Privacy policy

Last updated: October 17, 2026

What Ask William is

Ask William is a parent-controlled learning companion. A parent uploads curriculum material, approves it, and their child can then ask questions and receive answers drawn only from that approved material, with citations to the source passage.

Accounts and roles

• Only a parent holds an account and signs in. Children do not have passwords or separate logins.
• A parent starts a locked session and hands the device to one child. The session is time-limited (about one hour).
• Children are identified by a name or initial the parent enters, never by photo. Avatars are initials or cartoons.

What we collect

• Parent account: email address used to sign in.
• Curriculum: files and text the parent uploads (text, Markdown, or PDF). Originals are stored privately so the parent can re-download them.
• Child activity: the questions a child asks and the answers given, so the parent can review them.

We do not collect child photos, child accounts, or contact information for children.

Parental consent and control

• Consent happens in the app: a child session cannot start until the parent has granted consent.
• Every child is treated as under 13 for privacy purposes.
• Parents can turn access off per child, set question limits, review all questions and answers, and revoke consent and delete a child's data at any time.
• Question and answer history is retained for 90 days for parent review, then deleted.

How answers are generated

• Uploaded curriculum is checked, split into small passages, and held in quarantine until the parent previews and approves it. Only approved passages are used.
• Answers cite the approved passages they come from. If a question is not covered by the approved curriculum, the app says so rather than guessing.
• The AI provider is a setting controlled only by the app administrator. During the preview, answers use Google's Gemini free tier.
• While on the Gemini free tier, no real child data is used. Preview testing uses fake data only, because Google may use free-tier prompts to improve its products.

Service providers

The app runs on: Supabase (database and private file storage), Render (application API), Netlify (this website), and Google Gemini (answer generation during preview). Each processes data only as needed to run the service.

What we do not do

• No advertising, no tracking pixels, no sale of personal information.
• No child profiles shared with anyone outside the parent's own family account.
• No billing is live during the preview; no payment information is collected.

Data deletion

A parent can delete a child's data from within the app (revoke and delete). Deleting the family account removes uploaded curriculum and question history. Some information may remain in encrypted backups for a limited period before being purged.

Changes

If this policy changes, the "last updated" date above will change, and material changes will be flagged on this page before they take effect.

Contact

Ask William is operated by Michael Cooner. A dedicated privacy contact address for askwilliam.app will be published here before public launch. [TODO before launch: publish privacy contact address.]