Better Essay Privacy Policy
Better Essay (“the app”) is made by Kok Keong (“we”, “us”). This policy explains what the app collects, why, who helps us run it, and the choices you have. It replaces our earlier policy dated 25 January 2023.
The short version
- Your essays are saved on your device. When you use an AI tool, the text you send goes to our server and a third-party AI service so they can write the answer. Our server doesn’t keep your text.
- There’s no sign-in. The app uses a random account ID, never your name, email or phone number.
- We don’t show ads, don’t track you across other companies’ apps or websites, don’t use the advertising identifier, and don’t sell your data.
- We use analytics and crash reports to fix problems and improve the app. They never include what you write.
- You can delete your account data at any time in Settings › Account › My Account › Delete My Data.
1. What stays on your device
Your essays, titles, outlines, citations, review progress and settings are stored on your device. They’re removed when you delete an essay or the app, and they’re included in your device backups if you use them. We don’t upload your essay library.
When you import a file or scan writing with the camera, the text is read on your device. It only leaves your device if you then send it to an AI tool.
2. Your device account
The first time you use an AI tool, the app creates an account on our server. It has a random ID; your device keeps a random secret for it in its secure storage. For this account our server keeps:
- the account ID, a one-way hash of the secret, and when the account was created;
- your free credits and how many you’ve used, and whether your subscription is active;
- how many requests you made each day and for which tool, with the amount of AI processing each used and its cost.
Free credits are given once per device. To check that, we use a device check service from your device’s operating system provider: it keeps a flag for your device, and we never receive an identifier for the device itself.
Your network address is used to limit sign-ups and repeated requests, to protect the service from abuse. Those counters aren’t linked to your account, and we don’t store IP addresses with it. We also count requests per day by country and app language, as totals that aren’t linked to anyone.
3. Text you send to AI tools
When you write with the AI box, use a tool (such as Sound natural, Rephrase, Fix grammar, grading or Cite) or chat with the writing coach, the app sends what that request needs: the text you typed, chose or selected, the essay when a tool works on it, and your choices (such as essay type, level, length and language). Before the first request the app asks you to agree to this.
- The text travels over an encrypted connection to our server, which runs on Cloudflare, and is passed to third-party AI service providers that generate the answer.
- Our server processes your text and the answer only to respond, and doesn’t store either. The AI providers process it under their own terms to produce the response.
- To find sources, the app sends short phrases from your essay to scholarly databases to search for matching papers.
Please don’t include personal details in your writing that you don’t want shared with these services.
Voice and camera
The microphone is used only while you record. Speech is turned into text by your device’s built-in speech recognition, which may send the audio to your operating system provider’s servers to process it under that provider’s privacy policy. The camera is used only when you scan writing, and photos aren’t uploaded. You can turn either permission off in your device’s Settings.
4. Purchases
Subscriptions are bought through your device’s app store; we never see your payment details. We use a subscription management service to keep track of subscriptions. It receives your purchase history (products, dates, renewals and trials), your account ID, and basic device and app details such as the system version and store country.
5. Analytics and crash reports
To understand which features work and fix what goes wrong, the app uses:
- An analytics service: which screens and features are used (for example, that an essay was written or a tool failed), the app version, device model, system version, language, an approximate location (country or region) worked out from your network address, an app-instance ID, and these settings: the role you picked during setup, your writing level, essay language, device type and whether you subscribe.
- A crash reporting service: crash reports and error details, such as the device state when the app crashed.
- A session analytics service (not in the desktop version): recordings of how the app’s screens are used, such as taps, scrolls and the screens visited. The places where your writing appears are masked so the text isn’t recorded.
These records are linked to your random account ID so we can match a problem with our server’s records. We never send what you write to these services, and we don’t use them for advertising.
6. What we don’t do
- We don’t show ads or include advertising software.
- We don’t track you: we don’t combine data from the app with data from other companies’ apps, websites or offline sources for advertising or ad measurement, and we don’t share it with data brokers.
- We don’t access your device’s advertising identifier.
- We don’t sell your personal information or share it for cross-context behavioral advertising.
7. Who helps us
We share data only with these service providers, only for the purposes described here, and only with providers that are bound to protect it at least as well as this policy does.
| Provider | What it does for us |
|---|---|
| Cloudflare | Runs our server, which handles your device account and AI requests. |
| AI service providers | Generate essays, edits, feedback and chat replies from the text you send. |
| Scholarly databases | Search scholarly papers when you look for sources. |
| Operating system and app store provider | Purchases, the device check for free credits, and speech recognition. |
| Subscription management service | Subscription status and purchase history. |
| Analytics and crash reporting services | Which features are used, and crash reports. |
| Session analytics service | How the app’s screens are used. |
We may also disclose information if the law requires it, or to protect the rights and safety of our users or the service.
8. How long we keep it
- Your device account and its usage records: until you delete them with Delete My Data. After that we keep only a note that the account was closed, so it can’t be used again, and the device check flag stays with the operating system provider so free credits aren’t given to the device a second time.
- Your text and the AI’s answers: not stored by our server.
- Daily totals by country and language: kept for reporting; they aren’t linked to anyone.
- Analytics and crash reports: kept for a limited period set in those services, then deleted.
9. Your choices and rights
- Delete My Data (Settings › Account › My Account) deletes your account on our server, its usage records and your purchase history in our subscription management service, and starts a new analytics identity. Your essays stay on your device until you delete them.
- Deleting an essay removes it from your device. Deleting the app removes all of them.
- You can turn off microphone, camera and speech recognition access in your device’s Settings.
- Depending on where you live (for example in the European Economic Area, the UK or California), you may have the right to access, correct, delete or move your personal information, and to object to or limit how we use it. Email us and we’ll reply within 30 days. You can also complain to your local data protection authority.
Where the GDPR applies, we rely on providing the service you asked for (your account, credits, purchases and AI requests), our legitimate interests in keeping the service secure and improving it (abuse limits, analytics and crash reports), and your agreement before your text is sent to AI services.
10. Children
Better Essay is made for students and writers and isn’t directed to children under 13. We don’t knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you believe a child under 13 has given us personal information, contact us and we’ll delete it.
11. Security and where data is processed
The app uses encrypted connections, keeps its account secret in your device’s secure storage and uses access tokens that expire after an hour. No method of storage or transmission is completely secure, but we work to protect your information. Our service providers may process data in the United States and other countries, with safeguards required by law.
12. Changes to this policy
If we change this policy, we’ll post the new version on this page and update the date at the top.
13. Contact
Questions or requests about your privacy: kokk97799@gmail.com