Privacy notice: A.L.E.X. & helpdesks

The detailed, step-by-step notice for PIR's Discord helper and helpdesks. PIR's org-wide privacy policy (websites, email, store, AI helpers) is at psychedelicsinrecovery/.github/privacy-policy.md. Questions or deletion requests: helpdesk@psychedelicsinrecovery.org.

What A.L.E.X. can and can't see

• A.L.E.X. runs as a Discord application (HTTP interactions), not a user account.
• It can't read channels, threads or DMs, with one clearly marked exception. Everywhere else it only receives what you type into its own commands (/ask, /litcom, /techcom, /github, /mod, …), forms and buttons.
• The one exception: the ask-alex channel's conversation mode. When PIR switches it on, A.L.E.X. reads messages posted in that single channel only, so you can talk to it without commands. Each message is handled exactly like /ask (safety check first, public materials only, no name or Discord ID sent to the model) and is not stored. Every other channel, thread and DM stays unreadable. The channel's pinned message always says whether conversation mode is on.
• With every interaction, Discord sends A.L.E.X. your user ID, server and channel IDs, your roles in that server, and the text you entered.

Step by step

/ask, the chat panel, and the ask-alex channel

1. A safety check runs first, on the text alone.
   • If it sounds like a crisis, you immediately get a private message with crisis resources. No AI is involved.
   • If PIR has set up a support role, its members get a notice in a private channel that you may need support. What you wrote is never included.
   • If it asks for dosing, sourcing or medical advice, you get a fixed, kind refusal.
2. Otherwise, your question is matched against PIR's public materials.
3. The question text and the matching excerpts go to an AI model to write a sourced answer: during our pilot, open models hosted by NVIDIA; once approved by TechCom, Anthropic's Claude (API, which Anthropic does not use for training by default). Your name and Discord ID are never sent to the model.
4. The answer appears in the channel (or privately, if you chose private).
5. Nothing you typed is stored. We keep only anonymous counts, such as "a question was answered" or "".

Helpdesk tickets

1. You fill in a short form: subject, details, urgency.
2. A private thread opens that only you, the committee team and server moderators can see.
3. For committee desks, a record is also created in that committee's private GitHub repository:
   • your subject, details and urgency;
   • a link to the thread;
   • a pseudonymous tag derived from your Discord ID with a secret key. The raw ID is never written there.
4. Moderation reports stay inside Discord. They're never copied to GitHub.
5. To check status, /ticket <id> works only for you and the committee.

The web desk (portal.html)

• Email sign-in: we email a one-time link (valid 15 minutes, usable once) through PIR's email provider (Resend or Brevo). We don't store your email address. Your tickets are matched by the same scrambled tag Discord tickets use, made from your address.
• Sessions last 7 days and live only in your browser (localStorage, not a cookie). Signing out removes them.
• Tickets you open on the web become a private GitHub issue for the committee and a private Discord thread so they're notified. You see their replies and answer them on the web desk.
• Crisis language gets crisis resources instead of a ticket, exactly like /ask.

Who processes data

Retention & your rights

• /ask: nothing stored.
• Tickets: kept while useful to the committee, then archived.
• You can ask for your tickets to be deleted at any time: helpdesk@psychedelicsinrecovery.org.

Not a crisis service

A.L.E.X. is an automated helper. In an emergency, contact local emergency services. In the US, call or text 988.