Account & Data Deletion

Effective date: 26 April 2026 · Last updated: 26 April 2026

This page explains how to delete your DeCerta account and the data associated with it, what gets removed, and what cannot be removed because of the way blockchain notarization works. DeCerta is a decentralized document storage service operated by SciMatic Smart Solutions, available as the decerta.com web app and the net.scimatic.decerta Android app.

1. What "account" means in DeCerta

DeCerta does not use email addresses or passwords to identify accounts. An "account" in DeCerta is an SCI Network wallet address. There is no centralized user record we can email or call — you authenticate every request by signing a message with your wallet's private key.

Because of this, "deleting your account" means two distinct things:

  • Deleting your local wallet — removing the private key, password, and recovery phrase from the device where you installed the DeCerta app.
  • Deleting your stored documents — removing the encrypted off-chain packets we hold on decerta.com and marking the on-chain document records inactive.

2. Deleting documents from inside the app

The simplest way to remove a document is to use the app:

  1. Open the DeCerta app and sign in with your wallet.
  2. Open My Documents and tap the document you want to remove.
  3. Tap Delete and confirm with your wallet password.

When you do this, two things happen:

  • A signed DELETE /api/decerta/document/{hash} request is sent to our server. We verify your wallet signature, then permanently delete every off-chain packet associated with that document hash.
  • The smart contract's deleteDocument() function is called. This sets isActive = false on the document record, which causes the app and the API to treat the document as deleted.

3. Deleting your entire account (all documents at once)

To remove everything tied to your wallet at once:

  1. From the app, in My Documents, delete each document using the steps above. (We do not currently expose a single bulk-delete button; we will add one in a future release.)
  2. Uninstall the DeCerta app from your device. This wipes the encrypted local storage that holds your wallet (sciwallet keychain entry) along with the private key, password, and recovery phrase.

If you cannot access the app (lost device, broken installation), you can also request deletion by email — see section 5.

4. What we delete vs. what stays

Deleted (permanently)

  • Encrypted off-chain document packets stored on our server
  • The document name, description, and MIME type stored in our database
  • Server logs older than 30 days are rotated automatically

Cannot be deleted (blockchain-immutable)

  • The document hash, packet hashes, and on-chain packet bytes recorded on the SCI Network. Blockchain entries are cryptographically permanent — this is what makes notarization meaningful, and it is also what we cannot unwind.
  • Your wallet's transaction history (calls to uploadDocument and deleteDocument) will remain visible on explorer.scimatic.net.
  • On-chain packets are typically only a small fraction of the document (~15 bytes per on-chain packet, 2 packets per document). They are not enough to reconstruct the original document on their own.

In practice: after deletion, nobody — including you — can reassemble the original document, because the large off-chain packets are gone. The on-chain trace remains as a tamper-evident record that a document with that hash once existed.

5. Requesting deletion by email

If you cannot use the app, send an email from any address to contact@scimatic.net with the subject line DeCerta data deletion request and include:

  • Your SCI Network wallet address (the one that uploaded the documents).
  • A signed message proving you control the wallet. You can generate this with any EVM wallet that supports personal_sign — sign the literal text delete-decerta-data-{your-wallet-address} and paste the resulting signature into your email.
  • Optionally, the specific document hashes you want removed. If you don't list any, we will delete every document associated with the wallet.

We will verify the signature, then delete the off-chain packets and respond within 30 days (usually within 72 hours). We will not delete or modify any blockchain entries — that is technically impossible.

6. Retention windows

  • Off-chain packets: retained until you (or your signed deletion request) remove them. There is no automatic expiry unless you set expires_at when uploading.
  • API request logs: wallet addresses, request IPs, and request paths are kept for up to 30 days for debugging and abuse prevention, then rotated.
  • Aggregated counts: non-personal aggregates (e.g. "total documents uploaded this month") are retained indefinitely. They cannot be linked back to a specific wallet.

7. Data exported on request

Before deletion, if you want a copy of your data, the simplest path is to use the in-app Download button on each document. The app retrieves packets from the blockchain and database, reassembles the file with your wallet signature, and writes it to your device's downloads folder. Once everything is downloaded, run the deletion steps above.

8. Children

DeCerta is not directed to users under 13. If you believe a minor has uploaded data, contact us at contact@scimatic.net and we will remove the off-chain data without requiring a wallet signature.

9. Contact

For deletion-related questions or to escalate a request: contact@scimatic.net. See also our Privacy Policy.