Privacy Policy

1. Overview & Google OAuth Scope

EasyEcon is an AI-powered academic companion for Economics students. When you sign in using Google OAuth, we request access to your basic profile information. The specific OAuth scope we request is limited to:

• Email address — used as your unique account identifier.

We do not request access to your Google Drive, Gmail, Google Calendar, contacts, or any other Google services beyond the basic profile scope described above. We do not read your emails, access your files on Google services, or post on your behalf.

2. Information Collected

We collect and store the following categories of personal data to provide and improve our services:

2.1 User Profile

• Email address and account role (user or administrator).
• Account creation date and last-updated timestamp.
• Authentication method (email/password or Google OAuth).

2.2 User Agreement Records

When you accept our User Agreement during sign-up, we store a record of your acceptance including your email address, the agreement version accepted, and the sign-up method used. This serves as a legal record of your consent.

2.3 Academic Projects

When you use our Canvas features (Thesis Canvas, Article Canvas, Seminar Canvas), we store:

• Project titles, research topics, and research variables you enter.
• Selected student level, chapter headings, and generated content for each chapter or section.
• Project status (draft, generating, or complete).

2.4 EViews Files

When you upload EViews results files (PDFs, images, or text) for AI interpretation, these files are uploaded to our secure storage and processed by our AI systems to generate econometric analysis. The file URLs are stored with your project records for reference.

2.5 Quiz & Chat Logs

• Chat sessions: Your AI tutor conversation history, including messages you send and AI responses you receive, along with selected topic and academic level.
• Quiz sessions: Generated quiz questions, your selected answers, correct answers, explanations, scores, and completion status.

2.6 Curriculum & Learning Data

Your selected academic level, course topics, and subtopic preferences are stored to personalize lesson generation and track your learning progress.

2.7 Subscription & Payment Data

We store your subscription plan, status, payment amount, start and expiry dates, and Paystack transaction references. We do not store your full card numbers or banking details — payment processing is handled entirely by Paystack.

3. Data Usage & AI Analytics

We use your personal data for the following purposes:

• Service provision: To create and manage your account, generate AI-powered lessons, tutoring responses, quizzes, and academic project drafts.
• Personalization: To tailor content to your selected academic level, curriculum, and learning history.
• AI processing: Your inputs (questions, research topics, uploaded EViews files) are sent to our AI language model providers to generate responses. These providers process your data solely to return results to us and do not use it for their own training purposes.
• Communication: To send you service-related emails such as account verification, password reset, and subscription notifications.
• Analytics & improvement: To track aggregated usage events (feature interactions, page visits) that help us understand how the platform is used and improve our services. We do not sell your personal data to any third party.
• Legal compliance: To maintain records of user agreement acceptance and process subscription payments.

4. Third-Party Processors

We rely on the following third-party services to operate the platform. Each processor has its own privacy policy governing your data when it is in their systems:

5. Data Retention & Security

5.1 Data Retention

We retain your personal data for as long as your account is active. If you request account deletion, we will initiate the removal of your personal data from our active systems within 30 days. User agreement records may be retained for a longer period as required for legal compliance and liability protection. Aggregate, anonymized usage data that cannot be linked to your identity may be retained indefinitely for analytics purposes.

5.2 Security Measures

We implement reasonable technical and organizational measures to protect your personal data, including:

• Encrypted data transmission using HTTPS/TLS protocols.
• Secure cloud infrastructure with access controls and authentication.
• Row-level security policies that ensure each user can only access their own data.
• Administrator-only access to sensitive operations, restricted by role.
• Regular security reviews and updates to our systems.

While we strive to protect your data, no system can guarantee absolute security. We will notify you of any data breach affecting your personal data in accordance with applicable laws.

6. Data Sharing & Disclosure

We do not sell, rent, or trade your personal data to any third party. We share your data only in the following circumstances:

• Service providers & processors: We share data with the third-party processors listed in Section 4, solely to operate the platform on our behalf.
• Legal & law enforcement: We may disclose your data if required to do so by law, court order, or government regulation, or if we believe in good faith that disclosure is necessary to protect our rights, comply with a legal process, enforce our User Agreement, investigate fraud, or protect the safety of our users or the public.
• Business transfers: In the event of a merger, acquisition, asset sale, or similar business transaction, your data may be transferred as part of that transaction, subject to the protections described in this policy.
• Consent: We may share data with any third party when you explicitly consent to such sharing.

Apart from these circumstances, we do not share your personal data with any other third parties without your consent.

7. Legal Basis for Processing

We process your personal data on the following legal bases:

• Consent: You provide your data voluntarily when you create an account, accept the User Agreement, or use specific features such as uploading EViews files. You may withdraw consent at any time.
• Contract: Processing is necessary to provide the services you requested under our User Agreement, including account management, content generation, and subscription delivery.
• Legitimate interests: We process data for purposes such as platform security, fraud prevention, analytics, and legal compliance, where our interests are balanced against your rights.
• Legal obligation: We may process data to comply with applicable laws, regulations, and legal processes.

8. International Data Transfers

EasyEcon operates from Nigeria and serves users across Africa. However, your personal data may be transferred to and processed in countries outside your country of residence, including the United States and other jurisdictions where our cloud infrastructure providers, AI language model providers (such as Anthropic and Google), and payment processors (Paystack) are located.

When we transfer your data internationally, we rely on appropriate safeguards such as standard contractual clauses, provider-level data protection agreements, and the privacy commitments of our processors. We ensure that any international transfer is carried out in compliance with applicable data protection laws and that your data receives a level of protection consistent with this Privacy Policy.

By using the platform, you acknowledge and consent to the international transfer of your personal data as described in this section.

9. Cookies & Local Storage

EasyEcon does not use third-party advertising cookies or tracking pixels. We use your browser's local storage to store the following data on your device:

• Authentication tokens: To keep you signed in between page loads and sessions.
• Pending agreement record: A temporary flag stored when you begin Google sign-up, used to record your User Agreement acceptance after the redirect completes, then removed.
• Sidebar preference: Whether you have collapsed the navigation sidebar, to remember your layout choice.
• Geo-location cache: Your approximate region (continent-level), cached for the duration of your browser session so we do not repeatedly query the geolocation service.

You can clear local storage at any time through your browser settings, which will sign you out and remove stored preferences. We do not use cookies for advertising or cross-site tracking.

10. Device & Log Information

When you access the platform, we automatically collect certain device and technical information:

• IP address: We query your IP address through a third-party geolocation service to determine your continent and enforce region-based access control (GeoGuard), restricting the platform to users within Africa. We do not store your IP address permanently; the result is cached in your browser session only.
• Browser & device type: We collect your browser user agent and screen size to optimize the interface and detect mobile devices.
• Usage logs: We log aggregated interaction events (such as feature usage and page visits) for analytics and platform improvement. These logs do not contain your full identity.

This technical data is used solely for security, access control, and service improvement. We do not use it to build a profile of your personal characteristics.

11. Children's Privacy

EasyEcon is designed for university-level Economics students and is not directed to, or intended for use by, anyone under the age of 18. We do not knowingly collect personal data from children under 18.

If we become aware that we have inadvertently collected personal data from a person under 18, we will take steps to delete that data and terminate the account. If you believe a minor has provided us with personal data, please contact us using the information in Section 14 so we can promptly remove it.

12. User Rights

You have the following rights regarding your personal data:

• Right of access: You may request a copy of the personal data we hold about you at any time.
• Right to export: You may request an export of your data in a portable, machine-readable format.
• Right to correction: You may request that we correct any inaccurate or incomplete personal data.
• Right to deletion: You may request that we delete your account and all associated personal data. You can initiate this from within the app's account settings or by contacting us.
• Right to withdraw consent: You may disconnect your Google account or revoke OAuth consent at any time through your Google account settings.
• Right to object: You may object to the processing of your personal data for certain purposes.

To exercise any of these rights, please contact us using the information provided in Section 14 below. We will respond to your request within 30 days.

13. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices, legal requirements, or the services we offer. When we make material changes, we will update the "Effective Date" at the top of this page and, where appropriate, notify you through the platform or by email.

We encourage you to review this page periodically to stay informed about how we collect and use your data. Your continued use of the platform after any changes take effect constitutes your acceptance of the updated Privacy Policy. If you do not agree with the updated terms, you may close your account and stop using the platform.

14. Contact & Data Officer

If you have any questions, concerns, or requests regarding this Privacy Policy or your personal data, please contact us:

We are committed to resolving any privacy-related concerns promptly and transparently.