Privacy Policy
Ask Thy Monk is a bilingual question-and-answer website that returns short reflections drawn from an indexed collection of talks. This policy explains what happens to your information when you use the website. We have designed the service to collect as little as possible: there are no accounts, and we do not ask for your name, email, or any identifying details.
Your questions and conversation
When you ask a question, the text of that question — and, for context, up to your last four question-and-answer turns from the current session — is sent to our backend to generate an answer. To do this, the backend uses third-party AI services: a language model provider (OpenAI) to compose the answer and a vector-search service (Pinecone) to find relevant passages. Your question text is processed by these providers under their own privacy terms.
We do not create a server-side record of your conversations. Your conversation history lives only in your browser for the duration of your visit and is discarded when you close or refresh the page. Your IP address is processed transiently to enforce rate limits and prevent abuse; it is not used to build a profile of you.
Voice input (please read)
Voice input is optional — typing is always available and equally supported. If you choose to speak your question, the site uses your browser's built-in speech recognition (the Web Speech API). This is an important difference from a mobile app:
Depending on which browser you use, your audio may be sent to the browser vendor's servers to be transcribed into text — for example, to Google in Google Chrome, or to Apple in Safari — and is handled there under that vendor's privacy policy. This transcription is performed by your browser, not by us; we receive only the resulting text, which is then treated exactly like a typed question. Some browsers (for example Firefox) do not offer speech recognition at all, and on an iPhone the installed home-screen version of the site cannot use voice; in those cases you simply type instead.
Voice output
Answers can optionally be read aloud using your browser or device's built-in speech synthesis. On most browsers this is handled on your device. No audio of you is captured for this feature.
Storage on your device
We store a single preference — your chosen language (Hindi or English) — in your browser's local storage so the site remembers it on your next visit. We do not use tracking or advertising cookies.
Hosting and logs
The website is served by Cloudflare Pages, and the backend runs on a cloud host. As with any website, these providers may process standard technical logs (such as IP address and request time) for security, reliability, and abuse prevention.
Advertising
The site currently serves no advertising and runs no ad-network code. Should that change, this policy will be updated first, and ads would appear only on general informational pages — never within the chat itself.
A note on well-being
If a message appears to express serious distress, the site may respond with supportive text and mental-health helpline information instead of a usual reflection. Ask Thy Monk is not a medical or crisis service and is not a substitute for professional help.
Children
The service is intended for a general adult audience and is not directed at children.
Changes
We may update this policy from time to time; the "last updated" date above reflects the current version.
Governing law
The service is operated from India, and this policy is written with India's Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 (the DPDP Act) in mind. If you believe your information has not been handled in line with this policy, you may contact us at the address below, and — where the DPDP Act applies — you may also raise the matter with the relevant data-protection authority.
Contact
Questions about privacy, or a request regarding your information? Contact timelesscrossingofficial@gmail.com.