Privacy
Effective 16 September 2026
The short version
- We do not sell your data, build profiles of you, or use third-party analytics or ad trackers.
- You do not need an account to search.
- Our access logs remove the last part of your IP address and never contain what you searched. They are deleted after 14 days.
- We may compare the time of a search with those logs, which can show which network a search came from. Only we do this, and we do not share it or use it to build profiles.
- We keep the text of searches and the AI answers to them for up to 90 days to improve the answers. That copy carries no IP address or account.
- AI answers are generated on hardware we run ourselves, not by a third-party AI service.
Who we are
Hominin is a search engine at hominin.com. For anything on this page, including a request to see or delete your data, write to homininglobal@protonmail.com.
What we collect, and why
When you visit or search
Our web server records each request: your IP address with its last part set to zero (so it points at a network, not a household), the time, the page requested without any search terms, the page you came from (again without its search terms), and your browser's user-agent string. We use this to keep the service running and to stop abuse. We also count how searches perform (how long they took, how many results they found) without recording what was searched or by whom.
The access log and our record of searches are kept apart, but both carry the time. To understand how Hominin is being used and to look into problems, we may line the two up, which can show that a particular search came from a particular network. Because the last part of the IP address has already been removed, that network is usually an organisation, a mobile carrier or a whole neighbourhood rather than one person. Only we do this; we do not share the result, sell it, or use it to profile anyone.
Until 15 September 2026 our application log also recorded full IP addresses and the text sent to search suggestions. That logging has been switched off, and the older entries are deleted as that log rotates.
What you search for
To answer a search we look it up in our own index and, for some kinds of question, ask outside services (listed below). We keep:
- a count of how often each query has been searched, used for suggestions and trending searches;
- queries that our index answered badly, for 30 days, so we know what to crawl next;
- the text of a query together with the AI answer written for it, for up to 90 days, to train and improve those answers. That copy also holds what the answer was written from: the sources, and, when your location was used, the nearby places, local weather or region it drew on.
None of these copies carries an IP address, an account, a cookie or any other identifier, though by comparing times, as described above, we can sometimes tell which network a search came from. If you type something personal into a search box, though, the text itself may be personal, so please do not. Private mode searches are not added to the query counts or the badly-answered list.
Ratings
If you rate an answer, we store the rating with the query and the answer, without any identifier. A liked answer may be used as a training example.
Accounts
Accounts are optional and use passkeys: there is no password and no email address. We store the handle you choose, the public half of each passkey (the private half never leaves your device), hashed one-time recovery codes, and a signed-in session. The session is kept in a cookie named hominin_session, which your browser only sends to hominin.com, which page scripts cannot read, and which expires after 30 days.
Stored in your browser
Preferences, recent searches, pages you have read and saved notes are kept in your browser's local storage. They stay on your device and are not sent to us unless a feature needs them for a request. Clearing your browser's site data removes them.
Notifications
If you turn on notifications, we store the push address your browser gives us so we can send them. It identifies your browser to its push service, not you. Turning notifications off in your browser stops them arriving; to have the address removed from our records too, write to us.
Location
Only if you allow it in your browser, we use your location for nearby results, weather and maps. We do not store your coordinates. When an AI answer is written from nearby places or local weather, that text is kept with the query in the 90-day training copy described above.
Generated images
Images you generate, and the prompt you gave, are saved and added to Hominin's public image search, where anyone can find them. Do not put anything private in an image prompt.
Sponsored results and the API
Sponsored results are chosen from the words of the search alone. We count how often each is shown and clicked, and nothing about who saw or clicked it. If you have an API key, we count your requests against the key each day, to apply its limit.
Who else sees data
Services we ask on your behalf
For some searches our server sends the words of your search, but not your IP address or any identifier of yours, to outside services. They include Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wiktionary; the Internet Archive; Open Library; MusicBrainz and Apple's iTunes search; YouTube; eBay; OMDb; TheSportsDB; MET Norway for weather; OpenStreetMap services (Overpass and OSRM) for places and routes; IsThereAnyDeal for game prices; PoetryDB, for searches about a poem; and Twitch and the YouTube Data API, for searches for live streams.
Translations are done by MyMemory (Translated srl, Italy). When you search for a translation, or type in the translate box, our server sends that text to MyMemory, again without your IP address. Don't put anything in the translate box you would not want a translation service to see.
Package tracking links go to the carrier's own site, or to 17TRACK for national posts whose site cannot be linked to directly. Nothing is sent to them unless you follow the link.
Services your browser contacts directly
Some things on a results page load straight from another site, which then sees your IP address as it would on any website: result thumbnails and pictures, which come from the sites that host them; the small site icons beside results, which come from Google's favicon service (it learns which sites were in your results); map tiles from CARTO; embedded video players, including Twitch's and YouTube's when you open a live stream; and, if you share your location, OpenStreetMap's Nominatim and OpenTopoData, which receive your coordinates.
Where it is processed
Hominin runs on a server in Germany. AI answers, and backups of the data described above, are processed on computers we operate in the United States, reached over encrypted connections. Backups are kept on encrypted storage.
How long we keep it
| Web server access logs | 14 days |
| Search performance counts (no query text) | 30 days |
| Badly answered queries | 30 days |
| Query text with AI answers, for training | 90 days |
| How often each query was searched | Until we delete it |
| Ratings | Until we delete them |
| Accounts and passkeys | Until you ask us to delete the account |
| Push notification addresses | Until you ask us to remove them |
| Backups | 7 days |
Your choices and rights
- Search without an account, and use private mode.
- Refuse or withdraw location and notification permission in your browser at any time.
- Clear what is stored in your browser by clearing site data for hominin.com.
- Ask us, at homininglobal@protonmail.com, for a copy of the data we hold about you, to correct it, or to delete your account and what is attached to it. We reply within 30 days.
Because searches are stored without identifiers, we usually cannot find a particular person's searches; comparing times points at a network at best, not at you. If you tell us the exact text and roughly when you searched it, we will delete matching entries.
If you are in the United Kingdom or the European Union, you also have the right to object to our use of your data and to complain to your data protection authority (in the UK, the Information Commissioner's Office). We rely on our legitimate interest in running, securing and improving a search engine, and on your consent for location and notifications. If you are in India, you can raise a grievance with us at the same address.
Children
Hominin is not directed at children, and we do not knowingly create accounts for them. If you believe a child has created one, write to us and we will delete it.
Security
Connections to hominin.com are encrypted. Access to our servers and administrative tools is restricted to named keys and addresses, and we keep only what this page describes.
Changes
When we change what we collect or how long we keep it, we update this page and the date at the top.