Privacy Policy

Last updated: [date you publish this]

This Privacy Policy explains what information Lecture Ear ("we," "us," "our") collects when you use the Lecture Ear website and app (the "Service"), how we use it, and the choices you have. If you don't agree with this Policy, please don't use the Service. Questions can be sent to [your contact email].

1. Information we collect

Information you give us directly

• Account information: your email address and password (stored as a securely hashed value, never in plain text).
• Content you create: lecture transcripts, typed notes, saved study materials, and any files you attach (PDFs, PowerPoint slides, photos, text files).
• Billing information: handled directly by our payment processor, Stripe. We receive your subscription status and plan from Stripe, but we never receive or store your full card number ourselves. As of the date of this Policy, Lecture Ear is free for all users during our trial phase — no payment information is being collected from anyone right now.

Information collected automatically

Like most web services, our hosting provider automatically logs basic technical information for security and troubleshooting — things like IP address, browser type, and request timestamps. We don't use this for advertising, and we don't currently run analytics or tracking tools beyond what's needed to operate the Service.

2. Sensitive content in your recordings

Because Lecture Ear transcribes spoken audio you choose to capture, transcripts could incidentally include sensitive information depending on what's discussed in a given class or setting. We don't intentionally collect special categories of information, and it's on you, as the person choosing what to record, to be mindful of that — see our Terms and Conditions for your responsibilities around recording and consent.

3. How we use your information

• To provide the Service — transcribing audio, generating AI answers and study materials, saving your notes and files, and running your subscription.
• To communicate with you about your account — email verification, password resets, and important service updates.
• For security, fraud prevention, and to enforce our Terms.
• To comply with legal obligations where required.

We do not use your content to train any AI model — ours or anyone else's. We don't sell your personal information, and we don't use your content for advertising or marketing purposes. We don't currently display any third-party advertising on the Service at all.

4. How your content is processed by AI

To generate answers, structured notes, flashcards, and quizzes, the transcripts, notes, and files you submit are sent to Anthropic (the maker of the Claude AI models we use) for processing. This is done under Anthropic's standard commercial API terms, which — as of the date of this Policy — do not use data submitted through their API to train their models. Anthropic's own privacy practices, not this Policy, govern exactly how they handle that data on their end. If we add other AI providers in the future, or if this changes, we'll update this section.

5. Who we share information with

We don't sell your personal information. We share it only with the specific service providers necessary to run Lecture Ear:

• Stripe — to process payments and manage subscriptions.
• Anthropic — to generate AI answers and study materials from content you submit, as described above.
• Our hosting provider — to run the Service and store your data.
• Our email provider — to send verification and password-reset emails.

We may also disclose information if required by law, to protect the security of the Service, or in connection with a good-faith business transfer (like a change of ownership) — in which case this Policy would continue to apply to your information unless you're notified otherwise.

6. Cookies

We use a single essential cookie to keep you logged in securely. We don't use advertising, retargeting, or cross-site tracking cookies.

7. Data retention and deletion

We keep your account information and content for as long as your account is active. If you'd like your account and associated data deleted, contact us at [your contact email] and we'll process the request, subject to anything we're required to retain for legal, security, or billing-record purposes. [Note: as of this writing, account deletion is handled manually on request rather than through a self-service button in the app — worth building a self-service option as the app grows.]

8. Children's privacy

Lecture Ear is intended for students generally, but the Service is not specifically directed at, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from, children under 13 without appropriate parental or guardian involvement. If you're a parent or guardian and believe your child under 13 has created an account without your involvement, contact us at [your contact email] and we'll address it. If a school or district wants to roll this out for younger students under a formal institutional agreement, that needs its own discussion and likely its own data-handling terms — not something covered by this general Policy.

9. Your choices and rights

• You can review and update your account email and password from your account settings.
• You can cancel your subscription anytime through the billing portal linked from your account.
• You can request a copy, correction, or deletion of your personal information by contacting us.

If you have or expect to have users in the EU/UK, California, Virginia, or other jurisdictions with specific privacy statutes (GDPR, CCPA, VCDPA, etc.), those laws may give users additional formal rights — and some may apply based on your revenue or user volume regardless of where you're personally located. That's worth a real legal review rather than a generic clause, since the actual obligations depend on facts about your business this template can't know.

10. Security

We use reasonable technical measures to protect your information, including password hashing and secure, authenticated sessions. That said, no method of transmission or storage is 100% secure, and we can't guarantee absolute security.

11. International users

The Service is currently operated from and hosted in the United States. If you access it from outside the U.S., your information will be processed in the U.S.

12. Changes to this Policy

We may update this Policy as the Service changes. We'll update the "Last updated" date above, and for material changes, we'll make reasonable efforts to let existing users know.

13. Contact

Questions about this Policy, or requests regarding your personal information, can be sent to [your contact email].