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Privacy Policy

Recitely reads the contents of web pages in order to work, and sends your questions straight to Google's AI using a key you provide yourself — so we owe you an unusually specific explanation of what that means in practice, not just a boilerplate policy.

Last updated: July 25, 2026

1. Overview & our principle

Recitely is a browser extension and companion website that detects homework problems on the page you're viewing and offers step-by-step tutoring hints. Because the extension works by reading page content — including, for some problems, images — and because it sends your questions directly to a third-party AI service, we think a normal "we may collect information" privacy policy isn't good enough. This page explains, in specific terms, what Recitely looks at, what it sends anywhere (and to whom), and what it never touches at all.

The short version: Recitely never runs in the background or on page load — it only reads a page after you explicitly click "Scan this page" or select text and choose "Ask Recitely about this." It does not monitor your browsing, read other tabs, or collect data on pages you haven't activated it on. To use the AI tutor, you provide your own free Google Gemini API key; your questions go directly from your browser to Google using that key — Recitely has no backend server sitting in the middle of that traffic.

2. What the extension accesses on your device

Recitely's content scripts do not run automatically on page load, on any site — including WebAssign, Pearson, ALEKS, and every other platform listed elsewhere on this site. They only run when you take an explicit action:

  • Clicking "Scan this page" in the extension popup — this works identically on any website, not just a fixed list of supported platforms.
  • Selecting text and choosing "Ask Recitely about this" from the right-click menu — also works on any site, and skips straight to tutoring since there's nothing to mis-detect when you've picked the text yourself.

Once activated for that specific page load, Recitely keeps watching for newly-appearing problems as the page changes (many homework platforms load questions dynamically) — but a plain page refresh clears that activation, and you'll need to click "Scan this page" again. Nothing about this is silent or automatic on first load.

When active, it may read:

  • The text of a detected problem and its surrounding container, to identify the question and any answer choices.
  • A snapshot of a diagram or image belonging to that specific problem, if the problem has no usable text (for example a scanned equation).
  • The text you highlight yourself when using "Ask Recitely about this."
  • The messages you type into the tutoring chat panel, and the AI's replies.
  • Notes you choose to write for the page you're on, including any images you attach or paste into a note.
  • Your saved preferences (tutoring style, language, theme) and your own Gemini API key, if you've added one.

All of this happens inside an isolated Shadow DOM panel injected by the extension — it cannot read fields on the host page outside the problem it's currently working with, and it cannot see anything on tabs where it hasn't been activated.

3. What leaves your device (and where it goes)

Subject detection (figuring out whether a problem is calculus, chemistry, and so on) runs entirely on your device using a local keyword classifier — nothing is sent anywhere for that step. Math verification (double-checking that a specific computed fact in a hint, like a derivative or integral, is actually correct) also runs entirely on your device, using a real Python math library compiled to run inside your browser — nothing leaves your device for that check either.

To generate an actual tutoring response, Recitely has no backend of its own in the loop: your browser sends the following directly to Google's Gemini API, using the API key you obtained yourself (free, from Google AI Studio) and pasted into Recitely's Options page:

  • The detected (or selected) problem text, and any attached problem image.
  • Your chat messages for that session, so the tutor has context for follow-up questions.

Recitely's own servers never see this traffic — it goes from your browser to Google. If you choose to create a Recitely account on the companion website and log in, your session is handed to the extension automatically so it can show your email and plan status on the Options page; this is entirely optional and has no effect on whether the AI tutor works, which only ever depends on whether you've added a Gemini API key.

4. Website & account data

Creating a Recitely account on this website (optional) involves providing an email address and password, handled by our authentication provider, Supabase. The AI tutor works fully without ever creating an account — an account today only syncs your email and plan status for display in the extension's Options page. Recitely does not currently offer any paid plans, so no payment or billing information is collected anywhere.

5. What we never collect

Recitely does not collect your general browsing history, the contents of tabs or sites where it hasn't been activated, keystrokes outside the tutoring chat box and notes panel, passwords or autofill data from other sites, or full-page screenshots. It never sells data, and it never uses your data for ad targeting.

6. How we use data

Whatever data Recitely reads is used only to:

  • Generate a tutoring response to the problem you're asking about (by sending it to Gemini on your behalf, using your key).
  • Identify the subject and tailor notation/terminology accordingly.
  • Save your preferences, notes, and study history locally on your device, for your own future reference.
  • Maintain your account and plan status, if you've created one.

Recitely itself does not use your problem content or chat messages to train any model, and does not share them with data brokers. Once your data reaches Google's Gemini API, though, it's subject to Google's own terms — see the note below.

7. Third-party services

  • Google Gemini API — receives problem text/images and chat messages only when you actively use the AI tutor, sent using your own API key. This traffic is subject to Google's own privacy policy and Gemini API terms, not Recitely's — and Google's terms draw a distinction between free- and paid-tier API keys regarding whether prompts may be used to improve their products. If that distinction matters to you, please review Google's Gemini API terms directly.
  • Supabase — our authentication provider; only involved if you choose to create or log into a Recitely account on the website. Stores your email and handles password hashing for that account.
  • No advertising networks, third-party analytics, or tracking pixels are used anywhere in Recitely today.
  • No payment processor is integrated — Recitely doesn't collect billing information because there's nothing to bill yet.

8. Retention & deletion

Your API key, preferences, notes (including any attached images), and conversation history live entirely in your browser's local extension storage and are never uploaded anywhere by Recitely. They persist until you clear them yourself — via the notes panel's delete/"Clear all notes" controls, the popup's history "Clear" button, or the Options page — or until you uninstall the extension, which removes all of this automatically. If you've created a Recitely account, that account data is retained while your account is active; contact us (below) to request its deletion.

9. Security

Requests to Google's Gemini API and to Supabase are sent over encrypted HTTPS connections. Locally stored data — your API key, preferences, notes, and history — is kept in your browser's sandboxed extension storage, isolated from ordinary web pages and never transmitted by Recitely except in the direct-to-Google requests described above. Account passwords are handled by Supabase using industry-standard hashing; Recitely never stores or sees your plain-text password.

10. Children's privacy

Recitely is built for students, some of whom are minors. We don't use data from any user, regardless of age, for advertising or behavioral tracking. Using the AI tutor requires obtaining a Gemini API key directly from Google AI Studio, which is a separate Google service subject to Google's own account and age-eligibility rules, outside Recitely's control. If you're under 13, please use Recitely with a parent's or guardian's permission, or through a school-provided account where applicable. A parent or guardian who believes their child has created a Recitely account without permission can contact us to have it removed.

11. Your rights & choices

You can, at any time:

  • Clear individual notes, clear all notes, or clear your conversation history from within the extension.
  • Remove your Gemini API key from Options — the AI tutor simply stops working until you add one again; nothing about doing this deletes anything on Google's side.
  • Remove the extension to delete all locally stored data (API key, preferences, notes, history) at once.
  • Request a copy of, or deletion of, your Recitely account data, if you've created one.

To exercise any of these, reach out using the contact details below.

12. Cookies & tracking

The extension itself does not use cookies. The website uses only the minimal strictly-necessary session cookie or token needed to keep you signed in, if you've chosen to create an account — no advertising or third-party tracking cookies are used anywhere in Recitely today.

13. Changes to this policy

If this policy changes in a way that meaningfully affects what we collect or how we use it, we'll update the date at the top of this page and, for account holders, provide a more prominent notice before the change takes effect.

14. Contact us

Questions about this policy or your data? Reach us at privacy@recitely.app.