Effective date: August 15, 2026

Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy explains how Universally Thinking (“we,” “us,” or “our”) collects, uses, stores, and shares information when you use universallythinking.com, including our public ideas community, blog, and related pages (the “Services”).

By creating an account or using the Services, you agree to this Policy. If you do not agree, do not use the Services. Contact us at contact@universallythinking.com.

1. Who we are

Universally Thinking operates a public forum where people can publish inventions, concepts, designs, solutions, and ideas. We are not a law firm, patent office, or patent attorney. This Policy covers personal information we process as operator of the Services.

2. Information we collect

Account information

When you register, we collect your email address, gamertag (nickname), password (stored as a one-way hash, not in plain text), and an optional profile image. You may later update this information or delete your account.

Content you submit

We collect concepts, titles, descriptions, images, tags, categories, comments, votes, and similar content you post. Content you publish on the ideas community is public and may be viewed, copied, indexed, and discussed by anyone.

Membership and administration

We store membership status (for example trial, member, or rejected), whitelist records, invite cookies (such as an ideas invite from a #whitelist link), and admin actions related to approval.

Technical information

We automatically collect limited technical data needed to run the site, such as session cookies, approximate request metadata (for example IP address and browser type as recorded in server logs), and the pages or actions you take while logged in.

Communications

If you email us, we receive whatever you send, including your email address and message content.

We do not require payment card numbers to use the ideas community. If other Universally Thinking properties collect payment data, that processing is described in the notices for those properties and handled by the applicable payment processor.

3. How we use information

We use information to:

• create and authenticate accounts, and keep you logged in;
• publish, display, host, and moderate your public content;
• operate membership, trial-idea, whitelist, and approval workflows;
• provide voting, comments, search, and profile features;
• protect the Services, enforce our Terms of Service, and investigate abuse;
• communicate with you about your account or the Services;
• comply with law and respond to lawful requests; and
• improve the safety, reliability, and operation of the Services.

We do not sell your personal information.

4. Public disclosure of ideas

The ideas community is designed to create a visible, dated, public record of what you choose to publish. Do not post information you want to keep secret. Publishing an invention can affect patent rights, including outside the United States. See our Terms of Service for important patent and legal warnings.

Public posts, comments, gamertags, and profile images associated with public activity may remain accessible even after you stop using the Services, including in caches, search engines, archives, or copies made by other users. If you delete your account, we will delete or de-identify personal account data we control, subject to backups, logs, and legal retention needs. Public historical records may still exist elsewhere.

5. How we share information

We may share information:

• Publicly: content you post, your gamertag, and related public profile details;
• Service providers: hosting, email delivery, security, and similar vendors who process data on our instructions;
• Legal and safety: if required by law, court order, or to protect rights, safety, or the integrity of the Services;
• Business transfers: in connection with a merger, acquisition, financing, or sale of assets, subject to appropriate protections;
• With your direction: if you ask us to, or if a feature you use requires it.

Administrators (including the super admin at benjamin@universallythinking.com) can access account and content information as needed to operate and moderate the Services.

6. Cookies and similar technologies

We use essential cookies and similar storage to keep you signed in, remember that you dismissed the introductory notice, and remember a whitelist invite if you arrived through an invite link. These are necessary for the Services to function as designed. You can block cookies in your browser, but then login and related features may not work.

7. Retention

We keep account information for as long as your account is active. Public posts and comments are kept to maintain the public historical record unless you delete them, we remove them for policy or legal reasons, or you delete your account (which removes content we host that is tied to your account). Server logs are kept only as long as reasonably needed for security and operations. We may retain limited information as required by law or to resolve disputes.

8. Security

We use reasonable administrative and technical measures, including hashed passwords and access controls, to protect personal information. No internet transmission or storage system is completely secure. You are responsible for keeping your password confidential.

9. Your choices and rights

You may:

• access and update your email, gamertag, profile image, and password in Settings;
• delete your own posts and comments where the product allows it;
• delete your account in Settings, which removes your profile and hosted concepts, comments, and votes associated with the account;
• email us to request access, correction, or deletion of personal information we hold, subject to law and the public nature of posted content.

Depending on where you live (including certain U.S. states), you may have additional rights to know, delete, or correct personal information, or to appeal a refusal. To exercise those rights, email contact@universallythinking.com. We will not discriminate against you for exercising privacy rights. We do not sell or share personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising as those terms are commonly defined under U.S. state privacy laws.

10. Children

The Services are not directed to children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you are under 18, you may use the Services only with the involvement of a parent or guardian, and you should not post inventions or personal information without that involvement. If we learn we collected information from a child under 13, we will delete it.

11. International users

The Services are operated from the United States. If you access them from another country, you understand that your information will be processed in the United States, which may have different data-protection rules than your country.

12. Changes

We may update this Policy. The “Effective date” above will change when we do. Material changes may also be posted on the site. Continued use after an update means you accept the revised Policy.

13. Contact

Universally Thinking
Email: contact@universallythinking.com
Admin: benjamin@universallythinking.com

Also see our Terms of Service.