What we run, where it runs, and what we don't do.

If you are considering using Quieter Signal to report corporate fraud, you are entitled to know how we handle the infrastructure that protects you. This page describes our setup in enough detail for a technically literate person to assess our claims. We don't expect you to verify all of it — but we believe in giving you the information to decide for yourself.

Hosting

Quieter Signal runs on a dedicated virtual server hosted by Hetzner Online GmbH in Helsinki, Finland. We chose Hetzner because it is a German company operating under EU data protection law, with no US parent company, no CLOUD Act exposure, and a track record of requiring valid legal process before disclosing anything. Finland adds geographic distance from the jurisdictions most likely to generate legal requests about our users.

The server runs Debian Linux. We manage it directly — there is no managed hosting provider, no control panel, and no third-party administrator with access to the machine. One person holds the SSH keys. There is no root password authentication.

What the server runs

The public-facing layer is nginx, serving static HTML pages — including the one you're reading now. The secure channel system is a minimal Python application running behind nginx. It handles scratchpad creation, encrypted message storage, and nothing else. There is no database. There is no user registration system. There are no accounts.

The application stores encrypted message files on disk. These files are encrypted client-side before they reach the server. The server cannot read them. When a message is collected or deleted, the file is overwritten and removed. There is no archive, no backup of message content, and no mechanism to recover a deleted scratchpad.

What we don't run

No analytics. We do not use Google Analytics, Matomo, Plausible, or any other analytics platform. We have no idea how many people visit this site, which pages they read, or how long they stay. We do not want to know.

No cookies. This site sets no cookies of any kind — not session cookies, not tracking cookies, not preference cookies. There is nothing stored in your browser by us.

No JavaScript tracking. The static pages use minimal JavaScript for UI interactions (expanding FAQ answers, progress bars). None of it phones home. None of it loads external resources except Google Fonts, which we may replace with self-hosted fonts in due course.

No CDN. Pages are served directly from our server. There is no Cloudflare, no AWS CloudFront, no intermediary that can see your requests. The TLS connection terminates on our machine and nowhere else.

No access logs. nginx is configured to discard access logs. We do not record your IP address, your User-Agent, your referrer, or the time of your visit. Error logs are retained temporarily for operational debugging and contain no identifying information about normal visitors.

TLS

The site is served over HTTPS with certificates from Let's Encrypt, renewed automatically. We support TLS 1.2 and 1.3 only. Older protocols are disabled. You can verify our certificate configuration independently using any TLS testing service.

DNS

DNS for quietersignal.com is managed through our registrar. We do not use DNS providers that log query data for commercial purposes.

Warrant canary

We maintain a warrant canary that updates every minute. If the clock on that page stops advancing, assume something has changed and do not make contact. The canary is the only reliable indicator of the platform's integrity. Do not trust any other channel — including this page — to confirm it.

What we would do if compelled

If we received a valid legal order requiring disclosure, there would be very little to disclose. We do not know who our informants are. We do not store their messages in readable form. We do not log their connections. The architecture is designed so that compliance with a disclosure order produces nothing useful — not because we would obstruct lawful process, but because there is genuinely nothing to hand over.

If we received an order that included a gag provision preventing us from disclosing its existence, the warrant canary would stop updating. That is the signal. It is the only signal we can give.

This page was last updated on 14 February 2026.