Privacy Policy

Lockin Study Buddy ("we") provides lessons, practice, and Study Groups for students. This policy explains what we collect, why, and the choices students and parents have.

Who can use Lockin Study Buddy

Lockin Study Buddy is intended for students aged 13 and older. We use a neutral age screen during sign-up to verify eligibility. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If we learn that a child under 13 has created an account, we will immediately delete the account and all associated data. Parents who believe this has happened can contact us at support@lockinstudybuddy.com.

Anyone can read lessons without an account. Students under 13, who cannot create an account, use Lockin Study Buddy as a guest: their progress is kept only within that specific browser or device, and no visit statistics or analytics are recorded for them.

What we collect

• Account details: The student's first name and account email.
• Study groups & preferences: The study groups a student creates or joins, and the classes they choose or star.
• Safety metrics: Reports and blocks a student makes in a study group. The person reported or blocked is never told who made the report.
• Learning activity: Lesson progress, practice answers, and flashcard results.
• Study Group files: Files a student uploads to a study group (notes, homework, handouts).
• Payment status: Subscription status. Payments on the website are handled by Stripe; purchases in the apps are handled by Apple (iPhone and iPad) or Google Play (Android). We never see or store card details.

How we use it

• To run the service: To maintain the account, save learning progress, and display the correct classes.
• To create study guides via AI: Uploaded files are processed through our AI provider's secure API (OpenAI) to generate custom guides and practice questions. OpenAI does not use data submitted through our API to train its public models.
• To share within groups: Generated study guides are shared only with members of that specific private study group. Other group members never see the original files you uploaded.
• To maintain safety: Lockin Study Buddy administrators can view original uploads and the uploader's identity strictly to review a safety report or keep the service secure. Every administrator view is securely logged.
• To communicate: To send sign-in links, password-reset requests, and important account notices.

We do not sell personal information, and we do not display advertising.

Visit statistics

Our website host counts page visits so we can see which features are used. We turn this tracking off completely for under-13 guests, and for any browsers that send a Global Privacy Control (GPC) or Do Not Track signal.

Facebook and Instagram ads

We advertise to parents on Facebook and Instagram. Four of our pages for parents (/parents, /letter, /ai-homework and /after-school) use the Meta Pixel, a small piece of code from Meta, to tell Meta that a visitor opened the page or went on to our sign-up page. Meta may use cookies to connect this with the visitor's Facebook or Instagram account and to measure and improve our ads. We do not send Meta names, email addresses, ages or anything typed into a form. The Meta Pixel never runs in the app, on lessons, or in student accounts, and it is off for under-13 guests and for browsers that send Global Privacy Control or Do Not Track. You can manage how Meta uses this in your Facebook or Instagram ad settings.

Service providers

We rely on trusted third-party providers to host data (Supabase), process payments (Stripe on the website, Apple or Google Play in the apps), generate study guides (OpenAI), send transactional emails, deliver app notifications (Expo, Apple and Google Firebase Cloud Messaging), and let students sign in with Apple or Google (which share the student's name and email with us). These providers are contractually obligated to use your information only to perform these specific services for us.

Your rights: keeping and deleting information

We keep your information only while your account is active. A student can delete their account and all their uploaded files at any time directly from the Account page.

Depending on where you live, you or your parent may have specific legal rights regarding your data. Regardless of location, any student or parent can email support@lockinstudybuddy.com to request to:

• Access or receive a portable copy of your account data.
• Correct inaccurate personal information.
• Delete your account and data permanently.

Lockin Study Buddy on iPhone, iPad and Android

Our iOS app complies with Apple's minor-protection and User-Generated Content (UGC) safety guidelines, and our Android app complies with Google Play's Families policy. Neither app shows ads, uses an advertising ID, or tracks students across other apps or websites. The apps request camera access only if a student chooses to photograph class material, and a photo is sent only when explicitly uploaded. Downloaded study guides, progress, and settings are stored locally on the device for offline use and are completely wiped when the student signs out or deletes their account. Listen reads lessons aloud with the device's own voice; that text is not sent to us.

If a student turns on notifications, we store a notification token for their device and send alerts (for example, "Someone updated the study guide for "Cells" in Bio 101") through Expo and Apple's notification service on iPhone and iPad, or Google Firebase Cloud Messaging on Android. Students can turn this off at any time in Account › Settings or the device's settings, and signing out removes the token.

When a student opens a study group chapter's guide, a lesson, flashcards or practice, we record that they started studying it (the group, chapter, kind of activity and time). We use this only for optional study nudges to other members of the same group, which never show names (for example, "Since 5:10 pm in Bio 101: 3 people studied"), and delete it after 2 days. Study nudges are off unless a student turns them on; they are sent only between 3 pm and 10 pm in the student's time zone, which the app sends with the notification token for this purpose.

If a student signs up with email from one of our advertising pages, we note which page (for example, "on-the-go") with the account, only to count how many sign-ups each page brings.

Note: Once an item is shared inside a private study group, copies that other group members have already viewed or saved cannot be retroactively retracted.

Security

Uploads are stored in private, per-account directories. Strict database Row-Level Security (RLS) rules ensure each student can only access their own data and the shared guides of study groups they currently belong to.

Changes

If we update this policy, we will change the "Last updated" date above. We will notify account holders directly via email regarding any material changes.