Privacy Policy

Last updated: February 2026

1. Who We Are

PaperYak is an AI-powered essay feedback service operated in England. References to "PaperYak", "we", "us", or "our" refer to the PaperYak service and its operators.

For data protection enquiries, contact us at support@paperyak.com.

2. What Data We Collect

Account Data

When you create an account, we collect your name and email address via Clerk (our authentication provider). We do not store passwords — Clerk handles authentication securely.

Payment Data

Payments are processed by Stripe. We never see or store your card number, CVV, or full payment details. We retain only a Stripe payment reference ID for transaction records.

🛡️ Essay Text

Your essay is sent to our AI processing service solely to generate your feedback report. Essay text is deleted immediately after analysis completes. We do not store, read, or use your essay for any other purpose, including AI training.

Feedback Reports

The generated feedback report is stored in your account so you can access it at any time. Reports are retained until you request deletion or delete your account. You can request deletion at any time by emailing support@paperyak.com.

Usage Data

We may collect basic usage analytics (e.g. pages visited, features used) to improve the service. This data is aggregated and not linked to individual essays.

3. Why We Collect Your Data

We collect data solely to provide the PaperYak service:

To authenticate you and manage your account.
To process your essay and generate a feedback report.
To handle payments and issue credits.
To email your report to you.
To improve the reliability and quality of the service.

Our legal basis for processing is contract performance (to deliver the service you paid for) and legitimate interests (to improve and maintain the service).

4. Third-Party Services

We share data with the following trusted third-party providers only as necessary to deliver the service:

Provider	Purpose	Privacy Policy
Clerk	Authentication & account management	clerk.com/privacy
Stripe	Payment processing	stripe.com/privacy
Anthropic	AI analysis of essay text	anthropic.com/privacy
Supabase	Database (reports stored in EU region)	supabase.com/privacy
Vercel	Hosting & infrastructure	vercel.com/legal/privacy-policy

Regarding Anthropic: Essay text is sent to Anthropic's API solely for AI analysis. Anthropic does not use API-submitted content to train their models. Content is subject to Anthropic's temporary data retention policies — see their privacy policy for details.

5. Data Retention

Essay text

Deleted immediately after analysis completes

Feedback reports

Retained until you delete your account or request deletion

Account data

Retained until account deletion

Payment records

Retained for 7 years (legal/financial obligation)

6. Your Rights (UK GDPR)

As a UK or EU resident, you have the following rights regarding your personal data:

Right of Access: Request a copy of the personal data we hold about you.
Right to Deletion: Request that we delete your personal data. We will comply unless we have a legal obligation to retain it.
Right to Portability: Request your data in a structured, machine-readable format.
Right to Object: Object to processing of your personal data where we rely on legitimate interests.
Right to Rectification: Request correction of inaccurate data we hold about you.

To exercise any of these rights, email support@paperyak.com. We will respond within 30 days.

You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) if you believe your rights have been violated.

7. Cookies

We use cookies and similar technologies for:

Authentication — Clerk uses cookies to keep you signed in.
Analytics — Basic, privacy-respecting analytics to understand how the service is used. No personal data is linked to analytics events.

We do not use advertising or tracking cookies.

8. Governing Law

This Privacy Policy is governed by the laws of England and Wales. UK GDPR applies to the processing of personal data of UK and EU residents.

9. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. Material changes will be communicated via the website or by email. The "Last updated" date at the top of this page reflects the most recent revision.

10. Contact

For any privacy-related questions or to exercise your rights, contact us at: support@paperyak.com.

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