Privacy Policy

Effective: 2026-05-24 · Version: v1.0 (draft)

1. What Cygnus is

In this policy, "Cygnus" means Cygnus Project LLC, the operator of this site, and "we", "us", and "our" refer to Cygnus Project LLC.

Cygnus is a computational astrology tool. It computes chart positions, house cusps, and electional search windows from inputs you supply. Cygnus computes; you interpret. That framing matters here because it bounds what data the service actually needs from you.

Cygnus Project LLC is the data controller for the information described in this policy and is responsible for how it is handled.

Cygnus is not directed at children under 13.

2. The short version

  • We store your email address, your saved charts and searches, and your settings. You can read, edit, export, or delete all of it.
  • We run self-hosted analytics (Umami) that records aggregate page views and feature usage with no personal identifiers. You can opt out in settings.
  • The sole developer operating Cygnus has access to the production database. We do not routinely look at individual account data.

3. What we do not do

  • No tracking cookies. (A session cookie for sign-in exists; it is not a tracking cookie.)
  • No advertising. No ad networks. Ever.
  • No data sales. No data broker relationships.
  • No behavioral profiling.
  • No session replay.
  • No social-media pixels or SDKs.
  • No third-party access to your astrological data.
  • No contact-list imports.

These are constraints on future product decisions, not aspirations.

4. How computation works

When you cast a chart or run an electional search, your inputs (date, time, location, condition tree, house system) go to the server, are computed, and the result is returned to your browser. Search parameters you do not save are discarded after computation. We cannot retroactively see what you searched for.

This is how the system is built, not a behavioral promise. If you do not create an account, nothing about you persists on the server beyond standard request logging (described in §10).

5. Your account

You can sign in with your email and password, or use Google sign-in if you prefer. If you sign in, the following is stored:

  • Your email address. If you sign in with Google, your display name from your Google profile is also stored.
  • A session cookie, httpOnly, secure in production, with a 14-day max age.
  • Birth data and chart inputs you explicitly save (date, time, location, subject name, plus any associated metadata).
  • Saved electional searches (condition trees and parameters).
  • Settings (default location, tradition, theme, timezone, timestamp format, analytics preferences).

This is stored to authenticate you and to let you retrieve your saved work. The legal basis under GDPR Art. 13(1)(c) is contract performance — providing the service you signed up for.

Storage location: Google Cloud SQL (Postgres), in us-central1 (Iowa, USA). When you use Google sign-in, the OAuth scopes requested are openid profile email.

6. Location lookups

When you use the city picker to set a chart location, your typed query goes to a server-side index of city names and coordinates. The query itself is ephemeral (used to find a match, then discarded). The coordinates and place name you select are stored only if you save a chart with that location.

7. Analytics

We use self-hosted Umami at stats.cygnus.so for aggregate analytics. The database is on Cloud SQL, alongside the rest of the infrastructure we operate. Analytics data does not leave servers we control.

What is collected:

  • Aggregate page views and feature usage.
  • Referral source.
  • Browser, OS, and device type.
  • Country (geolocated from IP at ingest).

What is not collected:

  • No personal identifiers.
  • No user-level tracking.
  • No analytics cookies.

You can opt out of analytics in Settings.

8. Who can see your data

The sole developer operating Cygnus has production database access. As a matter of routine that access is not used to look at individual account data. If you initiate support and share an identifier, we may look at your account to help, and that access is logged.

No employees, no contractors, no third parties have database access.

9. Third parties

The complete list of third parties in the production stack:

  • Identity provider — handles sign-in and stores your authentication state. Receives your email address (and, if you use Google sign-in, OAuth state). Currently cloud-hosted; planned to migrate to self-host.
  • Google OAuth — used only if you choose Google sign-in. Mediates that sign-in interaction and returns your email and profile.
  • Google Cloud Platform — hosting (Compute Engine VMs, Cloud SQL Postgres, Cloud Logging, Cloud Error Reporting). All server traffic flows through GCP infrastructure in us-central1.
  • SMTP2Go — transactional email (account notifications, policy-change notices). Receives only the email address and message body needed to deliver the notification.

Umami is not in this list — it is self-hosted on infrastructure we operate. Caddy (TLS termination) runs on the same VMs and is not a distinct data flow.

This is the complete list.

10. Your rights

These rights apply to everyone with an account, regardless of jurisdiction:

  • Delete your account and all associated data within 30 days of request. "All your data" means: your identity record, all Cygnus database rows tied to your account (charts, searches, settings, preferences), and the relevant server-log lines for the named account, subject to the log retention period below. Self-serve deletion lives in Settings.
  • Export your data in a machine-readable format.
  • Correct inaccurate information in fields under Cygnus's control. (If you use Google sign-in, your email comes from your Google account, so corrections to that field happen on Google's side.)
  • Opt out of analytics at any time.

If you are in the EU, you have additional rights under GDPR, including the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority. Contact Cygnus to exercise them (see §12).

Cygnus will comply with valid legal process. Given the minimal data stored, there is very little to disclose.

If Cygnus becomes aware that your data has been compromised, affected users will be notified promptly.

11. Security and storage

  • TLS in transit, with automatic Let's Encrypt issuance via Caddy.
  • Session cookie: httpOnly, secure, sameSite lax, 14-day max age.
  • Database access restricted to the sole developer; Cloud SQL with private IP.
  • Automated daily database backups at 04:00 UTC with 7-day retention and point-in-time recovery enabled. Backups expire within 7 days, well within the 30-day deletion window in §10.
  • Server log retention: TODO (30/60/90 days — to be set before publication).

Cygnus does not claim more than the above. There is no separate at-rest encryption layer beyond what GCP provides by default; no MFA for user accounts yet; no intrusion-detection system.

12. Changes to this policy

This policy is versioned in a Git repository. Every change is tracked with a timestamp; any two versions can be compared side-by-side. This is unusual for a privacy policy and is the strongest transparency mechanism Cygnus can offer.

Material changes will be communicated by email to users with accounts, with at least 14 days' notice before the effective date. Non-material changes (typo fixes, link updates) take effect when committed.

13. Contact

For privacy questions, data requests, or to exercise your rights, email privacy@cygnus.so.