Privacy Policy

Last Updated: 2 December 2025

1. Introduction

Pastapapers ("Pastapapers", "we", "us", or "our") operates the website pastapapers.com (the "Service"). We respect your privacy and are committed to protecting your personal data.

This Privacy Policy explains what information we collect, how we use it, and the rights you have. We aim to collect only what is necessary to provide and improve our exam-practice tools.

By using the Service, you agree to the collection and use of information in accordance with this Policy.

2. Information We Collect

We collect the following categories of information:

2.1 Information You Provide to Us

Account Data

When you sign up, we collect your email address, username, and a password (stored in hashed/encrypted form).

User Content

When you practice, we process the text answers, explanations, and other content you type into the platform in order to generate marks and feedback.

2.2 Information Collected Automatically

Usage Data

We may automatically collect certain information when you access the Service, such as:

  • IP address
  • Browser type and version
  • Device type and operating system
  • Pages you visit and actions you take on the website
  • Time and date of your visit and other diagnostic data

Cookies and Similar Technologies

We use cookies and similar technologies to:

  • Keep you logged in
  • Maintain session security
  • Understand basic usage patterns to improve performance

You can control cookies through your browser settings, but disabling them may affect some features of the Service.

3. How We Use Your Information

We use your information for the following purposes:

To Provide and Maintain the Service

  • Creating and managing your user account
  • Authenticating you when you log in
  • Providing access to practice papers and related features

To Mark Your Work and Provide Feedback

We send your answer text, relevant question text, and mark scheme snippets to third-party AI providers via secure APIs in order to generate marks, feedback, and explanations.

To Improve the Platform

We may use aggregated and anonymized data (data that cannot reasonably identify you) to understand how students use the Service and to improve our features, performance, and user experience.

To Communicate With You

  • Sending important notices about your account, security alerts, or changes to our terms and policies
  • Sending optional service updates or tips, where permitted by law (you can opt out of non-essential emails)

4. Storage of Practice History

Current Practice

At present, we primarily process your answers in real time to generate immediate feedback. We do not store long-term logs of every single AI conversation.

Future Features

We may introduce features such as "Progress Tracking" or "Performance Analytics" in the future. If we start storing your detailed answer history and scores for these purposes, we will update this Privacy Policy and clearly inform you before such changes take effect.

5. Sharing Data with Third Parties

Pastapapers uses the OpenAI API (GPT-4.1 mini) to process your submitted answers, explanations, and follow-up queries. All data sent to OpenAI is limited solely to the specific question you are practicing and the content you typed into the platform. The AI cannot see or access any broader personal profile.

OpenAI provides industry-standard safety systems, moderation tools, and filtering mechanisms to prevent harmful or disallowed content. Additionally, Pastapapers applies its own internal guardrails to restrict:

  • use of the AI outside the educational question being practiced,
  • attempts to generate harmful, illegal, or inappropriate content, and
  • attempts to use the tool for real-time exam cheating or unauthorized academic assistance.

These measures ensure that AI processing remains safe, controlled, and aligned with our educational purpose.

Hosting & Infrastructure – Vercel and Related Providers

  • Our website is hosted on Vercel and may rely on other infrastructure providers.
  • These providers may process technical logs (such as IP addresses and error logs) solely for security, reliability, and performance monitoring.

We may also disclose information where required by law, to protect our rights, or to respond to lawful requests from public authorities.

6. Data Security

We use reasonable technical and organizational measures to protect your personal data, including:

  • Hashing/encrypting passwords
  • Using HTTPS (TLS) for data in transit
  • Limiting access to personal data to those who need it for legitimate purposes

However, no method of transmission or storage over the internet is 100% secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.

7. Data Retention

We retain personal data only for as long as necessary for the purposes described in this Policy:

  • Account Data (email, username): kept for as long as your account is active.
  • User Content: currently processed primarily in real time. If in future we store detailed history, this will be explained in an updated version of this Policy.
  • Aggregated/Anonymized Data: may be retained indefinitely as it does not identify you.

If you delete your account, we will remove or anonymize your personal data from our active systems, except for information we are required to keep by law or for legitimate business purposes.

8. Your Rights

Regardless of where you live, we provide you with the following rights (subject to applicable law):

Access

You can request a copy of the personal data we hold about you.

Correction

You can update your email or username via your account settings, or request corrections if information is inaccurate.

Deletion

You may request deletion of your account and associated personal data.

Restriction / Objection

In some circumstances, you may request that we limit or stop certain processing.

To exercise any of these rights, please contact us at pastapapers@gmail.com. We may need to verify your identity before processing your request.

9. Children's Privacy

The Service is not intended for children under 13 (or the relevant age of digital consent in your country) without parental consent.

We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under this age. If we become aware that we have collected such information without proper consent, we will take steps to delete it.

10. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. When we do, we will:

  • Update the "Last Updated" date at the top; and
  • Where appropriate, provide additional notice (e.g., via email or an in-app message).

Your continued use of the Service after changes become effective constitutes your acceptance of the revised Policy.

11. Contact Us

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or how we handle your data, please contact us at:

Email: pastapapers@gmail.com