Privacy Policy

DRAFT — have an attorney review before launch. This document is a plain-English working draft, not legal advice. Bracketed items are placeholders.

Effective date: [EFFECTIVE DATE]. Operator: [COMPANY NAME] (“we”). Contact: hintwisenate@gmail.com.

Exam Coach is an independent study tool. It is not affiliated with or endorsed by Texas A&M University. This page explains what we collect, why, and the choices you have.

What we collect and why

• Account: email (or, for a student under 18 without one, a username), a hashed password (we never store your password itself), an optional name, and your birth month and year (never the full date). Used to sign you in, run your account, and know whether a parent needs to approve it and when you turn 18.
• Passkeys (optional): if you add one, we store only its public key, a device name and when it was last used; your fingerprint, face or PIN never leaves your device.
• Parent of a student under 18: the parent's email, when and how they approved (by the emailed link, or by us when a parent confirmed by phone), and which emails they chose.
• Sign in with Google (optional): if you choose it, Google tells us your email address, that Google has verified it, and your name. We don't receive your Google password or access anything else in your Google account.
• Emails we send you: a link to confirm your email address, a password-reset or sign-in link when you ask for one, and study reminders only if you turn them on in Settings. We don't send marketing email. For a student under 18, we email their parent the approval link, payment links and receipts, account notices (like a password change), and the progress emails the parent chose. Routine study reminders never go to a parent.
• Onboarding profile: your section or instructor, target grade, and study habits. Used to personalize your practice plan.
• Study activity: your attempts, answers, and how confident you said you were. Used to choose problems, show progress, and improve the app.
• AI tutor chats: the messages you send the tutor and its replies, plus the problem on screen. Used to give hints. If you send a photo of your work, we keep only a note that a photo was sent, never the photo itself.
• Class materials you upload: if you upload a review sheet, study guide, syllabus or practice exam, we keep only the topics found in it (and how much each shows up), the file names, the page count and a short title, to build your practice plan. We never keep the file itself. You can delete a plan any time.
• Problem reports (“Flag a problem”): your comment, the page, and an optional screenshot you choose to attach. Used to fix errors.
• Parent sharing: for students 18 and over, optional: a share link and a weekly progress email to the address you provide. For students under 18, the parent link is set up when the parent approves (see below).
• Payments and scholarships: which course you bought, the amount, date and status, and Stripe's reference for the payment; for a scholarship, the note you write. Your card details go to Stripe, never to us.
• Basic technical data: standard server logs (such as IP address and browser type) kept by our hosts for security and reliability.

AI tutor disclosure

When you use the AI tutor, the text of your chat is sent to Anthropic, which processes it to generate replies. Under Anthropic's commercial terms, data sent through its API is not used to train its models, and Anthropic deletes it within 30 days, except where it must keep it longer (for example to investigate a breach of its usage policy, or when the law requires). See Anthropic's data retention page. If you send the tutor a photo of your work, the photo is sent to Anthropic the same way, only to write that reply. We process it in memory and don't store it, and no one else sees it (not our staff, parents or instructors); we remove hidden photo details such as location before sending it. Please don't put sensitive personal information in chats or photos. See How the AI tutor works.

If you upload class materials (a review sheet, study guide, syllabus or practice exam), the files are sent to Anthropic the same way, only to find which of our course topics they cover. We read them in memory and don't store them, we never show them to our staff, parents or instructors, and we never send them to analytics. Topics your material covers that we don't have yet are counted with other students' uploads, without names, so we know which problems to add. Please upload only material your instructor shared for studying, never graded work.

If you use the microphone button to talk to the tutor, your browser or phone turns your speech into text using its own speech service (for example Google in Chrome or Apple on an iPhone), under that company's terms. We only receive the text, and only when you send it; we never get the recording.

Topic videos

Some topics link to free videos on other sites, mostly YouTube. Nothing from YouTube loads until you tap Play; the player then loads from youtube-nocookie.com (YouTube's privacy-enhanced mode), and YouTube's own privacy policy applies to what you watch there. We don't send YouTube anything about you, and we don't record which videos you watch.

Practicing offline

While you practice, the problems in your current set are kept in the page so you can keep going without a signal. Answers you give offline are saved in your browser on this device until they are sent and checked, and are then removed; signing out removes them too.

Screenshots in problem reports

Screenshots may show whatever is on your screen. They are stored with your report in a private GitHub repository that only our team can access. Only attach a screenshot if you are comfortable with that.

Parent sharing

If you are 18 or older, we never share your progress with a parent or anyone else unless you turn it on. You can turn it off, and revoke the share link, at any time in Settings; the link then stops working and weekly emails stop.

If you are under 18, your parent gets a progress link when they approve your account and chooses which emails they get: a weekly summary, a note before each exam, practice exam scores, and a note if you haven't practiced for a while before an exam. These contain summary numbers only (days practiced, time, topics, a readiness estimate, scores), never your answers, tutor chats or uploaded work. Until you turn 18 your parent decides these; at 18 you do, and you can end the parent link in Settings.

How you found us, and our emails

On your first visit we keep a small cookie on this site that notes how you arrived (for example the link or site you came from). It is saved with your account when you sign up, so we know which ways of reaching students work. It is never shared with advertisers. Occasional news and offers we email include a link to stop them in one click; emails about your account are not affected. Those emails note when they are opened and which link is clicked.

Exam surveys and quotes

After an exam we may ask how it went. Answers are optional and only used to improve the app. If you are 18 or over and agree, we may show a short quote from you on our website with the name you chose; you can take it down any time in Settings. We never ask students under 18 for quotes.

Who processes data for us

• Anthropic: AI tutor text, photos of your work you choose to send the tutor, and class materials you upload (none of these files are stored by us).
• YouTube (Google): plays a topic video only after you tap Play (privacy-enhanced mode).
• Hosting and database providers (for example Netlify, Render, Neon): run the app and store data.
• Stripe: processes course payments and refunds.
• Google: confirms your identity if you choose “Continue with Google”.
• Sentry: receives error reports when something breaks (the error, the page address and browser type; no answers, emails or cookies).
• GitHub: stores problem reports and screenshots in a private repository.
• Resend or an automation webhook (for example Make.com): delivers the emails listed above (confirmation, password reset, reminders you turn on, and the optional weekly parent email).

[LIST FINAL VENDORS BEFORE LAUNCH]

We don't sell your data

We do not sell your personal data, and we do not share it for advertising.

Retention

We keep your data while your account is active and delete account data 12 months after your last activity, or sooner if you ask. Backups and logs may take additional time to age out. [CONFIRM RETENTION PERIOD]

Your choices: access, export, deletion

Email hintwisenate@gmail.com to request a copy of your data, a correction, or deletion of your account and data. We will respond within [RESPONSE TIME, e.g. 45 days].

Students under 18

You must be 13 or older to use the service. If someone under 13 tries to sign up, we stop them and keep nothing they typed. We don't knowingly keep data about anyone under 13; contact us if you think we have, and we will delete it.

Students aged 13 to 17 need a parent or guardian's approval. Until the parent approves, the account is locked and we keep only what was entered at sign-up. The AI tutor follows stricter rules for these students (schoolwork only). A parent can ask to see or delete their child's data, or to delete the account, by emailing hintwisenate@gmail.com; the student can too.

Texas residents

If the Texas Data Privacy and Security Act applies to us, Texas residents may have the right to confirm and access their data, correct it, delete it, obtain a portable copy, and opt out of targeted advertising, sale, and certain profiling, and to appeal a denial. Submit requests to hintwisenate@gmail.com.

Security and changes

We use reasonable safeguards (hashed passwords, access-controlled storage), but no system is perfectly secure. If we change this policy materially we will update the effective date and notify you in the app or by email.