1. Introduction

This Privacy Policy describes how apoptoses ("we", "us", "our") collects, uses, and protects information when you visit apoptoses.com and its subdomains (collectively, "the Site"). By using the Site, you agree to the practices described here.

2. Information We Collect

We collect minimal information to operate the Site:

• Server Access Logs — IP addresses, request timestamps, pages visited, HTTP status codes, and user-agent strings. These are used for security monitoring, rate limiting, and debugging.
• Contact Form Submissions — If you use the contact form, we collect your name, email address, subject, and message content to respond to your inquiry.
• Bot Verification Requests (/verify) — If you click an opt-in verification link generated by our apoptotic Discord bot, your browser visits apoptoses.com/verify with an HMAC-signed token issued by the bot. The endpoint computes a salted SHA-256 hash of your IP address and sends only that hash (together with the token's Discord user ID) back to the bot so it can detect alt accounts that share an IP within the same server. Your raw IP address is never stored by the verification endpoint and never leaves the request that produced the hash. Tokens are single-use and time-limited; reused tokens are rejected.

We do not collect or store:

• Passwords or financial information
• Tracking profiles or behavioral analytics
• Raw IP addresses tied to bot-verification flows (only a salted hash is shared)
• Personal data beyond what is listed above

3. Third-Party Advertising

We use Google AdSense to display advertisements on the Site. Google AdSense may use cookies and similar technologies to serve ads based on your prior visits to this Site or other websites. Specifically:

• Google uses cookies (such as the DoubleClick cookie) to serve ads based on your visits to this Site and other sites on the Internet.
• You may opt out of personalized advertising by visiting Google Ads Settings.
• You may opt out of third-party vendor cookies for personalized advertising by visiting aboutads.info.

For users in the European Economic Area (EEA), the United Kingdom, and Switzerland, a consent dialog is shown before any personalized ads are served, in compliance with GDPR.

The consent dialog is provided by Google Funding Choices, Google's publisher-managed Consent Management Platform. It runs entirely client-side from /js/consent.js, which loads the official fundingchoicesmessages.google.com script. The dialog only appears in regions where consent is legally required; choices are stored by Google and respected on subsequent visits. You can change or withdraw your consent at any time via the "Privacy & cookies" link Google's tag injects into the page footer when applicable.

4. Cookies

The Site uses cookies for the following purposes:

• Preferences — We store your selected theme and accent color in localStorage (not transmitted to our servers).
• Advertising — Google AdSense sets cookies to serve and measure advertisements. See Section 3 for details and opt-out options.

We do not use cookies for analytics or user tracking beyond what is described above.

5. Data Security

We take reasonable measures to protect information transmitted to and from the Site, including:

• HTTPS encryption on all connections
• Strict Content Security Policy (CSP) headers
• Rate limiting to prevent abuse
• HSTS (HTTP Strict Transport Security) in production

No method of transmission over the Internet is 100% secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.

6. Data Retention

Server access logs are retained for security and operational purposes and are periodically purged. Contact form submissions are retained only as long as necessary to respond to your inquiry.

7. apoptotic Discord Bot

Our apoptotic Discord bot is a separate service with its own Privacy Policy and Terms of Service that cover what the bot stores about Discord servers it has been added to (moderation logs, AutoMod rules, leveling XP, counting state, configured log channels, BMC membership records, etc.).

The only point at which the bot interacts with this website is the /verify endpoint described in Section 2. Visiting that link is always voluntary and is initiated by a server administrator's /verify command in Discord; it is not used for general site visitors.

8. Your Rights

Depending on your jurisdiction, you may have the right to:

• Request access to the personal data we hold about you
• Request deletion of your personal data
• Opt out of personalized advertising (see Section 3)
• Withdraw consent for data processing at any time

To exercise any of these rights, please use the contact form.

9. Children's Privacy

The Site is not directed at children under 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you believe a child has provided personal data to us, please contact us for removal.

10. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. Changes will be reflected on this page with an updated "Last updated" date. Continued use of the Site after changes constitutes acceptance of the updated policy.

11. Contact

If you have questions about this Privacy Policy or wish to exercise your data rights, please reach out via the contact form.