Privacy Policy

# Privacy Policy
Last updated: 21 October 2026

## About this policy
This is an interim Privacy Policy. It accurately describes how Branch Press handles information today, and it applies now. It is currently under review by legal counsel and may be refined for clarity and completeness; any material change will be handled as described under "Changes to this policy" below. If anything here is unclear, contact privacy@branchpress.org.

## What changed on 6 October 2026
The previous version, dated 14 August 2026, said that Branch Press had no AI feature and sent no content to any AI provider. That stopped being true on 23 August 2026, when Branchspace gained AI review (which, when you asked, sent the open note to Anthropic or OpenAI on your own key; it was removed on 29 September 2026), and it is not true of the optional AI agent that replaced it. This version describes the agent (under "The AI agent"), names the companies it involves, and adds features it did not yet describe: comments and ratings, following and blocking, highlights and margin notes, the album, published boards, two-factor sign-in, and the "Report a problem" form. None of your writing was sent to any AI system unless you yourself used AI review or the agent.

## The short version
Branch Press is a reading site and a private writing workspace. If you only read, we collect nothing about you beyond the ordinary technical logs any website produces. If you create an account, we store what the service needs to work: your email, your profile, and the things you write. Your notes are private by default and protected so that only your account can read them. We run no analytics, show no ads, send no marketing email, do not sell or share your data, and never use your content to train AI models. Branchspace has an optional AI agent: it sends anything only when you ask it something, through OpenRouter on your own OpenRouter account, and only to model hosts that neither keep your writing nor may train on it. If you never use it, none of your writing reaches any AI system. You can export your writing and delete your account, and everything in it, at any time.

## Who operates Branch Press
Branch Press (branchpress.org) is an independent literary press and writing platform operated by Soulaiman B. Mershed, also writing as S B Mershed, an individual based in Muscat, Oman. In this policy, "Branch Press," "we," "us," and "our" refer to this project; "you" refers to any visitor or account holder. For anything concerning your data or this policy, contact privacy@branchpress.org. General correspondence: contact@branchpress.org.

## Scope
This policy covers branchpress.org and the account-based writing workspace within it, called Branchspace. It describes the system as it actually runs today. If we change what the system does with your data, we update this policy first.

## The two ways to use Branch Press
As a reader, without an account: the essays, books, graph, guides, and public pages are readable without signing up, without consent-requiring cookies, and without identifying you. The only data involved is the technical minimum described under "Information processed automatically."

As a writer, with an account: Branchspace is a private writing workspace with notes, spaces, boards, templates, a knowledge graph, a reading tracker, an optional AI agent, and a public writer profile. Everything you create there is private by default. Some things become public only by your explicit choice, described under "What is public."

## What we collect from account holders, and why
We collect only what each feature needs to function.

To sign you in: your email address and a securely hashed password, held by our database and authentication provider, Supabase. We never store or see the password itself. If you sign in with Google, we receive the identity information Google's sign-in provides (your name, email, and avatar reference) and the tokens Google issues; we do not gain access to your Gmail, Drive, or any other Google data.

To keep your account secure: if you turn on two-factor sign-in, the authenticator setup and your recovery codes, which we store only in hashed form, so no one, including us, can read them back. Your settings list the devices currently signed in to your account, so that you can sign them out.

To give you a profile: an optional display name, handle, bio, and avatar image, and the album, if you add to it: the web addresses of photographs you host elsewhere, with your captions. The avatar is stored in our storage system.

To make the workspace work: the notes, spaces, boards, and compositions you create, and the templates you install; your reading-tracker entries; your reading positions, bookmarks, saved essays and shelves, and the highlights and margin notes you make while reading; and daily contribution counts used for your profile's contribution calendar. Private workspace records are protected by database access rules and restricted server endpoints. Those contribution records are numbers only, never the content, titles, or subject of what you wrote. Your private writing may contain anything you choose, and we treat all of it as private regardless of its subject.

To let you take part in conversation: the comments you post on Branch Press essays and the comments you like; the ratings you give essays and templates; the writers you follow; and the people you block or whose comments you hide.

If you use the AI agent: the connection to your OpenRouter account, and your conversations with the agent. Both are described under "The AI agent."

If you report a problem or suggest an idea: what you write, the page you sent it from, your browser, your screen size, and your theme, all listed on the form before you send it, and your email address only if you tick "You may reply to me by email." Only the operator can read reports.

If you email us, we receive your email address, your name if you give one, and your message, used only to read and respond to you.

## Information processed automatically for everyone
Like any website, Branch Press is served through hosting and content-delivery infrastructure. When you load a page, that infrastructure processes limited technical information as a normal part of delivering the site, protecting it from abuse, and diagnosing faults: your IP address, browser and device type, the page requested, timestamps, referring page, and security and error logs. Our hosting and content-delivery provider is Cloudflare, and our database provider keeps equivalent service logs. These logs are held for short rolling windows on the providers' standard schedules, typically measured in days to weeks, and are not used by us for any purpose. We run no analytics and no tracking, so we do not profile you.

## Fonts and page assets are served by us
All fonts and site assets on Branch Press are served from Branch Press's own hosting. Loading a Branch Press page does not send your IP address or any other information to third-party font or asset services. One exception exists by a writer's own action: if a writer places an image in a note or their album by linking to an outside host, or embeds a video, your browser fetches it from that host when the page is displayed.

## What we deliberately do not do
Each of these is true of the system as it runs today:
- No analytics or tracking scripts of any kind.
- No advertising and no ad-tech.
- No sale or sharing of your personal data with anyone for their own purposes.
- No marketing email; we email you only about your account or the service when necessary.
- No cross-site tracking and no third-party cookies.
- No AI training on your content, by us or, through the agent, by anyone else. The agent sends your writing only when you ask it something, and only to model hosts that neither keep it nor may train on it.
If we ever wanted to change any of these, we would change this policy first and tell you.

## What is public, and only by your choice
Privacy on Branch Press works in one direction: things become public only through an explicit action of yours, and you can reverse the visible part of that action at any time.

Your profile page, at a public address based on your handle, shows your display name, handle, bio, avatar, your public spaces and notes, your public activity, your contribution calendar, the boards you have published, and your album. If you hold a paid plan, the plan's name appears on it as a badge. The profile is public by default, because Branch Press is a press and writers are its public face, but a single switch in your profile settings makes the profile private.

Marking a note, board, or space public exposes it at a share link that anyone can read, and that search engines can index, cache, and quote. Unsharing removes it from Branch Press going forward, but cannot recall copies others may already have made. Publish deliberately.

Comments you post on Branch Press essays are public, with your name, which links to your profile only while your profile is public. For likes and ratings, only the totals are public, never who gave them. Whom you follow, who follows you, and whom you block or hide are private to you; the other person is never told.

Other writers may branch a published essay of yours: answer it with an essay of their own, which opens with a credited quotation of your first lines and a link back. Branching is open by default, and you can close it for any essay.

Reading-tracker entries are private unless you mark an individual entry public. Apart from your public profile and the notes, boards, spaces, comments, or reading entries you explicitly publish, nothing else you create is visible to anyone but you.

## Images you embed from elsewhere
The workspace lets you place images in notes and in your album by pasting a direct link to an image you host elsewhere. Branch Press stores only the link. The image stays with, and is served by, the host you chose, under that host's own privacy practices. Choose hosts you trust, especially for images in notes you make public.

## Your private notes stay private
We designed Branch Press so that reading your private notes forms no part of ordinary operation: database access rules restrict each note to its owner's account, and no feature of ours reads private content for analytics, recommendations, training, or curiosity. The AI agent reads your notes only when you ask it something, in your own browser session, and only within the reach you allow (see "The AI agent"). We have no interest in inspecting private notes. We will not access your private content except where the law recognizes a narrow need: where we are legally compelled to by a valid legal order, or where it is strictly necessary to investigate a specific, credible report of abuse of the service or harm to others, and then only to the minimum extent required. We prefer this honest statement to an absolute promise that a single legal order could turn into a falsehood.

## The AI agent
Branchspace has an optional AI agent that can answer questions about your notes, map a space, suggest links, and, if you allow it, make changes. It is off until you connect your own OpenRouter account. Branch Press charges nothing for it; OpenRouter bills you directly, under your own agreement with OpenRouter.

When it sends anything: only when you ask the agent something. It never runs in the background and never reads your notes on its own.

What it sends: your question; the conversation so far; your agent instructions, if you have written a note titled AGENT.md; the note you have open; and any other notes the agent reads to answer. The agent may read notes in the open note's space. It reaches your other spaces only if you allow it each time, and you can forbid that altogether in Settings.

Where it goes: from your browser to Branch Press's server, which passes it to OpenRouter and passes the answer back. Branch Press's server keeps no copy of what passes through it; if a request fails, it records only that it failed and OpenRouter's stated reason. OpenRouter routes the request to a company that runs the model you chose: the model's maker (such as Anthropic, OpenAI, Google, xAI, Mistral, DeepSeek, Alibaba (Qwen), or Meta) or a hosting company that runs that model. Branch Press instructs OpenRouter, on every request, to use only hosts that neither store what they are sent beyond processing it nor may train on it. This rests on OpenRouter's own record of each host's policy. If a model has no such host, the request is refused before anything is sent. OpenRouter states that it does not store prompts or answers unless you opt in to that in your OpenRouter account settings; it keeps records such as the size and cost of each request, which you can see in your OpenRouter account. Their own privacy policies govern what OpenRouter and each host do.

Changes to your notes: by default, every change the agent suggests is a proposal you accept or decline. If you choose automatic mode, the agent makes the kinds of change you allowed itself, and each one can be undone from the conversation while the page stays open. It never deletes notes.

Your OpenRouter connection: when you connect, OpenRouter issues a key for your OpenRouter account. Branch Press encrypts it before storing it, and your browser can never read it back. Disconnecting in Settings deletes it from Branch Press; the key itself remains in your OpenRouter account until you delete it there.

Your conversations: each conversation with the agent is saved to your account, so that it survives a closed page and follows you to other devices. A conversation holds what you asked, what the agent answered and proposed, whether you accepted, the reasoning the model showed, and the text of any note the agent read or quoted. Only you can read your conversations. You can delete them one by one or all at once, and they are deleted with your account. A saved conversation is sent nowhere again unless you continue it.

## Retention and deletion
Your content persists until you delete it. Deleting a note deletes it; unsharing a note removes it from public view immediately. Agent conversations persist until you delete them. Reports are deleted automatically twelve months after they are sent. You can delete your entire account from your account settings. Account deletion removes your authentication record, profile, avatar, album, notes, spaces, boards, readings, highlights and margin notes, saved essays, bookmarks, reading positions, comments, likes, ratings, follows, blocks, reports, your OpenRouter connection, your agent conversations, and your contribution history. Residual copies in operational backups are purged within 30 days. One thing stays: if another writer branched your essay, their essay keeps its short credited quotation of yours. You can also request deletion by email at privacy@branchpress.org, and we will complete it within 30 days of verifying that the request comes from the account holder. Server and security logs follow the short provider schedules described above.

## Your rights
You can, at any time: access the personal data we hold about you, most of which is simply visible to you in your account; correct it, since profile fields are self-serve; export your content and take it elsewhere, which currently works per item, for compositions and notes, as a single full-account archive does not exist yet; delete individual content or your entire account; and object or complain, first to us at privacy@branchpress.org and also to a data protection authority. The precise set of statutory rights that applies to you depends on where you live; if you contact us, we will honor the rights the law gives you.

## Where data lives and international transfers
Branch Press operates from Oman, and its infrastructure providers are international. Your account data is stored with Supabase in Singapore (AWS ap-southeast-1) and transits Cloudflare's global content-delivery network. If you sign in with Google, Google processes the sign-in. If you use the AI agent, what it sends passes through OpenRouter, which is based in the United States, to the company running the model you chose, which may be in the United States or elsewhere. This means your data crosses borders as an inherent part of the service. The formal safeguards that govern these transfers are provided through our providers' data-processing terms; the exact contractual wording is being finalized with legal counsel.

## Information stored in your browser
Branch Press stores a small amount of data in your browser: your sign-in session, theme and workspace style, reading positions, editor and agent preferences, your 2D or 3D and titles choices for graphs, a copy of your profile graph (note titles, tags and links, never their text) so it opens faster, and drafts you have not yet saved. This is functional storage the service needs to work; it is not used for tracking, and we do not use third-party cookies. You can clear it at any time through your browser's site-data settings, which signs you out and resets preferences.

## Security
Private content is protected by database access rules that make each record readable only by its owner's authenticated account; public data is exposed only through deliberately restricted read paths; passwords are hashed by the authentication provider; two-factor sign-in is available; your OpenRouter key is stored encrypted; and all traffic is encrypted in transit. No system is invulnerable, and we do not claim ours is, but its privacy boundaries are enforced in the database itself, not merely in the interface. If a data breach affects your personal information, we will notify you and any authority the law requires.

## Age
Branch Press is a general-audience service for adults and is not directed at children. You must be at least 16 years old to create an account.

## Changes to this policy
We may update this policy as Branch Press evolves. When we do, we will update the "Last updated" date above, and for material changes, meaning anything that changes what we collect, what becomes public, or what we promise under "What we deliberately do not do," we will post a clear notice on the site, and show it to account holders in Branchspace, before or when the change takes effect. Continued use of Branch Press after a change takes effect means the updated policy applies to you.

## Contact
Questions, requests, or complaints about privacy: privacy@branchpress.org. We aim to respond within 14 days and to resolve verified data-subject requests within 30 days.