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.

The discipline runs the other way too. Part of what Civitas builds is auditable AI — systems where the reasoning is verification-gated, quotes are checked against their sources, and every claim is pinned to where it came from, so an AI-assisted answer can still show its work. 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. Pages do load fonts from Google Fonts, so your browser requests font files from Google's servers; that request includes your IP address, as any web request does. No other 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.