Privacy notice

The short version

What stays on your device

Your story bank, answers, follow-up answers, activities list and interview transcript are saved in your browser’s local storage. They don’t leave your device unless you send them to the coach or export them. Interview recordings, in the app or on the interview timer page, stay in your browser’s memory and disappear when you reload the page, unless you download them or choose to transcribe one. The word counters, the hours calculator and the interview timer run entirely in your browser. So does “How you sounded” under a practice recording, which works out your pauses, pitch and loudness on your device without sending anything.

What leaves your device, and when

When you press a coach button, your browser sends our server only what that button needs:

• “Grade my answer” and “Grade again”: the question, your program, your answer, the notes you typed about yourself and your stories (with the other questions you picked each one for), so the grade can point to your own experiences.
• “Stuck? Get ideas” (“Ask me follow-up questions” and “Make a plan”): the question, your program, your answer, your notes, the stories you chose and your answers to the coach’s questions.
• “Help me find a story”: the background notes you typed and your whole story bank, so the coach can suggest a story you have not written yet.
• “Review my list” on the Activities page: your activity rows (titles, dates and hours). Your private notes are not sent.
• Grading an interview answer: the question, your transcript and how long you spoke.

Our server passes it on to our AI provider and sends the reply back to you. It never writes your text to disk or to its logs.

Our AI provider is in the United States, so your text is processed there, where US courts, law enforcement and national security authorities may be able to access it. The provider doesn’t use it to train its models and deletes it within 30 days. If its safety systems flag a request, it may keep the request and reply for up to 2 years, and its safety ratings of that request for up to 7 years. It may also keep data longer if the law requires it. Deleting your workspace in this app doesn’t delete the provider’s copy, which expires on the provider’s own schedule.

If you press “Grade my answer” after recording, and agree to the short notice the first time, that recording goes through our server to our speech-to-text providers in the United States, to be turned into text word for word. Nothing is sent until you agree. This browser remembers your OK until the notice changes or you clear it in Privacy & data; until then, grading a recording sends it. Our server does not save the recording or the text. They handle it under their own terms, and we have not been able to confirm how long they keep it, so only send recordings you are comfortable sharing, and leave out your full name, school and other people’s private details. You must be 14 or older. Each signed-in account can transcribe a few recordings a day.

Signing in with Google

The coach asks you to sign in with Google. Google tells us your email address, your Google account id and that the email is verified. We don’t get your name, your contacts or anything else from your Google account. The email and id go into a signed cookie on your device so the site knows it’s you. The cookie lasts 30 days, or until you sign out from the workspace menu, and for free use our server doesn’t store your email or id. Google will know you signed in to ApplyWell. School Google accounts often block sign-in to other sites, so you may need to use a personal Gmail instead.

Buying a 30-day pass (only if you choose to)

Free coaching is limited each day. A 30-day pass gives you the coach for 30 days, with fair-use limits described in the terms. It’s a one-time payment and doesn’t renew. Our payment company takes the payment on its own page, so we never see or store your card number. If you’re under 18, ask a parent before buying one.

For each pass we store: the payment id, your Google account id, the email on the payment, when you bought it, when it ends, and how much of it you have used. We use these to run your pass, answer questions about it and handle refunds. To ask for a refund, contact privacy@applywell.study.

What our server keeps

• Daily coach usage totals, so we can keep free coaching running.
• Daily totals of page visits and a few actions, such as using the hours calculator or the coach. Totals are split by page and by the link that brought you, for example a Reddit comment. They don’t use cookies, visitor ids or addresses. If your browser sends a Do Not Track or Global Privacy Control signal, you aren’t counted at all.
• Daily totals of “Was this grade helpful?” answers: only the number of thumbs up and thumbs down per day and page. Nothing about you or your answer is sent with them.
• A count of free requests per Google account and per internet connection, so one person cannot use up everyone’s free coaching. Each count is tied to a scrambled code made from your account id or internet address. The codes change every day and are deleted along with that day’s counts after midnight Toronto time. Your actual account id and address aren’t stored.
• If you buy a pass: the pass record described above.

How long we keep things

Where this site runs

This site is hosted by a company in the United States. The app usually runs in whichever of its data centres is nearest you, and its small database is in eastern North America. The hosting company keeps short-term logs and metrics, which may include internet addresses and may be processed in the United States, where the law may let authorities access them. Our app doesn’t write what you type, or your internet address, into its logs.

We count visits ourselves, on our own server, without any outside analytics company.

Sign-in goes through Google (Google LLC, in the United States). Payments go through our payment company, in the United States. Laws there may let authorities access what they hold.

The coach is an AI

The coach is an AI, and it can be wrong. It’s told to use only the facts you give it and never to invent experiences, but you still need to check everything it says. You write your own answers, and you’re responsible for them. Waterloo says you must complete the AIF on your own, and that AI answers that are untrue, incorrect or plagiarized can cost you your offer. Read Waterloo’s AIF page for the official rules.

Who this is for

ApplyWell is made for students applying to university. The coach is for people 14 or older. The counters, the hours calculator and the interview timer never send what you type anywhere, so anyone can use them.

Safeguards in place

• The app makes clear that the coach is an AI, not a person: on the coach card, at the bottom of every screen and before your first coach request.
• Nothing goes to the coach until you tick two boxes, one saying you’re 14 or older and one saying you agree. Both start unticked. Each coach request carries the version of the notice you agreed to, and our server turns away requests with an old or missing version.
• Each button only sends what it needs. The coach never needs your name, school or student number.
• Our server doesn’t save what you send or what the coach replies, and doesn’t write either to its logs.
• Our AI provider doesn’t use your text to train its AI.
• On this site the coach doesn’t write answers. Our server blocks requests for a draft and turns away any plan that isn’t a few short, labelled points.
• McMaster bans AI help with its supplementary applications, so the app turns away questions and programs that name McMaster, and the coach is told to refuse them too.
• The coach is told to stick to applications, use only your facts, never predict admission and point you to crisis help if you mention danger. Those are instructions to an AI, not a promise.
• Free coaching is limited per Google account and per internet connection. If free coaching pauses, the tools keep working.
• No ads and no tracking ids. The only cookie keeps you signed in, and visit counts skip browsers that send Do Not Track or Global Privacy Control.
• The site uses HTTPS only and loads no code from other sites.
• Only the people who run the site can see the daily totals, and they need a long secret key to do it.
• You can report a problem to privacy@applywell.study.

Laws we follow

We follow PIPEDA, Canada’s privacy law for businesses. (Ontario doesn’t have a general business privacy law of its own.) The Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (OPC) oversees PIPEDA, and we also follow its guidance on consent, including for young people, and on sending information outside Canada. Canada’s privacy regulators treat young people’s information as sensitive, which is why we ask for your clear OK first.

Quebec has its own privacy law, often called Law 25, which may apply to students in Quebec. It requires a parent’s consent for anyone under 14, which is why the coach is for people 14 or older.

If you think we got something wrong, contact privacy@applywell.study.

Your choices

• Delete everything: in the app, open the menu (the “…” button at the top) and choose “Clear this browser’s workspace”. This also removes your OK for the coach.
• Keep a copy: choose “Export a backup” in the same menu. The file has your personal information in it, so keep it somewhere safe.
• Don’t want your text sent to our AI provider? Then don’t press the coach buttons. The counters, the hours calculator and your story bank all work without them.

Questions or a problem

Contact privacy@applywell.study to ask a question or report a problem with the coach. If this notice changes, the date at the top changes with it, and the app will ask you to agree again before it sends anything.

If you report a safety problem, we may pass your report to our AI provider’s safety team. Leave out your full name, school and student number.

Terms of use