Privacy Policy
This Privacy Policy explains how Owla (“Owla”, “we”, “us” or “our”) collects, uses, discloses and retains personal information when you use the Owla application and the owla.study website (the “Service”), and the choices available to you. It should be read together with our Terms of Service.
Summary
- To check your work, the Service sends images of your handwriting, the text recognised from them, and any problems you import to AI service providers. The Service cannot function without this.
- Your account, synced notebook, tutor history and usage records are stored on servers in the United States.
- We do not sell your personal information and do not use your content to train AI models.
- You may delete your data, or your entire account, at any time in Settings → Privacy & data.
1. Information we collect
Account information
- Your email address, if you register or sign in by email or add one to an invite-code account, and the date you confirmed it.
- The invite code used to create your account, if any.
- Your email address, if you request an invite on owla.study. We use it only to send you an invite.
- The date you accepted our Terms and the version accepted.
- We do not collect passwords. Sign-in uses single-use email links.
Your content
- Handwriting images. As you write, the app captures images of each line and sends them to our server, which forwards them to an AI model to read and check. The recognised text and the result are stored with your page.
- Imported problems. When you import an image you first crop it to the problem; only the area you keep is sent to an AI model to extract the problem statement and describe any diagram. The image is not retained; our server discards it once processed. The extracted text and a reduced-size copy of the area you cropped are saved to your page.
- Notebook. Your pages, ink and imported problems are stored on your device and, in the web app, synchronised to our server so they persist across sessions and devices.
- Tutor conversations. Your messages to the AI tutor, its replies, and a short summary of your study topics and areas of difficulty, which you can clear at any time in Settings.
- Study progress. Practice problems served, completed and skipped, and topics identified as difficult.
Payment information
Where paid plans are offered, payments are processed by Stripe. We do not receive or store your card number. We store your Stripe customer identifier, plan, subscription status and current billing period.
Usage, cost and analytics data
- For each AI request: the model used, tokens consumed, cost and time. We use this to apply usage limits and manage costs.
- Product analytics through PostHog, such as session start and end, lines checked and their results, flags dismissed, tutor actions and application errors. These events may include the text recognised from your work and the content of your tutor conversations. They are linked to your account or invite code, not to your name.
Diagnostic information
- Diagnostic logs describing how the checker processed your work, including the handwriting images. During the invite-only design-partner programme, sharing diagnostic logs is a condition of participation, as stated on the welcome screen. Otherwise, sharing is optional and off by default (Settings → Privacy & data).
- Information you choose to send, such as a page uploaded with “Upload page” (its ink, grouping and checked images), or the image and result attached when you dismiss a flag or mark a page correct. We use these to investigate incorrect results.
Technical information
- Your IP address and standard request information are received by our servers and hosting providers. We use them for security and rate limiting and do not build profiles from them. To limit abuse of free accounts, our server keeps an in-memory count of new registrations per IP address for up to 24 hours. When you join the invite waitlist, we store the IP address the request came from alongside your email address (and it appears in our temporary server logs), to detect and limit abuse of automatic invites; it is deleted with your waitlist entry. Otherwise IP addresses are not written to our database or logs.
- For troubleshooting, our server logs the text sent to and returned by each AI model (never the images themselves, only their size) and the cost of each request. These logs are held on temporary storage and erased whenever the server restarts, which occurs frequently.
2. How we use information
- To provide the Service, including checking your work and operating the AI tutor.
- To maintain your account and notebook across sessions and devices.
- To apply usage limits and prevent abuse.
- To process payments, where applicable.
- To measure and improve accuracy, including by reviewing results the checker got wrong.
- To communicate with you about your account, such as sign-in links, billing and material changes.
We do not sell personal information, do not display advertising, and do not use your content to train AI models.
3. Service providers
We share information only with the following providers, each of which processes it solely to provide its service to us.
| Provider | Purpose | Information received |
|---|---|---|
| OpenRouter and the model providers it routes to (currently Alibaba (Qwen) and OpenAI) | Handwriting recognition, error checking, AI tutor, problem import | Handwriting images, imported images, recognised text, tutor messages |
| Fly.io | Server hosting (United States) | All information the app sends to our server, in transit |
| Neon | Database hosting | Account, notebook sync, tutor history, usage and diagnostic data |
| Vercel | Hosting of the web app and owla.study | IP address and standard request information |
| PostHog (US cloud) | Product analytics | The analytics events described above |
| Stripe | Payment processing | Payment details, email address, billing address |
| Namecheap Private Email | Delivery of sign-in emails | Email address |
| GitHub | Distribution of desktop app updates | IP address when the desktop app checks for updates |
AI providers process content under their own terms. The models used may change as we tune accuracy and cost, and we will update this list when they do.
4. International transfers
Our servers and most of our providers are located in the United States. Your information is stored and processed there and may be accessible to authorities under US law. If you are located in Canada (including Quebec) or elsewhere, your information will be transferred outside your jurisdiction.
5. Retention
| Information | Retention period |
|---|---|
| Account, notebook sync, tutor history, study progress | Until you delete it or your account |
| Usage and cost records (model, tokens, cost; no content) | Until you delete your account. “Delete my data” retains them because usage limits are calculated from them |
| Diagnostic logs, uploaded pages, dismissed-flag images | Until you delete your account, or until no longer needed to improve accuracy |
| Analytics events (PostHog) | Per PostHog’s retention settings; deleted on request |
| Payment records (Stripe) | As required by Stripe and tax law; not removed by account deletion |
| Imported images | Not retained; discarded once processed |
6. Your choices and rights
- Delete my data (Settings → Privacy & data) removes from our servers your synced notebook, tutor memory, study progress and all diagnostic uploads, and on your device removes your pages, ink, tutor history and local logs. Your account, plan, sign-in and usage records are kept.
- Delete account (Settings → Privacy & data) does all of the above, cancels any subscription immediately, deletes your account and usage records, and signs you out.
- Limits of in-app deletion. In-app deletion does not reach analytics events already sent to PostHog (contact us and we will have them deleted), payment records Stripe must retain by law, or temporary server logs, which are erased on restart. Pages stored on another device remain there until deleted in the app or by clearing that browser’s site data for owla.study.
- Diagnostics. Optional diagnostic sharing can be turned on or off in Settings → Privacy & data.
- Access and correction. Contact us to request a copy of your personal information or to correct it.
- Withdrawal of consent. You may stop using the Service and delete your account at any time.
- Complaints. Please contact us first. In Canada you may also complain to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, or in Quebec to the Commission d’accès à l’information.
7. Age requirement
The Service is intended for users aged 16 and older, which you confirm on first use. We do not independently verify age. If we learn that an account belongs to someone under 16, we will delete it.
8. Security
All traffic between the app and our servers is encrypted in transit (HTTPS). Your data is stored under your account and is not accessible to other users. Sign-in links are single-use and expire. No system is completely secure; if a breach affects your information, we will notify you as required by law.
9. Changes to this policy
We may update this Privacy Policy and will revise the effective date above when we do. For significant changes, such as collecting a new type of information or using it in a new way, we will notify you in the app or by email before the change takes effect.
10. Contact
Questions, access requests and deletion requests may be sent to hello@owla.study. This address reaches the person responsible for privacy at Owla.