Minimal.beta

Privacy Policy

1. Who we are

Minimal ("the Service", "we", "us") is an academic social network operated by Mynimalistic, based in India.

For the purposes of applicable data protection law, Mynimalistic is the data controller for personal data processed through the Service.

• Privacy contact: mynimalistic.dev@gmail.com
• Postal address for privacy requests: India

2. What we collect, and whether it is optional

We collect the following, and nothing else:

3. What never leaves your device

The following are stored exclusively in your browser's local storage and are never transmitted to us or to any third party:

• Your paper bookmarks and saved library
• Notes you write while reading a PDF
• Your reading history and any local PDF you open
• Your daily paper digest and its streak counter
• Your theme preference and rate-limit counters

Clearing your browser data deletes these permanently. We cannot recover them, because we never had them.

4. Sensitive data

We do not ask for and do not want special category data: racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious beliefs, trade union membership, genetic or biometric data, health data, or data about sex life or sexual orientation. Do not put such data in your profile, posts or messages. If you do, you are providing it on your own initiative, and you may ask us to delete it at any time.

The Service is not directed at children. You must be at least 18 years old to create an account.

5. Why we process each item, and on what legal basis

We do not process your data for advertising, we do not sell it, and we do not build behavioural profiles for marketing. The Service has no advertising system.

6. Who else can see your data

Other users. Your profile, posts marked public, username, availability and pings are visible to other signed-in users according to the visibility controls in the app. Friends-only posts are visible only to accepted friends. Direct messages are visible only to you and the other participant. Reports you file are never shown to the person you reported.

Processors we use. We share data with the following, and only as needed to run the Service:

Where data is transferred outside your country, we rely on the safeguards named above. You may request a copy of the relevant safeguards from our privacy contact.

We may disclose data to law enforcement or a court where legally compelled. We will tell you when we are permitted to do so.

7. Automated decision-making

Two features process your data automatically. Neither produces a legal or similarly significant effect, and both can be undone by a human.

• Automatic content hiding. If three separate users report the same post or comment, it is hidden from other people's feeds automatically. It remains visible to you, marked as under review, and a human moderator reviews it and can restore it.
• New-account link restriction. Accounts less than three hours old that no existing member has vouched for cannot post links. This lifts automatically with time or when a friend request of yours is accepted.
• Daily paper picks. Papers are matched to the interest tags you typed. There is no behavioural profiling, no engagement optimisation and no ranking model.

You may object to any of these and request human review by writing to our privacy contact. The Service does not use AI to generate or summarise your content. If that changes, this section will be updated before the feature ships.

8. How long we keep things

9. Your rights

Subject to your local law, you have the right to:

• Access a copy of the personal data we hold about you
• Correct anything inaccurate. Most fields are editable directly in the app
• Delete your account and personal data
• Port your data, receiving it in a structured, machine-readable format
• Restrict or object to processing based on legitimate interests
• Withdraw consent at any time, where consent is the basis. Withdrawal does not affect processing already carried out
• Not be subject to solely automated decisions with significant effects, and to obtain human review of the automated measures described in section 7
• Nominate another person to exercise these rights on your behalf in the event of death or incapacity, where your local law provides for this

To exercise any of these, email mynimalistic.dev@gmail.com from the address on your account. We respond within 30 days. We do not charge a fee unless a request is manifestly unfounded or excessive.

Deleting your account: [ACCOUNT DELETION PROCEDURE, e.g. "use Delete account in your profile, or email us"]. Deletion removes your profile, posts, comments, messages, pins and friendships within 30 days, except records we are required to keep under section 8.

10. How we protect your data

• All traffic is encrypted in transit with TLS. Data is encrypted at rest by our database provider.
• Access is enforced by server-side security rules, not merely by the app interface: suspension, moderator permissions, the report threshold and message access are all checked by the database itself.
• Reports are readable only by moderators. Reporter identities are not shown to the reported person.
• Moderator access is granted manually and cannot be self-assigned from within the app.
• Direct messages are restricted to their participants by database rules. They are not end-to-end encrypted, meaning that in principle they could be read by us or by our database provider. Please do not use Minimal for confidential information.
• Your bookmarks, notes and reading history never reach a server at all.

No system is perfectly secure. If we become aware of a breach affecting your personal data, we will notify you and the relevant supervisory authority as required by law.

11. Cookies and similar technologies

We use browser local storage and the cookies Firebase Authentication requires to keep you signed in. These are strictly necessary for the Service to function. We use no advertising, analytics or tracking cookies, and there is no third-party tracking on the site.

12. Changes to this policy

If we make a material change we will notify you in the app and ask you to accept the updated version before continuing to use the Service. The version number and date at the top of this page always reflect the current text.

Terms of Service

1. Acceptance of these terms

By creating an account or using Minimal, you agree to these Terms of Service and to the Privacy Policy above. If you do not agree, do not use the Service. If you use the Service on behalf of an institution, you confirm you are authorised to bind it.

2. Eligibility

You must be at least 18 years old and capable of forming a binding contract. You must provide accurate registration information and keep it current. You are responsible for activity under your account and for the security of the Google account used to access it.

3. Licence and permitted use

We grant you a limited, personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable licence to access and use the Service through a standard web browser for your own academic and professional purposes. This is a licence, not a sale. No ownership in the software transfers to you.

You may not: resell or sublicense access; use automated means to scrape, crawl or bulk download content or user data; circumvent rate limits, the link restriction, or any security or moderation control; reverse engineer the Service except where that right cannot lawfully be excluded; or use the Service to build a competing product.

4. Acceptable use

You agree not to use Minimal to:

• Post spam, chain messages, bulk promotional content or undisclosed paid promotion
• Post phishing links, malware, cryptocurrency solicitations or fraudulent schemes
• Harass, threaten, stalk, defame or incite violence against anyone
• Post hate speech or slurs targeting protected characteristics
• Post sexual, explicit or gratuitously violent material
• Encourage self-harm or suicide
• Impersonate any person or institution, or misrepresent your affiliation, credentials or authorship
• Fabricate research results, or present generated text as peer-reviewed findings
• Upload content you do not have the right to share, including paywalled papers you do not hold distribution rights to
• Create multiple accounts to evade a suspension, or manipulate the reporting system by coordinating reports
• Collect other users' personal data, or publish anyone's private information
• Interfere with the operation, security or integrity of the Service

5. Your content

You keep ownership of everything you post. We claim no ownership of your posts, comments, messages or profile.

You grant us a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to host, store, reproduce and display your content solely to operate the Service: showing your post to the people you shared it with, storing it, backing it up, and moderating it. This licence ends when you delete the content or your account, except for copies in routine backups and any records retained under the Privacy Policy. We will not use your content for marketing or license it to third parties.

You are responsible for what you post and confirm you have the rights to post it.

6. Copyright and takedown

We respect intellectual property rights. If you believe content on Minimal infringes your copyright, send a notice to mynimalistic.dev@gmail.com containing:

• Identification of the copyrighted work
• The location of the material on Minimal, precise enough for us to find it
• Your name, address, telephone number and email address
• A statement that you believe in good faith the use is not authorised
• A statement, under penalty of perjury, that the notice is accurate and that you are the rights holder or authorised to act for them
• Your physical or electronic signature

We remove infringing material and may terminate the accounts of repeat infringers. If your content was removed and you believe that was an error, you may send a counter-notice to the same address.

7. Our intellectual property

The Minimal name, logo, interface, design and source code are owned by Mynimalistic and protected by intellectual property law. Nothing in these terms transfers any right in them to you.

8. Moderation, suspension and termination

We may remove content, hide content, issue warnings, restrict features, or suspend or terminate any account that we reasonably believe violates these terms, and we may do so without prior notice where the violation is serious or ongoing.

Content reported by three or more separate users is hidden automatically pending human review, as described in the Privacy Policy.

If your account is suspended you may appeal by writing to mynimalistic.dev@gmail.com. You may delete your account at any time; sections that by their nature survive termination will continue to apply.

9. Fees

Minimal is currently provided free of charge. If we introduce paid features we will publish the price, billing period, renewal terms, refund policy and cancellation method before you are charged, and we will not charge you without your express prior consent. Nothing in this section obliges us to keep any feature free.

10. Third-party content and links

The Service displays paper metadata from arXiv and Semantic Scholar and links submitted by users. We do not control, endorse or verify that material, including the accuracy of any paper, preprint or claim shared through Minimal. Following a link takes you to a site governed by someone else's terms.

11. Disclaimers

The Service is provided "as is" and "as available", without warranties of any kind, express or implied, including merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, accuracy, and non-infringement. We do not warrant that the Service will be uninterrupted, secure, or error-free, that defects will be corrected, or that content available through it is accurate or reliable.

Minimal is a beta product. Features may change or be withdrawn, and data loss, while something we work to prevent, is possible. Keep your own copies of anything you cannot afford to lose. Nothing on Minimal is academic, professional, legal, financial or medical advice, and no content on it is peer reviewed by us.

12. Limitation of liability

To the maximum extent permitted by law, Mynimalistic and its officers, employees and agents will not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary or punitive damages, or for any loss of profits, revenue, data, goodwill, research output or academic opportunity, arising out of or relating to your use of the Service, whether based in contract, tort, negligence, strict liability or otherwise, and whether or not we were advised of the possibility.

Our total aggregate liability arising out of or relating to the Service will not exceed the greater of (a) the total amount you paid us in the twelve months before the event giving rise to the claim, or (b) INR 1,000.

Some jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion of certain warranties or the limitation of certain damages. Where that is so, the above applies to the fullest extent permitted, and nothing here excludes liability for fraud, for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, or for anything else that cannot lawfully be excluded.

13. Indemnity

You agree to indemnify and hold harmless Mynimalistic from claims, damages and reasonable legal costs arising from content you post, your use of the Service, or your breach of these terms or of any law or third-party right.

14. Changes to the Service and to these terms

We may modify the Service or these terms. For material changes we will give notice in the app and, where required, ask you to accept the new version. Continued use after a change takes effect means you accept it. If you do not accept, stop using the Service and delete your account.

15. Governing law and disputes

These terms are governed by the laws of India, without regard to conflict of law rules. The courts of India have exclusive jurisdiction, except that either party may seek injunctive relief in any competent court to protect intellectual property or confidential information.

Before filing a claim, you agree to contact us at mynimalistic.dev@gmail.com and attempt to resolve the dispute informally for at least 30 days.

If you are a consumer, nothing here deprives you of the protection of mandatory consumer law in your country of residence, including your right to bring proceedings there.

16. General

If a provision is held unenforceable, the rest remains in force. Our failure to enforce a provision is not a waiver of it. You may not assign these terms; we may assign them to a successor in connection with a merger or acquisition, on notice to you. These terms, together with the Privacy Policy, are the entire agreement between us regarding the Service.

Contact and grievances

Use the addresses below to reach us.

• Privacy and data rights: mynimalistic.dev@gmail.com
• Support, appeals and general questions: mynimalistic.dev@gmail.com
• Copyright notices: mynimalistic.dev@gmail.com
• Grievance Officer: mynimalistic.dev@gmail.com

Complaints

If you are unhappy with how we have handled your data, write to our Grievance Officer. We acknowledge complaints within 72 hours and aim to resolve them within 30 days.

If you remain dissatisfied, you may complain to your local data protection authority. In India this is the Data Protection Board of India; in the EEA or UK it is your national supervisory authority.

You can also report a bug or a person from inside the app: use Report a bug on your profile, or Report on any post, comment or profile.