Privacy Policy

CivicNest operates civicnest.app. We help people prepare USCIS forms by answering guided questions, reviewing a package, and downloading PDFs they can file themselves.

Questions about this policy: hello@civicnest.app.

Account information: email address, name if you provide one, and authentication records created when you sign in with email and password or Google. Password recovery is handled by our identity provider (Appwrite), not by CivicNest marketing email.

Application information: answers you enter for a form, reusable My info facts you choose to save, application status, and files you generate (such as a completed PDF). You decide what to type. CivicNest does not scrape your devices for immigration records.

Product usage: signed-in activity needed to run the app (which application you opened, whether a PDF generated successfully) and first-party analytics events that are designed not to include answer values, passport numbers, or other sensitive fields. CivicNest uses two self-hosted analytics systems. Plausible (plausible.adamfils.com) records cookieless page and event analytics for public traffic. It does not run on localhost, and it is not sent application answers, account identifiers, or arbitrary query strings. Allowlisted UTM parameters from printed QR cards (source, medium, campaign, content) may be sent so those scans can be attributed. PostHog (posthog.adamfils.com) records product analytics: page views, navigation, and typed events such as a price being shown or a study session starting. After you sign in, those events are tied to an internal account id. PostHog is not sent application answers, assistant messages, prompts, email, name, or address. PostHog session replay and PostHog capture of AI conversations are off.

Email delivery: if lifecycle email is enabled, we store send status, unsubscribe preferences, and bounce or complaint signals so we can stop optional reminders. We resolve your email at send time from your account. We do not copy answers into email templates.

Support: if you write to us, we keep the message long enough to respond.

To operate your account, save progress, compile form packages, and show you your applications.

To send transactional email (for example, welcome or package-ready notices) and, if you have not opted out, optional application reminders. Every optional email includes a way to unsubscribe.

To understand product quality (where people get stuck, whether a PDF succeeded, and whether people return) without putting application answers, prompts, or assistant messages into analytics. PostHog is not the record of your application, a filing, or a payment.

To secure the service (session cookies, abuse prevention, founder operations).

We do not sell personal information, and we do not use application answers to train public AI models.

When an assistive feature is on for the product and for your account, CivicNest may send the minimum necessary text you provide to an external AI provider so it can explain a question or organize a natural-language answer. CivicNest does not use AI to submit forms or make final legal determinations. You confirm suggestions before they become part of an application.

You can turn assistive AI off for your account in Profile. CivicNest can also disable these features for everyone (including during Alpha). If they are off, we do not send interview answers to a model for those features.

CivicNest uses a first-party session cookie after you sign in so the app can keep you authenticated, including when you reopen the installed app. That cookie lasts up to one year, is required for signed-in use, and is not used for cross-site advertising.

Printed QR cards (for example a rideshare headrest or a business card) may set a first-party cookie named civicnest.qr. It stores only a short campaign label such as ride or card so CivicNest can tell those scans apart. It is not used for advertising, and it does not store your name, email, or application answers.

Plausible page analytics does not set cookies. PostHog product analytics may store a first-party identifier in a cookie or in local storage so page views in one visit stay on the same anonymous visitor, and so signed-in events can be tied to your account after you sign in. Signing out clears that link in the browser. That identifier is not used for advertising, and PostHog does not record session replay.

Microsoft Clarity session replay is enabled on civicnest.app. It may set its own cookies. Answer fields, My Info, and application review are masked so Clarity can see layout and clicks, not the values you type. Clarity does not run on localhost. Clarity is separate from PostHog. PostHog does not receive a replay of the screen.

Account and application data are stored in Appwrite (our database and authentication provider) on infrastructure CivicNest operates.

Email, when enabled, is sent through Resend. Optional reminders honor unsubscribe and suppression (for example, hard bounces).

PDF compilation may run in a document engine CivicNest hosts. Generated PDFs are returned to you in the product. CivicNest does not attach immigration PDFs to email.

Public-site analytics run on CivicNest-operated Plausible (plausible.adamfils.com). That service receives page paths, allowlisted event properties such as form number, and allowlisted UTM campaign parameters from printed QR cards, not application answers.

Product analytics run on CivicNest-operated PostHog (posthog.adamfils.com). That service receives templated page paths, typed event properties such as form number, and, after sign-in, an internal account id with coarse properties such as account type and locale. Application ids are removed from page paths before they are sent. PostHog does not receive application answers, raw assistant messages, prompts, email, name, or postal address. Session replay and AI prompt capture are off.

Microsoft Clarity (Clarity, a Microsoft product) receives session replay of civicnest.app: page layout, clicks, and scroll. Sensitive application surfaces are masked. CivicNest does not send your email, name, or Appwrite user id to Clarity.

We do not share application answers with advertisers. When you use an assistive AI feature, the minimum necessary text for that feature may be sent to an external AI provider. CivicNest does not use those providers to file forms or decide eligibility.

You can review, edit, or delete saved My info from the product, and you can delete an application that is not in a completed filing state, subject to in-product rules.

You can turn off optional application reminder emails in Profile or via the unsubscribe link in those emails. Transactional notices needed to run the account may still send when email is enabled.

You can turn off assistive AI for your account in Profile. Structured interview questions still work without it.

To close an account entirely, email us at the address above. Some records (for example security logs or email suppression) may be kept as needed to operate the service safely.

CivicNest is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13.

We may update this policy as the product changes. The date at the top of this page is the current version. Material changes will be posted here.