Privacy policy
Your documents
When you ask us to explain, check or compare a document, its text and any photos are sent through our server to our AI provider, Groq, so the document can be read and explained. We do not store your documents on our servers. Please read Groq’s privacy policy for how they handle data.
What is saved on your device
If saving is on, explanations (not the documents themselves), your plan, usage count, total savings and settings are stored in your browser’s local storage on your device. You can delete them any time from Your account › Delete all my data, or by clearing your browser data.
What we store on our server
- Daily usage limit: a scrambled (hashed) version of your IP address and a request count, deleted automatically after 48 hours. This protects the service from abuse.
- Invites: if you use invite links, a random device code, your invite code, how many friends joined and your bonus count. A hashed network identifier is kept for up to a year to stop the same invite being claimed twice.
- Your account (only if you sign in): your email address, your language, your plan, and the data you choose to sync: saved explanations (never the documents), savings, tracked contracts and settings. You can delete them from your account, or email us to close your account.
- Reminders: if you ask for an email reminder, the date and a short title (for example “Payment due — Northwave Mobile”) until the reminder is sent.
- Family circle: if you join, a link between your account and your helper’s account. When you check something that looks like a scam, your helper gets an email with the warning’s title only, never your document or message. Either of you can remove the link at any time.
- Scam trends: when a check looks like a scam, we count the kind of scam (for example “fake delivery fee”), the organization it pretends to be (only from a fixed list of well-known companies) and the country from your browser settings. We never store the message, the link or who checked it. Counts are deleted after 15 days, and small counts are never shown.
- Number reports: if you tap “Report it as a scam”, a scrambled (hashed) version of the number, account or address and a count, kept for 90 days, plus a hashed network identifier so each network can report once.
- Plus codes: if you use a code from an organization, the code is marked as used. The organization can see that it was used, but not who used it.
- WhatsApp: if you message our WhatsApp number, your message is checked and answered, then not kept. We keep a hashed version of your number with a daily count for 2 days, to apply the daily limit.
Advertising and cookies
We show ads from Google AdSense on our home page and guides, but never next to your documents or explanations. Google and its partners may use cookies to show ads based on your visits to this and other websites. You can manage personalized ads at Google Ad Settings. Learn more in how Google uses data from sites that use its services.
Visitors in the European Economic Area, the UK and Switzerland are asked for consent through a certified consent tool before personalized ads are shown.
Payments
Payments are handled by our payment provider. We never see or store your full card number.
Children
Explain My Paper is not intended for children under 13.