self-hosted/ai
§01·legal

Privacy Policy

Last reviewed: 2026-10-02

Who we are

Smeltcore (operated by Vadim Liavitski, Poland, "we", "us") publishes a community catalogue of benchmarks and install recipes for running open-weights AI models on consumer hardware, at https://smeltcore.com. We are the controller of the personal data described on this page.

For any privacy question, or to exercise your rights, contact support@smeltcore.com.

What we collect

We collect as little as we can. There are no user accounts. Concretely:

  • Request logs. When your browser loads a page, our CDN (Amazon CloudFront) records a standard access log line: your IP address, the time, the requested address, the referring page and your browser's user agent. When a page or form talks to our API (api.smeltcore.com), our server records the same kind of line. We use these logs for security and for aggregate traffic statistics, such as which pages are read and from which countries and sites visitors arrive. CDN logs are deleted automatically after 90 days, API server logs after 14 days.
  • Benchmark submissions (/contribute): the values you enter (GPU, model, speed, VRAM, notes, source URL) and, if you choose to give it, your email address. If we approve a submission, its values, including the notes and the source URL, are published on this site and in our public dataset on Hugging Face under CC BY-SA 4.0. Your email address is never published; we use it only to ask you about your submission.
  • Recipe requests (the form on /check pages that asks for a recipe): the model and GPU you ask about and, if you choose to give it, your email address. We use the email address only to tell you when a recipe for that pair is published. It is never published.
  • Email you send us, including through the "Report this video" link: your address and whatever you write. We use it to reply and to act on a report.
  • Your consent choice. One localStorage entry in your browser recording which cookie categories you accepted and when. See Cookies.
  • Analytics, only if you accept them. With your consent the site loads Google Analytics 4 and Mixpanel. They record the pages you view (including the page address, so a search term you type into the site's search is recorded with it), the site that sent you, links you click, whether you use the Share button on a page and which option you choose, how forms on the site succeed or fail, your browser, device type and approximate location (city level, derived from your IP address by the analytics provider), under a random identifier stored in your browser. They do not receive your name or email address. Nothing is loaded before you accept, and you can withdraw at any time.
  • Support payments. If you support the project through the "Support" link, the payment is made on Stripe's page and processed by Stripe under its own privacy policy. We receive from Stripe what is needed to record the payment, such as your name, email address and the amount, never your full card details.

We do not ask for your name, phone number, postal address or date of birth, we do not use your data for advertising, and we do not sell or rent it.

  • Legitimate interest (Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR): request logs, for security, preventing abuse and aggregate statistics; replying to email you send us and acting on reports.
  • Consent (Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR): analytics, and the optional email address in the submission and recipe-request forms. You can withdraw consent at any time: analytics through "Cookie preferences" in the site footer, an email address by writing to us. Withdrawal does not affect processing that happened before it.
  • Contract (Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR): reviewing and publishing the benchmark data you submit under our Terms of Service.
  • Legal obligation (Art. 6(1)(c) GDPR): keeping records of support payments where tax and accounting law require it.

Who processes data for us

  • Amazon Web Services (region eu-north-1, Stockholm): hosts the site, the API and its database, stores the logs and backups, and sends the notification email we receive when someone uses a form (Amazon SES). That notification carries your email address if you gave one.
  • Google (Google Analytics 4): analytics, only with your consent.
  • Mixpanel (EU data residency): analytics, only with your consent.
  • Zoho (Zoho Mail, EU data centre): our mailbox. It receives the email you send us and the form notifications.
  • Stripe: processes support payments.

How long we keep it

  • CDN request logs: 90 days. API server logs: 14 days.
  • Database backups: 90 days, so data deleted from the database is also gone from backups within 90 days.
  • Form entries and email correspondence: only as long as we need them for the purpose they were given for. We delete your email address sooner whenever you ask.
  • Analytics: Google Analytics deletes event-level data after 2 months and user-level data 14 months after that browser's last activity on the site. Mixpanel keeps data under the retention settings of our account. The identifiers in your browser expire as listed on the Cookies page, and you can delete them at any time by clearing this site's data in your browser.

International transfers

Where a provider offers an EU location we use it: AWS in Stockholm, Mixpanel's EU data residency, Zoho's EU data centre. Some of these providers, as well as Google and Stripe, are based outside the European Economic Area or use sub-processors there, so personal data may be accessed from or transferred to other countries, in particular the United States. Such transfers rely on the EU-US Data Privacy Framework where the recipient is certified under it, or on the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses.

Your rights

Under the GDPR you have the right to:

  • Access: request a copy of the data we hold about you.
  • Rectification: correct inaccurate data.
  • Erasure: request deletion (the "right to be forgotten").
  • Restriction and objection: limit or object to how we process your data, including processing based on legitimate interest.
  • Portability: receive the data you gave us in a machine-readable format.
  • Withdraw consent: at any time, without affecting the lawfulness of processing before the withdrawal.
  • Lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority: in Poland, the President of the Personal Data Protection Office (UODO, uodo.gov.pl), or the authority where you live or work.

To exercise any of these, write to support@smeltcore.com. We respond within one month.

Security

Everything on this site and its API is served over HTTPS. Logs and backups are stored encrypted in Amazon S3. Only the operator has access to the database, the logs and the mailbox.

Changes to this policy

When this policy changes we update the "Last reviewed" date at the top. When a change affects what you consented to, the site asks for your consent again.