🤝Data Privacy Compliance (GDPR, CCPA)

Anon VPN is architected to comply with stringent global data protection laws, including the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) of the European Union and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA).

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1. Overview of Applicable Legal Requirements

Regulation	Scope	Key Rights
GDPR	EU/EEA residents	Right to Access, Rectification, Erasure, Portability, Restriction, Objection
CCPA	California residents	Right to Know, Delete, Opt-out of Sale, Equal Service & Price

Anon VPN ensures these rights are technically enforceable via automation, secure design, and audit-proof enforcement mechanisms.

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2. Data Minimization Architecture

One of the core principles of both GDPR and CCPA is data minimization — only collect what is absolutely necessary.

Technical Implementation:

• Zero Logging Policy (see previous section): No persistent records of IP, traffic metadata, DNS requests, session timestamps.

• Anonymous Account Option: Users can authenticate using non-identifiable pseudonyms or cryptographic key pairs.

• No Third-Party Analytics: No integration of Google Analytics, Meta pixels, or fingerprinting SDKs.

Example:

{
  "user_id": "anon:0x8d32bc...",
  "subscription": "verified",
  "region": "null"
}

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3. Data Subject Rights Automation

A. Right to Access (GDPR Art. 15 / CCPA §1798.100)

Users can request a machine-readable dump of their stored data via a self-serve privacy dashboard.

• Format: JSON (portable format)

• Auth: Requires session key or 2FA

• Latency: Sub-5 seconds (caching layer auto-prepares bundles)

B. Right to Erasure (GDPR Art. 17 / CCPA §1798.105)

When a user clicks “Delete My Account”:

• An irreversible job is queued in our event-driven privacy engine.

• Cryptographic keys, email, and subscription metadata are purged.

• Data is wiped from:

  • Object storage (S3/MinIO)

  • Relational databases (PostgreSQL)

  • Authentication vaults (HashiCorp Vault)

DELETE FROM users WHERE user_id = 'anon:0x8d32bc...';

Redundancy purging also includes backup shards and offsite replication with zero restore rights post-deletion.

C. Right to Portability (GDPR Art. 20)

All user-held data is exportable in:

• JSON (default)

• XML or CSV (optional)

• Signed hash (SHA-256) for integrity validation

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4. Secure Data Storage & Encryption

All user data is encrypted at rest and in transit:

Data Type	Encryption Mechanism	Key Management
Email / ID	AES-256-GCM	Encrypted with envelope keys from KMS
Session Tokens	HMAC-SHA-512 + AES-128	Ephemeral key rotation every 12 hours
Billing Records	Tokenized (PCI-DSS via Stripe)	No access by Anon VPN

Key Material Storage: AWS KMS / Azure Key Vault (with access logs and hardware-backed security modules)

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5. Data Retention Policy

Anon VPN adheres to strict TTL (Time-to-Live) policies for all sensitive data:

Data Category	Retention Time	Rationale
Support Tickets	30 days	SLA recordkeeping
Subscription Metadata	90 days (rolling)	Financial compliance
Authentication Sessions	12 hours (ephemeral)	Minimal access lifespan
Email (if used)	Until opt-out or deletion	User communication only

After TTL, a secure deletion job is triggered and verified using cryptographic checksums.

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6. Third-Party Compliance Isolation

• All third-party integrations (payment, email, hosting) are vetted for GDPR/CCPA compliance.

• API tokens to vendors are rotated and least-permissioned.

• Vendors include:

  • Stripe (PCI-DSS, GDPR-compliant billing)

  • Mailgun (email with suppression and opt-out)

  • Cloudflare (network security with no access to user logs)

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7. Consent Management Framework

Anon VPN implements granular, opt-in only consent handling:

• Cookie Banner: Displayed on first site load (no auto-trackers).

• Preference Store: Users can enable/disable use of optional telemetry (if enabled).

• Consent Ledger: All consent events are hashed and stored for auditability.

{
  "event": "consent_granted",
  "user": "anon:0x8d32bc...",
  "timestamp": "2025-06-19T14:52:00Z",
  "hash": "5b71...9a2f"
}

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8. Data Breach Preparedness & Disclosure

• Breach Detection: Monitored via anomaly detection, file integrity scanning, and honeypot triggers

• Disclosure Protocol:

  • Internal alerting < 10 minutes

  • Authority notification within 72 hours (GDPR Art. 33)

  • User notification via encrypted email system

• Forensics:

  • All access logs to vaults and data stores are hashed, time-stamped, and archived for forensic review.

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9. Privacy by Design & Default (Article 25)

From codebase to network stack, Anon VPN adheres to the principle of privacy by design:

Layer	Design Enforcement
Frontend	No tracking, anonymized crash reports
Backend	Ephemeral compute, RAM-only VPN sessions
Database	Encrypted fields, row-level TTLs, schema minimization
DevOps	Infrastructure-as-code with zero-logging

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10. Compliance Audits

Anon VPN regularly performs:

• Internal Privacy Audits (monthly)

• Penetration Testing (bi-annually)

• 3rd-Party Legal Review (quarterly, external law firms)

• Bug Bounty Review via platforms like HackenProof (planned)

Reports are summarized for user transparency on the [Compliance Page].

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Conclusion

Anon VPN is engineered with privacy compliance at its core. Unlike superficial policy-based approaches, our technical implementation guarantees enforceable GDPR and CCPA rights, robust encryption, user autonomy, and a no-trust-needed design architecture.