Privacy Policy

1Information We Collect

Account Information

• Username, display name, and email address
• Password (stored as a one-way hash — we never see your actual password)
• Profile details: grade level, school type, and study motivation
• Avatar selection

Education & Learning Data

• Practice answers, scores, and mastery levels
• Study session history and time spent
• AI coaching interactions and tutor conversations
• Misconception patterns identified during practice
• Flashcard progress and review history
• Uploaded study materials (documents, images)

Automatically Collected Data

• IP address and approximate location (country/region)
• Browser type and device information
• Pages visited, features used, and session duration
• Error reports (to improve reliability)

2How We Use Your Information

• Personalized learning: Adapting question difficulty, selecting practice topics, and generating study plans based on your performance
• AI tutoring: Providing real-time coaching, Socratic guidance, and session summaries powered by AI models
• Progress tracking: Showing your mastery levels, strengths, and areas to focus on
• Platform improvement: Analyzing usage patterns to improve features, fix bugs, and develop new capabilities
• Communication: Sending account-related notifications (password resets, security alerts)

3AI Processing

Study Scout uses artificial intelligence to power tutoring, coaching, question selection, and study planning. We work with two AI providers, Anthropic and OpenAI. Which one handles a given feature is a setting we control, and we may change it — so treat both as able to see the same kinds of data. When you interact with AI features:

• Your answers, misconceptions, and session context are sent to Anthropic or OpenAI for processing, depending on which model that feature is set to use
• We also send question and lesson content to OpenAI behind the scenes to double-check it for accuracy. That check happens away from your session and doesn't include anything about you
• AI responses are generated in real time and are not pre-stored
• We do not use your data to train AI models, and neither provider's API terms allow them to train on it either
• AI interactions are logged for quality assurance and cost tracking

4Data Sharing & Sub-Processors

We do not sell your personal information. We share data only with:

We may also disclose information if required by law, to protect our rights, or to prevent fraud or safety issues.

5Data Retention

6Your Rights

Depending on your location, you may have the following rights:

• Access: Request a copy of the data we hold about you
• Correction: Update inaccurate information via your Profile page
• Deletion: Request deletion of your account and associated data
• Export: Download your data in a portable format (available in Profile > Privacy & Data)
• Restriction: Ask us to limit how we process your data
• Objection: Object to certain types of processing

To exercise these rights, use the tools in your Profile settings or contact us at the address below.

7California Privacy Rights (CCPA)

If you are a California resident, you have additional rights under the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA):

• Right to Know: You may request the categories and specific pieces of personal information we have collected about you
• Right to Delete: You may request deletion of your personal information (available in Profile > Privacy & Data)
• Right to Opt-Out of Sale or Sharing: We do not sell your personal information, and we have not sold personal information in the preceding 12 months. On our public marketing pages only, the Meta advertising pixel described in section 10 may constitute "sharing" for cross-context behavioral advertising under the CPRA (page views, use of the free demo, sign-ups and trial starts; nothing from inside the app, and never study activity, scores or names). Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information: email [email protected] with the subject "Do not share", enable the Global Privacy Control signal in your browser, or use a content blocker — each stops the pixel for you. We honor Global Privacy Control signals as a valid opt-out.
• Right to Non-Discrimination: We will not discriminate against you for exercising your CCPA rights

We collect the following categories of personal information as described in Section 1: identifiers (name, email), education information, and internet activity information. This information is used for the business purposes described in Section 2.

To exercise your California privacy rights, use the self-service tools in your Profile settings or contact us at [email protected]. We will verify your identity before processing your request.

8Children's Privacy

Study Scout is designed for students, including those under 18. We take extra care with younger users:

• We collect only the minimum information necessary for the learning experience
• Children under 13 may not create their own account — a parent or guardian must set up and manage the account on their behalf. We ask every user to confirm they are at least 13 when registering, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from a child under 13 outside a parent-managed account
• Parents can review their child's data and unlink the account through the Parent Portal. To delete a child's account or data, or to withdraw consent, contact us and we'll process the request
• We do not display advertising inside the app or engage in behavioral targeting of any user; the advertising pixel described in section 10 runs only on our public marketing pages, never in the app

9Security

We protect your data with:

• Encryption in transit (HTTPS/TLS for all connections)
• Passwords hashed with bcrypt (industry-standard one-way hashing)
• Role-based access controls (students can only see their own data)
• Content Security Policy headers to prevent cross-site scripting
• Rate limiting on authentication endpoints
• Input sanitization on all user-submitted content

No system is 100% secure. If we discover a breach affecting your data, we will notify you promptly.

10Cookies & Local Storage

We use:

• Authentication token stored in localStorage — required for keeping you signed in
• User preferences (theme, sidebar state) stored in localStorage

Advertising pixel on public pages. Our public marketing pages (the home page, pricing, the free tools, guides and college pages, and the sign-up page) load the Meta pixel, a small script from Meta Platforms that sets two cookies (_fbp, _fbc) and reports page views, use of the free tutor demo, sign-ups, and the start of a paid trial or first payment to Meta, so that we can measure our advertising. Where we send an email address for that purpose it is hashed (SHA-256) first. Meta's own use of this data is governed by its privacy policy. The pixel is never loaded inside the app once you sign in, and no study activity, scores, or student names are ever sent to it. You can opt out of Meta's ad personalization in your Facebook or Instagram ad settings, or block the pixel with a browser content blocker.

Apart from that pixel on the public pages, we do not use third-party tracking cookies, advertising cookies, or analytics pixels.

11Changes to This Policy

We may update this policy from time to time. If we make material changes, we will notify you through the platform or by email. Continued use after changes constitutes acceptance of the updated policy.

12Contact Us