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Philip Ilic Thomas

Privacy policy

Privacy policy for philipithomas.com.

Last updated: 2026-07-31.

Data collection

This site collects minimal data:

  • Email address: When you subscribe to a newsletter.
  • Name: Only if voluntarily provided.
  • Email delivery data: Which emails were sent and delivery errors.
  • Phone data: Your phone number, text messages, call metadata, and voicemail when you call, text Bell AI, or subscribe by text. A live transcript is also collected when you choose Bell AI during a voice call.
  • Bell conversations: Messages, replies, page context, tool use, model usage, and delivery or generation errors. Signed-in web conversations can be linked to your subscriber account. SMS conversations are linked to a phone number, which is a contact address rather than proof of identity.
  • Anonymous Bell attribution: A rotating, one-way hash derived from the network address can connect messages in an anonymous web conversation. The Bell database does not store the raw IP address.

Analytics

This site uses Vercel Web Analytics and Speed Insights to measure traffic, feature use, and performance in aggregate. These tools are cookieless and do not track you across sites. Custom events use broad categories. They do not include email addresses, phone numbers, IP addresses, search text, Bell message text, or conversation identifiers. Private account, authentication, unsubscribe, and Printing press pages are excluded from both services.

Public MCP server

This site provides a public, read-only Model Context Protocol (MCP) server so compatible AI clients can search, list, and fetch public posts and pages. The application receives the MCP request and the tool arguments selected by your AI host: a search query, a public content ID, or listing filters. A content ID identifies a public page or post, not a person. Vercel also receives the standard HTTP request metadata needed to deliver and protect the endpoint.

The MCP server does not require a site account or authentication, use site authentication cookies, or write its requests and responses to the site's application database. The application does not retain MCP tool arguments or results after completing the request. It logs an error category, but not the query or content ID, if an unexpected request failure occurs. Vercel and the AI processors described below may retain operational metadata under their own service settings and policies. Raw MCP search queries and content IDs are not sent to Vercel Web Analytics.

Semantic MCP searches send the search query through Vercel AI Gateway to Google's Gemini Embedding 2 service to create a query embedding. When semantic search is unavailable, the server can fall back to the site's local keyword index. The fetch and list_posts tools read public site content without calling an AI model provider.

The AI host you choose, such as Anthropic Claude or OpenAI ChatGPT, processes your prompt and the tool results under its own privacy and retention settings. The site generally receives the resulting tool arguments rather than your complete conversation. To stop using the server, remove or disable the connection in that AI host. There is no site account, authorization grant, or access token to revoke. Search rate limits and other abuse controls apply to the public endpoint.

What we do not track

  • No open or click tracking in email.
  • No raw search queries in Web Analytics.
  • No advertising or cross-site tracking.

Cookies

Two authentication cookies are set when you sign in. bp_token identifies your session, and bp_has_session lets the interface avoid a signed-out flash before the session loads. No advertising or tracking cookies are used.

Email

All emails are sent from mail@philipithomas.com via AWS SES. Each email includes an unsubscribe link. We do not sell or share your email address.

Text messaging

The Contraption Company LLC operates the philipithomas.com text messaging program. You can opt in to recurring automated new-post notifications using the public text messaging instructions. Message frequency varies. Message and data rates may apply. Reply STOP to unsubscribe and delete the SMS data stored locally for that number, or HELP for help. Texting Bell a question permits one direct automated reply to that message. It does not subscribe you to recurring new-post notifications.

We do not sell or rent mobile information. Mobile information and text messaging originator opt-in data and consent are not shared with third parties or affiliates for their marketing or promotional purposes. Twilio processes phone numbers and messages to carry the service. Vercel AI Gateway and the selected AI provider process Bell message content and a pseudonymous identifier only as needed to generate a requested reply, prevent abuse, or comply with law.

Bell

Bell AI web and SMS conversations are stored on this site so replies can keep their context, model cost and reliability can be reviewed, and failures can be diagnosed. Vercel AI Gateway and the selected AI model provider process each message to produce a reply. Web and SMS Bell AI requests require zero-data-retention routing through the Gateway. Bell AI conversation text is not sent to Vercel Web Analytics.

Bell AI phone calls are transcribed live by OpenAI so a transcript of the conversation can be emailed to the site administrators through AWS SES after the call. The site does not record the call audio, save the live-call transcript in its database, or enable OpenAI platform tracing for the call. Automated speech transcription may contain errors.

Anonymous web Bell AI transcripts are deleted 90 days after the latest activity. Signed-in web transcripts are deleted 365 days after the latest activity. Replying STOP deletes the local SMS subscription, send history, text transcript, and Bell AI SMS conversation. SMS records otherwise remain until an administrator deletes or redacts them, or you request deletion. Live-call transcripts are not retained in the site's database; the emailed copy remains in the administrators' mailboxes until deleted there.

Data retention

Your email address is stored as long as you remain subscribed. Upon unsubscribing, your subscription record is retained for record-keeping, but no further emails are sent. You can delete your email account data from the account page. To request deletion or redaction of phone or Bell data, email mail@philipithomas.com.

Third-party services

  • Vercel: Vercel hosts and serves this site, including Vercel Web Analytics and Speed Insights.
  • AI model providers: Bell AI web and SMS features route through Vercel AI Gateway to OpenAI, while Bell AI phone calls connect directly to OpenAI Realtime. Google processes search embeddings when embedding search is enabled, including semantic MCP search. These providers process Bell AI messages, live-call audio, and search queries to generate responses, transcripts, or search results. Under the terms of their APIs, they do not use this content to train models.
  • Connected AI hosts: The AI service you choose to connect to the public MCP server processes your prompts and the public tool results under its own terms, privacy policy, and account settings.
  • AWS SES: Amazon Simple Email Service delivers all email.
  • Neon: Neon hosts the subscriber database.
  • Twilio: Twilio carries phone calls and text messages.
  • Google: Google provides optional account sign-in.
  • Automattic Gravatar: The private subscriber administration page requests avatars using a one-way hash of each subscriber email address.

Contact

Email: mail@philipithomas.com

The Contraption Company LLC 169 Madison Ave. Suite 2174 New York, NY 10016 USA