Privacy Notice
This notice explains what personal information Cadence collects, why, who it is shared with, how long it is kept, and the control you have over it.
- Effective date
- 30 August 2026
- Previous update
- First published version
- Version
- 2026-08-30
1. Who we are
Cadence is a revision and study-support platform at studycadence.com. The data controller for the personal information described here is [OWNER TO CONFIRM: the full legal name and registered/trading address of the Cadence operator, and the company number if applicable].
Our ICO registration number is [OWNER TO CONFIRM: the ICO registration number, once registered]. For anything about your personal information, email privacy@studycadence.com. Our data protection contact is [OWNER TO CONFIRM: the named data protection contact, and whether a DPO is required].
2. What information we collect
Cadence collects the following categories, all of which come from you or are generated by your use of the platform:
- Account information — email address, password (stored only as a secure hash), username, display name, first and last name, avatar image, and your selected course and study track.
- Study data — revision sessions and timings, planner items and calendar events, notes, flashcards and reviews, practice questions and answers, mistakes, mastery and progress scores, streaks and cadence records, focus and revision preferences, and onboarding answers.
- Uploads — documents, images, timetables, PDFs, spreadsheets, presentations and other learning materials you add.
- Recordings and transcripts — only if you turn them on: microphone audio, camera video, screen capture, and speech-to-text transcripts.
- AI interaction data — the prompts, questions and content you send to AI features and the responses returned.
- Social data — connections, study-group membership and invites, messages you send in groups, live-room participation, blocks and reports.
- Technical data — IP address, device and browser type, approximate location derived from IP, log and error data, and rate-limiting and anti-abuse signals.
- Communication data — reminder and notification settings, email send and delivery records, and support messages.
We do not deliberately collect special category data (such as health information). If you type health or other sensitive information into a note, it is stored as ordinary study content — please avoid putting sensitive personal details into Cadence.
3. Why we use it, and our lawful basis
| What we do | Why | Lawful basis (UK GDPR) |
|---|---|---|
| Create and run your account, authenticate sign-in | So you can use Cadence at all | Contract (Art. 6(1)(b)) |
| Store and display your study data, notes, flashcards and plans | Core functionality you asked for | Contract |
| Generate plans, questions, feedback and summaries with AI | Features you request | Contract |
| Send reminders, verification, security and service emails | Operating the account you asked for | Contract |
| Record microphone, camera, screen or sessions; transcribe speech | Optional capture and dictation features | Consent (Art. 6(1)(a)) — off by default, withdrawable |
| Send marketing and product-update email | Optional news and study tips | Consent — off by default, unsubscribe any time |
| Optional analytics cookies and product usage measurement | Understanding which features help students | Consent |
| Keep the service secure, prevent abuse, rate-limit, human checks | Protecting users and the platform | Legitimate interests (Art. 6(1)(f)) |
| Investigate reports, moderate study groups, enforce the Terms | Keeping users safe | Legitimate interests |
| Fix bugs, monitor errors and improve reliability | Running a working product | Legitimate interests |
| Keep records we are legally required to keep | Legal compliance | Legal obligation (Art. 6(1)(c)) |
4. AI processing
Cadence uses AI models supplied through the Lovable AI Gateway, which routes requests to model providers including Google (Gemini) and OpenAI. When you use an AI feature, the content needed for that feature is sent to the provider — for example the note you asked to summarise, the transcript you asked to assess, the timetable image you uploaded, or a description of your recent study activity so a plan can be adapted to you.
- Only the content required for the feature is sent — not your whole account.
- Your name, email address and password are not sent to AI providers as part of study prompts.
- AI processing happens when you trigger a feature; Cadence does not stream your screen or microphone to a model in the background.
- We rely on the gateway’s provider terms that customer content is not used to train their models. See the current provider list and their terms: [OWNER TO CONFIRM] below.
The AI providers currently in use are [OWNER TO CONFIRM: the confirmed list of AI providers and links to their data-processing terms, and whether any additional provider should be listed].
Cadence does not make solely automated decisions with legal or similarly significant effects. AI-generated bands, scores and recommendations are study indicators only.
6. How long we keep it
| Data | Retention |
|---|---|
| Account and profile data | For as long as your account is open |
| Study data (sessions, notes, flashcards, mistakes, progress) | Until you delete it, or until your account is closed |
| Uploads | Until you delete them, or until your account is closed |
| Recordings and transcripts | Until you delete them; deletable individually from Settings → Data & Recordings |
| AI prompts and responses stored with a session | Deleted with that session |
| Email delivery logs | Up to 12 months |
| Security, abuse and rate-limit logs | Up to 12 months |
| Moderation reports and enforcement records | Up to 24 months after the report is closed |
| Legal acceptance records (Terms and Privacy versions accepted) | For the life of the account and up to 6 years afterwards, as evidence of consent |
| Encrypted backups | Up to 30 days after deletion, then overwritten |
When you close your account, your study data, uploads, recordings and profile are deleted from the live system. Limited records may be kept where we are legally required to keep them.
7. Your rights
Under UK GDPR you have the right to:
- access a copy of your personal information;
- have inaccurate information corrected;
- have your information erased;
- restrict how we use it;
- object to processing based on legitimate interests;
- receive your data in a portable format;
- withdraw consent at any time, without affecting processing already carried out; and
- complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office.
You can exercise most of these directly in the app: edit your profile in Settings, delete individual sessions and content with the deletion dialog, manage optional permissions in Settings → Privacy & consent, and delete your whole account in Settings → Account. For anything else, email privacy@studycadence.com and we will respond within one month.
You can complain to the ICO at ico.org.uk or on 0303 123 1113. We would appreciate the chance to resolve the issue first at support@studycadence.com.
8. Your controls and defaults
These are off unless you deliberately turn them on:
- Microphone capture and speech-to-text transcription.
- Camera, screen and revision-session recording.
- Marketing and product-update email.
- Optional analytics cookies.
Service emails you cannot switch off are limited to verification, password reset, security alerts and essential account notices. Study reminders can be turned off in Settings → Notifications.
10. Security
Data is encrypted in transit and at rest. Access to your data is enforced at the database level by row-level security, so one account cannot read another’s study data. Passwords are stored only as salted hashes. Recordings are held in a private storage bucket that is not publicly accessible. Administrative access is limited to named roles and is logged.
No system is perfectly secure. If a breach affects your rights and freedoms, we will notify the ICO within 72 hours and tell you without undue delay where the risk to you is high.
11. Children
Cadence lists school-level courses, so younger students may use it. Privacy-protective defaults apply to every account: profiles and study activity are not public, and optional capture and marketing permissions stay off until enabled. The minimum age for an account and the position on parental consent are set out in the Terms of Service.
12. Changes to this notice
We update this notice when what we do changes. The effective date and version are shown at the top. Where a change materially affects how we use your information, we will notify you in the app or by email and ask you to confirm the updated notice before you continue.