Privacy Policy

What we store about you

The main categories of information Buddy keeps are:

• Your account — the email address you sign up with and your sign-in method. Supabase handles password authentication. Current versions of the extension sign in directly between the extension and the authentication provider over HTTPS; older versions used a Buddy server route. Buddy does not store that password in the extension or in its application database.
• Your profile — the display name, first name, grade level, subjects and study goal you enter during onboarding, plus your two privacy switches (saving assignment history, and Buddy update emails).
• Your assignments — the title and course you give each assignment.
• Your questions and Buddy's drafts — the question text you type, the subject label, the step-by-step explanation, the draft answer, Buddy's confidence, any caution note, and whether you approved or discarded it.
• Your plan — which plan you're on, its status, trial and renewal dates, how many questions you've used, and — once payments go live — the card brand and last four digits only. We never store full card numbers.
• Extension connections — if you connect the Chrome extension, we store a label for the device and a one-way scrambled version of the access keys. The keys themselves can't be read back out of our database.
• Waitlist emails — if you joined the beta waitlist, the email you submitted.

Website counters record which of two buttons was used ("Add to Chrome" or the test access request form), a fixed page category and the time. These records don't include your account identity, email, assignment or document paths, or URL query values. The counts are clicks, not confirmed installations.

We don't use tracking pixels or advertising cookies, and we don't build a profile of you for anyone else.

What gets sent to the AI when Buddy drafts an answer

Buddy currently uses OpenAI directly for assignment assistance. The server also supports a Lovable AI gateway configuration. The information sent depends on the requested operation:

• Questions and context — detected or entered questions, answer choices, assignment instructions, title, course, and surrounding context needed for the task.
• Preferences and references — grade level, response style, length, tone, special instructions, and the extracted text, titles, publishers, and addresses of reference materials you choose to add.
• Images and visual captures — attached images and, when visual analysis is permitted, visible assignment screenshots used to read questions or check placement. A screenshot may include other information visible on that page.

Buddy does not intentionally include your account email, password, or browsing history in AI prompts. Assignment content itself may contain personal information. The direct OpenAI requests use the no-response-storage setting; this is not a guarantee of zero provider retention. Provider security, abuse-monitoring and contractual retention policies still apply.

The extension processes the open assignment when you scan, or when your automatic scan preference permits it. Visual analysis requires permission. Available answers may start selected: selection is not a claim that you reviewed them. Review and edit suggestions, uncheck unwanted answers, then press Insert to authorize placement. Buddy never submits. Google Docs currently uses manual copy and paste, not automatic placement.

Is assignment content kept after the session?

It depends on where you use Buddy. On the website, your workspace is meant to still be there tomorrow. In the extension, the questions and drafts in the current panel are held only in the panel's memory while you use it; anything saved to your account history happens only when your Save my assignment history preference allows it. Here's exactly what persists in your account:

• Kept until you delete it: your assignment titles, your question text, and Buddy's steps and draft answers. They're stored in our database so your assignment list works, and they're kept for as long as your account exists.
• Not kept: pictures and files you attach. The image is passed to the AI to be read and is never written to our database — all that remains on the saved question is a note that a picture was attached.
• Not kept: the AI's raw response beyond the structured explanation you see. We don't keep a separate transcript.

Our hosting and AI providers may keep operational logs under their retention policies (request times, errors, usage counts) as any web service does. We don't log your question text or attachments into those logs ourselves.

You can turn off Save my assignment history in account settings. Extension history-saving requests honor this preference. Turning it off does not delete work already saved. Website assignments that you explicitly create are saved in your workspace. The extension's current panel holds working drafts during use; website setup preferences can be kept on this device so an unfinished setup can resume.

Chrome extension data use

The Buddy Chrome extension uses and transfers data only for the user-facing features described on this page. It does not use your data for advertising and does not sell it. Our use of extension data is intended to follow the Chrome Web Store User Data Policy.

• Sign-in — current versions of the extension sign in with your email and password directly between the extension and the authentication provider over HTTPS. Older versions used a Buddy server route. Passwords are never stored in extension storage or in Buddy's application database. Your sign-in session is kept in Chrome's local extension storage, readable only by trusted extension contexts, so you stay signed in after restarting Chrome.
• Kept on this device only — your optional local username and photo (stored per account on this device and not uploaded by the profile feature), some study preferences, and study progress (counts, recent active days, subjects and weak spots, course identifiers, and visited assignment site patterns). These are separate from your website profile and any Google account data. Some answer preferences sync through your account instead, so not every preference stays local.
• Why the extension reads pages — assignment and site access exists only to detect and read the assignment you're working on, analyze a screenshot when you give permission, and place answers only after you approve them. It is not used to collect a history of every site you visit.
• Problem reports — when you ask the extension to send a problem report, it sends a fixed set of fields linked to your account: the error category and stage, platform, extension version, operating system, counts and timing, plus account and report IDs. Reports never include question text, answers, URLs, screenshots, raw error contents, credentials, or email content. Reports are stored for Buddy support and sent through our email service; the email service accepting a report does not guarantee it reaches an inbox. To investigate reported problems, Buddy can also send the technical fields and a report ID to a private GitHub issue and to OpenAI for an automated investigation. That investigation copy excludes your account ID and email, as well as student work, screenshots, URLs and credentials. Investigation results and proposed fixes are kept in the private GitHub issue for support review; fixes are not applied automatically. Optional placement diagnostics are a separate local/session diagnostic feature and are not the same as these sent reports.

Device-local records are separate from your Buddy account: deleting your account removes what's stored on Buddy's servers, but records kept only on your device remain until you remove them there (for example by clearing the extension's storage or uninstalling it).

Who else sees your data

Only the services we need to run Buddy: our hosting and database provider, our email sender (for account messages and notices), Stripe for payment processing, GitHub (private technical investigations), and the AI provider described above. We don't sell, rent or trade your data with anyone, and we don't share it with schools unless you or a guardian asks us to.

Emails we send

Account emails — welcome, password reset, email confirmation, payment problems — always send, because they're part of running your account. Buddy news and updates only send if the Send me Buddy updates switch in account settings is on, and you can turn it off at any time.

Deleting your account and your data

The fastest way is to do it yourself. Open account settings, scroll to Delete account, read the consequences, and type DELETE to confirm. Buddy reports success only after its cleanup operations complete. If a step fails, some data may already be removed; contact support for help completing the request. Paid-account deletion requires billing review until automatic provider cancellation is available.

Deleting removes, permanently:

• • your profile and onboarding answers
• • every assignment, question, step and draft answer
• • Buddy's local plan record after any required billing review
• • every extension connection and access key
• • your waitlist entry, if you had one
• • the login itself

Export work you want to keep before deleting it. Deletion from Buddy's account database does not promise immediate removal from provider backups, legally retained payment records, emails already delivered, or private technical investigation records in GitHub. Contact support about those records.

If you can't get into your account, or you're a parent or school asking on a student's behalf, email info@meetbuddy.us from an address we can verify, or use the contact page. We handle those by hand and aim to confirm deletion within 3 working days where we can. You can also ask us for a copy of what we hold about you the same way.

Children and school accounts

Buddy account creation requires confirmation that the user is at least 13. Do not create an account for a child under 13 through the normal sign-up flow. If you believe an under-13 account exists, contact support so we can investigate and handle the data appropriately.

Changes and contact

If we change how any of this works we'll update this page and the date at the top. Questions about privacy: info@meetbuddy.us.