Which bots this covers
These terms cover Cryptic and every other Discord bot I run under the name rustybusgaming. Rather than a separate page per bot, one set of terms covers them all.
Where a specific bot does something these terms don't describe, the bot's own repository README is the more specific description and wins.
These terms do not cover this website, which has its own.
What gets stored
The bots store the minimum needed to make features work between restarts. Everything below is keyed to Discord IDs — numeric identifiers Discord already makes public to any server you're in.
| Data | Why it exists |
|---|
| User, server, channel and message IDs | The keys everything else hangs off. Without these no per-server setting could be remembered. |
| Usernames, display names, avatar URLs | Cached so logs and profile commands can show a readable name instead of a raw ID. |
| Server configuration — prefixes, auto-roles, reaction roles, welcome and leave messages, logging channels, sticky messages, custom commands, auto-responses | These are the features. They're set by server staff and have to persist. |
| Moderation records — action taken, target, moderator, reason, timestamp | So warnings accumulate correctly and staff can audit what was done. |
| Anti-nuke logs, metrics and role/permission backups | To detect an attack in progress and restore what it changed. |
| Music sessions, queue history and play stats | To keep a queue alive across a restart and power stats commands. |
| Reminders and AFK statuses | Text you explicitly asked the bot to hold and give back to you later. |
| Linked Last.fm usernames | Only if you run the command to link one. Removing the link deletes it. |
| Command usage counts and cooldowns | Rate limiting, and knowing which features are worth keeping. |
| Error tracebacks | Diagnostics when a command crashes. May incidentally include the command's arguments. |
Message content
This is the part worth reading carefully, because it's the part most bot policies are vague about.
The bots do not record every message they can see. Message content is only stored when a feature specifically needs it:
- Server logging, if your server staff turn it on. This can record edited and deleted message content to a log channel you nominate. It is off until someone enables it.
- Sticky messages, custom commands and auto-responses — the text staff configured, stored so it can be re-posted.
- Moderation reasons — the reason text a moderator typed.
- Reminders and AFK messages — the text you handed the bot on purpose.
- Auto-moderation reads message content in memory to decide whether it breaks a rule, and discards it. Only the fact of an action is written down.
Direct messages between you and other users are never visible to a bot and are never stored.
Services data is sent to
Some commands work by asking somebody else's API. Running one of those commands sends the relevant part of your request to that service, under their privacy policy, not mine.
| Service | When it's used |
|---|
| Discord | Always. Discord is the platform; everything travels over it. See the Discord Privacy Policy. |
| Last.fm and Spotify | Music lookups and scrobble commands, using the username or track you supply. |
| Lavalink audio nodes | Streaming audio into a voice channel. |
| Roblox, osu!, TikTok, Snapchat, playerdb | Profile and stats lookup commands, using the username you give the command. |
| Wikimedia, the Internet Archive, image and OCR endpoints | Image, translation and OCR commands, using the image or text you provide. |
If you'd rather a third party didn't see something, don't run the command that sends it there.
How long it's kept
Configuration and moderation records are kept as long as the bot is in your server, because that's what makes them useful. Remove the bot and the server's configuration stops being used.
Transient data — cooldowns, music sessions, cached names — is short-lived and gets overwritten or cleared routinely.
I don't run a formal deletion schedule, and I'd rather say so than claim a retention period I don't actually enforce. If you want something gone, ask and I'll delete it.
What the bots never do
- Sell your data, or share it with advertisers. There is no advertising and no commercial arrangement of any kind.
- Read your direct messages.
- Store payment details. Nothing is paid for.
- Track you across servers to build a profile.
- Ask for your Discord password or token. Nobody legitimate ever will.
Getting your data deleted
You can ask for your data to be removed and I'll do it. There's no form — message me in the support server with:
- Your Discord user ID (right-click your name with Developer Mode on → Copy User ID).
- Whether you want just your personal records, or a whole server's configuration.
- If it's a server, proof you own or administrate it.
Two honest caveats. Deleting a server's moderation history removes records its staff may need, so I'll confirm with an admin first. And where a moderation record exists because of abuse, I may keep the minimum needed to keep a block effective — otherwise a block could be erased by asking for it to be.
You can also remove most things yourself: unlink Last.fm, delete your reminders, or have staff clear the server's configuration.
Children
The bots aren't directed at children. Discord's own minimum age is 13, or higher where local law sets a higher age of digital consent, and you shouldn't be using Discord at all below it.
If you believe a bot holds data about a child below that age, tell me and I'll delete it.
Security
Data lives in a private database that isn't publicly reachable, and access is limited to me.
Being straight with you: this is a hobby project maintained by one person, not an audited platform. I take reasonable care, but I can't offer enterprise-grade guarantees, and you shouldn't put anything in a Discord bot that would genuinely hurt you to lose. If a breach ever affects user data, I'll say so in the support server rather than quietly patch it.
Changes to this policy
If what's stored changes, this page gets updated and the footer date changes with it. Significant changes get announced in the support server.