Privacy and acceptable use
HandleProbe is built to keep as little as it can. Here is exactly what happens to a search, and what the service may be used for.
In short
- Written to disk
- Nothing.
- Held in memory
- Your search and its results, for up to 10 minutes after it finishes.
- Your IP address
- Held in memory for up to an hour, only to enforce scan limits.
- Cookies and trackers
- None. No accounts, no analytics, no advertising.
- The sites we check
- See our server's address, never yours.
On our server
We receive the username you type and, because that’s how a connection works, your IP address. Our server then requests each site’s public profile address for that username. The sites see our server, not you.
The search and its results are kept in memory while it runs and for up to ten minutes afterwards, so a dropped connection can pick up where it left off. Then they’re deleted. They’re never written to disk or to logs, and the username never appears in a web address, so it stays out of standard request logs too.
In your browser
When results arrive, your browser loads profile pictures directly from the sites that host them, without telling them which page you came from. Those sites can still see your IP address, as with any image on the web. Opening a result takes you to that site.
The bot check, when shown, is Cloudflare Turnstile, and Cloudflare’s privacy policy applies to it.
Acceptable use
HandleProbe only reads pages anyone can see. Even so, some uses are off limits.
- Don’t use it to stalk, harass, threaten or dox anyone.
- Don’t use it to track down someone who doesn’t want to be found.
- Don’t build or sell profiles of people from its results.
- Follow the law where you are, and the terms of the sites you visit.
Scans are limited per address, and addresses that abuse the service may be blocked. Results are automated guesses, and checking them before you act on them is up to you.