Privacy Policy
How Cothenticity handles your information — written plainly, because a product about honesty cannot have a dishonest privacy policy.
The short version. Cothenticity watches how you work, not what you write. The capture engine runs entirely in your browser and records structural metadata — where an edit happened, how long it was, when, and whether it came from you, an AI, or a paste. Your actual words never leave your device unless you press Seal & publish. If you never publish, we never receive anything at all.
1. Who we are
Cothenticity is operated by Sam Squared Softwares ("we", "us"). We are the responsible party under South Africa's Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA) and, where the GDPR applies to a user in the EU/EEA or UK, the data controller.
2. What is captured, and when
2.1 Before you publish — nothing reaches us
While you work in the Studio, everything is held in your browser's memory. We operate no telemetry, no analytics beacons, and no error reporting on that content. Closing the tab without publishing destroys the session permanently — we cannot recover it, because we never had it.
2.2 When you press "Seal & publish"
At that moment, and only then, you transmit a receipt to us. A receipt contains:
| Data | Why |
|---|---|
| Edit events: position, characters inserted/deleted, timestamp, origin (human / AI / paste) | This is the proof itself — the hash chain is computed over it |
| Document snapshots (the text of your work at intervals) | Powers the making-of replay. This is your actual content. |
| Title and author name, as you typed them | Displayed on the public receipt |
| Aggregates: active time, keystrokes, revisions, human/AI/paste ratio | The headline metrics |
| SHA-256 hash chain and its head | Tamper-evidence and the receipt's identity |
| A SHA-256 hash of your one-time manage token | Proves ownership without us ever storing the token |
Read this twice. Because snapshots are included, publishing a receipt publishes the text of your work to anyone holding the link. Do not publish receipts for confidential, client-privileged, personal, or embargoed material. There is no "private receipt" in version 1.0.
2.3 What we never capture
- No account, email address, or password — there are no accounts.
- No cookies, no advertising or third-party analytics trackers.
- No clipboard contents from outside the editor (a paste is recorded as a length and an origin, not as sourced text).
- No IP address is stored in the database. Addresses are used transiently, in memory, only for rate limiting, and are never written to disk by us.
3. Public by design
A published receipt is public to anyone with the link. It is not indexed by us, but links can be forwarded, and search engines may index a link that someone else publishes. Treat a receipt link exactly as you would treat a public web page.
4. Your manage key
Publishing issues a one-time manage token, stored in your browser's local storage. We store only its SHA-256 hash and therefore cannot recover, reset, or email it to you. If you clear your browser data without saving the key, the receipt becomes permanently unrevokable by anyone, including us. The app shows you the key and warns you for this reason.
5. Deleting your data
Press Unpublish on a receipt you own. This is immediate and permanent: the stored process data and snapshots are erased, the link returns HTTP 410 Gone forever, and that exact session can never be republished. We retain only the receipt's identifier and the fact of its revocation, so a withdrawn link cannot be silently reused.
If you have lost the manage key, contact us with the receipt ID. We can only act on a request we can reasonably verify, and we may be unable to verify ownership without the key.
6. Where data lives
Receipts are stored in a PostgreSQL database hosted by Supabase in the EU (London, eu-west-2) region, and served through a CDN. Sub-processors: Supabase (hosting and database) and our static hosting/CDN provider. Where personal information leaves South Africa, we rely on POPIA section 72 on the basis that the recipient is subject to comparable safeguards.
7. Retention
Published receipts are retained indefinitely, because a receipt whose link stops working defeats the purpose of the product. You control this: unpublish at any time. Revocation markers are kept permanently.
8. Your rights
Under POPIA and, where applicable, the GDPR, you may request access to, correction of, or deletion of your personal information, object to processing, and lodge a complaint with a regulator — in South Africa, the Information Regulator; in the EU/EEA or UK, your local supervisory authority. For most Cothenticity data, unpublishing is the fastest and most complete route.
9. Children
Cothenticity is not directed at children under 18 and we do not knowingly collect their information.
10. Changes and contact
Material changes will be reflected in the version and effective date above. Questions, or to exercise any right: [email protected].
The responsible party (POPIA) / data controller (GDPR) is Sam Squared Softwares (Pty) Ltd, registration number 2026/536077/07, registered office 84 Donovan Street, Glen Austin, Midrand, Gauteng, 1685, South Africa.