lifetime of the project, because permanence is the purpose of the registry. Account data is kept until you delete your account. Payment and invoicing records are kept for the retention period required by tax law. Server logs are kept for up to 12 months. Edit history of a record is kept as long as the record exists, so that changes stay auditable.

7. Your rights

You have the right of access, rectification, erasure, restriction, objection, and data portability, and the right to withdraw consent at any time. If you ask for erasure, we remove your display name, message, link, and media, and the minute stays in the timeline as an anonymised, content-less record — the timeline itself has no personal data in it. Write to privacy@buythetime.co. You can also lodge a complaint with your national data protection authority.

8. Cookies and local storage

We use only what the site needs to work: a sign-in session cookie and local storage for your chosen time zone and unsaved form content. We run no advertising or cross-site tracking. See the cookie policy for the full list.

9. Children

The registry is not intended for children under 16. We do not knowingly create accounts or records for them. If you believe a child has submitted personal data, write to us and we will remove it.

10. Changes

We revise this policy as the registry evolves and update the date above. For material changes, we notify account holders by email.