privacy

what we log, what we do not, and how we handle legal requests


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what we run

Detrace hosts a set of independent, self-hosted alternatives to common services (search, translation, video/image/wiki/qa front-ends, chat, a downloader, a paste service, a password manager, a DNS resolver, and a file archive). All of it runs on infrastructure we control, not rented from a third party platform. The full list is on the home page.

services that log nothing

The following do not keep request logs, query logs, or any record tying an IP address to what was searched, downloaded, translated, or pasted:

search.detrace.org, bin.detrace.org, dl.detrace.org, translate.detrace.org, so.detrace.org, qa.detrace.org, img.detrace.org, wiki.detrace.org, movie.detrace.org, tt.detrace.org, rss.detrace.org, dns.detrace.org (query logging and stats are both explicitly disabled), video.detrace.org

Our reverse proxy (Caddy, the thing sitting in front of every service above) is not configured to write access logs either. There is no central place where "who requested what" is written down.

services that log something, but it gets wiped

A few services keep a short-lived cache or record for the service to actually function, and that data is automatically deleted on a timer, not kept indefinitely:

img.detrace.org, qa.detrace.org, wiki.detrace.org, movie.detrace.org cache recent API responses and media in memory (Redis) for about an hour to avoid re-fetching the same thing repeatedly. This is a performance cache, not a log of who asked for it, and it clears itself automatically.

xmpp.detrace.org keeps a message history (so your chat client can sync messages across devices) for 7 days, then it is automatically deleted. This applies to your own conversations, not a separate surveillance log.

the one that does not auto-delete

Matrix chat (chat.detrace.org, invite-only) works differently by protocol design: message history is stored on the server so it can sync across your devices and so group chats work at all. It is not automatically wiped the way the XMPP archive is. You can delete/redact your own messages, and we will not read your conversations, but we want to be honest that this data exists on disk until removed, unlike everything else on this page.

archive.detrace.org and vault.detrace.org are storage services by design, not logs: the archive exists to keep files/websites people asked us to preserve, and Vaultwarden stores your own encrypted password vault. Neither is "logging" in the surveillance sense, both are things you put there on purpose and can remove.

what about Cloudflare

Most of these domains sit behind Cloudflare for DDoS protection. Like any CDN in front of a website, Cloudflare sees basic connection metadata (IP, timing) for traffic it proxies. That is outside our control and true of nearly every website on the internet behind a CDN. We are telling you this rather than pretending it does not exist.

law enforcement

We comply with valid legal process. If you are law enforcement with a proper legal request, contact us at legal [AT] detrace.org.

In practice, because most of our services keep no logs at all, there is usually nothing to hand over: we cannot produce records we never created. The exceptions are the Matrix chat server (message history is stored, as explained above) and the short-lived caches/XMPP archive described above, which may exist for a limited window before they are wiped on their own.


General inquiries: contact [AT] detrace.org
Legal / law enforcement: legal [AT] detrace.org


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