Privacy Policy
Effective 13 July 2026.
What we collect
PicExplainer does not require an individual account or ask for a name, email address, or student record. A submitted figure or question may itself contain personal information, so only submit material you are allowed to use. For App Functionality we process six linked data types: purchase history, photos or videos, other user content, device ID, user ID (a school activation identifier when used), and product interaction. We do not use them to track you across apps or websites, sell them, or run third-party advertising or analytics SDKs.
Photos you analyse
When you photograph or import a figure, it is sent over an encrypted connection to our AWS-hosted service and to our AI provider, currently OpenAI, for off-device processing. On-device OCR fragments are included. Follow-up requests can also include the figure, your question, diagram context, and recent conversation history. Our application does not add submitted figures to a reusable server-side diagram library. Successful analyses that you save, including their images and conversations, are stored in the app on your device.
Pseudonymous device identifier
The app generates a random device identifier and retains it in secure on-device storage and service records. It links the submitted content and service records needed to operate subscription access, school-code seats, successful free-scan counts, and fair-use limits. It is not used for cross-app tracking. Secure storage can preserve this identifier after reinstall on the same device, but this is not guaranteed after a device erase, Keychain reset, or signing change.
Subscriptions
Payments are processed by Apple. To enable live analysis we receive and retain signed transaction information, original transaction identifiers, product identifiers, subscription status, and expiry information linked to the pseudonymous device identifier. We do not receive full card or bank details.
Product interaction and service limits
We retain successful free-scan counts without a scheduled expiry. Daily analysis, question, and speech-usage counters are retained temporarily to apply fair-use, seat, abuse-prevention, and capacity limits. These counters are linked to the pseudonymous device identifier and are used for App Functionality, not advertising or cross-app tracking.
AI processing
OpenAI states that API inputs and outputs are not used to train its models by default unless the API customer opts in. Under OpenAI's default API controls, content may appear in abuse-monitoring logs retained for up to 30 days, or longer where legally required; flagged images can be retained for safety review. We have not represented this service as Zero Data Retention. When VoiceOver is off and a sentence is not already available on the device, the text to be spoken is sent to our AWS-hosted speech service to generate audio. VoiceOver announcements and the fallback iOS system voice are handled on the device.
Children
PicExplainer is designed for students without requiring names, emails, accounts, or student records. Uninstalling removes the app's sandboxed diagram library, but iOS may retain Keychain values and service records associated with the pseudonymous device identifier may remain for purchase recovery, entitlements, seat limits, abuse prevention, and fair-use operations.