Privacy Policy
Last updated September 11, 2026
Vizualize is a desktop app built to keep your learning on your own computer. This page says, in plain language, what stays on your machine, what leaves it and where it goes, and what we — the developer — actually hold about you. It is written to be checked against how the app behaves, not just believed.
No analytics, no telemetry, no tracking. The app contains no analytics kit, no crash reporter, and no advertising identifiers. We receive nothing about how you use it unless you create an account or use Premium's cloud AI, and then only what is listed below.
1. What stays on your computer
Your courses, lessons, chat history, quiz results, Study documents and their version history, decks and albums, highlights, and settings live in files on your own computer — a local database and a settings file in your operating system's app-data folder. They are never uploaded by the app. Any API keys you add, and your account sign-in, are stored in your operating system's own credential manager, not in a plain file. Exported files go only where you choose to save them. Settings → Data & Privacy → Clear all data removes all of it.
2. Your AI setting decides what leaves
| Setting | Where your lesson text goes |
|---|---|
| Local, fully offline | Nowhere. The app talks only to an AI model running on your own machine. Lookups, pictures, and update checks are switched off. |
| Local, online | Lessons are written by the model on your machine. Only the lookups in section 6 use the network. Dictation stays local if you have attached a local speech server; otherwise it uses Vizualize Cloud or your own key as above, and the app says which. |
| Your own cloud key | Your prompts, your teaching-style instructions, any images you attach, audio you dictate, and the model's replies go directly from your computer to the AI provider you chose, under your own account with them and their privacy policy. We are not in the middle and do not see it. |
| Vizualize Cloud (Premium) | The same text goes to our server, which forwards it to an AI provider using our account. See section 5. |
3. If you create an account
An account is optional; the free tier never needs one. If you create one, we store on our servers:
- your email address and a securely hashed password (we cannot read the password);
- your plan (free or Premium) and subscription status;
- a customer reference from our payment provider, if you have ever paid;
- a count of how much of the monthly cloud-AI allowance you have used — a number, not the text.
Our account and database service is hosted in the United States. We send you email only to confirm your address, reset your password, and — if you subscribe — about your subscription. No newsletters unless you ask for one.
4. If you pay for Premium
Payment is handled entirely by our payment provider on their secure checkout page. Your card details go to them, never to us; we receive a confirmation, a customer reference, and the subscription status. The provider acts as the merchant of record for the purchase and handles sales tax; their own privacy policy covers the payment data they hold. Your email address is shared with them so they can send receipts and manage your subscription.
5. If you use Vizualize Cloud
When you pick a Vizualize Cloud model, ask for a generated picture, or dictate with Vizualize Cloud, the content of your request (your prompt, teaching-style instructions, the relevant lesson or passage, any image you attached, any picture description, and the audio clip you dictated) is sent to our server, which checks that you are signed in and on Premium, then forwards the request to a third-party AI provider under our account and streams the answer back to you.
- We do not store the content of requests or answers. Our server keeps only the token count, so we can apply the monthly allowance, and error messages if something fails.
- The AI provider processes the text to generate the answer under an agreement that does not permit using it to train their models. Which provider we use can change; the current one is named on request at support@vizualize.app.
- We attach an anonymous account identifier to each request so the provider can apply abuse controls; we do not send your email or name.
6. Lookups the app makes
Outside fully-offline mode, some features fetch public information from third parties. What they receive is the search term, not your lesson:
- Pictures for lessons — searches of public image collections (Wikimedia Commons, NASA's image library, The Metropolitan Museum of Art's open-access collection, and Wikipedia) receive the topic being illustrated.
- Citations and reading — the Study's source lookup queries the OpenAlex scholarly index and Project Gutenberg with the title or author you type; study-card definitions and concept popovers query Wikipedia with the term.
- Web research — only if you have installed and attached your own search instance; the app never starts one for you.
- Update checks — the app asks our release server whether a newer version exists, sending its current version and platform, nothing else.
Each of these services has its own privacy policy and receives your IP address as part of any web request, as any website does.
7. How long we keep things
Account details are kept while your account exists. Monthly usage counts are kept for the current and previous twelve months so we can answer billing questions, then deleted. Payment records are kept by the payment provider for as long as tax and accounting law requires. When you ask us to delete your account, we delete the account, profile, and usage counts within 30 days; the payment provider keeps its own transaction records as required by law.
8. Your rights
Wherever you are, you can ask us what we hold about you, ask for it to be corrected or deleted, or object to how it is used, by emailing support@vizualize.app. We will answer within 30 days. If you are in the EU, UK, or a US state with a privacy law, you have these rights under that law and may also complain to your local data-protection authority. We do not sell personal information and do not share it for advertising.
Our legal basis for handling account and payment data is performing our contract with you; for the minimal server logs, our legitimate interest in keeping the service secure.
9. Children
Vizualize accounts are for people aged 13 and over (16 in the European Economic Area). The app itself can be used at any age on a parent's computer without an account, in which case nothing about the child leaves that computer. If you believe a child under the age limit has created an account, email us and we will delete it.
10. Changes
If we change this policy in a way that matters — new data collected, a new recipient — we will tell account holders by email and update the date at the top before the change takes effect.
11. Contact
Ethan Whitaker
Email: support@vizualize.app