Culleva

Privacy Policy

Last updated: 18 October 2026

1. Who we are

References to "we", "us", and "our" mean the operator of Culleva (the "Service"). References to "you" mean the person using the Service. If you have any questions about this policy, contact support@culleva.com.

This policy explains what personal information we collect, how we use it, who we share it with, and your rights under the Australian Privacy Principles in the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth).

2. Information we collect

2.1 Information you provide

  • Account information: your email address, password (stored only as a hashed value, never in plain text), and name.
  • Profile preferences: theme and citation style.
  • Content you create: reviews and the briefs, rubrics, and drafts you upload or paste (PDF, DOCX, text), and citations.

2.2 Information collected automatically

When you use the Service, our backend records technical information needed to deliver it: session tokens, the timestamps of your activity inside the app, and basic error logs.

We also store feature activity needed to operate the app: file metadata, and AI processing job status and error metadata. These are operational records, not analytics.

Our hosting and backend providers collect basic operational logs as part of running the service: things like request timestamps, response codes, IP addresses, and user-agent strings. These are used to diagnose errors, prevent abuse, and understand whether old domains (such as the legacy assignmate.dev ) still receive traffic.

We use Google Analytics 4 (provided by Google LLC) to understand how visitors find and use the site, so we can improve it. Google Analytics sets cookies and collects usage data such as the pages you view, approximate location (derived from a truncated IP address), device and browser type, and how you arrived at the site. We have IP anonymisation enabled. This data is processed on Google's servers in the United States. We do not use advertising trackers and have not enabled Google's advertising or ad-personalisation features. You can opt out of Google Analytics across all sites with Google's browser opt-out add-on.

2.3 Information from third-party sign-in providers

If you sign in with Google or Microsoft, we receive your email address, name, and profile picture from that provider. We don't receive your password and don't ask the provider for any additional permissions.

3. How we use your information

  • To provide the Service: storing your reviews, files, citations, and other content you create.
  • To process content through AI features when you ask us to (see Section 5).
  • To diagnose and fix bugs.
  • To enforce our Terms of Service and protect the safety of the Service.
  • To comply with legal obligations (for example, responding to a valid subpoena).

We do not sell your personal information. We do not share it with advertisers. We do not use your content to train AI models.

4. Service providers we share information with

We use the following third-party services to run Culleva. Each receives only the information needed for their role.

  • Backend & data storage provider (United States): database, file storage, scheduled functions, and realtime subscriptions. All your account data and content lives here.
  • Hosting provider (United States): hosts the frontend at culleva.com and serves the web app.
  • AI providers (United States): process text excerpts when you use AI features. See Section 5.
  • Google (Google LLC, USA): handles Google Sign-In if you choose that sign-in method, and provides Google Analytics for site usage measurement (see Section 2.2).
  • Microsoft (Microsoft Corporation, USA): handles Microsoft Sign-In if you choose that sign-in method.
  • Stripe (Stripe, Inc., USA): processes payments for the optional Pro subscription. Card details are entered on Stripe’s hosted Checkout and Customer Portal pages and never touch Culleva’s servers. We receive only the resulting Stripe customer and subscription identifiers, the current billing-period end date, and your active subscription status (which determines whether your account is on the free or Pro tier).

These providers are our service providers. Where applicable, they process personal information for us and only for the purposes needed to provide Culleva.

5. How AI features work and what they receive

The AI features in Culleva (AI Review, the Citation Checker, and the optional writing deep check) work by sending text excerpts to third-party AI providers' APIs.

  • What is sent: only the relevant text from the materials you submitted to that feature, plus a fixed system prompt. Nothing else in your account is sent with it.
  • What that text can contain: depending on the feature, the text excerpt may include extracted content from uploaded PDF, DOCX, or text files; text you pasted; and citation documents. AI Review sends excerpts of your assessment task, marking rubric, and draft. The Citation Checker sends document text in document-scan mode. The writing deep check sends the draft you asked it to check.
  • AI data handling: your content is not used to train AI models. Our AI providers may retain content briefly for abuse monitoring and as required by law.
  • Practical advice: don't put highly sensitive information (financial details, identity documents, confidential personal data of others) into drafts, documents, or other AI inputs. The AI features are designed for academic content.

5.1 Citation Checker URL fetching

If you use the Citation Checker's URL-fetch mode, we receive the URL you submit and our backend fetches the page server-side to extract citation metadata such as title, author, publication date, site name, and similar fields. We keep the URL alongside the resulting reference in your library. Other servers and the page's host may log our request, in line with normal web traffic.

5.2 AI writing check

The free AI writing check runs entirely in your browser: text you paste and files you open in it are read on your device and never sent to us or to any AI provider. The optional deep check is different: when you start one, the draft is sent to our AI providers to produce suggestions, and is not stored by Culleva.

6. Retired features

Group workspaces (shared assignments, group chat, shared files and links, tasks, meetings, and the shared whiteboard), the calendar and notifications, and the voice and screen-share channel were removed from Culleva in September 2026. The content and connection metadata they held were deleted from the live service at the same time. Voice and screen-share media was always sent peer-to-peer and was never recorded or stored by us. Everything in Culleva is now private to your account. The AI Study Coach (course summaries, glossaries, quizzes, flashcards, and summary narration) was retired on 18 October 2026. The study materials, generated content, and quiz and flashcard history stored for it were deleted from the live service at the same time, and backup copies age out within the backup window described in Data retention below.

7. Data retention

We keep your information for as long as your account is active. When you delete your account, we delete the following from active storage within 30 days:

  • Your AI reviews and the briefs, rubrics, and drafts uploaded for them.
  • Your saved citations, citation folders, and citation scans.
  • Your sign-in records (auth accounts, sessions, refresh tokens), so the same email can be used to register a fresh account in future.

We also anonymise your account row rather than deleting it outright. Identifying fields (your name, email, profile image, preferences, and billing details) are cleared, and a deletion timestamp is recorded. The emptied row is kept only as a marker that the account was deleted, so that late updates (for example, a final notice from our payment processor) can't attach data to it again.

Encrypted backups are retained for up to 90 days for disaster recovery; after that, the deleted data is permanently removed from backups too.

We may retain limited information after account deletion if required by law (for example, financial transaction records for tax compliance once paid subscriptions are live).

8. Your rights

Under the Australian Privacy Principles, you have the following rights:

  • Access: request a copy of the personal information we hold about you.
  • Correction: request that we correct inaccurate or incomplete information. You can update most fields directly from your profile page.
  • Deletion: delete your account and personal information yourself from the Danger Zone in your profile settings, at any time. You can also email support@culleva.com from the email address linked to your account and we will action confirmed requests within 30 days. See Section 7 for what deletion removes.
  • Complaint: if you believe we have mishandled your information, contact support@culleva.com first. We will acknowledge your complaint, investigate, and respond within a reasonable time. If you're not satisfied with our response, you can lodge a complaint with the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) at oaic.gov.au.

9. Cookies and local storage

Culleva uses cookies needed for authentication, which hold your session token so the app knows you're signed in. We also use Google Analytics cookies to measure site usage (see Section 2.2); these distinguish visitors and remember the start of a visit. We do not use advertising cookies. You can block analytics cookies with the Google opt-out add-on linked in Section 2.2, or by blocking cookies in your browser, without affecting your ability to use the app.

10. Security

We protect your information with HTTPS in transit and encryption at rest. Passwords are stored as hashed values (we cannot read your password even if asked). Our backend provider handles encryption at rest for stored files and database content.

No internet system is perfectly secure. You are responsible for keeping your password and your computer secure. If you suspect your account has been compromised, change your password and email us immediately.

11. Children's privacy

Culleva is intended for university students and is not directed at children under 16. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 16. If we learn that we have collected information from a child under 16, we will delete it.

12. International data transfers

Our backend, hosting, and AI providers operate servers in the United States. By using Culleva you understand that your information may be transferred to, stored, and processed in countries outside Australia.

13. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy when our practices change, when new features add new data flows, or when laws change. We will post the new version here with an updated "Last updated" date. If the changes are significant we will also notify you in-app or by email before they take effect.

14. Contact us

Questions about this policy or your information? Email support@culleva.com.