Version 2026.07 · Data controller: [FILL: legal entity + address]
The short version: we collect what the product needs to work, we don't run third-party ad trackers, your study content is visible only to the people you shared it with, and you can delete your account yourself. The long version follows.
Name, email, handle, profile details you add, and either a password (stored only as a bcrypt hash) or your linked GitHub / Google identity. At signup we record each consent you gave — document version, timestamp, IP address, and browser user-agent — because GDPR requires us to be able to prove consent.
What you create: chat and direct messages, notes (with revision history), code files (with revisions), whiteboards (with snapshots), community posts, flashcards, mock-exam attempts and scores, and files you upload. Uploads are stored in private cloud storage (Amazon S3), encrypted at rest, and served via short-lived signed links. Content is scoped to its audience — your group, your DM counterpart, or the public community board — and nothing more. Public cert pages show counts only, never member names or rosters.
Payments run through Stripe. We store your Stripe customer reference, subscription state, and invoice history — never card numbers, which go directly to Stripe.
One essential session cookie (JSESSIONID) keeps you signed in, plus
a CSRF protection token. No advertising or third-party analytics cookies exist
on this site.
To run the product (groups, matching, calls, notifications), keep it secure (sign-in events, rate limiting), improve it (aggregate funnel statistics), bill Premium subscriptions, and — only if you opted in at signup — send product updates. You can withdraw the marketing opt-in any time in Settings; everything else is processed to perform our contract with you or on legitimate interest (security, aggregate analytics). [LAWYER REVIEW: legal-basis mapping.]
When you (or your group) use an AI feature — mock-exam generation, chat summaries, study-plan suggestions, code explanation, the Study Buddy — the relevant content (e.g. the chat messages being summarized, the code selection being explained) is sent to our AI provider (currently Groq) to generate the response, under a contract that prohibits using it to train their models [FILL: verify current Groq data-processing terms]. AI features don't run in the background; content is only processed when the feature is invoked.
| Provider | What for |
|---|---|
| Amazon Web Services (us-east-1, USA) | Hosting, database, file storage (S3), email delivery (SES) |
| Stripe | Payments & subscriptions |
| LiveKit Cloud | Video calls & screen share (WebRTC media) |
| Groq | AI feature processing (on invocation only) |
| Cloudflare | DNS |
| GitHub / Google | Optional sign-in (OAuth) |
Servers are in the United States (AWS us-east-1). If you use GroupStudy from elsewhere, your data is transferred there. [LAWYER REVIEW: transfer mechanism wording — SCCs / DPF as applicable.]
Group video sessions may be recorded when a host enables recording; the call UI shows recording state. Recordings belong to the group that made them. [FILL: retention period for recordings + where stored — verify current LiveKit egress configuration before launch.]
Your data lives as long as your account does. Deleting your account (Settings → Delete account — self-service, no support ticket needed) removes your profile and personal data; we retain what the law requires us to keep: the consent evidence trail and payment/invoice records. Group content you contributed may persist in anonymized form where removing it would destroy other members' content (e.g. a shared note's history). [LAWYER REVIEW: retention wording + anonymization description.]
Access, rectification, erasure, restriction, portability, objection — email [FILL: privacy contact email] and we'll respond within 30 days. You can also complain to your local data-protection authority. Most things you'd ask for (export? deletion? marketing opt-out?) are self-service in Settings first.
GroupStudy is not for children under 16, and we don't knowingly hold their data. If you believe a child under 16 has an account, contact us and we'll remove it.
Material changes are announced in-product and on the changelog, with the version number above bumped. Continued use after the effective date is acceptance; for significant changes we re-ask at sign-in.
[FILL: privacy contact email] · [FILL: legal entity + postal address]