Privacy at Search by Hottub
You can search without an account, and signed-out searches set no cookies. This page lists everything Search keeps, for how long, and why.
Last updated 1 November 2026.
What Search keeps
| What | How long | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Your API account and keys: each key’s name, when it was made and last used, a scrambled copy of the key (never the key itself), your plan, monthly limit and billing status | While you use the API; after your account closes, kept with the billing records | Running your keys and your plan. |
| Counts of the searches each API key made: per day, per part of the API, and what they cost | Kept as billing records, also after an account closes | Billing and limits. The words searched are not stored with the key. |
| A salted digest of your network address (never the address itself), for calls without a key | 2 days | Counting the 50 free searches a day. |
| A salted hash of your network address, in our servers’ memory | Up to a minute for speed limits; until midnight (UTC) for the results pages’ daily limit; up to 30 minutes after you click a sponsored answer | Keeping limits fair, and stopping repeated clicks from billing an advertiser twice. Never written to disk. |
Sign-in cookie, __Host-hottub_tech_session | 7 days | Keeping you signed in on hottub.tech. Set only when you sign in. |
Sign-in attempt cookie, __Host-hottub_tech_signin | 10 minutes | Finishing a sign-in safely. Set only when you choose Sign in. |
| Your sign-in record: your Hottub account and a scrambled copy of the session key. No network address and no browser details. | 7 days | Keeping you signed in. Your name is read from your Hottub account, not copied. |
| A watch made with a key: what it watches, its label and filter words, and any changes it found | Until you delete it. It can outlast a closed account. | Watches aren’t open on hottub.tech yet, so none can be made here. |
| When you click a sponsored answer: the advertiser’s keyword that matched, what the advertiser paid, and when | Kept with the advertiser’s billing records | Billing the advertiser. Never who clicked or the rest of the search. |
| Web server logs: the time, the address asked for without the part after “?” (where search words go), the answer’s status and how long it took | 14 days | Keeping the service running. They hold no network address and no browser details. |
| The words you search for, in our logs | Not recorded | Our web server, search service and load balancer keep no record of them. A sponsored click’s matched keyword (above) is the one record that can hold a word you searched. |
| Your searches, sent to a web search engine | Never | We don’t send them to Google, Bing, Brave or any other web search engine. |
| Cookies on signed-out searches | Never set | Searching needs no account and no cookie. |
| Your approximate city, from your network, for a website search that needs a place | Used for that search, not saved | Only when a search like “coffee near me” needs a place. Put a town in your search to skip it. |
| Your location, worked out from your network address, in the API | Never | Pass a location yourself if you want local results. |
| An advertising profile of you | Never built | Sponsored answers match the search, not the person. |
Searching signed out
In short: no account, no cookies, no profile.
Search works without an account. Results pages set no cookies and load no third-party scripts, trackers or fonts.
For a search that needs a place, like “coffee near me” or “weather”, the results page uses the approximate city that our network provider, Cloudflare, links to your connection (in the United States only). It is used for that one search and never stored or logged, and a page that used it is never kept in a shared cache. Put a town in your search to skip this.
A results page that is the same for everyone may be kept by Cloudflare for up to about five minutes and shown to anyone who opens the same address. The address holds the search words, so the copy does too, but nothing about who asked. Pages that used your location, carry a sponsored answer or came back incomplete are never kept.
Public services we ask
In short: some searches ask public services for facts, with nothing about you.
We don’t send your searches to Google, Bing, Brave or any other web search engine. Search answers from its own index and from Hottub’s own services (the Hottub Directory, Hottub News and Hottub FM).
For some searches our servers also ask public services, with nothing about you: the U.S. National Weather Service and U.S. Geological Survey get a location (for weather and local conditions), the U.S. Census Bureau gets event venues’ street addresses (for the map), and Socrata, which hosts many governments’ open data, gets the civic topic, up to two more of your words and the government’s site (for searches like “Seattle building permits”).
The API and keys
In short: a key keeps counts, not what was searched.
With a key we keep counts, not searches: for each key, how many calls it made each day, to which part of the API, and what they cost. These are billing records and are kept, also after an account is closed. We never store the words of a search made with a key. The exception is a watch. Watches aren’t open on hottub.tech yet, so none can be made here; one that already exists keeps what you asked it to watch, its label and filter words, and any changes it found until you delete it, and it can outlast a closed account.
Without a key, we keep a salted digest of your network address for two days, to count the 50 free searches a day.
The API never works out your location from your network address: send location or near when you want local results.
Signing in
In short: you sign in with your Hottub account on joinhottub.com; hottub.tech never sees your password.
Sign-in happens on Hottub’s account page, where your password and passkeys live. hottub.tech uses the sign-in once, to learn which Hottub account you are, then cancels that access; Hottub remembers that you allowed hottub.tech, so you aren’t asked again.
When you sign in we keep a sign-in record: your Hottub account and a scrambled copy of the session key. It keeps no network address and no browser details, and your name is read from your Hottub account when it is shown, not copied. A sign-in lasts 7 days. Its record is deleted within a day after that, or sooner if you sign out, sign in again in the same browser, use “Sign out everywhere else” on joinhottub.com, change or reset your password, change your email or delete your account.
Your Hottub account itself is covered by Hottub’s Privacy Policy, published at joinhottub.com/privacy.
Paying
In short: Stripe handles cards; we see what you bought, not your card number.
Paid plans are billed by Stripe once a month. Your card details go to Stripe, under Stripe’s privacy policy.
Sponsored answers and buy links
In short: ads match the search, not you; buy links go straight to the shop’s network.
Sponsored answers aren’t shown on hottub.tech yet. When they are, each is labelled and chosen by what was searched, and showing one records nothing. If you click one, we record that the advertiser’s keyword was clicked, what the advertiser paid and when, never who clicked or the rest of what you searched. To stop repeated clicks from billing the advertiser twice, a salted hash of your network address is held in memory for up to 30 minutes and never written to disk.
Commerce links, which apps can turn on, go straight to the shop’s affiliate network, never through Hottub; the only tag on them names an API key’s day, never a person or a search.
Feedback
Feedback on results isn’t switched on yet, so none is kept. This page will say what is kept before it is.
Who else handles data
- Cloudflare carries traffic to hottub.tech.
- Amazon Web Services runs Search’s servers, in the United States.
- Stripe handles payments for paid plans.
- Hottub runs the account you sign in with.
Cloudflare can see traffic as it passes through and keeps its own records under Cloudflare’s privacy policy. The public services above get only what that section says. We don’t sell personal data or share it for advertising.
Your choices and rights
Turn off a key at any time on your keys page; it stops working within a minute. To see, correct or delete what Hottub holds about you, or to close your account, write to us; where you live may give you more rights, and we honour them.
Children
Search is open to everyone and asks no one for personal details. API keys need a Hottub account, which is for adults.
Changes and contact
When this page changes, the date at the top changes, and we give notice of important changes. Search by Hottub is run by Hottub, Inc. Questions: privacy@hottub.tech.