Privacy Policy

Appybara ("we", "us") operates the appybara.org website and the Appybara mobile apps, a platform that helps students prepare college applications and connect with mentors who have been through the process. This policy explains what data we collect, why we collect it, and the choices you have. For anything this policy does not answer, contact us at info@appybara.org.

Account information: your name, email address, and password (or your Google account identifier if you sign in with Google), plus profile details you choose to add such as your school year, intended majors, and country.

Application content: material you create or upload while using the product, including essays, extracurricular activities, awards, academic information, college lists, and messages you send in the app, including chats with mentors and with our AI assistant.

Payment information: purchases are processed by Stripe or by the app store you bought through. We receive transaction records (what was bought, when, and for how much) but never your full card details.

Usage and device data: interactions with the product (pages viewed, features used), approximate location derived from your IP address, device and browser type, and crash or error diagnostics. We collect this through PostHog, our analytics provider.

To provide the service: storing your application materials, powering search and recommendations, connecting you with mentors, and syncing your work across devices.

To provide AI features: when you request AI feedback (for example an essay analysis or an admissions review), the relevant content is sent to our AI provider (Google) to generate the response. We use commercial API terms under which this content is not used to train the provider's models.

To operate the business: processing payments, preventing fraud and abuse, providing support, sending transactional emails (such as receipts and booking confirmations), and understanding aggregate product usage so we can improve it.

We do not sell your personal data, and we do not share it with third parties for their advertising. We share data only with service providers who process it on our behalf: Google (Firebase for authentication, database, and hosting; Google Cloud for infrastructure; Gemini for AI features), Stripe (payments), and PostHog (analytics). Each processes data under its own data processing terms.

If you make your profile public or share a link to it, the content you chose to publish is visible to anyone with the link. You control this from your profile's privacy settings.

We keep your data while your account is active. You can delete your account from the app's settings, or ask us to delete it by emailing info@appybara.org, and we will remove your personal data within 30 days except where we must keep records to meet legal obligations (such as payment and tax records). This applies equally to mentors: mentors can unpublish their content or delete their account and data at any time, and we do not own or resell mentor data.

Depending on where you live, you may have the right to: access the personal data we hold about you; correct inaccuracies; delete your data; receive a machine-readable copy of data you provided; restrict or object to certain processing, including any processing for direct marketing; and withdraw consent where processing is based on consent. To exercise any of these rights, email info@appybara.org. We may ask for information to confirm your identity, and we aim to respond within one month.

We do not make automated decisions about you that produce legal or similarly significant effects. AI features (such as admission estimates) generate informational output at your request; they are not decisions we make about your account or eligibility.

If you are in the EU or EEA and are not satisfied with our response, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the data protection authority in your place of residence.

Appybara is intended for users aged 13 and older. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children under 13. If you believe a child under 13 has created an account, contact us and we will delete it.

All data is encrypted in transit, and we rely on the security practices of our infrastructure providers (Google Cloud) for storage. Our service providers may process data in the United States and the European Union. Where data leaves Europe, the transfer relies on an adequacy decision (such as the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework, which Google, Stripe, and PostHog participate in) or on standard contractual clauses. Contact us for details on the mechanism used for a specific transfer.

We may update this policy as the product evolves. We will post the new version here and update the date above; for material changes we will notify you in the app or by email.

Questions about this policy or your data: info@appybara.org.