Privacy Policy

1 Introduction

Self Multiplexer ("SelfMux," "we," "us," or "our") operates as a distributed identity platform that enables you to control your personal information and share it securely with websites and services you trust. This Privacy Policy describes how we collect, use, protect, and share your personal data when you use our services at selfmux.com, selfmux.xto.email and associated domains (collectively, the "Service").

By using SelfMux, you acknowledge that you have read and understood this Privacy Policy. If you do not agree with this policy, please do not use our Service.

2 Information We Collect

2.1 Information You Provide Directly

• Account Information: Email address, username, and authentication credentials
• Profile Information: Information you choose to include in your personas, such as name, contact details, biographical information, and other personal data
• Authorization Records: Your explicit permissions granted to third-party sites, including what data they can access and for how long
• Communications: Messages you send to us for support, feedback, or other purposes

2.2 Information Collected Automatically

Important: All automatically-collected information is strictly for your protection. These logs may be purged at any time (automatically or manually) or may not be retained at all beyond what is necessary to protect against abuse.

• Access Logs: Complete records of when your data is accessed, by whom, and what specific information was retrieved
• Device Information: Device type, operating system, browser type, and version for security and compatibility purposes
• Usage Data: How you interact with our Service, including pages visited, features used, and time spent
• IP Addresses: Your IP address for security monitoring, fraud prevention, and regional service optimization
• Cookies and Similar Technologies: Essential cookies for authentication and session management (we do not use tracking or advertising cookies)

2.3 Information We Do Not Collect

We do not collect information for advertising purposes, behavioral tracking across websites, or any form of data monetization. We do not participate in ad networks or share your data with data brokers.

3 How We Use Your Information

We use your information solely for the following legitimate purposes:

• Service Delivery: To provide, maintain, and improve the SelfMux identity platform
• Authentication: To verify your identity and secure your account
• Authorization Management: To facilitate your control over which sites can access your data
• Security: To detect, prevent, and respond to fraud, abuse, security incidents, and other harmful activities
• Compliance: To comply with legal obligations and protect our legal rights
• Communication: To send you service-related notifications, security alerts, and responses to your inquiries
• Improvement: To analyze usage patterns and improve our Service (using aggregated, anonymized data only)

We do not use your data for marketing, advertising, or any form of monetization beyond providing the Service itself.

4 Data Sharing and Third Parties

4.1 User-Authorized Sharing

Your personal data is shared with third-party websites and services only when you explicitly authorize such sharing. You control:

• Which sites can access your data
• What specific data fields each site can access
• How long the authorization remains valid
• The ability to revoke access at any time

Critical limitation: Once a site receives your data through an authorized request, we cannot control what that site does with the information, including whether they monetize it, share it with others, or sell it to third parties. While we do not monetize your data, authorized sites may have different business models and privacy practices. We strongly recommend:

• Only authorizing sites you trust
• Reviewing each site's privacy policy before granting access
• Using Do Not Track preferences when available (described below)
• Regularly reviewing and revoking access for sites you no longer use

4.2 Do Not Track Preferences

SelfMux supports Do Not Track (DNT) preferences to help protect your privacy when sharing data with authorized sites:

• DNT Signal: When enabled, your DNT preference is included with data shared to authorized sites
• Site Compliance: Authorized sites receive your DNT preference, though we cannot enforce whether they honor it
• User Control: You can enable or disable DNT for each persona independently
• Transparency: Your audit logs show which sites received your DNT preference

Note: DNT is a privacy preference signal, not a legal requirement. Sites may choose to honor it or not. We recommend reviewing each site's DNT policy.

4.3 Service Providers

We may share limited information with service providers who assist in operating our Service:

• Infrastructure Providers: Cloud hosting and content delivery network services
• Email Services: Transactional email delivery for authentication links and security notifications
• Security Services: Bot protection and DDoS mitigation

All service providers are bound by strict contractual obligations to protect your data and use it only for the specific purposes we authorize. We conduct due diligence on all providers to ensure they meet our security and privacy standards.

4.4 Legal Requirements

We may disclose your information if required by law, court order, or legal process, or if we believe in good faith that such disclosure is necessary to:

• Comply with applicable laws or respond to valid legal requests
• Protect the rights, property, or safety of SelfMux, our users, or the public
• Detect, prevent, or address fraud, security, or technical issues
• Enforce our terms of service

We will notify you of such disclosures unless prohibited by law or court order, and we will challenge overly broad or inappropriate requests where legally permissible.

4.5 Business Transfers

Binding Protections: In the event of a merger, acquisition, bankruptcy, or sale of assets, your data is protected by legally binding commitments detailed in our Terms of Service that remain in effect for all time. Key protections include:

• No Retroactive Monetization: Any data processed before the transfer cannot be monetized by the successor
• Privacy Policy Immutability: The privacy protections in effect at the time of transfer remain binding for all historical data
• Mandatory 90-Day Notice: You will receive advance notice and have the right to delete your data
• Successor Binding: Any successor entity must legally commit to maintaining these same protections
• Enforceable Rights: You have standing to enforce these protections in court, including through class action

These protections are absolute, irrevocable, and survive any change of ownership. For complete details, see Section 5 of our Terms of Service.

4.6 What We Never Share

We will never:

• Sell your personal information to any third party
• Rent or lease your data to advertisers, data brokers, or marketing companies
• Share your data for purposes other than those you explicitly authorize or those described in this policy
• Directly monetize your information by selling, renting, or trading it (companies may pay for access to user data through our platform, but this is monetization of access to data, not direct monetization of the data itself)

5 Your Control Over Your Data

You maintain complete control over your personal information at all times. SelfMux provides the following controls:

5.1 Authorization Management

• Granular Permissions: Choose exactly which data fields each site can access
• Multiple Personas: Create separate profiles for different contexts (work, personal, social) and control what each persona reveals
• Time-Limited Access: Set expiration dates for site access authorizations
• Instant Revocation: Revoke any site's access with a single click, effective within seconds globally

5.2 Full Audit Trail

• View complete logs of every time your data is accessed
• See which sites accessed what data and when
• Receive real-time notifications when your data is accessed
• Export your complete audit history at any time

5.3 Emergency Kill Switch

In case of emergency (lost device, compromised account, or any security concern), you can activate the kill switch feature that immediately:

• Revokes all site access across every authorized service
• Invalidates all active sessions
• Takes effect within seconds globally
• Logs the kill switch activation in your audit trail

5.4 Data Portability

• Export all your data in machine-readable formats (JSON, CSV)
• Transfer your identity to another SelfMux provider (federation support)
• No lock-in: your identity is portable and under your control

6 Security Measures

We implement industry-leading security practices to protect your data:

6.1 Authentication Security

• Phishing-Resistant Authentication: Hardware-based authentication that protects against credential theft
• No Passwords: We don't store passwords, eliminating password breach risks
• Device Binding: Authentication credentials stored in hardware security modules on your device
• Multi-Factor Authentication: Support for additional authentication methods as an additional security layer

6.2 Infrastructure Security

• Distributed Architecture: Data sharded across multiple regions, no single point of failure
• Isolated Failure Domains: Security breaches contained to limited scope
• Regular Security Audits: Independent third-party security assessments
• Intrusion Detection: Real-time monitoring for suspicious activity
• DDoS Protection: Enterprise-grade protection against denial-of-service attacks

6.3 Application Security

• Secure Coding Practices: Code reviews, static analysis, and security testing
• Input Validation: All user input sanitized to prevent injection attacks
• Parameterized Queries: Protection against SQL injection
• Content Security Policy: Prevention of cross-site scripting (XSS)
• Security Headers: HSTS, X-Frame-Options, and other protective headers

7 Data Retention and Deletion

7.1 Active Account Data

We retain your personal data for as long as your account is active and as needed to provide you the Service. You can update or modify your data at any time through your dashboard.

7.2 Audit Logs

Access audit logs are retained for a minimum of 1 year to provide you with complete transparency and to support security investigations. You may retain your audit logs indefinitely by exporting them.

7.3 Deleted Account Data

When you delete your account:

• Immediate Effect: All site authorizations are revoked immediately
• Personal Data: Deleted from our active systems within 30 days
• Backup Systems: Purged from backups within 90 days
• Audit Logs: Anonymized (personal identifiers removed) and retained for security and compliance purposes for up to 7 years
• Legal Retention: Data may be retained longer if required by law or legal process

7.4 Authorized Site Data

Important: When you authorize a site to access your data, that site receives a copy of the information. Deleting your SelfMux account does not delete data previously shared with authorized sites. You must contact those sites directly to request deletion of data in their systems.

8 Encryption and Protection

8.1 Data in Transit

• Encrypted Transmission: All data transmitted using modern encryption standards over secure connections
• Certificate Pinning: Protection against man-in-the-middle attacks
• Perfect Forward Secrecy: Unique session keys protect past communications

8.2 Data at Rest

• Strong Encryption: All stored personal data encrypted using industry-standard encryption
• Field-Level Encryption: Sensitive fields (name, email, phone) encrypted separately
• Key Management: Encryption keys stored separately from encrypted data
• Hardware Security Modules: Critical keys protected by hardware security modules where available

8.3 End-to-End Protection

When a site requests your data through the API, the data is encrypted end-to-end. Sites receive encrypted payloads that only they can decrypt using their private keys, ensuring SelfMux infrastructure never exposes plaintext sensitive data in transit.

9 Audit Trails and Transparency

9.1 Immutable Audit Logs

Every access to your data is recorded in an immutable audit log that cannot be modified or deleted. Each log entry includes:

• Timestamp (precise to the second)
• Requesting site identity
• Specific data fields accessed
• IP address and user agent of the requester
• Authorization token used
• Request outcome (success, denied, error)
• Cryptographic hash linking to previous entries (tamper detection)

9.2 Real-Time Notifications

You can enable notifications to receive alerts when:

• A site accesses your data
• A new authorization is created
• An authorization is revoked
• Suspicious activity is detected
• Security events occur (new device login, kill switch activation)

9.3 Log Integrity

Audit logs use cryptographic hash chains to ensure integrity. Any tampering with the logs is immediately detectable. If log integrity is compromised, your account is automatically locked and you are notified immediately.

10 Your Privacy Rights

Depending on your jurisdiction, you may have the following rights regarding your personal data:

10.1 Universal Rights (All Users)

• Right to Access: View all personal data we hold about you
• Right to Rectification: Correct inaccurate or incomplete data
• Right to Deletion: Request deletion of your account and personal data
• Right to Data Portability: Export your data in machine-readable format
• Right to Revoke Consent: Withdraw authorization from any site at any time

10.2 GDPR Rights (EU/EEA/UK Users)

If you are located in the European Union, European Economic Area, or United Kingdom, you have additional rights under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR):

• Right to Object: Object to processing of your data for certain purposes
• Right to Restriction: Request restriction of processing in certain circumstances
• Right to Lodge a Complaint: File a complaint with your local data protection authority
• Right to Not Be Subject to Automated Decision-Making: We do not use automated decision-making or profiling

Our legal basis for processing your data is your consent (for data sharing) and contract performance (for providing the Service).

10.3 CCPA Rights (California Users)

If you are a California resident, you have rights under the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA):

• Right to Know: Request disclosure of data collected, purposes, and authorized third parties (we do not collect data from third-party sources; we only share with parties you explicitly authorize)
• Right to Delete: Request deletion of personal data (with exceptions)
• Right to Opt-Out of Sale: We do not sell personal information, so no opt-out is necessary
• Right to Non-Discrimination: We will not discriminate for exercising your rights

10.4 Exercising Your Rights

To exercise any of these rights:

• Access your account dashboard to view, modify, or delete most information
• Contact us at privacy@selfmux.com for requests requiring assistance
• We will respond to verified requests within 30 days (or as required by applicable law)

11 Children's Privacy

SelfMux is not intended for use by children under the age of 13 (or 16 in the EU). We do not knowingly collect personal information from children. If we learn that we have collected personal data from a child without proper consent, we will delete that information immediately.

Parents or guardians who believe their child has provided us with personal information should contact us at privacy@selfmux.com.

12 International Data Transfers

SelfMux operates globally with distributed infrastructure. Your data may be processed in multiple regions for performance and redundancy. We ensure that all data transfers comply with applicable data protection laws:

• EU-US Data Transfers: We rely on Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs) approved by the European Commission
• Data Localization: Where required by law, we store data within specific geographic regions
• Adequate Protections: All international transfers include appropriate safeguards to protect your data

Regardless of where your data is processed, it receives the same level of protection described in this Privacy Policy.

Important: We will not provide services to regions that require sacrificing your privacy or security, or our own privacy or security standards.

13 Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices, technology, legal requirements, or other factors. When we make material changes:

• We will update the "Last Updated" date at the top of this policy
• We will notify you via email or through a prominent notice in the Service
• For significant changes affecting your rights, we may require you to review and accept the new policy
• Your continued use of the Service after changes take effect constitutes acceptance of the updated policy

We encourage you to review this Privacy Policy periodically. Previous versions are available upon request.

14 Contact Us

If you have any questions, concerns, or requests regarding this Privacy Policy or our data practices, please contact us:

• Email: privacy@selfmux.com
• Security Issues: security@selfmux.com
• General Support: support@selfmux.com

For EU users, our representative can be contacted at the same addresses.

We aim to respond to all inquiries within 48 hours and to resolve all requests within 30 days.