Privacy and data boundary

ZCI intentionally has a large fingerprinting surface. That makes the data useful for fraud/security/client diagnostics, but also means deployment must have a defined purpose, retention policy and access boundary.

This document describes software behavior, not legal advice.

1. Identity semantics

client_id means:

ZCI linked a set of observations inside one tenant because their independent evidence components were sufficiently similar.

It does not mean:

• a verified real-world person;
• a cryptographic hardware identity;
• an account authentication result;
• proof that two people sharing a browser/device are the same person.

2. Collection modes

essential

Minimizes high-entropy/rendering fields while keeping basic platform/security metadata.

security

Keeps most consistency-relevant features, omits some high-variance/nonessential fields.

full

Collects all non-permission-gated probes implemented by SDK.

The integrating application chooses a mode explicitly.

3. Permission-gated sensitive probes

The default ZCI.collect() does not request permissions.

ZCI.collectSensitive() can explicitly request/collect selected categories:

• geolocation;
• local fonts;
• media devices;
• keyboard layout;
• WebRTC candidates.

Integrators should surface clear UX and collect only categories needed for the intended purpose.

4. Secrets minimization

Server-side:

• credential header values are redacted;
• query values are removed;
• site/admin API key values are not persisted as request header values.

Browser-side:

• referrer query/fragment/credentials are removed;
• media device identifiers are hashed before return by explicit sensitive helper.

5. IP and enrichment

Peer IP may be personal/security-sensitive data. ZCI keeps observed IP separate from enrichment source/result.

No third-party enrichment request is performed automatically by the collector. Operators choose and load an offline dataset.

6. Historical linkage

Historical client graph can increase identifiability even when individual signals appear innocuous. Configure:

• finite RETENTION_DAYS;
• finite graph window;
• tenant isolation;
• admin API controls.

Do not share client IDs across unrelated tenants unless that is an explicit, justified architecture choice outside this collector.

7. Cross-origin embedding

CORS is allowlist-based. Avoid turning one ZCI deployment into an invisible cross-site identifier shared by unrelated origins.

8. Raw packet policy

The included XDP sensor captures SYN metadata only and does not persist packet payload. ZCI 1.0 has no raw PCAP archive path.

9. Recommended operational controls

• document collection purpose;
• choose the least invasive SDK mode that meets it;
• gate explicit sensitive probes;
• minimize retention;
• protect admin APIs and database backups;
• expose confidence/ambiguity instead of presenting inferred identity as certainty;
• provide appropriate user transparency/controls where required for the deployment context.

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