Privacy Policy

Our Anti-Data Philosophy

Unity Chant is built on the principle that we should collect as little data as possible. Most platforms harvest your data to sell ads or build profiles. We do the opposite: we actively avoid collecting data we don't need.

We believe the integrity of collective decision-making requires trust, and trust requires privacy. You should be able to participate in deliberations without surveillance.

What We Do NOT Collect

We explicitly do not collect, store, or log:

IP addresses — We do not store your IP address in our database. For anonymous accounts, we actively strip IP headers before processing. IP addresses are only used transiently for in-memory rate limiting (to prevent abuse) and are never written to disk or database.
Location data — No GPS, no city, no country, no timezone auto-detection. We previously had location tracking fields and deliberately removed them.
Device fingerprints — No browser fingerprinting, no canvas fingerprinting, no device IDs.
Browsing behavior — No page view tracking, no click tracking, no session recordings, no heat maps.
Analytics — We do not use Google Analytics, Mixpanel, Amplitude, or any third-party analytics service.
Advertising data — No ad trackers, no pixel tags, no cross-site tracking, no data brokers.
User agent strings — We do not store what browser or operating system you use.

What We Do Collect

Account Information (Minimum Required)

Name and email address (from your authentication provider, or chosen by you)
Profile picture (only if provided by your authentication provider)
Zip code (only if you voluntarily provide it in settings)

Content You Create

Ideas you submit to deliberations
Votes you cast in voting cells
Comments you post in discussions
Deliberations you create

This content is necessary for the service to function. Ideas and votes are the core of the decision-making process.

Anonymous Participation

You can participate in Unity Chant without providing any personal information. Anonymous accounts are created with randomly generated identifiers. We actively strip IP headers from anonymous account creation requests before processing.

How We Use Your Information

Authenticate your identity (so only you can vote as you)
Run the voting process (cell assignment, tally, tier advancement)
Send email notifications you've opted into
Prevent abuse via transient in-memory rate limiting

That's it. We do not analyze your behavior, build profiles, or sell data.

Information Sharing

We do not sell your personal information. We do not share it with advertisers. We do not share it with data brokers. We share information only:

With other participants: Your name and ideas are visible to other deliberation participants. Votes in public deliberations are visible.
With essential service providers: Resend (email delivery), Vercel (hosting), Neon (database). These providers process data only as needed to run the service.
For legal compliance: Only when required by law.

Open Source Content

All ideas, votes, and comments submitted to public deliberations are treated as open source contributions to collective decision-making. See our Terms of Service for details.

Public vs Private Deliberations

Public deliberations: Ideas, votes, and participant names are visible to all users. This transparency is by design — democratic decision-making requires accountability.

Private deliberations: Only invited members can see content. Private deliberations require a paid subscription.

Cookies

We use only essential cookies:

Authentication session cookie (to keep you signed in)
Admin verification cookie (for admin access, if applicable)

We do not use analytics cookies, advertising cookies, or any form of cross-site tracking cookies.

Security

HTTPS encryption for all traffic
Secure authentication via OAuth or WebAuthn passkeys
Passwords hashed with bcrypt (never stored in plaintext)
API keys stored as SHA-256 hashes (never stored in plaintext)
CSRF protection on all mutation endpoints
Content moderation to prevent abuse

Your Rights

Access your personal data
Correct inaccurate data
Delete your account and data at any time
Export your data
Opt out of all non-essential emails (granular per-category controls in settings)

Data Retention

We retain your data only as long as your account is active. When you delete your account, your personal information is removed. Ideas and votes you submitted to public deliberations may be retained in anonymized form to preserve the integrity of completed decision processes.

Children's Privacy

The Service is not intended for children under 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13.

Verify Our Claims

Unity Chant is open source. You can verify everything in this policy by reviewing our code. If you find any data collection that contradicts this policy, please report it.

Changes to This Policy

We may update this policy from time to time. We will notify you of significant changes by email or through the Service.

Contact Us

Questions about this policy? Contact us at galen.goodwick@icloud.com