Privacy Policy

1. Information We Collect

Account Information

When you create an account as an author or sign in as a reader, we collect your name, email address, and authentication credentials. If you sign in through Google OAuth, we receive your name, email address, and profile picture from Google. We do not receive or store your Google password.

Book Content (Authors)

Authors upload book manuscripts and related content to create AI coaching specialists. This content is processed to generate text embeddings (numerical representations) that enable our AI agents to retrieve relevant passages when answering reader questions. The original text and its embeddings are stored in our database.

Chat Conversations

When readers interact with an author's AI coaching specialists, we store the questions asked and the responses generated. These conversations are associated with the reader's account or anonymous session identifier. Authors can view aggregated analytics about the questions their readers ask, but individual chat sessions are not exposed to authors in identifiable form unless the reader has created an account under that author's tenant.

Usage Data

We automatically collect information about how you interact with our platform, including pages visited, features used, timestamps of activity, browser type, device type, operating system, and referring URLs. This data is collected through Vercel Analytics and Vercel Speed Insights. We also track usage metrics such as the number of AI queries made, which is used for enforcing subscription tier limits.

Cookies

We use cookies and similar technologies to maintain your session, remember your preferences, and track anonymous reader sessions. For more detail, see the Cookies section below.

2. How We Use Your Information

We use the information we collect for the following purposes:

• Providing the service. We use your account information to authenticate you, your book content to power the AI coaching specialists, and your chat history to maintain conversation context within a session.
• AI processing. Reader questions and relevant book passages are sent to third-party AI model providers (see Data Sharing below) to generate responses. We do not use your content to train third-party AI models.
• Improving quality. We analyze usage patterns, query volumes, and response quality metrics to improve our platform, routing algorithms, and the relevance of AI-generated answers.
• Analytics and performance. We use Vercel Analytics and Vercel Speed Insights to monitor platform performance, understand usage trends, and identify areas for improvement.
• Rate limiting and abuse prevention. We use Upstash Redis to enforce rate limits, prevent abuse, and manage usage quotas associated with subscription tiers.
• Communication. We may use your email address to send transactional messages related to your account, such as password reset emails, subscription confirmations, and important service updates. We will not send marketing emails without your explicit opt-in consent.

3. Data Sharing

We do not sell, rent, or trade your personal information to third parties for their marketing purposes. We share data only in the following limited circumstances:

• AI model providers. To generate responses to reader questions, we transmit the reader's query and relevant book excerpts to AI model providers through the Vercel AI Gateway, which may route requests to providers such as Anthropic (Claude) and Google (Gemini). These providers process the data according to their respective data processing agreements and do not use your data to train their models when accessed via API.
• Hosting and infrastructure. Our platform is hosted on Vercel. Our database is hosted on Neon (serverless Postgres). Caching and rate limiting are handled by Upstash (Redis). These providers process data on our behalf under data processing agreements and only to the extent necessary to provide their services.
• Author access to reader data. Authors can view aggregated analytics about how readers interact with their AI coaching specialists, such as popular questions, usage volumes, and topic trends. Authors do not have access to personally identifiable reader information unless the reader has created an account under that author's tenant.
• Legal obligations. We may disclose your information if required to do so by law or in response to valid legal requests by public authorities, such as a court order or government subpoena.
• Business transfers. In the event of a merger, acquisition, or sale of all or a portion of our assets, your information may be transferred as part of that transaction. We will notify you via email or a prominent notice on our platform before your information becomes subject to a different privacy policy.

4. Data Retention

We retain your information for as long as your account is active or as needed to provide you with our services. Specifically:

• Account data is retained until you delete your account.
• Book content and embeddings uploaded by authors are retained until the author deletes the book from the platform or deletes their account.
• Chat conversations are retained for as long as the associated reader account or anonymous session exists. We may retain anonymized, aggregated conversation data indefinitely for analytics and service improvement.
• Anonymous session data associated with the reader_id cookie is retained for up to 12 months from the last interaction.
• Usage and analytics data is retained in aggregated form and is not tied to individual users after 24 months.

When you request deletion of your account, we will delete or anonymize your personal data within 30 days, except where we are required to retain it for legal, tax, or compliance purposes.

5. Your Rights

Depending on your jurisdiction, you may have the following rights regarding your personal data:

• Access. You can request a copy of the personal data we hold about you.
• Correction. You can request that we correct inaccurate or incomplete personal data.
• Deletion. You can request that we delete your personal data, subject to certain exceptions (such as data we are legally required to retain).
• Export. You can request a machine-readable export of your personal data, including your account information, uploaded book content, and chat history.
• Restriction. You can request that we restrict the processing of your personal data in certain circumstances.
• Objection. You can object to the processing of your personal data where we rely on legitimate interests as our legal basis.

To exercise any of these rights, please contact us at support@unlockchapters.ai. We will respond to your request within 30 days.

If you are located in the European Economic Area (EEA) or the United Kingdom, you also have the right to lodge a complaint with your local data protection authority.

6. Cookies

We use the following types of cookies on our platform:

• Authentication cookies. When you sign in, we set session cookies to keep you authenticated as you navigate the platform. These cookies are essential for the service to function and cannot be disabled.
• Anonymous reader session cookies. When a reader visits an author's AI coaching page without signing in, we set a reader_id cookie to maintain a consistent anonymous session. This allows the reader to continue a conversation across page reloads without creating an account. This cookie does not contain personally identifiable information.
• Preference cookies. We store your theme preference (light or dark mode) using cookies or local storage so the platform remembers your display settings.
• Analytics cookies. Vercel Analytics may set cookies to collect anonymized usage data. These cookies help us understand how visitors interact with our platform.

You can control cookies through your browser settings. Disabling essential cookies (authentication and session cookies) may prevent you from using certain features of the platform.

7. Children's Privacy

Our platform is not directed to children under the age of 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If we become aware that we have collected personal data from a child under 13 without verification of parental consent, we will take steps to delete that information promptly. If you believe we may have collected information from a child under 13, please contact us at support@unlockchapters.ai.

8. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices, technology, legal requirements, or other factors. When we make material changes, we will notify you by posting the updated policy on this page with a revised "Last updated" date. If the changes are significant, we may also notify you by email. We encourage you to review this policy periodically.

9. Contact Us

If you have any questions, concerns, or requests regarding this Privacy Policy or our data practices, please contact us at:

support@unlockchapters.ai

We aim to respond to all inquiries within 30 days.