PRIVACY POLICY — SmarterBook Last Updated: April 7, 2026 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 1. INTRODUCTION SmarterBook ("we," "our," or "us") is committed to protecting your privacy. This Privacy Policy explains what information we collect, how we use it, and your rights regarding your data. It applies to the SmarterBook browser extension and our associated website (smarterbook.online). By using SmarterBook, you acknowledge that you have read and understood this Privacy Policy. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 2. DATA WE COLLECT We collect the absolute minimum data necessary to operate the licensing system. What we DO collect: • A randomly generated, anonymous installation ID (UUID) generated locally on your device. This ID has no connection to your real identity, email address, or any account. • Your license key (the activation code you purchased) • Activation timestamp, license tier (Starter / Pro / Elite), and license expiry date • Your email address (collected by our payment processors Whop and SellAuth at the time of purchase — used solely to deliver your license key) • A record of which anonymous UID claimed which key (to prevent key sharing) What we DO NOT collect: • Your name or any contact information beyond your purchase email • Your school, university, or institution • Your McGraw Hill login credentials or student information • The content of any assignments, courses, or questions you encounter • Your IP address for identification purposes • Browser history, cookies, or any browsing data outside of learning.mheducation.com ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 3. HOW WE USE YOUR DATA Your data is used exclusively to: (a) Deliver your license key to your email after purchase (b) Enforce the one-device-per-key licensing rule (c) Enable license renewal, time-stacking, and tier upgrades (d) Send low-stock and operational alerts to our internal team We do not use your data for advertising, marketing, analytics profiling, or any commercial purpose beyond operating the license and delivery system. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 4. HOW OUR AI SYSTEM WORKS SmarterBook's AI answer features operate through our own private API server. When you use the bot: • The question text from your McGraw Hill module is sent to our server via encrypted HTTPS • Our server calls the Google Gemini AI API on your behalf and returns the answer • Your license credentials are verified server-side on every request • No personally identifying information is included in any AI API call — only question text and your anonymous license tier ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 5. HIVE-MIND DATABASE (ELITE TIER) Elite-tier users contribute to and benefit from a shared answer cache: • A one-way cryptographic hash of the question text is computed locally on your device • The hash and answer array are sent to our Firestore database • No question text is stored — only the hash, which cannot be reverse-engineered • No user identifier is attached to individual answer contributions ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 6. LOCAL STORAGE All user settings — including enabled features, speed settings, optional webhook URL, and local answer vault — are stored in chrome.storage.local on your device and never leave your device unless you configure a Discord or Telegram webhook URL. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 7. THIRD-PARTY SERVICES • Firebase / Google Cloud (Firestore): License records and Hive-Mind cache storage • Google Gemini API: AI answer generation (question text only, no PII) • Whop: Payment processing and subscription management • SellAuth: Payment processing for one-time purchases • Resend: Transactional email delivery for license keys We do not sell, rent, trade, or share your data with any third parties beyond the above service providers. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 8. DATA RETENTION • License records: Retained for the license period plus 30 days after expiry, then purged • Purchase email: Retained for up to 90 days for support purposes, then deleted • Hive-Mind answer cache: Retained indefinitely as it contains no personal data • Anonymous UIDs with no active license: Purged approximately every 60 days ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 9. DATA SECURITY All communication between the extension and our API server uses HTTPS/TLS encryption. License verification happens server-side. We take commercially reasonable precautions to protect your data against unauthorized access, alteration, or destruction. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 10. CHILDREN'S PRIVACY SmarterBook is not directed at children under the age of 13. We do not knowingly collect data from children under 13. If you believe a child under 13 has provided us with information, contact us via Discord and we will delete it promptly. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 11. YOUR RIGHTS Depending on your jurisdiction, you may have the right to request confirmation of whether we hold data associated with your anonymous UID or to request deletion of your license record. To exercise these rights, contact us via Discord with your anonymous UID (visible in the extension settings panel). ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 12. CHANGES TO THIS POLICY We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. The "Last Updated" date at the top of this page will reflect any changes. Continued use of SmarterBook after a policy update constitutes your acceptance of the revised policy. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ 13. CONTACT Privacy questions or data requests: discord.gg/h4BVp4XEn8