What this document covers
Parley ("we", "us", "Parley") is a Discord bot and companion service that translates messages across language channels. This policy explains what data passes through our systems when you or your Discord server use Parley, how long we keep it, and who else sees it. It applies to the Parley bot, the /parley slash command, and this website.
Message content: not stored, but processed live
When a message is posted in a channel you have routed for translation, Parley reads the message text and forwards it — in real time — to a third-party large language model (LLM) provider’s API to produce a translation. This is necessary for the service to work: there is no way to translate a message without its text being sent somewhere for the translation to happen.
We do not save that text anywhere in our own database. The two database tables that touch translation activity — the message-mapping table and the usage-tracking table — contain no message-content column at all. Once the translated message has been posted, the original text is not written to disk, logged, or cached by us; it exists only for the duration of that one translation request.
We want to be direct about the trade-off: real-time translation is only possible if message text travels to the LLM provider that processes it. We do not control how that provider internally handles requests beyond our contract with them, so please avoid posting anything in a translated channel that you would not want passed through a third-party AI service.
What we keep, and for how long
Parley keeps a small amount of operational data, each on its own retention clock:
- Message ID mapping — 24 hours. So that editing or deleting an original message can update its translated copy, and replies can link back correctly, we keep a short-lived record linking a source message ID to its translated message ID, plus timestamps and language codes — never the message text itself. This record is permanently deleted 24 hours after creation; edits or deletes made after that window no longer affect the translated copy.
- Usage records — 1 year. We log a stripped-down usage event for each translation (server ID, route, source/target language, token count, success/failure, and which model handled it). This never includes message text. These records support billing accuracy and fair-use limits, and are automatically deleted after 1 year.
- Server settings and glossary — 30 days after removal. If Parley is removed from your Discord server, we keep your routing configuration and glossary entries for 30 days in case you re-add the bot and want to pick up where you left off. If Parley is not re-added within that window, everything tied to that server is permanently and irreversibly deleted.
Error logs
When something goes wrong — a failed translation, a rejected request, a network error — we log only enough to diagnose the problem: an error category, an HTTP status code, structured identifiers (server, channel, user, and message IDs), a timestamp, and the model name involved. We never log message text, nicknames or other personal details, API keys, or webhook tokens.
Who else processes your data
Running Parley requires working with a small number of outside providers, each handling only what they need to do their part:
- Discord — the platform Parley runs on. Messages, server data, and account information ultimately live on Discord’s infrastructure and are subject to Discord’s own privacy policy.
- Our LLM (AI translation) provider — receives message text in real time solely to produce a translation, as described above.
- Stripe — handles payment processing for Pro subscriptions, including billing, invoicing, tax collection, and payment-related customer support (via Stripe’s Managed Payments). We never see or store your card details.
- Our website and application hosting providers — host the Parley bot process and this website.
We do not sell your data to anyone, and we do not share it with any party beyond this list.
Your rights and how to reach us
You can ask us to explain what data we hold about your server, or request that it be deleted (message-mapping and usage records are already deleted automatically on the schedule above). To exercise any of these rights, reach us through:
- Our official Discord support server: Support server
- Email: {{CONTACT_EMAIL}}
Changes to this policy
If this policy changes in a way that materially affects how we handle your data, we will announce it through our official Discord support server before it takes effect. Continuing to use Parley after a change takes effect means you accept the updated policy.