Brief.

Brief is a personal journaling platform. We take a minimal approach to data — we collect only what we need to run the service, we don't sell it, and we don't share it.

When you create an account, we store:

• Your email address — used to identify your account and send optional service emails (password reset, snapshot nudges).
• Your username — chosen by you, visible on your profile.
• Your 30-word entries and snapshots — the core content of the service.
• Your mood, life stage, and theme preferences — optional, stored against your account.
• Your account creation date and last-updated timestamp — used to manage the snapshot cycle.

We do not collect your real name, address, phone number, or payment information. Brief is a free service.

Your data is used solely to provide the Brief service:

• To log you in and maintain your session.
• To store and display your journal entries and snapshot history.
• To send service emails you have requested (password reset) or opted into (nudge reminders).
• To generate the anonymous community word cloud from all entries combined.
• To show your entry anonymously in the Strangers feed, if you choose to enable that.

We do not use your data for advertising, profiling, or any automated decision-making.

If you sign in using Google or Microsoft OAuth, those services authenticate you and pass us your email address. We store only your email. We do not receive or store your Google or Microsoft password, and we do not access any other data from those accounts.

Google and Microsoft operate their own privacy policies which govern what they do with your data during the authentication process. Brief has no control over that.

Brief uses a single session cookie to keep you logged in. This cookie contains no personal information — only a session identifier. It expires when you log out or close your browser.

We use no advertising cookies, no analytics tracking, no third-party tracking pixels, and no fingerprinting.

Your entry is private by default. You control visibility:

• Profile page — visible to anyone who knows your username URL. It shows your current entry and life stage, but not your email or snapshot history.
• Strangers feed — opt-in only. If enabled, your current entry appears anonymously with no username attached.
• Groups — if you join a group, members of that group can see your entry.

Your snapshot history, mood, and account details are visible only to you.

We keep your data for as long as your account is active. If you delete your account, we permanently delete your email address, entries, snapshots, mood data, and all associated records. There is no recovery after deletion.

Under GDPR you have the right to:

• Access — use the Export feature on your profile to download your full entry history at any time.
• Correct — update your entry or username directly in the app.
• Delete — use the Delete Account option on your profile. This is immediate and permanent.
• Object — contact us and we will discuss your concern.
• Portability — your export file is plain text you can take anywhere.

Brief is hosted on PythonAnywhere (EU infrastructure). Your data is stored in a SQLite database on their servers. Connections to the site are encrypted via HTTPS.

We apply standard security practices: password hashing (bcrypt), secure session cookies, and rate limiting on login and submission endpoints.

Brief is not intended for use by anyone under the age of 16. We do not knowingly collect data from children. If you believe a child has created an account, please contact us and we will delete it.

If we make material changes to this policy we will update the date at the top of this page. Continued use of the service after changes constitutes acceptance of the revised policy.

If you have questions about this policy or want to exercise your rights, contact us at barry.b.sisk@gmail.com. We will respond within 30 days.