How I work, in writing

I use AI, and I'm specific about how. Large language models help me with parts of the work — drafting initial code, summarizing bodies of literature, classifying documents at scale. I do not use AI to write the methodology, the findings, or the analysis. Model output is reviewed and validated against domain knowledge before it becomes part of a deliverable, and where AI assistance materially shapes a finding, the methodology section says so.

I hold my own AI use to the standard I would defend in public: an answer you can trace is worth more than an answer you can't.

What I won't do: pass off generated text as original analysis, use a client's confidential data to train or prompt models outside that engagement, or let a model's fluency stand in for a checked fact. If you want to know exactly where AI touched a piece of work, ask, and I'll tell you.

This site collects very little, and this section says exactly what.

The contact form

If you use the contact form, I receive what you type: your name, email address, organization if you give one, and your message. I use it for one thing — replying to you. It is not added to a mailing list, shared, or sold. Form submissions are processed by the site's hosting provider (currently planned: Netlify Forms), which stores them so I can read them; their own privacy policy applies to that processing. If you'd rather skip the form, email me directly at dave@civitassystems.com.

The theme picker

Your theme choice is saved in your browser's localStorage under the key civitas-theme, so the site looks the same on your next visit. That value never leaves your device, and clearing your browser data removes it.

Analytics, cookies, and third-party requests

This site currently runs no analytics and sets no cookies. If I add a privacy-respecting analytics tool later, this section will name it and describe what it records before it goes live. The typefaces are self-hosted, so no font request ever leaves this domain. No third-party resources load on this site.

Deletion & questions

If you want anything you've sent me deleted, or you have a question this page doesn't answer, write to dave@civitassystems.com and I'll sort it out.

I treat any client conversation as confidential by default — you don't need an NDA for an initial discussion. For deeper scoping, where you're sharing data or proprietary methodology, a mutual NDA is reasonable; I keep a template, and yours works too.

Deliverables are yours. I default to open-source tools and hand over runnable artifacts you own outright, so the work keeps running after the engagement ends and you're never locked into a platform to keep using what you paid for. I don't reuse your data or confidential methods for other clients, and I don't publish work that draws on a confidential engagement without your sign-off.

Accessibility is a design gate here, not an afterthought. This site targets WCAG 2.1 AA: text contrast is checked across every theme, focus states are visible, the layout is keyboard-operable, and any motion respects your prefers-reduced-motion setting.

I have deuteranomaly — green-weak color vision — so I design defensively against it: nothing on the site relies on color alone to carry meaning, and data visualizations avoid red/green-only encodings in favor of value and label differences. The same standard goes into client deliverables: a chart that only works for people with typical color vision isn't finished.

If something here is hard to use with your setup — a contrast that fails for you, a control you can't reach by keyboard — tell me at dave@civitassystems.com and I'll fix it.