Privacy Policy

Last updated: November 2, 2026

Last updated: October 2026

1. Information We Collect

Account information — username and email address provided at registration.
Usage data — browsing history, posts, and login logs, used to improve our services and prevent abuse.
Reading behavior — articles you view, click, like, and the time you spend reading them. This powers our content recommendations (see Section 3).
Cookies — used to maintain your login session and remember your preferences. See our cookie notice for details.

2. How We Use Information

We use the information we collect solely to: provide and maintain our services, protect account security, improve user experience, personalize content recommendations, and send essential service notifications. We do not sell your personal information to third parties.

3. Content Recommendations

mitbbs.ai uses an automated recommendation system to personalize the content you see. This is a core part of how the site works — when you visit, you see articles selected for you based on your interests.

What we collect: which articles you view and click, which ones you like, and how long you spend reading. For visitors who are not logged in, we store an anonymous identifier in a cookie (hx_anon) so recommendations still work without an account.
How it works: the system learns which topics, forums, and sources you engage with most, and ranks new articles accordingly. It also considers what's trending overall and how fresh an article is. New visitors see popular trending content until the system learns their preferences.
Notifications: if you opt in to push notifications, we may alert you about new articles matching your interests, breaking news, or a daily digest. You can turn these off at any time.
Data retention: reading behavior records are kept for 90 days, then automatically deleted.
Your control: you can opt out of personalized recommendations and request deletion of your reading history at any time by contacting [email protected]. If you opt out, you will see the same general trending content as everyone else.

4. First-Party Analytics

We run our own privacy-friendly pageview analytics — no third-party trackers, no advertising cookies.

What we collect: the page you visited, when, the referring site (if any), and a hashed visitor identifier derived from your IP address. We never store raw IP addresses, and we do not use cookies for analytics.
How the visitor identifier works: your IP address is combined with a rotating secret and one-way hashed (SHA-256). The hash cannot be reversed to recover your IP address. We keep separate daily, weekly and monthly hashes so we can count new and returning visits; each hash changes when its period ends, so visits cannot be linked together across days, weeks or months.
Do Not Track: we honor the DNT header — if your browser sends DNT: 1, the visit is not logged at all.
Data retention: raw pageview records are deleted after 30 days; only weekly aggregate counts (no per-visit data) are kept, for up to 13 months.

Visitor measurement cookie (hx_vid): we set a first-party cookie named hx_vid for 90 days, used only to measure audience reach and returning visits in aggregate. The identifier is random, is not tied to your identity, and is stored on our servers only as a keyed hash (HMAC-SHA256) — never in raw form. We honor Do Not Track and Global Privacy Control: if your browser sends either signal, this cookie is not set. We also do not set this cookie for visitors located in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom, or Switzerland.

Recommendation cookie (hx_anon): for visitors who are not logged in, we set a first-party cookie named hx_anon for one year, used only so that recommendations work without an account. The identifier is random and is not tied to your identity. We honor Do Not Track and Global Privacy Control: if your browser sends either signal, this cookie is not set. We also do not set this cookie for visitors located in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom, or Switzerland. Recommendation event data is retained for 90 days.

Server access logs: our servers keep standard access logs (including IP address and browser user-agent) for security and operations. These logs are retained for 40 days.

5. Advertising

This site may display third-party advertisements. Ad providers may use cookies to serve personalized ads. You can manage this through your browser settings or our cookie preferences.

6. Data Security

We take reasonable technical measures to protect your data. Please note, however, that no transmission over the Internet can be guaranteed to be absolutely secure.

7. Your Rights

You have the right to access, correct, or delete your personal data. To exercise these rights, please contact [email protected].

8. Privacy Architecture

mitbbs.ai （华人空间） is operated by Superstar Telecom. This section describes our privacy architecture: how visit data is handled, how it is kept from identifying individuals, and how long it is kept.

First-party analytics, no third-party trackers: we run our own pageview analytics with no third-party trackers and no advertising cookies. Analytics records only the page visited, the time, the referring site (if any), and a hashed visitor identifier.

Rotating SHA-256 visitor hashes: we never store raw IP addresses. A visitor IP is combined with a rotating secret and one-way hashed with SHA-256. The hash cannot be reversed to recover the IP. Separate daily, weekly and monthly hashes let us count visits and returning visitors within each period; every hash changes when its period ends, so visits cannot be linked across periods. We honor Do Not Track: a visit with DNT: 1 is not logged at all.

Retention: raw pageview records are deleted after 30 days; weekly aggregate counts (no per-visit data) are kept for up to 13 months; reading-behavior records are deleted automatically after 90 days.

Cookies and control: cookies maintain login sessions and preferences, and store an anonymous identifier (hx_anon) for visitors who are not logged in. We do not sell personal information. Contact [email protected] to opt out of personalized recommendations or request deletion of reading history.

Security and transport: the site is fronted by Cloudflare and browser access uses HTTPS. Operator: Superstar Telecom, 21625 Gresham Dr, Ashburn, VA 20147.

9. Policy Updates

This policy may be updated from time to time. Material changes will be prominently announced on this site.