Privacy Policy for Pencilius

Effective Date: 2 October 2025

Pencilius ("we," "our," or "us") values your privacy. This Privacy Policy explains what information we collect, how we use it, and your rights.

1. Information We Collect

We collect only what is necessary to provide our service:

• Account Information: Username and password when you create an account.
• Payment Information: Payments are processed securely by Stripe. We do not store your credit card details.
• Usage Data: We use Google Analytics to understand how users interact with our site. Google Analytics may collect information such as browser type, device, and pages visited.
• Imports Feature: If you use our Imports feature, we send your data to Google Cloud AI for processing. Per Google Cloud's paid services policy, data sent for processing is not used by Google to train their models.
  
  For more details on Google Cloud's AI data usage policies, see:
  • Google Cloud's Service Specific Terms — Training Restriction (which states, "Google will not use Customer Data to train or fine-tune any AI/ML models without Customer's prior permission or instruction") — https://cloud.google.com/terms/service-terms
  • Google's Vertex AI Generative AI Data Governance page, which describes handling of customer prompts and output and minimal retention practices — https://cloud.google.com/vertex-ai/generative-ai/docs/data-governance

2. How We Use Your Information

We use your information to:

• Provide and maintain your account.
• Process payments (through Stripe).
• Improve and secure our services.
• Analyze site usage (via Google Analytics).

3. Sharing Your Information

We do not sell your personal information. We only share data with trusted third-party providers necessary to run Pencilius:

• Stripe: For payment processing.
• Google Analytics: For site usage analytics.
• Cloud Infrastructure Providers: For hosting and running our app.
• Google Cloud AI: To power our Imports feature.

4. Data Retention for Uploaded Content

• By default, uploaded documents or exams are not retained. They are deleted immediately after processing.
• If you choose to opt in through your account settings, you can allow us to retain uploaded documents for later access. You may change this preference at any time.
• Demo Mode: When you use Pencilius in demo mode without creating an account, inputs and outputs are processed temporarily and deleted after processing and/or upon session expiration. We do not retain demo content by default. If you create an account and choose to save your work, we will migrate your demo content to your account; otherwise it is deleted.

5. Data Security

We use industry-standard security measures to protect your data, including encryption and restricted access controls. While no method is 100% secure, we take reasonable steps to keep your information safe.

6. Your Rights

Depending on where you live, you may have the right to:

• Access, update, or delete your account information.
• Request a copy of the data we hold about you.
• Opt out of analytics tracking (via browser settings or plugins).

You can contact us at privacy@pencilius.com to make a request.

7. Children's Privacy

Pencilius is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children.

8. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. We will notify users by posting the new version on this page with the updated effective date.

9. Contact Us

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, you can reach us at:
Email: privacy@pencilius.com