Summary
The short version, one line per part of the product:
- Searching needs no account. A subject you type goes to an AI provider that interprets it, to our search providers, and to YouTube's search API so a learning path can be built for it, and nothing about you goes with it.
- An account stores your email, your name, and your study material: notes, imports, uploads, flashcards, and review history.
- Text goes to an AI provider only when you ask. Three actions send it: generating cards from a note or import, exporting a note as a PDF, and searching a subject. Each one runs only when you start it.
- Four cookies, all functional. One signs you in, one remembers your subject, one remembers your reading settings, and one gives a signed-out device its free daily path build. Nothing tracks you, so there is no cookie banner.
- Deleting your account is self-service and immediate, and it takes your uploaded files with it.
The rest of this page is the same thing with the detail filled in.
We collect only what the product needs
When you create an account:
- Your email address and the name you enter, or the name and email your Google account shares if you sign in with Google.
When you use the website:
- The content you put in: notes, pasted text, uploaded PDFs and documents, and the subjects and flashcards built from them.
- Your review history, so the schedule knows when a card is due.
- Reading preferences you set, like text size and reduced motion.
- If you send a message through the contact form: the name, email address and message you type. No account is needed to send one, so this may be the only thing we hold about you.
Automatically: your IP address is used to rate-limit requests, so one person cannot flood the sign-in form, the search, the contact form, or the daily allowance of free path builds. An address sits in a rate-limit counter until its window closes, which is fifteen minutes for most limits and up to 24 hours for the daily ones; the counters delete themselves after that. There is no analytics or behavioural tracking of any kind.
We use it only to run the product
Your email signs you in and receives account messages like confirmation and password reset links. Your notes and imports exist so you can study them, and so the website can build flashcards and quizzes from them when you ask it to. We do not use your data for advertising, sell it, or share it beyond the services listed next.
We share it only with the services that run it
The site runs on trusted hosting and database providers, and your data is stored in the United States. Three features send text to an AI provider (Google Gemini or OpenAI), and each runs only when you start it: generating cards sends the text of that note or import, exporting a note as a PDF sends the note's text so the model can tidy the layout, and searching a subject sends the words you typed so a path can be built from them. A subject you search also goes to our search partners and to YouTube's search API so learning material can be found for it. Videos play in YouTube's privacy-enhanced player, which sets no tracking cookies before you press play. A message sent through the contact form is delivered by our email provider, which necessarily sees the name, address and message you typed. Nobody on this list gets your data for any other reason.
When bot protection is enabled, the public search and the contact form use Cloudflare Turnstile to tell people from scripts. Cloudflare receives your IP address and browser signals to make that call, and nothing else.
When error reporting is enabled, an error on the site sends a report to Sentry so we can fix what broke. A report includes the page URL and browser details.
We use four cookies, all functional
- One keeps you signed in.
- One remembers which subject you were last studying.
- One remembers your reading settings, like text size.
- One is a random identifier stored in the browser of a signed-out visitor, used only to give each device one free path build per day. It is not linked to an account and carries no personal information.
None of them track you, which is why there is no cookie banner. Your browser also keeps a little local state on your own device: your theme choice and your speed run high score in local storage, and where you paused a video for the life of the tab. None of that leaves your device.
We keep it only while your account exists
No longer. Rate-limit counters delete themselves once their window closes. The website caches generated learning paths for public searches, but a cached path carries no link to who searched for it.
Imported files are kept differently by type. A PDF you import is kept, so the note can show it beside your notes. A DOCX is uploaded, read once for its text, and deleted immediately. Plain text and markdown files never leave your browser as files; only their text is sent.
Contact form messages are the exception, because they are sent without an account and deleting one would delete the conversation. They are kept until the question is answered and are not used for anything else. Ask in a reply and yours will be removed.
We protect it
Your data is encrypted on the way to us and while stored. The database is built so an account can only ever see its own data, and we test that boundary rather than assume it. Uploaded files are private to your account.
Sharing a deck is the one exception, and you control it. A share link you create lets anyone who has it practice that note's flashcards: they see the cards' terms and definitions and nothing else. The note itself stays private, and deleting the link ends the access.
You can see, change, and delete everything
Everything the website holds about you is visible by using it: your notes, cards, subjects and history are all in the interface. Your name and email change in settings.
Deleting your account is self-service, in settings, and immediate. It removes your account, subjects, notes, cards, review history, imports, and uploaded files. There is no retention period and no backup you need to chase.
Children
Quad Encode is not for children under the age of 13, and we do not knowingly collect information from them. Do not create an account if you are under 13. If a parent or guardian believes a child under 13 has created one, use the contact below and we will delete the account and its data.
Links to other sites
Learning paths link out to courses, videos and documentation across the open web. Those sites have their own policies, and this one stops at the click.
Changes
If this policy changes, the date at the top changes with it, and any change that touches what leaves the server will be described here rather than buried.
Contact
Questions about this policy or your data: send a message. No account needed. The terms of use cover the rest of the relationship.