Privacy Policy

01Who is responsible for your information

Scholes is operated by Lucas Los Arcos, an individual based in Buenos Aires, Argentina, who is responsible for the personal information described in this policy. This policy covers scholes.ai and the Scholes application.

Privacy contact: support@scholes.ai.

02Information we collect

• Account information: account identifiers, name, email, profile information, authentication and session information, and organization membership when provided through Clerk or your sign-in provider.
• Workspace content: prompts, messages, uploaded documents and images, research, generated presentations, edits, brand kits, and associated metadata and processing results.
• Billing and usage: plan, subscription and order identifiers, renewal and cancellation status, credits, feature usage, AI processing usage, and payment-related records received from Paddle. Payment card details are handled by the payment provider rather than stored in Scholes.
• Technical information: IP address, browser and device information, request and security logs, processing status, errors, and information needed to operate and protect the service.
• Communications: information you provide when contacting support, requesting a refund, or exercising privacy rights.

We collect information directly from you, automatically as you use the service, and from authentication, payment, and processing providers. Research features can also retrieve information from public websites and search services.

03Google sign-in and Google user data

Connecting your Google account lets you sign in to Scholes through Clerk. Our current Google connection requests only the following permissions:

• OpenID Connect (openid): an identifier for your Google account, used to authenticate you and link your Google sign-in to your Scholes account.
• Email (https://www.googleapis.com/auth/userinfo.email): your email address and its verification status, used for account identification, account communications, and support.
• Basic profile (https://www.googleapis.com/auth/userinfo.profile): your name and profile picture, when available, used to identify and display your account in Scholes.

Clerk receives these details from Google and manages the linked identity and sign-in sessions for Scholes. Scholes uses the resulting account identifier and profile to provide account access, associate your workspace and subscription with you, display your profile, and help you with support requests. We do not receive your Google password. These permissions do not grant access to your Gmail messages, Google Drive files, Calendar events, or contacts.

Google-linked account and session information is stored by Clerk. Our application database, hosted by Supabase, stores the Scholes account identifiers and records needed to link your workspace and billing activity. Our hosting and background-processing providers process account identifiers as needed to operate and secure those features. When you choose to start a paid checkout, we send Paddle your verified account email and account name, when available, to identify or create your billing customer and prefill checkout. We also send your Scholes account identifier and checkout/order identifiers to associate the purchase with your account. You provide additional billing and payment details directly in Paddle checkout.

We do not use information received from Google APIs for advertising, sale to data brokers, credit decisions, or the development, improvement, or training of generalized AI or machine-learning models. We do not transfer information received from Google APIs to third parties for generalized AI or machine-learning model development, improvement, or training. We do not send your Google profile to AI models to generate presentations. Content you choose to type, upload, or include in an AI request is processed as described in the AI and document-processing section below.

Scholes' use of information received from Google APIs will adhere to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements.

We keep Google-linked information while it is needed to provide your account and the purposes described here. Account deletion removes the linked authentication account as cleanup completes, subject to the limited legal, billing, security, and backup exceptions in the retention section. You can revoke Scholes' Google connection in your Google Account third-party connections settings. Revoking that connection stops future access through it; it does not by itself delete your Scholes workspace or billing records. To delete those, use Settings → Account → Delete account, or contact support@scholes.ai if you cannot access your account.

04How and why we use information

We use information to create and secure accounts; process the content and features you request; generate, store, edit, and export presentations; administer subscriptions and credits; answer support and privacy requests; diagnose errors; prevent abuse; and comply with legal obligations.

Where a legal basis is required, processing may be necessary to provide our contract with you, meet legal obligations, or support legitimate interests such as operating and securing the service, subject to your rights. We rely on consent when applicable law requires it, and you can withdraw consent for the processing to which it applies by contacting us.

Providing the information needed for authentication, payment, or content processing is necessary to use the corresponding feature. You can choose whether to upload documents, enable web research, or contact support.

05AI and document processing

When you use AI features, relevant prompts, messages, documents or extracted text, brand assets, and other context are sent to the AI and processing providers needed to produce the result. This content comes from your requests and workspace, rather than access to Google Drive or other Google services through sign-in. Web research features send relevant queries to search services and may retrieve public pages. Image-search features send search terms to Pexels to retrieve images.

Scholes uses AI models to answer requests and generate content; we do not train our own models on your workspace content. Model and processing providers may retain request data for operational, security, or other purposes under the terms and settings applicable to the provider and model. We do not promise zero retention across all providers. The restrictions on information received from Google APIs in the Google sign-in section apply independently of these processing arrangements. Contact us before submitting material if you require specific contractual restrictions on AI processing.

Do not submit sensitive personal information or confidential material unless you have authority to do so and the service meets your requirements. AI-generated information may be inaccurate; our Terms of Service describe your responsibility to review it.

06Service providers and disclosures

We disclose information as needed to operate the features you use. The current service uses:

• Clerk: account identifiers, Google-linked sign-in information, profile details, and sessions for authentication, account management, and security.
• Supabase: workspace content, account identifiers, billing and usage records, and files in application databases and storage.
• Vercel and Vercel AI Gateway: website requests and technical information for hosting, and the prompts and context you submit for AI processing, routed to model providers including OpenAI and other providers used by available models.
• Railway and our document-processing service: uploaded files, extracted text, processing metadata, and account identifiers needed to process and remove documents; the service uses Unstructured to parse files.
• Tavily: queries and retrieved pages for web research features.
• Pexels: image-search terms and image results for presentation images.
• Paddle: Scholes account and checkout/order identifiers, and purchase and subscription records for payment, tax, and subscription administration. Paddle collects checkout contact, billing, and payment details directly.
• Meta: if you accept optional marketing cookies, our browser and server tracking share page visits, registration, first successful presentation, checkout and first paid subscription events for advertising measurement. Matching may include browser information, cookie identifiers, and hashed account identifiers and verified email. Hashing does not make these identifiers anonymous. Meta may associate these signals with your Meta account under its Privacy Policy. We do not send workspace content, names, or raw email addresses in these events.
• Trigger.dev and Upstash: job payloads, account identifiers, processing status, and request information needed for background processing, coordination, and rate limiting.

These providers receive the information needed for their roles. Some, including payment and sign-in providers, also process information for their own legal or operational purposes under their privacy policies.

Content may also be disclosed when you share or export it, when organization access permits other members to use it, with your authorization, or when reasonably necessary to comply with law, enforce our Terms, or protect rights and security. We do not sell your personal information for money. If you accept optional marketing cookies, we share visit signals with Meta for advertising measurement. Depending on applicable law, this may be considered sharing for targeted or cross-context behavioral advertising. You can decline or withdraw your consent using Cookie preferences on this page.

07Paddle checkout and payment information

Paddle sells paid Scholes subscriptions as our authorised reseller and Merchant of Record. Lucas Los Arcos and Paddle are independent controllers for the personal information each handles. This policy describes Scholes; Paddle's Privacy Policy explains its own processing.

We send Paddle your Scholes account identifier, checkout/order identifiers, and selected plan. Paddle collects the contact details, billing address, payment information, and technical information needed for checkout directly from you. Scholes does not receive or store full payment card numbers or security codes.

Paddle sends Scholes customer, transaction, subscription, and price identifiers; payment amounts and currency; billing periods; and payment, renewal, and cancellation status. We use these records to link your purchase, grant credits and access, manage subscriptions, and resolve billing issues.

Deleting your Scholes account cancels renewal but does not automatically erase Paddle's records. Paddle may retain information for tax, accounting, fraud prevention, disputes, and other legal obligations. For information held by Paddle, submit a privacy request at Paddle's privacy request portal or email privacy@paddle.com. Scholes privacy requests go to support@scholes.ai.

08Cookies and local storage

Scholes and its authentication provider use cookies and similar browser storage to maintain sessions, secure sign-in, and remember preferences such as language and theme. Blocking required cookies can prevent sign-in or other features from working.

Third-party pages and embedded checkout services, including payment and sign-in providers, may use their own cookies under their own policies. Optional browser and server advertising tracking requires consent. Declining does not affect access to Scholes. We remember your choice in local browser storage; you can change it at any time using Cookie preferences on this page. Global Privacy Control overrides acceptance. Withdrawal stops browser events immediately; the server stops pending events when your choice synchronizes, which requires a connection. It cannot recall events already sent or delete cookies already set by Meta; you can clear those in your browser settings. Matching data expires after 30 days without an authenticated browser refresh and is removed when account deletion starts. If browser storage is unavailable, your choice applies during the current session.

09Retention and account deletion

Workspace information is retained while your account is active or as needed to provide the service. You can remove documents and conversations using the available controls. Removing an item from your workspace does not necessarily erase every underlying processing file, provider record, or backup immediately.

You can request account deletion in Settings → Account → Delete account, or contact support@scholes.ai. We may verify your identity before acting. Once an automatic request is accepted, access closes and background cleanup begins. We cancel subscription renewals and remove your account content and authentication account as the cleanup completes.

Cleanup is delayed where needed to allow active jobs and upload links already issued to expire; upload links can remain valid for up to two hours. Failed cleanup steps are retried. Material another user is independently entitled to retain, such as a shared document artifact, may remain for that user.

We retain limited billing and financial records for accounting, tax, disputes, and other legal requirements; limited security or abuse records as necessary to protect the service; and minimal deletion records to prevent late jobs or callbacks from recreating deleted data. Provider logs, payment records, and backups may have separate retention periods and are not all erased by account closure. Contact us for information about retention relevant to your request.

We retain personal information only for as long as needed for the purposes described here or as required by law. Copies in backups may remain until their scheduled expiry and are subject to restricted access.

10International processing

The operator is in Argentina and the service is offered internationally. Our providers may store or process information in the United States and other countries where they operate. Those countries may have different privacy laws from your country.

Where applicable law requires specific safeguards for international transfers, we use the safeguards applicable to the transfer and provider relationship. Contact us if you need details about where a particular category of information is processed or the safeguards applicable to it.

11Your choices and privacy rights

Depending on where you live and the laws that apply, you may have rights to access or receive a copy of your information, correct inaccurate information, request deletion, restrict or object to certain processing, withdraw consent, or receive information in a portable format.

Send a request to support@scholes.ai. Describe the right you want to exercise and the email associated with your account. We may ask for proportionate information to verify your identity or authority. We will respond within the timeframe required by applicable law and explain any lawful limits, exceptions, or appeal options. We do not penalize you for exercising privacy rights.

You may complain to the privacy authority with jurisdiction over your request. In Argentina, the Agencia de Acceso a la Información Pública oversees personal data protection. Residents elsewhere may contact their relevant local authority.

12Security

We use HTTPS for communication with Scholes and its sign-in services, access controls, authenticated requests, server-side authorization, private storage, and other safeguards designed to protect information. Access to service credentials is restricted to backend systems. No transmission or storage method is completely secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.

If you suspect a security problem affecting your account or data, contact support@scholes.ai promptly.

13Children

Scholes is intended for adults aged 18 and older. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children through accounts intended for them. If you believe a child has provided personal information, contact us so we can investigate and take appropriate action.

14Changes and contact

We may update this policy as features, providers, or legal requirements change. We will update the date above and communicate material changes through the service or email where appropriate or required by law. Before using information received from Google for a new purpose outside this policy, we will explain the change and obtain your consent.

For privacy questions or requests, contact support@scholes.ai or write to Lucas Los Arcos at Moldes 2361, Belgrano, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires, CP 1428, Argentina.