1. Scope
This Privacy Policy applies to the LectureSketch website, web application, and related services that link to this policy, together called the "Service." In this policy, "LectureSketch," "we," "us," and "our" refer to the operator of the Service.
This policy does not apply to third-party websites, services, or applications that have their own privacy notices, even if the Service links to them.
We may use information that has been aggregated or deidentified so that it cannot reasonably be linked to you. We may use and disclose that information for lawful purposes and will not attempt to reidentify it except where permitted by law.
2. At a glance
- We collect account details, the study materials you choose to upload, your generated learning content, payment-related records, and technical information needed to run and secure the Service.
- We use service providers for infrastructure, authentication, storage, artificial intelligence features, and payment processing.
- We do not sell personal information or share it for cross-context behavioral advertising. We do not currently use third-party advertising cookies.
- You can request access, correction, export, or deletion by emailing support@lecturesketch.com. Certain information may need to be retained for legal, security, or operational reasons.
3. Information we collect
Account and profile information
When you create or manage an account, we collect information such as your name, email address, authentication credentials or authentication identifiers, account settings, subscription status, and records showing when you accepted our legal terms. Passwords are handled by our authentication provider and are not available to us in readable form.
Study materials and other content
We collect the content you submit to the Service, including class and sketch names, notes, pasted text, PDFs, slide decks, documents, audio, video, source links, and related file metadata. We also store the learning materials produced from your content, such as summaries, claims, citations, memory cues, visual scenes, narration, and audio. If you use sketch or class chat, we also store your chat threads, messages, cited excerpts, feedback, and a short conversation summary used for continuity.
Subscription and transaction information
Payments are processed by Stripe. We may receive and store limited billing records such as your Stripe customer identifier, subscription and plan status, price identifier, billing-period dates, payment status, and transaction-related metadata. We do not receive or store your full payment-card number.
Device, log, and usage information
When you use the Service, we and our providers may automatically collect information such as your IP address, browser and device type, operating system, pages or features used, timestamps, referring URLs, error and diagnostic data, cookie or session identifiers, and security events. We may also infer an approximate location from an IP address.
Communications
If you contact us, we collect the information you provide, such as your email address, the content of your message, attachments, and the history of our correspondence.
4. How we collect information
- From you. We collect information when you register, upload material, generate or open a lesson, subscribe, change settings, or contact us.
- Automatically. We and our providers collect technical and usage information through session technologies, server logs, and similar tools.
- From service providers. We receive account, payment, security, infrastructure, and service-status information from providers that help us run the Service.
5. How and why we use information
We use personal information to:
- create, authenticate, maintain, and secure accounts;
- store submitted materials and generate lessons, memory palaces, images, narration, citations, and grounded chat answers;
- save progress, personalize study sessions, and provide customer support;
- process subscriptions, maintain billing records, and prevent fraud;
- operate, troubleshoot, test, analyze, protect, and improve the reliability and usability of the Service;
- enforce our Terms of Service, investigate abuse, protect users and the public, and comply with legal obligations; and
- send transactional messages, including account, security, support, billing, and material policy-update notices.
Legal bases for processing
Where applicable law requires a legal basis, we process information as needed to perform our contract with you, pursue legitimate interests such as operating and securing the Service, comply with legal obligations, and protect vital interests. We rely on consent where required, and you may withdraw consent at any time for future processing. Withdrawal does not affect processing that was already lawful.
6. Artificial intelligence processing
LectureSketch uses Google's Gemini API and related models to analyze submitted material and generate text, images, narration, embeddings, and chat answers. Content needed for a generation or chat request, including prompts, extracted text, source files, retrieved lesson excerpts, recent chat turns, and a conversation summary, may be transmitted to Google for processing. Generated responses are returned to LectureSketch and may be stored with your sketch, class, or chat thread.
When the Service temporarily uploads a non-text source file to the Gemini Files API, it is configured to delete that temporary AI-provider file after the generation attempt. We also configure generation and chat requests not to retain interactions where that option is supported. These measures do not control any limited logging, caching, abuse monitoring, legal retention, or other processing performed by Google under its own terms and privacy practices.
Provider practices may vary based on the API product, account, or billing tier used to deliver a request. Under Google's current Gemini API terms:
- For paid services, Google states that prompts, files, and responses are not used to improve its products, although limited data may be logged for safety, abuse prevention, legal compliance, and related purposes.
- For unpaid services, Google states that submitted content and responses may be used to provide, improve, and develop its products and machine-learning technologies, and human reviewers may process that data.
Because provider terms and the configuration used for a request can change, do not submit sensitive or confidential information to AI features. Review the Gemini API Additional Terms and Google Privacy Policy for more information.
9. Retention and deletion
We retain personal information for as long as reasonably necessary to provide the Service, maintain your account, complete transactions, preserve study progress, comply with legal and accounting obligations, resolve disputes, enforce agreements, prevent fraud and abuse, and protect the integrity of the Service.
Retention periods depend on the type of information and why it is processed. Account data and user content are generally retained while your account or relevant content remains active. Billing and transaction records may be kept for tax, accounting, and compliance periods. Security logs and support records may be retained for reasonable operational periods.
You can delete individual sketches and remove classes through available Service controls. Removing a class does not delete the sketches that were organized in it. To request account deletion, email support@lecturesketch.com. Deletion from active systems may take time, and residual copies may remain in encrypted backups until they are overwritten through normal backup cycles. We may retain limited records when required by law or reasonably necessary for security, fraud prevention, dispute resolution, or enforcement. Service providers may also retain information according to their own lawful obligations.
10. Security
We use reasonable administrative, technical, and organizational safeguards designed to protect information. These include access controls, private storage, signed access links, encrypted network transport, provider security controls, and row-level authorization rules where appropriate.
No method of storage or transmission is completely secure. We cannot guarantee that information will never be accessed, lost, altered, or disclosed. You are responsible for using a strong, unique password, protecting your sign-in credentials, and notifying us promptly if you suspect unauthorized account access.
11. Your choices and privacy rights
Depending on where you live, you may have the right to request access to or a copy of personal information, correction, deletion, restriction, portability, or an objection to certain processing. You may also have the right to withdraw consent, appeal a refusal, or complain to your local data-protection authority.
To make a request, email support@lecturesketch.com from the address associated with your account and describe the request. We may need to verify your identity and authority before acting. An authorized agent may submit a request where permitted by law, but we may ask for proof of authorization and identity. We will not discriminate against you for exercising a privacy right.
Rights are not absolute. We may deny or limit a request when permitted by law, such as when information must be retained to complete a transaction, protect security, comply with law, establish legal claims, or preserve another person's rights. We will explain our decision where required.
12. Regional privacy notices
California
During the preceding 12 months, we may have collected the categories described in Section 3, including identifiers; customer-record information; commercial information; internet or other electronic-network activity; approximate geolocation; audio, visual, and educational content; and inferences based on study activity. We collect, use, retain, and disclose these categories for the business purposes described in Sections 4 through 9.
We may disclose these categories to the service-provider and recipient categories listed in Section 8. We do not sell personal information or share it for cross-context behavioral advertising. We do not have actual knowledge that we sell or share personal information of people under 18. California residents may request to know, access, correct, or delete covered information and may exercise the other rights available under applicable law.
EEA, United Kingdom, Switzerland, and Brazil
For these regions, LectureSketch acts as the controller of personal information processed for its own purposes. The purposes and legal bases are described in Section 5. Depending on local law, you may exercise rights of confirmation, information, access, correction, anonymization, restriction, deletion, portability, objection, consent withdrawal, and review of certain automated decisions.
LectureSketch does not currently make decisions based solely on automated processing that produce legal or similarly significant effects about users. AI-generated study content is an educational feature, and you control whether and how to rely on it.
Other U.S. states and regions
Residents of other jurisdictions may have similar rights. We will process verifiable requests in accordance with the law that applies to the requester. You may appeal a decision by replying to our response with the subject "Privacy Appeal."
13. International data transfers
LectureSketch and its providers may process information in countries other than the one where you live. Those countries may have different data-protection laws. Where required, we rely on recognized transfer mechanisms or other lawful safeguards, such as contractual protections, to support cross-border transfers.
By using the Service, you understand that information may be processed in the locations where LectureSketch and its providers operate, subject to applicable law.
14. Age requirement and children
The Service is not directed to, designed for, or permitted for anyone under 18. We do not knowingly collect personal information from people under 18. If you believe a person under 18 has provided information to the Service, contact support@lecturesketch.com so we can investigate and take appropriate action.
15. Changes and contact
We may update this Privacy Policy as the Service, our practices, or applicable law changes. We will post the updated policy and revise the effective date. If a change is material, we will provide additional notice when required, such as through the Service or by email. Your continued use after the effective date is subject to the updated policy, to the extent permitted by law.
Questions, privacy requests, and complaints may be sent to support@lecturesketch.com. You can also review our Terms of Service.