Privacy Policy

Operating Entity: Xavier Lawrence · Sovereign Cloud

At Notes By Xavier (operated by Xavier Lawrence), we believe reading and writing on the web should be dignified, private, and distraction-free. This Privacy Policy outlines our strict minimal-data philosophy.

1. The Distraction-Free Pledge

Unlike legacy ad-driven media sites, this publication operates with:

  • Zero third-party advertising trackers (no behavioral ad networks).
  • Zero intrusive cookie consent popups (no non-essential cookies).
  • Zero cross-site user fingerprinting scripts.

2. What Information Is Collected

We collect only the bare minimum technical data necessary to provide and secure the service:

  • Reader Sessions: When you read public essays, no personal identification data is required or recorded.
  • Administrator Accounts: When an author sets up or signs in to the Zen Studio, we store their email address, name, and a securely salted bcrypt password hash. We never store plain-text passwords.
  • Essential Session Cookies: We issue a single HTTP-only, secure session token (notesby_session) solely to maintain authenticated administrator access.

3. Spam Prevention & Google reCAPTCHA

To prevent automated bots, brute-force attacks, and credential stuffing on authentication and setup forms, this site may employ Google reCAPTCHA. reCAPTCHA operates by analyzing hardware and software information to verify legitimate human interaction.

The processing of such data is subject to the Google Privacy Policy and Google Terms of Service.

4. Data Sovereignty & Portability

Because Notesby is an open-source, sovereign publishing system, your database (PostgreSQL) and asset storage (Google Cloud Storage) belong entirely to you. You can export, migrate, or delete your records at any time without vendor lock-in.

5. Questions & Inquiries

If you have questions regarding this policy or data practices, please refer to our Terms of Service or contact the publication author directly.