Privacy Policy

1. Who We Are

CourseCat is an independent, student-built platform created by the TechPreneurs for Portola High School students. We are not affiliated with Irvine Unified School District (IUSD) or any official school body. References to "we," "us," or "our" refer to the TechPreneurs team.

2. Information We Collect

We collect the following information when you use CourseCat:

• Account information: When you sign in with Google or email, we receive your name, email address, and profile photo (if provided by Google).
• Onboarding data: Grade level, intended courses, and academic goals you provide during setup.
• Usage data: Pages visited, courses viewed, and features used, collected to improve the platform.
• Contributor submissions: Course reviews, unit breakdowns, and study tips you voluntarily submit as an approved contributor.

3. How We Use Your Information

• To authenticate you and maintain your account.
• To personalize your experience (course recommendations, AI game plan).
• To review contributor applications and manage contributor access.
• To improve platform features and fix bugs.
• We do not sell your personal information to third parties.
• We do not use your data for advertising purposes.

4. Data Storage & Security

Your data is stored securely using Google Firebase (Firestore and Firebase Authentication), which employs industry-standard encryption in transit and at rest. We limit access to your personal data to only those team members who need it to operate the platform.

5. Third-Party Services

CourseCat uses the following third-party services:

• Google Firebase — authentication and database.
• Google OAuth — sign-in via Google account.
• Anthropic Claude API — powering AI course recommendations and game plans.
• Vercel — hosting and deployment.

Each third-party service is governed by its own privacy policy. We encourage you to review those policies.

6. Children's Privacy

CourseCat is intended for high school students (typically ages 14–18). We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you believe a child under 13 has created an account, please contact us and we will promptly delete their data.

7. Your Rights

You have the right to:

• Request access to the personal data we hold about you.
• Request correction of inaccurate data.
• Request deletion of your account and associated data.

To exercise any of these rights, contact us at the email below.

8. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. We will post the updated version on this page with a revised "last updated" date. Continued use of CourseCat after changes constitutes acceptance of the updated policy.

9. Contact Us

If you have questions about this Privacy Policy, please reach out to the TechPreneurs team. We're a student project and will do our best to respond promptly.