Privacy Policy
This page explains what digwolf collects and keeps when you use it. There are no accounts, no ads, no analytics and no third-party scripts, and digwolf doesn't sell visitor information. Where information goes, and why, is explained below. There isn't much, but a few things are worth knowing.
What you look up
When you look up a domain, its name becomes part of the page address, for example /domain/example.com/. Your browser then requests each record type from digwolf at addresses like /lookup/example.com/a/. digwolf passes the domain name and the record type to DNS resolvers to get the answers. digwolf doesn't keep a permanent history of what you looked up, and there's no database of searches. But the domain name does turn up temporarily in the logs and caches described below, and the services below can see it.
Who else receives the domain name
digwolf asks a DNS resolver running on its own server first. To answer, that resolver contacts the domain's own nameservers, as any DNS lookup does. If it can't answer, digwolf asks Cloudflare (1.1.1.1) and then Google Public DNS, over HTTPS.
What Cloudflare and Google receive is a DNS query over HTTPS, sent from digwolf's server. That query has the domain name and the record type. Because it comes from the server, they also see the server's IP address and the user agent digwolf uses, which is just digwolf. digwolf doesn't pass on your IP address, your browser details or anything else about you.
What they log, and for how long, is up to them. Their own pages explain it: Cloudflare's 1.1.1.1 privacy page (opens in a new tab) and Google Public DNS privacy (opens in a new tab).
Logs
Logs are for keeping the service running: finding faults, and spotting and dealing with abuse.
- Web server log. The web server keeps an access log. It may contain the time of a request, your IP address, your browser's user agent and the page address requested, which includes any domain you looked up. The log is rotated daily and compressed, and old files are deleted after about two weeks in normal operation.
- Application log. digwolf logs warnings and errors, such as a resolver being unreachable or an unexpected failure. It doesn't log each lookup. An error entry can sometimes include a domain name or other details that help find the problem. Old files are deleted after about two weeks in normal operation.
- Resolver log. The local resolver writes a line to the server's system log when DNSSEC validation fails for a domain. The line names the domain and doesn't identify you.
Hosting
digwolf runs on a virtual server at DigitalOcean. DigitalOcean may process operational information, such as network traffic data, as part of providing that hosting. It has its own policies and retention periods, which digwolf doesn't control and which the log retention above doesn't cover.
Cloudflare, Google, DigitalOcean and Forward Email may process information outside Canada. digwolf doesn't control where, and this page doesn't assume any particular location.
IP addresses and rate limiting
To stop one visitor from using up the service, digwolf counts requests per visitor over short periods: a minute for page and lookup requests, and up to ten minutes for time spent on slow lookups. A visitor is your IPv4 address, or the first half (the /64 network) of an IPv6 address. The counts are kept in files on the server under a hashed name, hold only a count or a time, and expire when the period ends. Expired files are deleted automatically, at the latest in the daily cleanup. The web server also records IP addresses in its access logs, as described above.
Cookies
The home page, results pages and the search itself set two cookies. They make the page work and aren't for tracking:
digwolf-sessionholds a session identifier. The server uses the session for short messages, such as telling you a name isn't valid, and for showing back what you typed.XSRF-TOKENis a standard security token that Laravel, the framework digwolf is built with, sets automatically.
Both expire after 120 minutes. The About, FAQ, Privacy and Terms pages, the sitemap and the record-type requests set no cookies. There are no advertising, analytics or social media cookies, and no third-party scripts, fonts or images: everything is served from digwolf.com.
Short-term caches
To be quick, digwolf and its resolver keep DNS answers for a few minutes at most: five minutes, or less if the record's own TTL is shorter, and up to a minute for answers saying a name or record doesn't exist. A few other small items, such as a note that a name just timed out, last seconds. These are tied to the domain name, not to you, but the server's caches do briefly hold the names that were looked up recently.
Search engines and shared links
Results pages are public and search engines may index them. If you share or post a results link, anyone with it can open it, and the domain name will be in your browser history. Don't enter anything you consider confidential in the search box.
Questions and email
Privacy questions, complaints, and requests to see what personal information digwolf holds about you can go to digwolf's Privacy Officer at privacy@digwolf.com. For most visitors that information is limited to what appears in the server logs described above. Logs are only kept for a short time, so a request can only cover what still exists when it arrives.
For anything that isn't about privacy, write to contact@digwolf.com.
Email sent to digwolf.com addresses passes through Forward Email, a service that forwards it to a private mailbox. If you write, the service handles your email address and message in order to deliver it, and delivery may involve other mail providers along the way.
Changes
If digwolf's practices change, this page will be updated and the date at the top will change with it.
The Terms of Use cover how the service itself may be used.