Effective August 15, 2026
Privacy Policy
This policy describes the Mortal Commons website, its local-first Stoic Pause journal, the downloadable Control Audit, and its links to Amazon product pages.
The Stoic Pause and private journal
The Stoic Pause does not collect personal information. If you save a morning, evening, or Control Audit entry, its answers, date, optional stress or anxiety rating, and private tags remain in IndexedDB on that browser and device. They are not transmitted to Mortal Commons. Mortal Commons cannot read, recover, or remotely delete them.
The practice calendar is calculated inside the browser from saved dates and practice types. Calendar cells do not include prompt text, tags, or ratings. Selecting a date filters the local ledger without creating a new record or network request.
Practice at a glance is also calculated entirely inside the browser. It uses only saved dates, practice types, and optional ratings to show active-day counts, practice counts, a 14-day activity thread, and a 30-day practice-type mix. It does not read answers or tags, transmit journal data, diagnose a pattern, rank progress, score performance, or recommend a decision.
You can edit or delete one entry, export all entries as JSON or CSV, create a passphrase-protected encrypted JSON backup, print an entry to a file, review a JSON backup before importing it, or use Delete all local data. Encrypted backups use AES-256-GCM with a key derived locally from the passphrase; the passphrase is not stored or transmitted and cannot be recovered by Mortal Commons. A typed confirmation protects the delete-all action. Delete all resets the journal database, local reminder and migration preferences, pending import state, Mortal Commons offline cache, and the journal's service-worker registration on that browser. An optional reminder time is stored in local storage and works only while the journal page is open.
Provider. Dear Mortals email is delivered by MailerLite (MailerLite Limited), acting as the processor for subscription and delivery. Submitting the signup form sends your email address to MailerLite. No third-party script, pixel, or advertising technology is loaded on this site to do it; the form posts directly and this site sets no cookie for it.
What is collected and why. Your email address, confirmation status, and ordinary delivery events (such as whether a message was delivered, opened, or a link was clicked) are processed by MailerLite so the letter can be sent and unsubscribes honored. No name, demographic data, or location is requested. Signup is never required to read the site, use the journal, or download the Control Audit.
Consent. Subscription uses confirmed opt-in: you receive a confirmation email and are added only if you confirm. You can unsubscribe in one click from any issue.
Retention, export, and deletion. Your address is retained until you unsubscribe or request deletion. Unsubscribing suppresses further mail; to have your record exported or deleted outright, write to support@mortalcommons.com and it will be actioned with MailerLite.
Scope note. The privacy guarantees described elsewhere in this policy for the journal and reader — that nothing leaves your browser — apply to those local tools. Email is different by nature: subscribing means sharing your address with MailerLite, and this section governs that.
Data not collected by this site
The site does not request a name, demographic information, precise location, payment information, or account password. It has no advertising pixel, behavioral profiling, analytics SDK, or server-side journal database.
Browser storage and offline use
The site uses IndexedDB for journal entries and local storage only for a reminder preference and migration record. Ordinary IndexedDB entries are not represented as encrypted at rest. Encryption applies only when you deliberately create an encrypted backup with a passphrase. The site may cache public app files for offline use; public cached files do not include journal text. Clearing the site's browser data—or using the journal’s delete-all control—removes the journal database contents, local preferences, Mortal Commons cached files, and the journal service worker from that browser. Reloading while online can prepare the public offline files again, but it does not restore deleted entries or preferences.
If this same browser previously stored a private journal entry, evening review, or reminder under retired local storage identifiers, the site may copy it once into current Mortal Commons storage on this device and remove the retired local copy after a successful migration. This compatibility step stays inside the browser and does not transmit the content to Mortal Commons or another service.
The Dear Mortals reader stores only your selected text size, bookmarks, completion markers, and most recently chosen issue in local storage. It does not store article text as personal data or transmit a reading history. The reader provides its own JSON export and delete control; the journal’s typed delete-all control also removes this reading state.
Website delivery and external services
The service that delivers this website may process ordinary request data such as an IP address, browser or device information, requested URL, and timestamps for security and operations. The journal does not send prompt answers, tags, ratings, or passphrases to that service.
Amazon processes activity on its product pages under its own privacy practices. Mortal Commons will update this policy before enabling email capture, accounts, cloud journal storage, payments, analytics, advertising technology, or another data processor.
Your choices
You can choose not to save an entry, export or print your copy, or delete one or all local entries. The journal has no Mortal Commons account or cloud journal record.
Children
The current service is intended for adults and is not designed to collect information from children under 13.
Security and changes
Local-only storage reduces transmission but does not protect information from someone who can access the same unlocked device or browser profile. Material policy changes will be dated and displayed before the relevant collection begins.
Contact
Privacy questions and deletion requests: support@mortalcommons.com.