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  Somnus Explained · Issue Nº 03

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De-identified,
Not
Anonymous.

Anonymous is a word that overpromises. We say de-identified, and we show you the layers.

Somnus Technologies · Layers, not labels

Editor's Note: This is installment Nº 03 of Somnus Explained, a series on who we are, what we build, and the principles that guide the work. The principles themselves are set out in How We Work. This series expands on them.

Anonymous is one of the most common words in privacy writing. It is also one of the least careful. It promises that no one could ever connect information back to a person. Few systems can keep that promise, and the word gives you no way to check.

We do not use it. We say de-identified, and we show you the layers.

Why it matters

A person deciding whether to share deserves to know what is actually being shared. “Anonymous” ends that conversation. Layers start it. You can look at each one and decide whether it is enough for you.

Overpromising also breaks trust in a way that is hard to repair. If a company calls data anonymous and it turns out not to be, every other claim it made is now in question.

Why it is hard

Removing a name is easy. It is not enough on its own. Patterns can point back to a person even when the obvious labels are gone. Numbers kept long enough, and joined with enough else, can say more than they seem to.

So no single step makes data safe. The honest answer is a set of steps, each one narrowing what anyone could learn, and a plain account of what each step does.

How we think about it

We start with what never leaves. The audio stays on your phone. It never uploads to us. The most personal part of a night, the sound of it, is never in our hands.

Then we limit what can leave. When you choose to send, it is a short set of numbers about the night. Then we strip what travels with it, and we keep it in one place.

The layers

  • No name. What leaves the phone carries no name.
  • No email. It carries no email either.
  • Numbers, not sound. It is a short set of numbers about the night. Never audio.
  • Our own locked storage. It travels to our own locked storage, and nowhere else.

Each layer narrows what anyone could learn. No single layer is the whole answer, so we use all of them.

How it works

  • The phone does the math. BSA, our acoustic engine, scores the night on the device.
  • Nothing is sent until you send it. Installing the app is not sharing.
  • What you send is numbers about the night. No sound. No name. No email.
  • Ask us, and we delete what you sent.

Questions we ask

  • If it ever leaked, what could anyone learn?
  • Does this need to leave the phone at all?
  • Could joining it with something else point back to a person?
  • Are we describing what we do, or what we hope?

In short

We do not call your data anonymous. We call it de-identified, and we show the layers. The audio stays on the phone. What leaves is numbers, with no name and no email, in our own locked storage. No single layer is the whole answer, so we use all of them.

What comes next

Layers protect what you send. The next question is whether the number itself deserves your trust. In installment Nº 04, we explain what makes the score hold up, night after night.

We are glad to talk further about how we think and how we build. Reach us at [email protected].