Privacy Policy

Our Commitment to Your Privacy

At StyleMyPaper, we understand that your academic documents contain your original research, ideas, and hard work. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, protect, and handle your information.

StyleMyPaper is a service of Mae Raaki LLC, a North Carolina limited liability company.

1. Information We Collect

Information You Provide

Account Information

• Name and email address when you create an account
• Password (stored securely using one-way hashing)
• University or institution affiliation (optional)

Payment Information

• Payment details are processed securely through Stripe
• We never store your full credit card number
• We retain only the last 4 digits and card type for your reference

Documents

• Academic papers and documents you upload for formatting
• Document metadata (filename, upload date, page count)

Communications

• Support requests and correspondence
• Feedback you provide about our service

Information Automatically Collected

Usage Data

• Features you use and how you interact with the service
• Documents processed and formatting options selected
• Error logs when issues occur

Technical Data

• Browser type and version
• Device type and operating system
• IP address (used for security and fraud prevention)
• General location (country/region level, derived from IP)

Cookies and Similar Technologies

• Session cookies to keep you logged in
• Preference cookies to remember your settings
• Analytics cookies to understand service usage (see Section 8)

2. How We Use Your Information

To Provide Our Service

• Process and format your documents
• Maintain your account and document history
• Process payments and manage subscriptions

To Improve Our Service

• Analyze usage patterns to improve features
• Debug issues and fix errors
• Develop new functionality

To Communicate With You

• Send account notifications (password resets, payment confirmations)
• Respond to support requests
• Send service updates (you can opt out of non-essential communications)

To Protect Our Service

• Prevent fraud and abuse
• Enforce our Terms of Service
• Comply with legal obligations

3. How Your Documents Are Processed

AI-Powered Analysis

StyleMyPaper uses artificial intelligence to analyze your documents:

What We Use AI For:

• Identifying document structure (headings, sections, paragraphs)
• Detecting references and citations
• Recognizing tables, figures, and block quotes
• Analyzing formatting patterns

AI Provider:

We use Claude, developed by Anthropic, for document analysis.

Anthropic's Commitments: Anthropic's commercial API terms prohibit using customer data for model training. For details, see Anthropic's Privacy Policy.

Human Review

In certain circumstances, StyleMyPaper staff may view your documents:

• When you request it: Human review sessions you purchase
• For support: When you report an issue and share your document for debugging
• For quality assurance: Randomly selected, anonymized document samples (structure only, not content)

Staff who access documents are bound by confidentiality agreements.

4. How We Share Information

We share information only in these circumstances:

All service providers are bound by data processing agreements and use industry-standard security.

Legal Requirements

We may disclose information if required by law, such as:

• Valid subpoenas or court orders
• Government requests (we will notify you unless legally prohibited)
• To protect our rights or safety, or the rights and safety of others

5. Data Retention

We keep your documents for as long as you want them. Your uploaded and formatted documents stay in your account until you delete them or delete your account. This is the same on every plan, free or paid. Your account data is kept until you delete your account.

After Account Deletion:

• Documents: Deleted within 30 days
• Account data: Deleted within 30 days
• Payment records: Retained 7 years (legal requirement)
• Anonymized analytics: May be retained indefinitely

You can delete your documents at any time through your account dashboard.

6. Data Security

We implement industry-standard security measures:

Technical Safeguards

• All data encrypted in transit (TLS 1.3)
• Data encrypted at rest
• Regular security assessments
• Access controls and authentication

Organizational Safeguards

• Employee confidentiality agreements
• Access limited to those who need it
• Security training for staff
• Incident response procedures

What We Cannot Guarantee: No system is 100% secure. While we take security seriously, we cannot guarantee absolute security. You are responsible for maintaining the security of your account credentials.

7. Data Breach Notification

In the event of a data breach affecting your personal information:

• We will notify affected users within 72 hours of discovery
• We will notify relevant authorities as required by law
• We will provide information about what data was affected
• We will provide guidance on steps you can take to protect yourself

8. Analytics

We use analytics to understand how our service is used:

What We Track:

• Page views and feature usage (aggregated)
• Document processing metrics (anonymized)
• Error rates and performance data

What We Don't Track:

• Document contents for analytics
• Individual behavior profiles for advertising
• Cross-site tracking

You may opt out of analytics through browser settings or extensions like uBlock Origin.

9. Your Rights and Choices

All Users

You have the right to:

• Access your personal data
• Correct inaccurate data
• Delete your account and data
• Export your documents
• Opt out of non-essential communications

To exercise these rights, email privacy@stylemypaper.com.

California Residents (CCPA)

If you are a California resident, you have additional rights:

• Right to Know: What personal information we collect and how we use it
• Right to Delete: Request deletion of your personal information
• Right to Opt-Out: We do not sell personal information, so this doesn't apply
• Right to Non-Discrimination: We won't treat you differently for exercising your rights

To submit a request, email privacy@stylemypaper.com with "CCPA Request" in the subject line. We will verify your identity and respond within 45 days.

EU/UK Users (GDPR)

If you are in the European Union or United Kingdom:

Legal Basis for Processing:

• Contract: To provide services you've requested
• Legitimate Interest: To improve our service and prevent fraud
• Consent: For optional communications (you can withdraw anytime)

Additional Rights:

• Data Portability: Receive your data in a structured format
• Restrict Processing: Limit how we use your data
• Object to Processing: Object to processing based on legitimate interest
• Lodge a Complaint: With your local data protection authority

Data Transfers: Your data may be transferred to the United States. We use Standard Contractual Clauses approved by the European Commission to protect data transferred outside the EU.

To exercise your rights, email privacy@stylemypaper.com.

10. Children's Privacy

StyleMyPaper is designed for college and graduate students. We do not knowingly collect information from children under:

• 13 years old (United States)
• 16 years old (European Union/UK)

If we discover we have collected information from a child under these ages, we will delete it promptly. If you believe a child has provided us information, please contact privacy@stylemypaper.com.

11. Third-Party Links

Our service may contain links to third-party websites (e.g., style guide resources). We are not responsible for the privacy practices of these sites. We encourage you to review their privacy policies.

12. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time.

For Material Changes:

• We will notify you via email at least 30 days before changes take effect
• We will post a prominent notice on the Service
• Continued use after the effective date constitutes acceptance

For Non-Material Changes:

• We will update the "Last Updated" date
• We encourage you to review this policy periodically

13. Contact Us

We aim to respond to all privacy inquiries within 30 days.