Cookie Policy

Study Share LLC ("Study Share," "we," "our") uses cookies, local storage, and similar technologies to provide a secure and consistent learning experience. Essential cookies are processed under our legitimate interests so the site can function, while non-essential cookies rely on your consent where required by law.

This Cookie Policy explains what we store on your device, why we do it, and how you can manage preferences. It complements our Privacy Policy and applies to studyshare.app, authenticated dashboards, landing pages, and voice-enabled interfaces.

We group our cookies and local storage entries into the following categories:

• Strictly necessary. Maintain your Supabase session, enforce CSRF protections, and remember that you acknowledged microphone prompts for voice mode.
• Functionality. Preserve search filters, recently viewed schools, chat summary layout preferences, and whether your Study Share AI panel should default to the left or right side.
• Performance. Help us measure page-load times, understand device-level bottlenecks, and ensure text-to-speech requests render smoothly.
• Security & anti-abuse. Detect unusual login attempts, rapid-fire requests, or suspected misuse of AI-generated explanations.
• Analytics. Provide aggregated insights about which tactics keep students engaged without storing personally identifying content in the browser.

Voice mode is optional, but it relies on a handful of first-party cookies and local storage keys to behave predictably:

• We remember whether you granted microphone access so we can avoid repeatedly requesting permission on the same device.
• We store your preferred playback speed and whether text-to-speech should auto-play the last hint.
• Speech is converted to text via our AI service provider, but only the text transcript is retained. Audio is processed transiently, never stored, and never replayable by default.
• The transcript appears inside your chat summary as timestamped user and assistant turns, not as a cookie. Chat summaries remain English-only today, and filler words (for example, “um” or “like”) are automatically filtered out before storage.
• If you clear cookies or local storage, we will re-prompt for microphone permission, but previously saved chat summaries remain available on our secure servers until you delete them.

Some of our trusted service providers set their own cookies or rely on ours to function. They act on behalf of Study Share LLC and are bound by data-processing agreements:

• A managed database and authentication provider keeps you signed in securely.
• A cloud hosting provider caches static assets and optimizes image delivery.
• An AI inference and speech provider powers study-specific hints, speech-to-text, and text-to-speech output.
• An analytics provider aggregates performance data so we can triage bugs quickly.
• A payments provider powers checkout, invoices, and failed payment retries.
• A communications provider sends transactional emails, push notifications, and Help Center updates.

These providers may set their own identifiers (for example, to prevent fraud), but they may not use your data for their independent advertising or resale.

Approximate retention periods for first-party cookies and local storage keys:

• Session and authentication cookies: expire when you log out or close the browser.
• Voice mode preference keys: 30 days unless you clear storage sooner.
• Performance beacons and experiment flags: 7 days.
• Analytics identifiers: up to 13 months, after which they are rotated.
• Security tokens for abuse detection: 24 hours unless an investigation requires longer retention.

Server-side chat summaries, audit logs, and DMCA records follow the retention timelines published in our Privacy Policy.

You can manage cookies and local storage directly through your browser. Instructions are available from major browser vendors:

• Google Chrome
• Mozilla Firefox
• Apple Safari
• Microsoft Edge

Clearing or blocking essential cookies may sign you out, disable microphone access, or prevent Study Share AI from remembering which question you opened most recently.

We treat Global Privacy Control (GPC) signals as an opt-out of non-essential cookies where applicable. Conventional Do Not Track (DNT) signals are not standardized, but we still limit analytics data when a DNT header is present.

We also use device identifiers (for example, hashed hardware characteristics) to detect bots or repeated honor-code violations. These identifiers are separate from cookies and are subject to the same safeguards outlined in our Privacy Policy.

For questions about this Cookie Policy or to exercise privacy rights, contact Study Share LLC at team@studyshare.app or file a request in the Help Center. You can also review our Privacy Policy for details about data retention, lawful bases, and DMCA reporting.