Privacy policy

This Privacy Policy explains how Aritra Sarkar ("Learnest", "we", "us") collects, uses, and shares personal data when you use the Learnest service. It should be read alongside our Terms and Conditions.

Who we are

Learnest is operated by Aritra Sarkar, an individual developer based in India, who is the data controller for the personal data described in this Policy. You can reach us at any time at [email protected].

What this policy covers

The "Service" means all of the following, which share one account and one set of data practices:

• the website and web application at trylearnest.com;
• the Learnest app for Android, published on Google Play under the package name com.learnest.mobile; and
• the Learnest app for iOS, published under the same bundle identifier.

1. Information we collect

Information you provide

• Account information — name, email address, and password (if you sign up with email), or the profile information Google shares with us if you sign in with Google (name, email address, profile photo).
• Role and institution information — whether you are a teacher or a student, and the Classrooms you create or join.
• Content — questions, exams, answers, notes, and files you upload or generate, including student answer scripts submitted during an Attempt.
• Communications — messages you send us, such as support requests to [email protected].

Information collected automatically

• Usage and device data — pages and screens viewed, actions taken, approximate location derived from IP address, device and browser type, and similar diagnostic data, collected through PostHog (see Section 4).
• Exam session metadata — timing, connectivity, and app-focus events recorded during a proctored Attempt, as described in our Terms.
• Push notification tokens — a device identifier used to deliver exam reminders through the mobile app, if you enable notifications.

Payment information

Payments are processed by Razorpay. We receive confirmation that a payment succeeded and transaction metadata (amount, plan, and date), but we do not receive or store your full card number, UPI ID, or bank account details — those are handled directly by Razorpay under its own privacy policy.

Connected accounts

These are optional. Nothing below is collected unless you connect the account yourself, and disconnecting it inside Learnest revokes our access immediately.

• Google Calendar — if you connect it, we ask Google for the calendar.app.created permission. That permission reaches only calendars Learnest itself creates, so we make one called "Learnest exams" in your account and use it for one thing: putting the exams you are scheduled for onto it, and moving or removing those entries when an exam moves or is cancelled. We cannot see your other calendars. Not your primary calendar, not any calendar you made or were invited to — the permission does not grant it, so there is nothing there for us to read even by accident. We store the token Google issues us, encrypted, so we can keep those entries up to date without asking you to sign in again — plus the address of the account you connected, so we can show you which one it is. Nothing from your calendar is used to train models or shown to anyone else, and you can hide or delete the Learnest calendar from Google Calendar at any time without affecting anything else in your account.

What we do not collect

The Service does not collect webcam, microphone, biometric, or precise GPS location data, on any platform. Proctoring during an Attempt is limited to the session metadata described above. We do not record your screen — session recording is disabled at the source across the entire Service — and we do not read your contacts, SMS, call logs, or the files on your device outside the ones you choose to upload. We do not access your calendar either: the Google Calendar connection described under Connected accounts above reaches only a calendar we create for you, and is off unless you turn it on.

2. How we use information

We use the information above to:

• Provide, operate, and secure the Service;
• Run AI-assisted features you request, such as generating or marking exam questions;
• Schedule and administer Classrooms and exam Attempts, and share results with the relevant teacher or Institution;
• Process payments and manage your Wallet Credits balance;
• Send transactional messages, including exam reminders;
• Understand how the Service is used, to fix problems and improve it; and
• Comply with legal obligations and enforce our Terms.

We do not use your personal data for advertising, and we do not sell it or share it with data brokers.

Learnest's use of information received from Google APIs adheres to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements. Data obtained through those APIs is used only to provide the feature you enabled it for, is never sold or transferred for advertising, and is never used to train generalised AI models.

3. AI processing

When you use an AI-assisted feature, the relevant Content — for example, a prompt describing the exam you want, or a file you ask the AI to draft questions from — is sent to our AI providers, Anthropic and OpenAI, to generate a response. We do not send your Razorpay payment details to these providers. Review each provider's own policy for how they handle data sent to their models; we do not permit training of their models on your Content beyond what is necessary to generate your response.

4. Cookies and analytics

We use PostHog, hosted in the EU, to understand how the Service is used. PostHog may set cookies or use browser local storage to distinguish visitors and, once you sign in, associates that activity with your account (email, name, role, and internal user ID) so we can see how the product is used by teachers versus students. Session recording is disabled at the source across the entire Service — we do not record your screen, and an exam Attempt is never captured as a replay. Analytics is opt-in per environment and may not run at all in some deployments.

5. How we share information

We do not sell your personal data. We share it with the following categories of recipients, each acting under their own agreement with us:

• Firebase (Google) — authentication and identity;
• Razorpay — payment processing;
• Anthropic and OpenAI — AI-assisted features, as described in Section 3;
• Cloudflare — storage of uploaded files and generated documents;
• PostHog — product analytics, as described in Section 4;
• Your Institution — a teacher or school administrator can see the Classrooms, exams, and results that belong to their own Institution;
• Legal and safety — where required by law, legal process, or to protect the rights, property, or safety of Learnest, our users, or others; and
• Business transfers — in connection with a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets, subject to this Policy continuing to apply to your data.

6. International data transfers

Some of the providers listed in Section 5 process data outside India — for example, our AI providers process data in the United States, and our analytics provider processes data in the European Union. Where we transfer personal data internationally, we rely on the provider's own compliance framework and, where required, contractual safeguards.

7. Data retention

We keep personal data for as long as your Account is active, and for a reasonable period afterwards to comply with legal, tax, or accounting obligations, resolve disputes, and enforce our agreements. Exam Attempt data is generally retained for as long as the relevant Classroom or Institution keeps it, since it forms part of that Institution's academic record.

9. Data security

We use technical and organisational measures — including encryption in transit, access controls, and reliance on providers with their own security certifications (such as Razorpay for payments) — to protect personal data. No method of transmission or storage is completely secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.

10. Your rights

Depending on where you live, you may have the right to access, correct, delete, or receive a copy of your personal data, and to withdraw consent where processing is based on it. You can exercise most of these directly from your account settings, or by writing to [email protected] — deletion is covered in Section 8. If you are a student whose Account was created by an Institution, some requests may need to go through that Institution, since they control the underlying Classroom and academic record.

11. Children's data

Learnest is an exam platform used by students, some of whom are under 18. Where a student is enrolled by an Institution — for example, joining a Classroom their school set up — we treat the Institution as having obtained any consent required to enrol that student. Where a person under 18 creates their own Account directly, this should only happen with a parent or legal guardian's consent and involvement, as set out in our Terms. We do not knowingly direct advertising at children and we do not use their data to build profiles for any purpose other than running the Service. A parent or guardian who believes their child has provided personal data without appropriate consent can contact us at [email protected] to request its review or deletion.

12. Grievance officer

In accordance with applicable Indian law, Aritra Sarkar acts as the grievance officer for the Service. You can raise a privacy complaint or grievance at [email protected]. We will acknowledge your complaint and aim to resolve it within a reasonable time.

13. Changes to this policy

We may update this Policy from time to time. If a change is material, we will give reasonable notice — for example, by email or an in-app notice — before it takes effect.

Contact us

Questions about this Policy, or requests relating to your personal data, can be sent to [email protected].