Privacy Policy

1. Information we collect

• Contact form submissions: If you use the Contact or “Report this question” form, we store the name, email address, message, category, and any question or page details you include. This is stored so we can respond to feedback or chemistry corrections.
• Local learning progress: Your browser stores bookmarks, saved practice sets, diagnostic work, FRQ writing and local learning history on your device. Server-backed answer checking also sends the selected item, requested action and submitted answer to our Supabase backend. It uses programmed chemistry validators, not an AI final grade.
• Practice and usage metadata: Supabase records item identifiers, correctness, lesson views, practice-set and diagnostic events, counts and timestamps. Existing records may include an account identifier when the learner was signed in. Raw answer text is not deliberately included in these engagement-event records.
• Technical data: Like most websites, we receive basic data needed to load pages, such as your browser type and IP address, through standard web hosting logs. The answer-checking backend derives a pseudonymous fingerprint from IP address and browser details to limit requests and remember attempt counts, hints and solution access. This can link interactions; it is not anonymous.

2. How we use your information

• To answer questions, fix chemistry errors, and improve the site.
• To keep your local practice history available on your device.
• To understand which features and questions are most helpful.

3. Cookies and local storage

Chem Help does not use advertising cookies. We use the browser's local storage to remember your learning progress and theme choice on the same device. You can clear learning data at any time from Learning Progress without changing your theme or other site preferences; browser settings are also available. Clearing local data does not delete records already held by the backend or our service providers.

4. Sharing your information

We use hosting and database service providers, including Supabase, to deliver the site, check practice answers and handle feedback. These providers process information needed for those services. We do not sell your personal information. Contact submissions are visible only to the Chem Help maintainers who need them to respond. We may also disclose information if required by law or to protect the safety of the site.

5. Data retention

Contact submissions are kept for as long as needed to respond and track corrections. Local learning data remains on your device until you delete it. Backend practice metadata does not yet have a verified automatic expiry; rate-count cleanup depends on later requests from the same fingerprint and is not a guaranteed one-day deletion period. Hosting and provider logs are separate. These retention controls are under review. You can ask about deletion of contact or backend records by emailing us at chemhelp0@proton.me.

6. Children's privacy

Chem Help is designed for high school students. Public practice does not require an account. Do not enter names, contact details, school or student identifiers, health information or other private information in practice answers. ChemTutor is not available to the public and is not intended for children under 13. Eligibility, age-appropriate safeguards and any required guardian permission must be reviewed before it can become available. If you believe we received a child's personal information, contact us so we can investigate and handle deletion requests.

7. Your choices

• You can read lessons and use non-AI tools without AI tutoring.
• Do not include personal information in practice answers or reports.
• You can clear learning data from Learning Progress, or use your browser settings.
• You can choose not to include your email when using a contact form.

ChemTutor availability

ChemTutor is an experimental AI tutoring feature that is currently disabled. Its proposed integration would send a message, current answer, limited recent chat and selected chemistry context through Supabase to OpenAI. It is not used to assign a final FRQ grade or an official AP score. OpenAI project sharing and retention settings have not been verified for launch. We will not present tutoring consent as permission for model-improvement sharing. The privacy notice and eligible-user consent flow must be reviewed before activation; ordinary practice remains available without ChemTutor.

8. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy as Chem Help grows. The latest version will always be available on this page with the updated date at the top.

9. Contact us

Questions about this privacy policy? Email chemhelp0@proton.me.