Privacy Policy
Last updated 9 October 2026 · [email protected]
The short version
- You can read everything on our sites without an account. Logging in is optional and only saves your progress.
- If you log in, we keep your name, email address, profile picture and the progress you save. That's all.
- We don't show ads, we don't use analytics or tracking, and we never sell or share your information.
- You can ask us to delete your account and everything in it at any time.
Who we are
SOTA – AI Community (“SOTA”, “we”) is a student-led community for students preparing for the International Olympiad in Artificial Intelligence and anyone learning AI. It is run by volunteers, not a company. This policy covers our websites: sota-ai.org, the IOAI Guide (guide.sota-ai.org), the AI Checklist (checklist.sota-ai.org) and the login service behind them (accounts.sota-ai.org). Our Discord server is covered by Discord’s privacy policy.
Questions about this policy go to [email protected].
What we collect
If you only read
We don’t create a record of you. The sites remember a few things in your own browser so they work the way you left them: the modules and tasks you have marked, light or dark mode, and whether the guide’s sidebar is open. This stays on your device and is never sent to us unless you log in. Our server doesn’t keep logs of who visits.
If you log in
You log in with Discord, Google or GitHub. We never see or store a password. When you log in for the first time, we receive from that service, with your permission:
- your name and profile picture (we keep a copy of the picture),
- your email address,
- the identifier that service uses for your account, so we can recognise you next time.
While you are logged in, we also store:
- Your progress: which guide modules you are reading or have finished, which practice problems you have solved, and the status you give each task in the checklist, with the date of each change.
- When you use your account: the date and time you signed up, each time you log in (and with which service), and when you come back to a site while still logged in.
If you comment
Comments under guide modules and checklist tasks use giscus and are stored as GitHub Discussions in SOTA’s repositories on GitHub. You sign in to GitHub to post, and your comment is public under your GitHub name. GitHub’s privacy statement applies to them.
How we use it
- To keep you logged in across our sites and devices, and to save and sync your progress.
- To show your name and picture in the Log in menu, so you can see which account you’re using.
- To understand how the community uses the sites as a whole: for example, how many members we have, how they log in, and which modules are read most. We use this to decide what to write and fix next.
We don’t send marketing email, we don’t use your information for advertising, and we don’t use it to train AI models.
Information from Google, Discord and GitHub
When you log in with Google, Discord or GitHub, we ask only for your basic profile (name and profile picture) and your email address. We don’t ask for access to your files, contacts, repositories, servers or messages. We use what we receive only to create and identify your SOTA account, as described above, and we don’t share it with anyone.
SOTA’s use and transfer of information received from Google APIs adheres to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements.
You can remove SOTA’s access at any time in your Google account, your Discord settings (Authorized Apps) or your GitHub settings. That stops new logins, but doesn’t delete what we already store; to delete that, see “Your choices” below.
Who can see it
You can see your own account and progress. A few members of SOTA’s founding team can see members’ accounts, progress and login times on a private page that only they can open. Nobody else can. We don’t sell, rent or trade your information, and we don’t share it with other members or other organisations.
We will only disclose information if the law requires us to.
Services we rely on
Running the sites means some other services handle parts of your visit. Each has its own privacy policy.
| Service | What it does for us | What it sees |
|---|---|---|
| Cloudzy | Rents us the server that runs the sites and stores accounts. The server is currently in the United States. | The stored data, as our host |
| Cloudflare | Delivers the sites quickly and protects them from attacks; forwards email sent to [email protected]. | Your IP address and the pages you request |
| Discord, Google, GitHub | Logging in, if you choose to. | That you logged in to SOTA |
| Google Fonts | Serves the typefaces the sites use. | Your IP address |
| GitHub and giscus | Comments under guide modules and checklist tasks. | Your IP address; your comments, if you post |
| Discord | The front page asks Discord for our member count. | Your IP address |
Cookies and browser storage
We use no advertising or tracking cookies. The sites store only what they need to work:
| Name | Kind | Why |
|---|---|---|
sota_auth | Cookie on sota-ai.org, up to 30 days | Keeps you logged in on all three sites. Only set if you log in. |
sota-theme | Cookie on sota-ai.org | Remembers light or dark mode on all three sites. |
| Progress and settings | Local storage in your browser | Your marked modules and tasks, theme and sidebar state. |
Cloudflare may set a cookie of its own when it needs to tell people from automated traffic. Clearing your browser’s data for these sites removes everything above; if you’re logged in, your saved progress is still in your account.
How long we keep it
- Your account, progress and login records: for as long as your account exists.
- Backups of the account database: made daily and kept for 7 days, so a deleted account disappears from backups within a week.
- Error logs from the login service: kept for 7 days, without IP addresses.
Your choices
- Use the sites without an account. Everything except syncing progress works without logging in.
- Log out from the Log in menu. Logging out also clears the copy of your progress in that browser; it stays in your account.
- Get a copy or delete your account. Email [email protected] from the address on your account, or tell us which account it is. We’ll send you a copy of what we hold, or delete your account with all its progress and login records, and confirm when it’s done.
- Correct your details. Your name and picture are copied from Discord, Google or GitHub when you first log in. If they’re out of date or you’d like them changed, email us.
Children
Many of our members are school students. To log in you need a Discord, Google or GitHub account, and those services have their own minimum ages (13 in most countries). If you are a parent or guardian and want your child’s SOTA account deleted, email us and we will delete it.
Security
All our sites use HTTPS. The account database isn’t reachable from the internet except through the login service, its admin dashboard can only be opened from the server itself, and the team’s private page sits behind Cloudflare Access. No system is perfectly secure, but we keep what we store small, so there’s little to lose.
Changes to this policy
If we change this policy, we’ll update the date at the top of this page, and we’ll announce important changes on our Discord server before they take effect.