Privacy Policy

1. Introduction

This Privacy Policy explains how HCCN ("HCCN", "we", "us", or "our") collects, uses, shares, and protects information when you use the Human-Centric Content Network at hccn.ink and its related services (the "Service"). It should be read together with our Terms of Service.

By using the Service, you agree to the practices described here. If you do not agree, please do not use the Service.

2. Information we collect

We collect the following categories of information:

• —Account information — your name, email address, and authentication data. Passwords are stored only as salted, hashed values; we never store them in plain text. If you use a passkey, we store the public credential your device provides, not any private key.
• —Content and provenance — the articles and text you create, and the provenance record of how a document was composed. Provenance events capture editing metadata such as timing and the lengths of insertions, deletions, and paste actions (including any paste-source classification you select). This metadata is organized around the document you write.
• —Certificates — the Human Authorship Certificates issued for your published work, and their verification data.
• —Billing information — if you subscribe, your plan and subscription status, and a customer identifier from our payment processor. Payment-card details are collected and processed by our payment processor (Stripe); we do not receive or store your full card number.
• —Usage and device data — basic technical and diagnostic information such as IP address, browser type, pages accessed, and timestamps, used to operate, secure, and improve the Service and to enforce fair-use limits.
• —Communications — messages you send us (for example, support requests) and email-related events needed to deliver account emails.

3. How we use your information

We use the information we collect to:

• —provide, operate, and maintain the Service, including recording provenance and issuing and verifying certificates;
• —create and manage your account and authenticate you;
• —process subscriptions and payments through our payment processor;
• —send transactional emails such as email verification, password resets, and important account or service notices;
• —protect the Service — detect, prevent, and respond to fraud, abuse, security incidents, and violations of our Terms, and enforce fair-use and rate limits;
• —comply with legal obligations and enforce our agreements; and
• —understand usage and improve the Service.

4. Information that is public

When you publish an article, that article, its metadata, and its certificate become publicly accessible and independently verifiable by anyone — including through public APIs, embeddable badges, and standalone verifiers — and may be copied, cached, or indexed by third parties outside our control. Your public author profile and published work may also be visible to others. Please consider this before publishing, and only publish content you are comfortable making public.

5. Cookies and local storage

We use a small number of strictly necessary technologies. We set a signed session cookie to keep you logged in, and short-lived signed cookies for security purposes such as authentication challenges. We do not use third-party advertising or cross-site tracking cookies.

Your browser may also store non-identifying preferences locally on your device — for example, your chosen colour theme for the current session and whether you have seen a first-visit hint. This information stays in your browser and is not sent to us as personal data.

6. How we share information

We do not sell your personal information. We share information only as needed to run the Service:

• —Service providers — we use trusted third parties to operate the Service, including a payment processor (Stripe), an email provider (Resend), and cloud hosting and database providers. They process information on our behalf under their own terms and privacy policies and only as needed to provide their services.
• —Public content — content you choose to publish, and its certificate, are shared publicly as described above.
• —Legal and safety — we may disclose information if required by law, or where we believe in good faith it is necessary to comply with a legal obligation, enforce our Terms, or protect the rights, safety, or property of HCCN, our users, or the public.
• —Business transfers — if HCCN is involved in a merger, acquisition, financing, or sale of assets, information may be transferred as part of that transaction, subject to this Policy.

7. Data retention

We keep personal information for as long as your account is active or as needed to provide the Service, and afterwards as needed to comply with legal obligations, resolve disputes, and enforce our agreements. When you delete an article, we remove the article, its provenance record, and its certificate from our systems, after which that certificate no longer verifies through HCCN — but we cannot retrieve copies that have already been distributed elsewhere. When you delete your account, we delete or de-identify your personal information, except where we are required or permitted to retain it.

8. Security

We use reasonable technical and organizational measures to protect information, including row-level security on our database, signed session cookies, salted and hashed passwords, and encrypted connections. No method of transmission or storage is perfectly secure, however, and we cannot guarantee absolute security. You are responsible for keeping your account credentials confidential.

9. Your choices and rights

You can review and update your account information in your profile settings, change your password, and delete individual articles or your entire account at any time. Depending on where you live, you may have rights to access, correct, delete, or export your personal information, or to object to or restrict certain processing.

To exercise any of these rights, contact us at hello@hccn.ink. We will respond consistent with applicable law and may need to verify your identity first. Transactional account emails are part of the Service and are not marketing; we do not send unsolicited marketing email.

10. Children

HCCN does not impose a minimum age to use the Service, but the Service is a general-audience product and is not directed to children. If you are a minor in your jurisdiction, you may use the Service only with the involvement and consent of a parent or legal guardian, as described in our Terms. If you believe a child has provided us personal information in a way that requires our attention, contact us at hello@hccn.ink and we will take appropriate action.

11. International users

We operate the Service from the United States, and information we process may be stored and processed in the United States and other countries where we or our service providers operate. Data-protection laws in those countries may differ from those in your own. By using the Service, you understand that your information may be transferred to and processed in those locations.

12. Changes to this Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. When we do, we will revise the "Last updated" date below and, for material changes, provide additional notice where appropriate. Your continued use of the Service after changes take effect constitutes acceptance of the updated Policy.

13. Contact

Questions about this Policy or your information? Reach us at hello@hccn.ink.