Security & privacy
This system knows where people in recovery sleep.
That is the most sensitive thing about it, and it shaped how the whole platform is built. Here is what we actually do.
Least-privilege access, enforced by the database
Six roles, and each sees only what its job needs. A house manager scoped to one house cannot read another house's residents — not by editing a URL, not by calling the API directly. Billing staff can see money and the financial agreement, and nothing else. The rules are database policies, not hidden menu items.
Encrypted in transit and at rest
HTTPS everywhere, TLS to the database, and encryption at rest for both the database and stored files. Card numbers never touch our servers — payment details go straight to Stripe, and we keep only the brand, last four digits, and expiry.
Signed documents are private, and provably unchanged
Signed paperwork and signature images live in private storage, served only through short-lived links minted after an authorization check — never a public URL. Each signature is bound to a hash of the exact document shown, so editing a template later cannot alter what someone already signed.
An audit trail that records reading, not just writing
Opening a resident's record, downloading a document, and exporting a report are all recorded — alongside permission changes, consent, and failed sign-ins. The log is append-only, hash-chained so alteration is detectable, and no role can edit or delete an entry.
The line we hold
Housing, payments, and agreements. Nothing clinical.
It would be easy to add drug testing, curfew logs, and incident reports — operators ask. We have not, because a single positive test attached to a name changes the legal character of every record in the database, not just that one field. If it is ever built it will be a separate module with its own consent model, reviewed properly first.
Questions we get asked
- Do you store drug test results or treatment records?
- No, and that is deliberate. The platform holds housing, payments, and signed agreements. Storing a positive test linked to a named person would create a substance-use-disorder treatment record and pull federal confidentiality rules (42 CFR Part 2) onto the whole system. Keeping that boundary is what lets us stay clear of it.
- Is Living Sobriety HIPAA compliant?
- HIPAA generally binds healthcare providers, health plans, and their business associates. A recovery residence providing housing — not treatment, and not billing insurance — is usually none of those, and nothing this platform stores is protected health information. If your organization also provides treatment, that is a determination for your attorney about your organization, not about this software.
- Can other operators see my residents?
- No. Organization isolation is absolute: no operator can read another's residents, houses, charges, notes, or paperwork by any route. There is no shared directory and no cross-operator resident score — a platform-wide reliability rating on people in recovery would follow them between houses, and we will not build one.
- Who at Living Sobriety can see my data?
- Support staff see organization and job health, not resident records. Reading one requires a time-boxed elevation with a stated reason, it expires, every access is logged, and you can see that it happened. Only a platform administrator can act on behalf of a user, and those sessions are logged and visible too.
- What happens to a resident's records after they move out?
- They keep access to their own signed paperwork indefinitely — that is part of what makes an electronic signature enforceable, and it is also just decent. Nothing is deleted automatically. A resident or an operator can request deletion; requests are recorded and reviewed, and we will tell you plainly what can be removed and what has to be retained.
Something not covered here? Ask us directly.