Privacy Policy

Effective date: 8 August 2026
Last updated: 8 August 2026

This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, hold, use, and disclose personal information when you use the Pocket Professor mobile application, website, and related services (collectively, the Service).

By using the Service, you acknowledge the practices described in this Privacy Policy. If you do not agree, please do not use the Service.

1. What the Service does

Pocket Professor uses artificial intelligence and other automated systems to analyse articles and, where available, the sources cited in those articles. You can submit an article URL and receive an analysis that may include summaries, claim assessments, source-quality information, credibility assessments, and observations about hype or potential red flags.

2. Personal information we collect

We collect the following categories of information.

2.1 Account and sign-in information

When you sign in with Google or Apple, we receive and store information needed to create and maintain your account, which may include:

• your name or display name;
• email address;
• account identifier supplied by Google or Apple;
• sign-in provider and verification status; and
• account creation and last-login details.

We do not receive or store your Google or Apple password.

2.2 Article submissions and analysis information

When you use the Service, we collect and store:

• article URLs you submit;
• normalised or canonical versions of those URLs;
• article metadata, such as title, publisher, publication date, and language, where available;
• analysis requests, processing status, error details, and resulting analyses; and
• the history of analyses associated with your account.

An article URL or its contents may reveal information about you or your interests. Please do not submit personal information, health information, confidential information, or information about another person unless you have the right to do so and it is necessary for your use of the Service.

2.3 Credit and purchase information

We collect records needed to manage Credits and purchases, including your Credit balance, Credit transactions, purchased product, store or platform, purchase date, transaction or purchase identifier, and refund-related records.

Payments are processed through Apple, Google, RevenueCat, or another authorised payment provider. We do not collect or store your full payment-card details.

2.4 Device and notification information

If you enable notifications, we collect and store information needed to send them, including your device platform and Firebase Cloud Messaging (FCM) token. Notifications may tell you that an article analysis is ready or that an analysis could not be completed.

You can turn off notifications in your device settings. Turning them off does not delete your account or analysis history.

2.5 Technical and security information

When you use the Service, our systems may create technical records such as IP address, request and response logs, device/platform details, session and authentication records, timestamps, error messages, and security events. We use this information to operate, secure, troubleshoot, and improve the Service.

2.6 Information you contact us with

If you contact us, we collect the information you provide, including your name, email address, support request, and correspondence.

3. How we collect information

We collect information:

• directly from you when you create an account, submit an article, purchase Credits, enable notifications, or contact us;
• from Google or Apple when you choose their sign-in service;
• from Apple, Google, RevenueCat, or payment providers in connection with purchases, refunds, and fraud prevention;
• from your device and our systems when you use the Service; and
• from the article URLs and publicly available sources that are accessed as part of an analysis.

4. How we use information

We use personal information to:

• create, authenticate, and manage your account;
• process submitted articles and provide analysis results and history;
• calculate, reserve, release, and deduct Credits, and process purchases and refunds;
• send analysis-status notifications, where you have enabled them;
• maintain, secure, troubleshoot, and improve the Service;
• investigate misuse, fraud, security incidents, and breaches of our Terms of Service;
• respond to enquiries, complaints, and requests; and
• comply with legal obligations and enforce our legal rights.

We may use de-identified or aggregated information for service improvement, research, testing, and business planning. We will not use information in a way that identifies you for direct marketing without your consent or another lawful basis.

5. AI processing

To provide an analysis, we send the article URL, relevant article metadata, and instructions needed to perform the analysis to third-party AI service providers. We may change those providers from time to time. An AI service provider may use web-search functionality to locate and assess publicly available sources relevant to the submitted article.

The Service stores the resulting analysis and related processing records so that we can display your results and analysis history, manage Credits, investigate errors, and operate the Service.

Pocket Professor does not train or fine-tune AI models using your personal information, submitted article URLs, or analysis results. Our policy is not to permit our AI service providers to use those inputs or outputs to train or improve their general-purpose AI models, unless we clearly tell you otherwise and obtain any consent required by law.

Our AI service providers may retain certain data for limited periods for abuse monitoring, security, or legal compliance, in accordance with their applicable terms and policies. This retention is separate from using data to train or improve AI models.

6. Who we disclose information to

We may disclose personal information to the following categories of recipients, only as reasonably necessary for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy:

• Google and Apple, to provide sign-in and app-store services;
• third-party AI service providers, to perform AI-assisted analysis and web search;
• Firebase, to deliver push notifications;
• RevenueCat, and Apple App Store or Google Play, to manage in-app purchases, entitlements, and refunds;
• cloud-hosting, database, security, and technical-service providers that help us operate the Service;
• professional advisers, insurers, auditors, regulators, law-enforcement bodies, or other parties where required or permitted by law; and
• a buyer, successor, or adviser in connection with a proposed or completed business sale, merger, restructure, or transfer of assets, subject to applicable law.

We do not sell personal information.

7. Overseas processing

Some of our service providers may process or store information outside Australia, including in the United States and other countries where Google, Apple, Firebase, RevenueCat, third-party AI service providers, or our hosting providers operate.

We take reasonable steps to ensure that overseas service providers handle personal information in accordance with applicable privacy laws and contractual obligations.

8. Data retention

We keep personal information only for as long as reasonably necessary to provide the Service, comply with legal and accounting obligations, resolve disputes, maintain security, and enforce our agreements.

In general:

• account information and analysis history are retained while your account remains active;
• purchase and Credit records may be retained after account closure where needed for accounting, tax, fraud-prevention, refund, or legal purposes;
• security and technical records are retained for a limited period appropriate to their purpose; and
• we may retain de-identified or aggregated information where it no longer reasonably identifies you.

9. Security

We use reasonable technical and organisational measures designed to protect personal information from misuse, interference, loss, and unauthorised access, modification, or disclosure. These measures include authentication controls, encrypted transmission where supported, and restricted access to operational systems.

No method of transmission or storage is completely secure. You are responsible for keeping your device and sign-in credentials secure.

10. Your choices and rights

Subject to applicable law, you may request access to, or correction of, personal information we hold about you. You may also ask us to delete your account or personal information, object to or restrict certain processing, or withdraw consent where processing is based on consent.

To make a request, contact us at pocketprofessor1@gmail.com. We may need to verify your identity before responding. We may refuse or limit a request where permitted or required by law, including where we need to retain information for legal, accounting, fraud-prevention, or security reasons.

You can:

• update some account information through the Service, where that functionality is available;
• disable notifications in your device settings; and
• delete your account in the Service, or contact us to request account deletion.

11. Third-party services and links

The Service may link to or retrieve content from third-party articles, websites, and sources. Their privacy practices are governed by their own policies. We are not responsible for third-party privacy practices.

12. Changes to this Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. We will publish the updated version in the Service and change the “Last updated” date. If a change is material, we will provide additional notice where reasonably practicable.

13. Complaints

If you have a privacy complaint, contact us at pocketprofessor1@gmail.com with details of your concern. We will investigate and respond within a reasonable time.

14. Contact us

For privacy questions, requests, or complaints, contact:

Email: pocketprofessor1@gmail.com