Privacy policy

In short

• We don't sell your data, and the app has no ads.
• From version 3.0.0, the app's AI runs on Anthropic's Claude. Older versions use Google's Gemini until you update.
• We never use your notes or cards to train AI. Under their terms, Anthropic may not train its models on them, and Google doesn't use them to improve its products.
• The notes you add stay in their subject until you delete it. Once you sign in, they sync to your other devices.
• To find bugs, the app records its own screen. From version 3.0.0, the recordings black out your cards, notes, photos and everything you type, and you can turn recordings and analytics off in Settings.
• You can delete your account in the app at any time: open Settings and tap delete account.

This policy explains how prettysmart ("we", "us") collects, uses and protects your personal data when you use the prettysmart app for iPhone and the pretty-smart.app website (together, the "Service"). Questions? Email us at info@pretty-smart.app.

What we collect

• Account details: a random account ID, which our server makes the first time you open the app, before you sign in. If you sign in with Apple or Google, also your email address (with Apple, this can be a Hide My Email address), and with Google, the name and profile photo link Google shares. In versions before 3.0.0, also the first name you gave in onboarding. You can use the app without signing in; signing in is only needed to sync.
• Your study data: the subjects, chapters and cards you make, the pictures on your cards, your exam dates, target scores and study plans, your study history and multiple-choice answers, your streaks, your rewards and the name you give your bunny.
• Notes and uploads: the photos, documents and typed notes you add to make cards. Versions before 3.0.0 also take voice notes and dictation. From version 3.0.0, the app doesn't use your microphone.
• What you send to AI: see "AI features" below.
• Your answers in onboarding: such as your country, school year and level, roughly how much time you spend on your phone, whether you have an exam coming, when, and the score you're aiming for. They help fit your cards and plan to you, and show us how onboarding goes.
• Usage and device data: which screens you open and what you tap, recordings of the app's screen (see "Screen recordings and analytics"), crash reports, your device model, iOS version and language, your IP address, and the rough location (city and country) it points to.
• App Lock: App Lock uses Apple's Screen Time, and iOS never tells us which apps you lock or how long you use them. The app only holds Apple's coded tokens for the apps you pick, and your screen time shows only in Apple's own views, on your phone. We see how many apps and days you picked, whether App Lock is on, and how you use it in our app, such as when you unlock your apps for a few minutes.
• Feedback: what you write in the app's feedback forms, and the email address or Discord name you add if you'd like an answer.
• Discord: from version 3.0.0, if you link Discord to claim the members' reward, your Discord account ID.
• Purchases: your subscription status, the product you bought and its App Store transaction IDs, and the ad that brought you to the app, if one did. Apple handles the payment, so we never see your card details.

We don't collect your contacts or your precise location. This website has no analytics or ads and sets no cookies. Its exam-plan page remembers the test date and ticks you set in your own browser, and never sends them to us. Cloudflare, which hosts the website, sees your IP address when you visit.

Why we use it, and our legal basis

Data protection law in the EU and the UK (the GDPR and the UK GDPR) asks us to name a legal basis for each use of your data. These are ours:

• To give you the Service you asked for (our contract with you): your account, storing and syncing your subjects, cards and notes, scheduling your reviews, the reminders you turn on, App Lock, the AI features (cards, multiple-choice options, topic suggestions, lesson summaries and the coach), your subscription, and the Discord reward if you claim it.
• To find bugs and improve the app (our legitimate interest in an app that works): analytics, screen recordings, crash reports and the feedback you send.
• To show you our plans and offers (legitimate interest): our paywalls, which can mention your subject, your exam date or how many cards you have.
• To keep the AI features affordable and stop misuse (legitimate interest): counting how much each account and each network uses them, and giving Anthropic a scrambled ID for your account.
• To see which of our ads work (legitimate interest): the ad that brought you, if one did.
• To keep your data safe (legitimate interest): encrypted backups, server logs, and short-lived copies of what you delete, so we can restore your data after a mistake or a failure.
• To tell you about important changes to the Service, in the app (legitimate interest).
• To meet our legal obligations (legal obligation): for example, answering your requests about your data and keeping a record of them.

Where we rely on a legitimate interest, you can object at any time (see "Your rights"). We don't make decisions about you by automated means that have legal or similarly significant effects.

AI features

When you send material or a question to AI, the app sends it through our server to an AI provider, which processes it for us and sends back the answer. The cards, multiple-choice options, topic suggestions, lesson summaries and coach answers that come back are written by AI, not by a person, and can contain mistakes. The coach is an AI, not a person. Which provider you use depends on your version of the app:

• Anthropic (Claude), from version 3.0.0, does all of the app's AI. It checks that your material is something to study, names the subject of the notes you add in onboarding, finds the key facts in your material, makes cards from it and checks that they cover those facts, helps find pictures for cards on Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons, writes the multiple-choice options for your cards (including cards you write or import yourself), suggests topics for a subject, writes short summaries of your lessons from their cards, and answers the questions you ask the coach about a card or a page of your notes.
• Google (Gemini), in versions before 3.0.0, makes cards from your material (a voice note is sent as its recording), checks that material is something to study, makes the first cards in onboarding, and helps find pictures for cards. These versions keep using Gemini until you update the app.

What we send: the material or question, and the cards it is about. Depending on the feature, also the name of the subject and chapter, your school level, your country (for topic suggestions), the line of your notes a card came from, a few similar cards, the option you last picked by mistake, your earlier messages to the coach, your bunny's name and your phone's language. We never send your name or email address. Anthropic also gets a scrambled ID for your account, which only we can match to you, to help it stop misuse.

Training and how long they keep it: we never use your notes or cards to train AI. Each provider processes what we send on our behalf, under its terms for paid use:

• Anthropic may not train its models on it (Commercial Terms). It deletes it within 30 days, unless it must keep it longer to enforce its Usage Policy (up to 2 years for content its safety systems flag) or by law (how long Anthropic keeps data).
• Google doesn't use it to improve its products, and keeps it for 55 days to detect misuse (Gemini API terms, abuse monitoring).

What we keep: when a long document is made into cards in parts, our server keeps the cards made from each part for 7 days, so a part that gets interrupted isn't made twice. Lesson summaries are kept with your account for up to 180 days, so the same one isn't written twice. Topic suggestions are kept in a shared list by subject, school level and country, with nothing that links them to you. We don't keep your chats with the coach. We record what each AI request cost, without its content, and our server logs record the subject's name and the start of the first few cards made (see "How long we keep it").

Notes and uploads

From version 3.0.0, the photos and documents you add to a subject, and the typed notes your cards come from, are kept in that subject or chapter. That way you can see which parts became cards, and ask the coach about them.

• As a guest, before you sign in, they stay on your phone.
• Once you sign in, they are also stored in your account on our servers in Frankfurt, Germany, so your other devices get them. Signing out removes them from the phone; they stay in your account.
• They stay until you delete the chapter or subject they're in, or your account. Then they are deleted from your account too. The app can't yet delete a single note on its own; email us and we'll do it.
• Notes you add during onboarding stay on your phone only until the rest of their cards are made.

The pictures on your cards, including any cut from your photos and documents, are kept the same way: on your phone as a guest, and in your account once you sign in. Versions before 3.0.0 store card pictures in your account even before you sign in, and don't keep your material once its cards are made.

Screen recordings and analytics

To find what's broken or confusing and to improve the app, the app tells our analytics provider, PostHog, which screens you open and what you tap. It also records the app's own screen, about once a second while you use it, along with where you tap.

• What's hidden: from version 3.0.0, the recordings black out your cards' words and pictures, your notes and other material, your chats with the coach, your bunny's name, your photos and every text box you type in, before anything leaves your phone. If the app can't hide them in a frame, it doesn't send that frame. The app's own buttons and labels stay visible, and so do the names of your subjects and chapters. Versions before 3.0.0 record the screen as it is: your cards, material and photos, and what you type, included.
• What's never recorded: other apps, and screens that iOS draws itself, such as the keyboard and the photo picker.
• Who receives it: PostHog, on its EU servers in Frankfurt, Germany (PostHog data storage). The data carries your random account ID, your IP address and rough location, not your name or email address.
• How long: recordings are kept for 90 days. Other analytics data is kept for up to 7 years, the period PostHog sets for our plan, unless we delete it sooner.
• Saying no: from version 3.0.0, turn off "share usage data" in Settings. That stops analytics, screen recordings and crash reports at once. The app still asks PostHog which version of a feature to show you, which sends it your account ID. Older versions have no switch. Either way, you can email us at info@pretty-smart.app and we'll delete the analytics data and recordings tied to your account.

Notifications and permissions

• Notifications: reminders, such as a study reminder or a reminder before a free trial ends, are scheduled on your phone. We don't send push notifications, so nothing about them reaches us.
• Camera: to take photos of your notes and scan documents. Reading the text in a scan happens on your phone.
• Photos: from version 3.0.0, you pick photos in Apple's own picker, so the app only gets the ones you pick. Versions before 3.0.0 ask for access to your photo library to add a picture to a card.
• Motion: from version 3.0.0, some pictures tilt as you move your phone. The motion data stays on your phone.
• Microphone and speech recognition: only in versions before 3.0.0, for voice notes and dictation. iOS may send dictation to Apple to turn it into text.
• Screen Time: for App Lock, as described above.

Who we share it with

We don't sell or rent your personal data. We share it only with the companies that run parts of the Service for us, each for its own job:

• Supabase: our database, sign-in, storage for card pictures and notes, our server functions and their logs. Your data is stored in Frankfurt, Germany; the server functions run in the region nearest to you.
• PowerSync: keeps the app on your phone in sync with our database, once you sign in.
• PostHog: analytics, screen recordings, feedback forms, and which version of a feature to show you, in Frankfurt, Germany. It also gets your subscription events, such as a trial starting, from Superwall.
• Sentry: crash reports, with your account ID, device details and IP address. They are stored in Frankfurt, Germany (Sentry data storage), for 90 days.
• Superwall: paywalls and subscriptions. It gets your account ID, device details, IP address and your answers in onboarding, and what our paywalls show: the name of your subject and chapter, your exam date and target score, how many cards you have, and the first name you gave in a version before 3.0.0. When you first open the app, it compares your device's details and IP address with taps on ads, to tell us which ad brought you, if one did; Apple tells it about Apple Search Ads. "Share usage data" doesn't turn Superwall off, because paywalls and purchases need it. Its servers are in the United States.
• Upstash: counts how much each account, and each network (as a scrambled code), uses the AI features, to keep use within limits.
• Anthropic and Google: AI, as described above. Google also runs Sign in with Google.
• Apple: Sign in with Apple, App Store downloads, purchases and update checks, Apple Search Ads, and dictation in versions before 3.0.0.
• Discord: only if you link it. You sign in on Discord's own page, and Discord tells us your Discord account ID and whether you're in our server. We keep only the ID. The link you open passes your random account ID through Discord.
• GitHub: stores our encrypted nightly backups.
• Cloudflare: hosts this website.

Wikimedia sees your IP address when the app downloads a picture for a card from Wikipedia or Wikimedia Commons. In versions before 3.0.0, four public servers also saw it when the app checked your internet connection (one.one.one.one, icanhazip.com, jsonplaceholder.typicode.com and pokeapi.co). We send them nothing else.

Supabase stores your account, cards and notes in Frankfurt, Germany, and PostHog and Sentry keep their data there too. The other companies may process your data outside the European Union, including in the United States.

How long we keep it

• Your account and study data: until you delete your account. When you delete a subject, chapter or card, it goes from your account too, though your study history stays for your streaks and stats. We keep a copy of what you deleted for 30 days, so we can restore it after a mistake.
• Notes and uploads: until you delete the chapter or subject they're in, or your account.
• Backups: encrypted, made every night. Database backups are kept for 14 days, and one a week for 60 days. Backups of the stored files are kept for 3 days, and one a week for 28 days.
• Server logs: about 90 days. They record your account ID, IP address, rough location and device, and for cards made by AI, the subject's name and the start of the first few cards.
• Screen recordings: 90 days. Other analytics: up to 7 years.
• Crash reports: 90 days.
• What the AI providers receive: up to 30 days at Anthropic (longer only as described above), 55 days at Google.
• Cards kept from a document's parts: 7 days. Lesson summaries:up to 180 days.
• AI use counts at Upstash: up to 400 days.
• Your subscription status and Discord ID: until you delete your account. Superwall keeps your purchase records for as long as we use it, unless we ask it to erase them. We also keep a log of subscription events, such as a renewal, with the App Store's transaction ID but not your account ID, as a record of purchases.

Deleting your account

You can delete your account in the app, even as a guest: open Settings and tap delete account (from version 3.0.0, Settings is in Me). This deletes your account and everything in it from our database, including your subjects, cards, notes, study history, study plans and Discord link. From version 3.0.0, the app also deletes your notes' files from our storage. Deleting the app removes what it kept on your phone.

A few things aren't deleted with your account yet. Email us and we'll delete them:

• the pictures on your cards, in our file storage;
• the security log Supabase keeps of your sign-ins, which can include your email address;
• what PostHog, Sentry and Superwall hold, which is tied to your random account ID, not your email address.

Our server logs go within about 90 days, and copies in our backups within 60 days. Deleting your account doesn't cancel an App Store subscription. To cancel, open your iPhone's Settings, tap your name, then Subscriptions.

Security

Everything the app and this website send travels encrypted (HTTPS). Supabase, which stores your account, cards and notes, encrypts the data it stores (AES-256), and our backups are encrypted (AES-256) before they are stored. On your iPhone, the app keeps its data in its own storage, which iOS encrypts when your phone has a passcode.

Your data isn't end-to-end encrypted: we and the providers above can read it where we need to, to sync it, make your cards and answer your questions.

Your rights

Depending on where you live, you have the right to access, correct, delete or move your personal data, to restrict how we use it, and to object to uses based on our legitimate interests. In the app, you can turn off analytics and screen recordings (from version 3.0.0) and delete your account. For anything else, email us at info@pretty-smart.app.

We reply within one month. If a request is complex, we may need up to two more months, and we'll tell you so within the first month. To make sure a request comes from you, we confirm it through the email address you sign in with. If you use the app as a guest, there's no email address to check, so the quickest way to delete your data is in the app.

California residents have similar rights under the CCPA. We don't sell or share personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising.

You can also complain to a data protection authority, for example the one where you live.

Children and teenagers

prettysmart is for people 13 and older. It isn't directed to children under 13, and we don't knowingly collect personal data from children under 13. If we learn that a child under 13 has given us personal data, we delete it, along with their account. This is how we follow the US Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA).

Young people's data gets extra protection under the GDPR and the UK GDPR. Below a certain age, the law asks for a parent's consent to some online services: 13 in the UK, and between 13 and 16 in EU countries, depending on the country. If you're under that age where you live, use prettysmart only with the agreement of a parent or guardian.

If you're a parent or guardian, you can ask for a copy of your child's data, or have it deleted. Email us at info@pretty-smart.app with the email address your child signs in with. To protect your child, we confirm the request through that email address before we act, and we reply within one month. Your child can also delete the account in the app at any time, even without signing in: open Settings and tap delete account.

Terms

The app is licensed to you under Apple's standard Licensed Application End User License Agreement.

Changes to this policy

We'll post any new version here and update the date at the top. We announce important changes in the app: for example, people updating to version 3.0.0 see once that Anthropic's Claude now writes their cards, with a link to this page.

Contact

Questions or requests about your data? Email info@pretty-smart.app.