Privacy Policy

Last updated: [DATE]

Template notice: this document was drafted to reflect DNanoVault's actual architecture as a starting point — it is not legal advice. Replace every bracketed placeholder and have it reviewed by a lawyer familiar with your jurisdiction (and, if you have users in the EU/UK, California, or elsewhere with specific data-protection statutes) before relying on it.

What we can't see

DNanoVault is built so the contents of your vault — notes, passwords, files, and folder names — are encrypted inside your browser before they ever reach our servers, using a key derived from your passphrase. We store only ciphertext. We do not have your passphrase, we do not have your encryption key, and we have no technical means to decrypt your vault contents, recover a lost passphrase, or read your data on request — including by law enforcement request, since we have nothing readable to hand over.

What we do collect

Because encryption happens client-side, everything below is either necessary to run the service or explicitly outside the encryption boundary:

Identity information from Google or GitHub sign-in: your name, email, and a provider-issued account identifier. We do not receive or store your Google or GitHub password.
Profile data you add directly — a display name and profile picture, if you choose to set one. These are stored as plaintext because they need to render before your vault is unlocked; they are not end-to-end encrypted.
Encrypted vault data — ciphertext, initialization vectors, and a per-account random salt, none of which are readable without your passphrase.
Metadata about your items that isn't encrypted: creation and modification timestamps, and which folder an item is filed under (folder names themselves are encrypted; the association between an item and a folder ID is not). This lets features like sorting and folders work without weakening the encryption of your actual content.
Third-party connection tokens, if you choose to connect GitHub, Google Drive, Dropbox, Notion, or Slack for importing content. These access tokens are encrypted at rest with a server-side key (separate from your passphrase) so we can make API calls to those services on your behalf. This is a necessary exception to the zero-knowledge model — we can technically decrypt these specific tokens — but they only grant access to what you authorized on the third-party service, not to your vault.
Technical and abuse-prevention data — IP address (for rate limiting and reCAPTCHA scoring), request timestamps, and browser user-agent strings.
Consent records — the date and time you accepted these Terms and this Policy at sign-up.

What we never collect

Your master passphrase, in any form.
The plaintext content of any vault item.
Your Google or GitHub account password.

How we use what we collect

To operate the service (authenticate you, store and return your encrypted data, run imports you request), to prevent abuse (rate limiting, bot detection), to communicate service-related notices to [CONTACT EMAIL] if you provide one, and to meet legal obligations where applicable. We do not sell personal data, and we do not use vault metadata to build advertising profiles.

Third-party services

Google, GitHub, Dropbox, Notion, and Slack each operate under their own privacy policies and terms, which govern how they handle data on their end once you connect an account. Disconnecting a provider in Settings removes our copy of that provider's access token; it does not revoke the authorization on the provider's side — do that from the provider's own account settings for a full revoke.

Data retention and deletion

Your data is retained until you delete individual items, delete your account, or [RETENTION POLICY, e.g. "an account is inactive for N months"]. Account deletion (available in Settings) permanently removes your vault items, salt, folders, profile data, and any connected third-party tokens. This action cannot be undone, for the same reason a lost passphrase can't be recovered: we don't keep a side copy.

Children's privacy

DNanoVault is not directed at children under [13 / 16, depending on jurisdiction] and we do not knowingly collect data from them. Contact us at [CONTACT EMAIL] if you believe a child has created an account.

Your rights

Depending on where you live, you may have rights to access, correct, export, or delete your personal data. Account deletion is self-service; for anything else, contact [CONTACT EMAIL]. [Add specifics here for GDPR/CCPA/other applicable regimes — e.g., a designated Data Protection Officer, EU representative, or complaint-authority contact, if required for your user base.]

Changes to this policy

We'll update the date at the top of this page when this policy changes, and — for material changes — provide more prominent notice, such as an in-app banner.

Contact

[CONTACT EMAIL OR ADDRESS]