Security and Incident Response
Last updated: 13 September 2026
Quiet Tools is a one-person operation. This document says plainly what that
means for security: what is in place, what a merchant can expect if something
goes wrong, and how fast.
What protects merchant data
- Minimal collection. Our apps do not request customer names,
email addresses or phone numbers. Shipping addresses are stored as a SHA-256
hash, never as text. This is the primary control: data not collected cannot
leak.
- Transport. All traffic is served over TLS with certificates
renewed automatically.
- Isolation. The database accepts connections only from the
application on the same host and is not published to the internet. The server
runs no unrelated services.
- Access. Server access is by SSH key only, with password
authentication disabled and a firewall limiting open ports to SSH, HTTP and HTTPS.
- Backups. Database backups are encrypted before leaving the
server. The encryption key is stored separately from the backups. Restores are
tested, not assumed.
- Retention. Technical logs, error text and access logs are
deleted automatically after 30 days.
- Audit trail. Every read or change of store data is recorded
with time, actor and action.
What counts as an incident
- Unauthorised access to the server, the database or a backup.
- Exposure of credentials: Shopify API secrets, access tokens, backup keys.
- A defect that caused store data to be disclosed to the wrong party.
- Loss of data that cannot be restored from backup.
Ordinary faults — a failed combine, an unavailable API, a bug that shows the
wrong number on screen — are not incidents under this policy. They are handled
through support.
What happens when one occurs
- Contain. Revoke the affected credentials, take the service
offline if continuing would widen the exposure.
- Assess. Determine which stores are affected, which data
categories are involved, and over what period.
- Notify. Affected merchants are notified by email
within 72 hours of the incident being confirmed, with what
happened, what data was involved, and what they should do. Shopify is notified
in parallel where the incident concerns the platform or its APIs.
- Fix and record. Close the cause, verify the fix, and write
up the incident and the change made to prevent recurrence.
Merchants are notified even where the law would not require it — for example
where exposed data contained no personal data. A merchant deciding whether to
trust an app deserves the facts either way.
Reporting a vulnerability
Write to support@quiettools.net with
enough detail to reproduce the issue. Reports are acknowledged within two working
days. There is no bounty programme; there is a genuine thank-you and a fix.
Please do not test against other merchants' stores, and do not access data that
is not yours.
The honest limitations
There is no 24/7 on-call rotation, and no security team. Response times reflect
a single person in the European time zone. Disk-level encryption is not used:
on a virtual server the key must live on the same machine, which protects against
a discarded disk but not against a compromised host — so the effort went into
collecting less data and encrypting backups instead.
These constraints are stated rather than hidden, so that merchants can weigh them.