Privacy Policy

01At a glance

If you read nothing else, read this:

• No ads and no ad tracking. We do not sell your data or share it with advertisers. The website has no analytics at all; only the Android app sends numbers without names about use and crashes, to improve it, and you can switch that off in its Settings.
• Only the friends you agreed to add can see your activity.
• Your data is stored on servers in the European Union.
• Delete your account and all its data yourself from Settings, at any time, at once.

We use no tracking or analytics tool on the website, and we set no cookie beyond what keeps you signed in and remembers your language, the app's look and which device runs your timer.

02Who is responsible for your data

The data controller is Adaa Technology LLC, a Limited Liability Company formed under the laws of State of New Mexico, United States, filing number 0008118062, registered at 1209 Mountain Road Pl NE, Ste N, Albuquerque, NM 87110, USA.

For any question or request about your privacy, write to hello@adaatechnology.com.

03What we collect

Only what the app needs to work:

• Account data: your email, the name you choose for yourself, the avatar look or photo you pick, and the animal you choose as your study buddy.
• Study data: your subjects and their colours, the start and end time of every timer session, your weekly goal and your streak.
• Your tasks: the tasks you write, their steps and notes, each task's subject, day, time, repeat, length and priority, when you finished it, and the sessions you added to it.
• Friends: whom you added and who added you, and the cheers between you.
• App settings: language, light or dark mode, timer preferences, and your subject-name visibility setting.
• Technical data: our server logs the IP address, browser type and time of a request — ordinary operating logs used for security and fixing faults.
• If you choose Google sign-in: your Google account id and email only, and nothing else from your account there.
• Your consent at sign-up: when you continued under the line "you're 13 or older and agree to the Terms", and which version of the documents you agreed to.

04What we do not collect

These are not general promises — they describe what the code actually does:

• No analytics tools, no advertising pixels, no third-party scripts on the pages.
• We do not track you across other sites, and we build no advertising profile of you.
• We do not ask for your location, your contacts, your microphone or your camera.
• We collect no payment data, because there is nothing to pay for today.
• Illustrated avatars are drawn by the app itself, on our server or in your browser, so no request ever reaches an external avatar service.
• If you upload a photo from your device's gallery, our server redraws it at 384 pixels and removes all the hidden data inside it, location included. We never keep the original file.
• The invite picture you send your friends is drawn by our server from your name, look, animal and code when you open "Send an invite", and is not kept. You send it yourself, with the app you choose.
• We never ask for your gender or store it. In Arabic, sentences like "Sara is the week's champion" take a feminine or masculine word; we choose it from the look you drew for yourself, and use a form that suits everyone if you have not drawn one yet.

05Why we collect it

Each kind has one clear purpose:

• Running the timer and saving your time accurately even if you close the app.
• Showing your status and your time to your accepted friends, and working out streaks, goals, the friends' ranking and the week's champion.
• Keeping and ordering your tasks, and showing the time you studied on each.
• Sending sign-in and verification emails.
• Protecting the service: preventing abuse and limiting repeated attempts.
• Checking profile photos automatically for sexual or violent content before your friends can see them. A photo that fails the check is not saved.
• Fixing faults and improving the app.

06Legal basis

For anyone covered by a European or comparable data protection law:

• Performance of a contract: running your account, your timer and your friends list.
• Legitimate interest: service security, abuse prevention, server logs, checking uploaded photos to protect our users, most of whom are students, the app's crash reports, and its usage statistics outside Europe.
• Consent: Google sign-in, notifications on your phone, and the app's usage statistics in Europe. You can withdraw consent at any time.
• Legal obligation: where a valid, enforceable legal request exists.

07Who sees your data

Friendship here is mutual. Nobody sees anything until you have both accepted each other.

An accepted friend sees: your name, look, animal and goal, whether you are studying right now, how much you studied on each day (today and the days before), your streak and your longest streak, your total since you started, your weekly goal and how far along you are, and your subject names with the time for each on each day — and you can hide subject names in Settings, so they see the time without the names — and how many days in a row you have both studied (the streak together). They also see which half hours of your day you studied in (for example "between 8:00 and 8:30 PM"), never the minute or how long each sitting was; only while you both share times, and you can turn it off in Settings ▸ "My friends see my study times", so they do not see yours and you do not see theirs. They never see your email or your sessions one by one.

Your tasks are yours alone: neither your friends nor anyone else sees them, and they play no part in the ranking.

There are no public pages, no people search, and no route by which a stranger reaches your profile. The leaderboard is among your friends only.

At the end of each week we keep its result between you and your friends: your place and your time, and who the week's champion is. We show it to you once, and the champion's crown shows on their face to their friends for the following week.

Your invite link and code: someone who opens your invite link before having an account sees your name, look (or photo) and animal only, so they know who invited them. They see nothing else. Creating a new code stops the old link.

When you remove a friend, visibility stops in both directions immediately.

If you block someone, the friendship ends and they cannot send you a new request. We do not tell them you blocked them.

If someone reports you, the Adaa team sees a copy of what they reported (your name, look, photo, goal and animal as they were at that moment) to review it. We do not tell you who reported you, and we tell no one that you reported.

This boundary is enforced inside the database itself with row-level access rules, not only in the interface — so changing the interface cannot open your data to anyone.

08Your account is shared with adaa.store

Your Adaa Study account is the same account as on adaa.store. Signing up here also creates an account usable there, and a password reset covers both services.

Your study data is fully isolated from store data: neither reaches the other. Only the sign-in identity is shared.

Two consequences you should know: a suspension on one service may lock you out of the other, and deleting your Adaa account affects both.

09Who processes data with us

We rely on three companies only, each for a defined purpose:

• Supabase, Inc. — Database, accounts and image files, on servers in the European Union.
• Hostinger International Ltd. — Website hosting, server logs and delivery of sign-in emails.
• Google LLC — Google sign-in for those who choose it, checking uploaded profile photos for unsafe content through Google Cloud Vision on servers in the European Union, only when you upload a photo, without Google keeping the photo, and delivering notifications to the Android app through Firebase Cloud Messaging, and in the Android app: usage statistics without names through Google Analytics for Firebase and crash reports through Firebase Crashlytics.

This list is exhaustive. Adding any new service to the app means updating this page in the same change.

10Where it is stored and where it travels

Your data is stored on servers in the European Union.

The owning company is American, based in State of New Mexico, United States, and its team accesses the data from there to run and support the service. That transfer relies on the standard contractual safeguards our providers offer.

11Cookies and storage

We use strictly necessary cookies only, all scoped to our domain: the session cookie that keeps you signed in, two small cookies that remember the language you chose and light or dark mode, and a random number that tells this browser apart so the timer knows which of your devices is running it. That number reveals nothing about your device and changes if you clear your cookies.

If you open an invite link before having an account, we keep the invite's code alone in a cookie (study_invite) for a week at most, to send the friend request once your account exists, then delete it.

Only when you create your account with Google, what you chose before it (your name, animal and look) waits in this browser tab (sessionStorage) for the trip to Google and back, and is deleted as soon as it is saved to your account, or when the tab closes. We write nothing else in your browser.

There are no analytics cookies, no advertising cookies and no third-party cookies. We store nothing in your browser for tracking purposes.

Because these cookies are necessary for the app to work the way you set it, there is no cookie consent banner — there is nothing to ask consent for.

12The Android app

Everything on this page applies to the app too. These points are its own:

• Notifications: if you allow them, our server sends alerts (a friend started studying, a friend request, a cheer or a reminder from a friend, a friend passed you in the week's ranking, you reached your goal) through Google's Firebase Cloud Messaging. Only your phone's token, your friend's name and the kind of alert pass through it, plus, in the ranking alert, the minutes that would get your place back. You control each kind in the settings, and we delete your phone's token when you sign out.
• The streak reminder, the daily reminder, each task's reminder at its time and the end-of-day summary of your tasks are made by your phone itself from the data on it, and pass through no server. You control them in Settings.
• Install number: when installed, the app makes a random number that has nothing to do with your phone. We use it to limit how many sign-in emails this install can ask for, and so the timer knows which device is running it. It changes if you reinstall.
• What stays on your phone: your sign-in session, encrypted with a key Android keeps; a copy of what you last saw, so the app works offline; study time and changes not sent yet; and the sounds you downloaded. What you choose before creating your account (your name, animal and look) is held by Android for the moment if it closes the app while you read your email, and is deleted as soon as it is saved to your account. Signing out erases your data from it, except study time and changes not sent yet, which wait until you sign in to the same account and are then sent. Uninstalling the app erases everything.
• Backups: none of this goes into the backup in your Google account or to a new phone, except the language you chose.
• Permissions: notifications (asked at your first timer, and you may say no), exact alarms so a countdown and a task's reminder ring on time, playing sounds with the screen locked, and setting reminders again after the phone restarts. To pick a photo the app opens Android's photo picker, so it only reaches the photo you choose.
• Widgets: if you add a widget to your home screen, it may show, depending on the widget you choose, your study time today, this week and this month, your streak, your subjects' names, today's task names and your animal, and on the “Friends board” your friends' names, animals and study times this week, to anyone who sees your phone. Widget data stays on your phone only, and the app refreshes it from your account. Remove it whenever you like.
• Usage statistics: the app sends Google Analytics for Firebase numbers about how it is used, such as the screens you open, how long you use it, your phone model and country, with a random number for this install. We send no name, email, account number or anything you type, we do not ask for the advertising ID, and we never use these numbers for ads. In Europe (the EU, the EEA, the UK and Switzerland) they only start after you agree, and anywhere you can switch them off in Settings ▸ “Share usage statistics”. Google keeps the details for two months, the shortest period available.
• Crash reports: if the app stops suddenly, it sends a report to Google's Firebase Crashlytics: the phone model, the Android and app versions, the line where the error happened and a random number for this install, without your name or account. We use them only to fix bugs; they are deleted after 90 days.
• If your phone allows sharing usage and diagnostics data with Google, Google Play may also show us grouped numbers about crashes and performance, without your identity.

13How long we keep it

We keep data for as long as your account exists, and then:

• Deleting your account from Settings happens at once; the only thing left after it is a report you filed about someone else, without your name.
• If you ask by email: the account and all its data are deleted within 7 days.
• Reports and the copy they hold: kept for up to 12 months, then deleted.
• Weekly results: we keep the last 10 weeks only and delete older ones automatically.
• Tasks: a finished task is deleted automatically 180 days after you finished it; an unfinished one stays until you delete it.
• Rolling backups are replaced as their cycle passes, so deleted data disappears from them in turn.
• Technical server logs are kept briefly for security and then rotated out.
• Checked photos: a refused photo is never kept. For each checked photo we keep only a digital fingerprint and the result, for 90 days, so the same picture is not checked twice. A fingerprint cannot be turned back into a picture.

14Your rights

You may ask to access your data, correct it, delete it, receive a copy of it, object to its processing, or withdraw your consent.

Most of this is available instantly inside the app: edit your name and subjects, archive what you no longer need, remove friends, and delete your whole account from Settings.

To receive a copy of your data, send us a request and we will prepare it by hand — there is no self-serve export button yet, and we would rather not promise a feature we have not built.

We answer any such request within 30 days. You always have the right to complain to the data protection authority in your country.

15Children

The app is meant for students aged 13 and over. Anyone under eighteen should use it with a guardian's knowledge and permission.

At sign-up, a line beside the button says that continuing confirms you are 13 or older and accept the Terms, and we record when you continued. We do not ask for your date of birth.

If we learn of an account belonging to someone under 13, we delete it. A guardian may write to us to request deletion of their child's account, and we act on it without argument.

16How we protect your data

Traffic to the site is fully encrypted. Passwords are stored hashed and we cannot read them ourselves. A sign-in code works once and for a short time only. Session cookies are signed and scoped to our domain.

The most important measure is that the access rules live inside the database: even if we make a mistake in the interface, your data reaches no one but you and your accepted friends. And your study time is written only by the server.

No system is perfectly safe. If a breach affects your data, we will tell you and notify the relevant authority as quickly as the law requires.

17The app is in beta

Adaa Study is still in beta. Features may change, and during development we may need to migrate data or reset part of it.

If that would affect your history, we will tell you in the app beforehand. Even so, do not treat the app as a backup of your study history.

18External links

The site links to adaa.store and to adaatechnology.com, and will later link to the app stores. Each site has its own policy; this page covers Adaa Study alone.

19Changes to this policy

When this policy changes we update the last-updated date at the top of the page. If the change is material, we will tell you in the app before it takes effect.

Contact us

For any question or request about your privacy: hello@adaatechnology.com