Privacy Policy

Short version: we keep what's needed to run your account and your dashboard. We never sell your data, never show you ads, and never train AI models on it. You can export your data or delete your account at any time.

1. Who we are

Semester ("we") is an independent app for students, available at yoursemester.com, as a phone web app and as a Windows desktop app. For anything about your data, email support@yoursemester.com.

2. What we collect

Your account

Your email address, your password (stored only as a secure hash, never in plain text) and the name you choose. We also record when you signed up and last signed in. Besides account emails, we may now and then email you about Semester itself, like asking early users for their feedback. Reply to any of those and we'll stop sending them.

What you put in Semester

Your courses, classes, tasks, exams, grades and GPA history, notes and notebooks (including the pages of PDFs you import into them, kept as pictures), flashcards and your review history, calendar events (including calendars you import), focus sessions, your Focus Flight log and your settings. This is stored in your account so it syncs across your devices.

Your plan and payments

If you try or buy Semester Pro, we keep your plan, your trial dates, when your plan renews or ends, what you paid and when, and the references our online reseller gives us for you and your subscription. The purchase itself is handled by that reseller, which acts as the merchant of record: its checkout asks for your email address, country and payment details to take the payment, charge any tax, prevent fraud and send your receipts, under its own privacy policy. We never see or store your full card details.

Inviting friends

If you invite friends, or join with a friend's link, we keep who invited whom, how many days a new account used Semester in its first month, and a random code for each device used with an invite. We use these only to count real friends fairly, so that a second account of your own doesn't count, and to give you the Pro months you earn.

Usage and crash information

When you open the app we note the time, whether you used the web or desktop app, and the desktop app's version. If something breaks, the app sends a crash report: the error message and technical details, the page you were on and your browser type. We use this only to keep Semester running and fix bugs. Our service providers also keep short-lived server logs, which include IP addresses.

Feedback you send

If you answer the feedback questions in the app, we keep your answers with your account, along with a few technical details (the app version, your kind of device and screen size, the page you opened it from and how far you got), so we know what to build next. Answers are saved as you go, so if you stop part-way, what you've answered is still sent. We only email you about your feedback if you say we can.

Location

To show local weather and set your home airport for Focus Flight, the app uses your device's location if you allow it. Otherwise it estimates your city from your IP address. We don't store your location on our servers, except the home airport you pick for Focus Flight.

Study Rooms

In a Study Room, the display name you choose, your presence, chat messages, whiteboard drawings and reactions are shared with everyone in that room. Public rooms can be found in the lobby by any signed-in user. Voice and screen sharing go directly between participants' devices, or through a relay server when a direct connection isn't possible, so other participants may see your IP address. We don't record calls or screen shares. Rooms are temporary and are deleted when they're empty.

Microphone and files

The microphone is used only while you're in a voice call in a Study Room or using the music visualizer, and we never record it. Syllabus files you import are read on your device and never uploaded. Notebooks you import from another app, and PDFs, are read on your device too: only what comes over (your handwriting, and a PDF's pages as pictures) is saved, with your notebook. Calendar links you import are fetched through our server and not stored there.

On your device

The app keeps a copy of your data and your sign-in session in your browser's local storage so it loads fast. That copy stays on the device after you sign out. On a shared computer, clear this site's data in your browser settings.

3. Who can see it

• Your dashboard content is private to your account. No other account can read or change it
• What you share in a Study Room is visible to the people in that room
• The Semester team can see basic account details (like your email, your name, and when you signed up and were last active) and simple usage counts, to run the service. Never the content of your tasks, notes or grades
• Feedback you send from the app is read by the Semester team
• People in your Study Rooms and challenges can see your Pro badge
• Apart from the service providers below, we'd only share data if the law required it

4. Service providers

Like most apps, Semester relies on a few trusted service providers. They handle data only on our behalf and only to provide their part of the service:

• Hosting, database and sign-in: store your account and data, and run live Study Rooms
• Email delivery: sends account emails such as sign-up confirmation, password resets and security notices
• Weather and location: forecasts for your approximate location, and a city estimate from your IP address when device location isn't available
• Content delivery: serves the app's fonts and code libraries, so it receives your IP address when pages load
• Downloads: hosts the desktop app's installers and updates
• Connection servers: help Study Room calls and screen shares connect
• Payments: our online reseller takes payments for Semester Pro, charges sales tax or VAT and sends receipts. When you open the checkout, it receives your account's email address and a reference to your account

Some of them are based in the United States, the United Kingdom or the European Union, so your data may be processed outside your country, under their own safeguards. If you'd like the current list of providers, just ask us.

5. What we don't do

• We don't sell your data, to anyone, ever
• We don't train AI models on it
• We don't use ad networks, advertising IDs, retargeting pixels or analytics trackers
• We don't share data with marketing partners

6. Cookies

Semester doesn't set cookies. Your sign-in session is kept in your browser's local storage, as described above. The checkout, run by our payment reseller, may set its own cookies while you pay.

7. How long we keep it

We keep your account and content until you delete them. When you delete your account, your profile and everything you created are permanently deleted, and past crash reports are detached from you. Records of payments are kept, detached from your account, for as long as tax and accounting rules require, and our payment reseller keeps its own records. Account emails and server logs are kept by our providers for a limited time.

8. Your rights

• Export your data as a file from Settings → Data → Export
• Correct your name and details in Settings at any time
• Delete your account and everything in it from Settings → Data → Delete account, or by emailing us
• Ask what we hold about you, or object to how we use it, at support@yoursemester.com. We'll reply within 30 days
• Complain to the data protection authority where you live

9. Age

You need to be at least 13 to use Semester, or older where the law in your country requires it (for example, 16 in some EU countries). If we learn we've stored data from someone younger, we'll delete it.

10. Security

We protect your data with encrypted connections, hashed passwords, short-lived sign-in sessions and strict access controls, so each account can only reach its own data. No system is perfectly secure, but if a breach affects your data, we'll tell you within 72 hours of finding out.

If you think someone got into your account, or you've found a security problem, email security@yoursemester.com.

11. Changes

If we change this policy, we'll update the date above. For important changes we'll email you before they take effect.

12. Contact

Questions, requests or concerns: support@yoursemester.com. Account or security problems: security@yoursemester.com. Or visit the Support page.

See also: Terms of Service.