Protection Built In, Not Bolted On
Security was foundational to Village design. Your community's data stays protected, isolated, and under your control.
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.
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.
Member information is visible only within your Village. Other Villages cannot see your member list.
Chat messages and video calls stay within your community. Video calls use encrypted WebRTC transport with optional end-to-end encryption.
Governance votes and polls are private to your community. Voting records are protected.
Understanding what we refuse to do is just as important as understanding our protections.
When Villages connect through Federation, security remains paramount. Federation enables collaboration without compromising independence.
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.
We implement industry-standard security practices across our infrastructure.
All connections use TLS 1.3. Your data is encrypted between your device and our servers.
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.
Passwords are hashed with bcrypt. Session tokens are cryptographically secure and time-limited.
All forms use CSRF tokens. Content Security Policy headers prevent script injection.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
For a detailed analysis of the threat landscape, read Mythos and the Economics of Cyberattack and the AI Governance series.
Following an independent security assessment, three features have been added to strengthen the security of every Village.
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.
A brief five-question questionnaire each quarter when you log in. Topics include recognising phishing emails, password management, shared device safety, and suspicious links.
For important community decisions, AI provides neutral, factual context to help inform the debate.
Transparency is important, but so is operational security. We deliberately don't publish certain details.
This page tells you what we protect and what principles guide us. The how remains appropriately confidential.
We take security reports seriously. If you discover a potential vulnerability:
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