Thank you for using StudyCam.app ("StudyCam", "we", "us", or "our"). We built StudyCam specifically to avoid surveillance and to help families end homework battles without spying on children.
This Privacy Policy explains how we handle information when you use StudyCam, our website, and related services (collectively, the "Service").
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Important note: This Privacy Policy is a general template and does not constitute legal advice. Privacy laws differ by country and region. Please have a qualified lawyer review and adapt this policy for your specific business, jurisdiction, and tech setup.
1. Overview – Our Privacy Promise
StudyCam is designed as a "smart mirror, not a surveillance camera".
- We use the device's camera to analyze posture and distractions in real time.
- No video is ever recorded, stored, or transmitted to our servers.
- We do not build facial recognition profiles or biometric templates of your child.
- The parent or legal guardian is the primary account holder and in control.
We collect only as much information as we reasonably need to:
- run and improve the Service,
- provide billing and customer support, and
- give you optional progress metrics and reports.
2. Who We Are & How to Contact Us
If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or our data practices, you can contact us at:
If you are located in the European Economic Area (EEA), the United Kingdom (UK), or Switzerland, StudyCam will generally act as the "data controller" for the personal information associated with your account.
3. What We Do Not Do
We want to be absolutely clear:
- ❌ We do not record video of your child.
- ❌ We do not store video files or images of your child's homework sessions on our servers.
- ❌ We do not stream video to our servers for analysis.
- ❌ We do not use facial recognition to identify your child as a person.
- ❌ We do not sell personal information.
StudyCam processes incoming camera frames locally in the browser or app, converts them into simple signals (e.g., "phone detected", "good posture", "child left desk"), and discards the raw image immediately.
4. Information We Collect
We group the information we may process into a few categories:
4.1. Parent Account Information
When you sign up as a parent or guardian, we may collect:
- Name or display name
- Email address
- Password (stored in hashed form)
- Subscription plan and preferences
- Time zone and language preferences
Why? To create and manage your account, send service-related emails, deliver receipts, and personalize your experience.
4.2. Payment & Subscription Information
For paid plans (e.g., Super Learner, Premium Learner), we may process:
- Subscription plan type
- Billing status and invoices
- Partial payment details (e.g., last 4 digits of card, expiry month/year) – handled by our payment processor
- Country or region for tax/VAT purposes
We rely on a third-party payment processor (e.g., Stripe, Paddle, etc.) to handle your card details. Your full payment data is processed by them under their own privacy policy and is not stored on our servers.
Why? To process payments, manage renewals, provide refunds where applicable, and prevent fraud.
4.3. Study Session Metadata (No Raw Video)
During homework sessions, the camera feed is processed locally to detect posture and distractions. While raw images/video never leave the device, we may store aggregated or event-level metadata, such as:
- Session start and end time
- Total duration of active monitoring
- Number and type of alerts triggered (e.g., "phone detected 3 times", "left desk 2 times", "slouching detected 4 times")
- Simple posture / distraction scores over time
- Coach persona used (strict / gentle, voice selection, etc.)
Why?
- To show you weekly progress reports and charts.
- To help you see habit trends over time.
- To improve the accuracy and reliability of our detection algorithms (using only anonymized or aggregated data where possible).
We do not store or send the actual images that produced these events.
4.4. Device & Technical Information
When you use StudyCam, we may automatically collect:
- Device type (e.g., laptop, tablet, phone)
- Operating system and browser type/version
- Approximate location based on IP address (country, region)
- Log data (e.g., timestamp of login, error logs)
- How you interact with the interface (navigation, clicks, session length)
Why?
- To keep the Service secure and prevent abuse.
- To debug technical issues and improve performance.
- To understand what features are used the most and where to focus improvements.
We do not log keystrokes or read the content of your child's homework documents.
4.5. Support & Communication
If you contact us via email or through support forms, we may collect:
- Your name and email address
- The content of your message(s)
- Any attachments you choose to send
Why? To respond to your questions, fix issues, and improve our Service based on feedback.
4.6. Cookies & Similar Technologies
We may use:
- Essential cookies – to keep you logged in and maintain secure sessions.
- Preference cookies – to remember things like your selected Coach persona or language.
- Analytics cookies (optional) – to see how users interact with the site in aggregate.
Where required by law, we will request your consent for non-essential cookies and allow you to adjust your preferences.
5. How We Use Your Information
We use the information we collect for the following purposes:
1. To provide and maintain the Service
- Authenticate you and keep your sessions secure.
- Run posture and distraction detection locally on your device.
- Generate optional progress metrics and reports.
2. To manage subscriptions and payments
- Process subscription purchases, upgrades, downgrades, and cancellations.
- Send billing confirmations, receipts, and renewal notifications.
3. To communicate with you
- Service-related emails (account confirmation, password reset, important changes).
- Responses to your support requests.
- With your consent, occasional product updates or newsletters (you can unsubscribe any time).
4. To improve and secure the Service
- Analyze aggregated usage data and error logs.
- Detect, prevent, and address technical issues or abuse.
- Improve detection models and user experience (e.g., better nudges, more accurate posture detection) using aggregated and/or anonymized data when possible.
5. To comply with legal obligations
- Respond to lawful requests from authorities.
- Maintain appropriate business records as required by law.
6. Legal Bases for Processing (EEA/UK/Switzerland)
If you are in the EEA, UK, or Switzerland, we process your personal data under one or more of the following legal bases:
- Performance of a contract – when we provide the Service to you (including free and paid plans).
- Legitimate interests – for improving the Service, preventing abuse, and securing our systems, where these interests are not overridden by your rights.
- Consent – for non-essential cookies, marketing communications, and any additional data processing where consent is required by law.
- Legal obligation – when we must retain certain information for tax, accounting, or legal compliance.
7. How We Share Your Information
We do not sell your personal information.
We may share limited personal data with:
1. Service Providers (Processors)
- Payment processors for handling subscriptions and billing.
- Cloud hosting providers and infrastructure services.
- Email delivery and customer support tools.
- Analytics providers (if used), with privacy safeguards.
These providers are only allowed to process your data on our behalf and under our instructions.
2. Business Transfers
If we are involved in a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets, your information may be transferred as part of that transaction. We will notify you of any such change and your choices.
3. Legal & Safety Reasons
We may disclose information if we believe it is reasonably necessary to:
- Comply with valid legal processes or government requests.
- Protect the rights, property, or safety of StudyCam, our users, or the public.
- Enforce our Terms of Service.
8. International Data Transfers
Our servers and some of our service providers may be located in countries other than your own. This means your information may be transferred to and processed in jurisdictions with different data protection laws.
Where required, we implement appropriate safeguards for international transfers, such as:
- Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs) approved by the European Commission, and/or
- Other lawful transfer mechanisms under applicable laws.
9. Data Retention
We retain your information only as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes described in this policy, including:
- While your account is active and for a reasonable period afterward (for example, to restore access if you return, or to comply with legal obligations).
- Payment and billing records kept as required by tax and accounting laws.
- Support communications retained as needed for record-keeping and improving service.
If you close your account, we will:
- Delete or anonymize personal information that is no longer needed, subject to any legal retention requirements.
- Retain only the minimum necessary information for legal, accounting, or security purposes.
10. Security
We take security seriously and use a combination of technical and organizational measures to protect your information, including:
- Encrypted connections (HTTPS/TLS) for data in transit.
- Secure password storage (hashed and salted).
- Restricted access to systems that store personal information.
- Regular updates and security monitoring.
No system is perfectly secure, but we work to minimize risks and respond promptly to potential issues.
11. Children's Privacy
StudyCam is a tool for parents and guardians to support their children's study habits.
- The account holder must be an adult (parent/guardian/teacher).
- We do not knowingly collect direct personal information from children beyond what is processed locally on their device as part of posture and distraction detection.
- We do not store video or image data of the child on our servers.
If you believe that a child has provided personal information to us without parental consent in a way that is inconsistent with this policy, please contact us at [email protected], and we will take appropriate action (for example, deleting the data).
12. Your Rights & Choices
Depending on your location and applicable law, you may have the following rights:
- Access – to request a copy of the personal data we hold about you.
- Correction – to ask us to correct inaccurate or incomplete information.
- Deletion – to request that we delete your personal information in certain circumstances.
- Restriction – to ask us to limit how we process your information.
- Portability – to receive your data in a structured, commonly used, and machine-readable format.
- Objection – to object to certain processing, such as direct marketing or processing based on legitimate interests.
- Withdraw consent – where processing is based on consent, you can withdraw it at any time (this will not affect processing already performed).
You can exercise many of these rights directly in your account settings (where available). For any other requests, please email us at [email protected].
If you are in the EEA/UK/Switzerland and are unhappy with how we handle your data, you also have the right to lodge a complaint with your local data protection authority.
13. Third-Party Links
Our website or communications may include links to third-party sites (e.g., blogs, review sites, parent resources). We are not responsible for the privacy practices of those third parties.
We encourage you to review their privacy policies before providing any personal information.
14. Changes to This Privacy Policy
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect:
- Changes in our Service
- Changes in applicable laws
- New features or business practices
When we make material changes, we will:
- Update the "Last updated" date at the top, and
- Notify you via email or through the Service, where appropriate.
Your continued use of StudyCam after changes become effective means you accept the updated policy.
15. How to Contact Us
If you have any questions, concerns, or requests about this Privacy Policy or our data practices, please contact us at:
We are committed to making StudyCam a tool that supports both learning and privacy—for your child, and for your whole family.