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Security

Protection Built In, Not Bolted On

Security was foundational to Village design. Your community's data stays protected, isolated, and under your control.

Our Security Philosophy

We believe security comes from architecture, not promises. Village was designed from day one to protect your community's data through technical measures, not just policies. Here's what that means in practice.

What We Protect

🔐 Your Stories & Content

Family narratives, photos, and documents are encrypted in transit and protected at rest through tenant isolation, access controls, and server-side encryption for stored files. Only your community members can access them.

👥 Your Membership

Member information is visible only within your Village. Other Villages cannot see your member list.

💬 Your Conversations

Chat messages and video calls stay within your community. Video calls use encrypted WebRTC transport with optional end-to-end encryption.

🗳️ Your Decisions

Governance votes and polls are private to your community. Voting records are protected.

                Complete Tenant Isolation
                Each Village is completely isolated from every other Village. Different database records,
                separate file storage, isolated sessions. There is no technical path for one Village to
                access another's data.
            

What We Don't Do

Understanding what we refuse to do is just as important as understanding our protections.

Vendor Exclusions

No Google services anywhere (no Docs Viewer, no Fonts, no Analytics)
No Facebook/Meta integration or tracking pixels
No third-party analytics that track your behaviour
No advertising networks or data brokers
No tracking CDNs on public pages. Media delivery for authenticated members uses an EU-based CDN (Bunny, Slovenia) with no tracking scripts or analytics

Data Practices We Refuse

We never sell your data to anyone
We never share data with third parties for marketing
We never use your content to train AI models
We never mine your data for insights to sell
We never track you across websites

                Why This Matters
                Every external service is a potential security weakness and privacy leak. By keeping
                everything on our own servers, we maintain complete control over your data's security.
            

Federation Security

When Villages connect through Federation, security remains paramount. Federation enables collaboration without compromising independence.

How Federation Protects You

Each Village controls exactly what they share with partners
Federation agreements are explicit and documented
Either party can adjust or revoke access at any time
Shared content is clearly marked as federated
Dispute resolution processes protect both communities

Think of it like neighbours agreeing to share a garden path, not handing over house keys. Each Village remains sovereign over their own space while choosing specific, controlled connections with others.

Access Controls

Who Can Access Your Data

Your Members: Full access to content they're authorised to see
Your Moderators: Administrative access within your Village only
Platform Operators: Infrastructure access only, never content access

Platform Admin Boundaries Platform administrators can manage infrastructure and respond to support requests, but they cannot read your stories, view your photos, or access your private content. Only your Village's moderators have that authority.

Technical Security Measures

We implement industry-standard security practices across our infrastructure.

Encryption in Transit

All connections use TLS 1.3. Your data is encrypted between your device and our servers.

Data Protection at Rest

Data is protected at rest through multiple layers including application-level encryption for sensitive credentials, server-side encryption for file storage, and infrastructure access controls.

Secure Authentication

Passwords are hashed with bcrypt. Session tokens are cryptographically secure and time-limited.

CSRF & XSS Protection

All forms use CSRF tokens. Content Security Policy headers prevent script injection.

Threat Response: April 2026

In April 2026, Anthropic disclosed a model capable of discovering software vulnerabilities at scale across every major operating system and writing working exploits for them. The capability class will proliferate within 12–18 months. This changes the security landscape for every organisation that stores data on infrastructure it does not control.

Village’s architecture — small attack surface, sovereign hosting on EU and NZ infrastructure, no US cloud dependencies — means we are not in the blast radius of the mass-exploitation scenarios this capability enables. We have taken specific steps to strengthen an already defensible position.

Encryption at Rest

All data on both production servers (EU and NZ) is encrypted using AES-256-CBC via Percona Server for MongoDB. Physical access to the hardware would not yield readable data without the encryption keys. Completed April 2026.

48-Hour Patch Cycle

When vulnerabilities are disclosed in Linux, Node.js, MongoDB, or Nginx, we apply patches within 48 hours on both servers. Our two-server architecture makes this tractable — we can patch both servers in hours, not the months that large enterprises require.

File Integrity Monitoring

Both servers run AIDE (Advanced Intrusion Detection Environment) with daily automated integrity checks against established baselines. Unauthorised file modifications are detected rather than assumed absent.

No US Cloud Dependencies

The US CLOUD Act gives US authorities the power to compel disclosure of data held by US companies, regardless of where the data is physically stored. Village uses no US-owned cloud services. Hosting on EU (OVH France) and NZ (Catalyst Cloud) sovereign infrastructure addresses both legal compulsion and the security risks that now compound it.

                Third-Party Services
                Village uses a small number of EU and NZ third-party services: Airwallex (New Zealand) for payments, DeepL (Germany) for translation, Bunny CDN (Slovenia) for media edge caching, and ProtonMail (Switzerland) for email. All are outside US jurisdiction. No community data is processed on, stored on, or transits through US-owned infrastructure.
            

For a detailed analysis of the threat landscape, read Mythos and the Economics of Cyberattack and the AI Governance series.

What We Have Introduced

Following an independent security assessment, three features have been added to strengthen the security of every Village.

Two-Factor Authentication (2FA)

A second verification step when you log in — a code from an authenticator app on your phone. Even if your password is compromised, your account remains protected.

Easy setup — scan a QR code with any authenticator app
Backup codes — eight single-use recovery codes in case you lose your device
Village policy — your administrators can set 2FA as optional, recommended, or required

Security Awareness Check

A brief five-question questionnaire each quarter when you log in. Topics include recognising phishing emails, password management, shared device safety, and suspicious links.

Educational, not punitive — no consequences for wrong answers
Takes about two minutes — five questions, one from each category
Earn a badge — completing the check awards a quarterly security awareness badge

AI-Moderated Discussions

For important community decisions, AI provides neutral, factual context to help inform the debate.

AI briefing — a neutral summary of background information, approved by a moderator
Comment classification — labels comments as factual claims, opinions, or questions
Discussion summary — a neutral summary of the debate, generated and approved by moderators
Guardian Agents — every factual claim is verified against source material and labelled with a confidence badge before you see it

                Community-Led Governance
                All four features were introduced through community discussion, not imposed without consultation. All AI outputs require moderator approval, Guardian Agents verify every factual claim using mathematical measurement, and viewing comment classifications requires your explicit consent.
            

What We Don't Disclose

Transparency is important, but so is operational security. We deliberately don't publish certain details.

Security Through Appropriate Secrecy We don't publicly document the specific technical implementation of our security measures. Publishing detailed security architecture would provide a roadmap for attackers. Security researchers are welcome to contact us directly for responsible disclosure.

This page tells you what we protect and what principles guide us. The how remains appropriately confidential.

Reporting Security Issues

We take security reports seriously. If you discover a potential vulnerability:

Responsible Disclosure

Email security concerns to: security@mysovereignty.digital
Include detailed reproduction steps if possible
Allow reasonable time for us to address the issue before public disclosure
We commit to acknowledging reports within 48 hours

Questions About Security?

We're happy to discuss our security approach. Contact us for more details about how we protect your community.

Security is an ongoing commitment, not a one-time achievement. We continuously review and improve our practices.

Last updated: March 2026