Privacy policy

Information we collect and why

Personal information can include information you provide directly, information created as you use a service, and information supplied by others. The Service collects the following:

• Account information. To create an account, you give us your full name, an email address at chicagobooth.edu or uchicago.edu, and a password. We store the password only as a one-way (bcrypt) hash, in a table separate from the rest of your account. If an administrator invites you instead, the administrator gives us your name and email address, and you choose a password when you accept.
• Sign-in and security records. We keep the pending links that verify your email address or reset your password, a count of failed sign-in attempts, and the lock placed on an account after ten failures. We also use your IP address and the email address you enter to limit repeated sign-up, sign-in, and password-reset attempts.
• Terms acceptance. When you create an account, we record when you accepted the Terms of Service and which version you accepted.
• Your work in a case. When you join a case, we store the cohort you joined, when you started each attempt and were last active, the messages you send, the replies generated for each character, and the introductions and documents those characters give you.
• Case material. If you write a case, we store what you and your co-authors create and upload: its background and assignment, its characters and their instructions, the rules for introductions and documents, uploaded documents and links, drafts proposed from those documents, your team membership and role, and which team member last edited each case and character.
• AI usage records. For each generated reply, we record which model answered, how many tokens it used, what it cost, how long it took, and the provider's full response. We also keep the model's reasoning data so a character can continue a conversation consistently.
• Request logs. Each request to the Service is logged with its time, the page requested, your IP address, and the form fields submitted. Passwords, email addresses, tokens, and similar secrets are filtered out of these logs.

We use this information to run the Service: to create and secure accounts, send account email, generate each character's replies, let instructors review their students' work, measure and control the cost of AI usage, and find and fix errors. The Service shows no advertising and loads no third-party analytics or advertising scripts.

Your name, email address, and password are required to create an account. The Service sends email only to verify an account, reset a password, unlock an account, or deliver an invitation; it sends no marketing email.

Cookies and similar technology

A cookie is a small piece of information stored by a browser. Browser controls can generally block or delete cookies. Restricting a cookie needed for a particular feature can prevent that feature from working. Other storage and tracking technologies may require different controls.

In a web browser, the Service uses an encrypted session cookie to keep you signed in and to protect its forms against forgery. It lasts until you close your browser, and signing out ends the session. If you sign in from a native mobile app built for the Service, it also sets a remember cookie that keeps that app signed in for up to a year; signing out invalidates it on every device. Your choice of color theme is saved in your browser's local storage and is never sent to us. The Service sets no advertising or analytics cookies.

Access, sharing, and service providers

The fact that information is stored by an application does not by itself explain who can see it. Information shared with other users, access by the operator, and processing by outside providers need separate descriptions.

Within the Service, the instructors on a case's team can see the name of each student who joins one of their cohorts, each student's activity and AI usage cost in the case, and the full transcripts of that student's conversations. Students see the names of a case's instructors. Team members see one another's names and email addresses and who last edited each case and character. Other students cannot see your conversations.

We use these providers to run the Service:

• Render hosts the application, its database, and its logs in Render's Ohio region in the United States. Requests reach Render through Cloudflare's network.
• OpenAI and Anthropic generate each character's replies. For every reply, the provider behind that character receives the character's instructions, which can include the case background, and the conversation so far, including your messages. Your name and email address are not attached to these requests, but anything you write in a message is sent. OpenAI is asked to store each reply so that the next one can continue from it. When an author drafts a case from its documents, the case's PDF, CSV, plain-text, and Markdown documents, the names of its other documents, and any note the author adds go to the provider of the model the author picks.
• Cloudinary stores uploaded case documents and delivers them to your browser when you download one.
• Resend delivers account email, so it receives your name, your email address, and the message.
• Rollbar receives error reports, which can include your account identifier, IP address, browser details, the page requested, and submitted form fields. Passwords, email addresses, tokens, and sign-in cookies are removed before a report is sent.
• Skylight receives performance measurements of how the Service handles requests.

If you follow a link to another service, including a file that an author links to elsewhere, or choose to provide information to another provider, review that provider's privacy notice as well. This notice does not establish the practices of an independent third party.

Retention, removal, and account closure

Removing content from an application screen, closing an account, and deleting all retained copies are different operations. A useful retention description must account for the information still held in active systems, logs, backups, and provider systems, as well as any applicable preservation obligations.

The Service does not delete accounts, case work, or case material on a schedule. Starting a case again begins a new attempt and keeps the earlier ones, which the case's instructors can still read. There is no self-service account deletion; to ask for your account or information to be deleted, contact contact@firstdraft.com.

Security and processing locations

No online service can promise complete security. Information about safeguards should describe measures that are actually used, rather than imply that risk has been eliminated.

The Service is served only over HTTPS. It stores passwords as bcrypt hashes, locks an account after ten failed sign-in attempts, and keeps passwords and similar secrets out of its logs and error reports. It shows a case's material only to its team and the students who have joined it, and each conversation only to its student and the case's team. Render hosts the application and its database in Ohio, in the United States.

Your choices and rights

Depending on applicable law and the circumstances, you may have rights to access or obtain a copy of personal information, correct it, request deletion, restrict or object to particular processing, withdraw consent for processing based on consent, or receive information in a portable form. Some laws provide choices about sale, sharing, targeted advertising, or significant automated decisions. Rights may be subject to conditions and exceptions; their availability depends on the law that applies to you and the relevant processing.

To raise a privacy question or request, contact contact@firstdraft.com. We may need information to verify that a request concerns you, or that you are authorized to act for someone else. Do not send passwords in a privacy request. A request to delete information needed for an account or feature may affect the availability of that account or feature.

You can read your own conversations in the Service and reset your password from the sign-in page. The Service has no self-service controls to change your name or email address, export your information, or delete your account; send those requests to contact@firstdraft.com.

Audience and changes to this policy

The Service is for people with a chicagobooth.edu or uchicago.edu email address and for collaborators an administrator invites.

Questions about this policy or personal information: contact@firstdraft.com.