Last updated May 18, 2026
alex.study is operated by MCAT Tools LLC ("we," "us," "our"). This Privacy Policy explains what we collect, why we collect it, who we share it with, and the choices you have. We try to keep it short and plain.
1. What we collect
- Account info — your name, email, and authentication identifiers from Clerk (our sign-in provider). If you sign in with Google or Microsoft, we receive the basic profile info those providers send.
- Study data — the questions you ask Alex, your answers and quiz attempts, study plans, journal entries, and the topics and resources you mark as covered. This is what makes Alex useful as a tutor.
- Billing info — when you subscribe, our payment processor (Polar) collects your payment details directly. We don't see or store your full card number; we receive a customer ID, subscription status, and the last four digits of your card.
- Usage and device info — pages you visit on the site, actions you take, IP address, browser type, approximate location (from IP), and timestamps. Collected via our product analytics (PostHog), error monitoring (Sentry), and AI-call observability (Langfuse).
- Email engagement — if we send you a transactional or product email through Brevo, we may see whether it was delivered and opened.
2. How we use it
We process your information to:
- Run the service and let Alex do its job (plan, quiz, explain, reflect).
- Authenticate you, bill you, and provide customer support.
- Improve product quality — debug issues, understand which features help, and evaluate the AI's responses.
- Send service-related emails (receipts, account changes, important notices).
- Detect, prevent, and respond to fraud, abuse, or security incidents.
- Comply with legal obligations.
We do not sell your personal information. We do not use your study content to train third-party AI models; the AI providers we use (Anthropic via Vercel AI Gateway) operate under zero-retention or short-retention enterprise terms and do not train on your inputs.
3. Who we share it with
We share information only with vendors who help us operate the service, and only the data they need to do their job:
- Clerk — authentication and account management.
- Neon — Postgres database hosting (encrypted at rest).
- Vercel — application hosting, edge network, and file storage.
- Anthropic (via Vercel AI Gateway) — AI model inference for Alex's responses.
- Polar — subscription billing and payment processing.
- Brevo — transactional and product email delivery.
- PostHog — product analytics.
- Sentry — error and performance monitoring.
- Langfuse — AI-call tracing and quality monitoring.
We may also disclose information if required by law, to enforce our terms, or to protect the rights, property, or safety of users or the public. If we ever go through a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets, your information may be transferred as part of that transaction, and we'll notify you before it becomes subject to a different privacy policy.
4. Cookies and tracking
We use first-party cookies and similar technologies for sign-in sessions, security, and product analytics. We don't use third-party advertising cookies and we don't run ad networks on the service. Your browser's "Do Not Track" signal isn't a recognized standard, so we don't respond to it specifically — but you can disable cookies in your browser settings (some features will break if you do).
5. How long we keep it
We keep your account and study data for as long as your account is active. When you delete your account, we delete or anonymize your personal data within 30 days, except where we need to keep it longer to meet a legal obligation, resolve a dispute, or enforce our agreements. Backups roll off within 90 days. Aggregated, de-identified data (which can't be linked back to you) may be kept indefinitely.
6. How we keep it safe
We use encryption in transit (HTTPS) and at rest, role-based access controls, and audit logging for sensitive operations. We rely on reputable vendors with their own security programs (SOC 2 or equivalent where applicable). That said, no system is 100% secure — if we ever learn of a breach that affects you, we'll notify you and the relevant authorities as required by law.
7. Children
alex.study is not intended for children under 16. We don't knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 16. If you believe a child has given us their information, contact us and we'll delete it.
8. Your privacy rights
Depending on where you live, you may have the right to access, correct, delete, export, or restrict our use of your personal information, and to withdraw consent where we rely on it. You can do most of this yourself from your account settings, or you can email us at hello@alex.study and we'll help.
U.S. state residents (including California, Colorado, Connecticut, Virginia, and other states with comprehensive privacy laws): you have the right to know what we collect, request deletion or correction, opt out of "sales" or "sharing" of personal information (we don't do either), and appeal a denial. We won't discriminate against you for exercising these rights. We may need to verify your identity before fulfilling a request.
EEA/UK residents: our legal bases for processing are performing our contract with you, our legitimate interests in running and improving the service, your consent (where applicable), and compliance with legal obligations. You can lodge a complaint with your local data protection authority. Data we process may be transferred to and stored in the United States; we rely on Standard Contractual Clauses where applicable.
9. International data transfers
We operate from the United States and our infrastructure is hosted there. If you use the service from outside the U.S., your information will be transferred to and processed in the U.S.
10. Changes to this policy
We may update this policy from time to time. Material changes will trigger a re-acceptance prompt on your next visit. The date at the top reflects the most recent update.
11. Contact
Questions about this policy? Email hello@alex.study.