Privacy policy

1. Information we collect

Account information

You sign in with Google. We receive your name, email address and profile picture from Google and store them with a unique user id in Firebase Authentication and Cloud Firestore. We do not receive or store your Google password.

Content you import

PDFs, links and text you add are parsed on your device. The original file and the parsed text are uploaded to Cloud Storage under your user id so your library syncs between your devices. Bookmarks, highlights, notes, reading position and AI results (summaries, quizzes, podcast scripts, figure descriptions) are stored in Cloud Firestore under your user id.

Audio and AI processing

To read text aloud or generate summaries, quizzes, podcasts, answers and figure descriptions, the relevant text (and, for figures, a cropped image of the page region) is sent from our servers to our AI providers: OpenAI (text-to-speech, vision and language models) and ElevenLabs (text-to-speech). These providers process the content to return audio or text and, under their API terms, do not use it to train their models. We cache generated audio so the same passage is not synthesised twice.

Usage and subscription data

We record how many words you have listened to each month to enforce your plan limit, and the status of your subscription (product, platform, expiry) as reported by the App Store or Google Play. Payment details are handled entirely by Apple or Google; we never see your card number.

Diagnostics

We collect basic crash and performance diagnostics (device model, OS version, app version, error messages) to keep the app reliable. We do not use third-party advertising SDKs and we do not sell your data.

2. How we use information

• To provide the service: parsing, synthesising audio, syncing your library and running AI tools.
• To enforce plan limits and verify subscriptions.
• To respond to support requests you send us.
• To detect abuse and keep the service secure.

3. Legal bases (EEA / UK users)

We process your data to perform our contract with you (providing the app), for our legitimate interests (security, diagnostics, preventing abuse) and, where required, with your consent.

4. Sharing

We share data only with processors that help us run the service:

• Google Firebase (authentication, database, file storage, cloud functions, hosting) — Google LLC.
• OpenAI, L.L.C. — text-to-speech, vision and language models.
• ElevenLabs Inc. — text-to-speech.
• Apple Inc. and Google LLC — in-app purchases and subscription management.

We may also disclose information when required by law or to protect our rights and users.

5. Retention

Your content and account data are kept while your account exists. Cached audio may be retained for up to 12 months to keep replays free. When you delete your account, your profile, library, annotations, AI results and uploaded files are deleted within 30 days, except where we must keep records for legal or accounting reasons.

6. Your rights

You can access and export your data, correct it, or delete your account at any time from Profile → Delete account in the app, or by following the steps on our account deletion page. EEA and UK users also have the right to object to or restrict processing and to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority. Email contact@cognitivesquad.com for any request.

7. Children

The app is not directed at children under 13 (or the minimum age in your country) and we do not knowingly collect data from them. If you believe a child has provided us data, contact us and we will delete it.

8. Security

Data is encrypted in transit (TLS) and at rest by our cloud providers. Access to your content is restricted by security rules to your own account. No system is perfectly secure, so please use a strong Google account password and two-factor authentication.

9. International transfers

Our servers and providers are located in the United States. Where data is transferred from the EEA or UK we rely on standard contractual clauses or equivalent safeguards offered by our providers.

10. Changes

We will post any changes to this policy on this page and update the date above. Material changes will be announced in the app.

11. Contact

Cognitive Squad · contact@cognitivesquad.com