How we handle your privacy

This policy explains how Explain This (“we”, “us”, “our”) collects, uses, stores and deletes information when you use our website and document explanation service (the “Service”). Explain This operates from Australia. For anything not covered here, our Terms of Service and Security page have more detail.

Document content. The text or file you upload or paste, and any follow-up questions you ask about it, used only to generate your explanation.

Account and billing information. If you purchase document credits, an account is created automatically using your email address, along with your purchase history and credit balance. We don't collect or store your full payment card details — see “Sharing with third parties” below.

Email for longer free documents. If you explain a longer document without an account, we may ask for your email address so we can still process it for free — this doesn't create an account, and is used only to keep in touch about the Service.

Usage and technical data. Standard technical information such as IP address, browser type, and pages visited, used for security, fixing bugs and understanding overall usage of the Service.

We use the information above to generate your explanation and answer follow-up questions, process payments and manage your credit balance, detect and prevent fraud or abuse, keep the Service reliable, and send you essential updates about it. We do notuse the content of documents you upload to train AI models — ours or anyone else's — and we do not sell personal information to advertisers or data brokers.

If you use Explain This without creating an account, the original file or pasted text you submit, and any text we extract from it, is automatically and permanently deleted from our active systems — generally within 48 hours of your explanation being generated, often sooner.

If you have an account, your document (original file, extracted text and explanation) is instead kept so you can revisit it and ask follow-up questions later from your account dashboard, until you delete it yourself or close your account. See our Security page for the technical detail behind this.

We share only what's necessary with a small number of service providers: infrastructure and hosting providers who run the Service; the AI provider(s) we use to generate your explanation, solely to process that request; and a PCI-compliant third-party payment processor, to handle purchases. Each is bound by contract or their own confidentiality and data-handling commitments. We may also disclose information if required by law, or to protect the rights, safety and property of Explain This, our users, or the public. We do not sell your information.

Explain This is based in Australia, and the Service is intended for use by English-speaking users worldwide. As a result, your information — including document content — may be processed on servers in Australia or other countries where our service providers operate, which may have different data protection laws to your own country. By using the Service, you consent to this transfer and processing.

We use only the cookies or local storage needed to keep the Service working — for example, remembering your session or credit balance — plus basic, privacy-respecting analytics to understand overall usage. We don't use invasive third-party advertising trackers.

Depending on where you live, you may have rights to access, correct, or request deletion of your personal information, or to object to certain processing. To make a request, email support@explainthiss.com. If you're not satisfied with our response, you may be able to complain to your local data protection regulator — in Australia, the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (oaic.gov.au).

The Service is not directed at, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from, children under 16. If you believe a child has provided us with personal information, contact us and we'll delete it.

We may update this policy from time to time — for example, to reflect changes to the Service or the law. Material changes will be reflected by updating the “Last updated” date above. Continuing to use the Service after changes take effect means you accept the updated policy.

For any privacy question or request, email support@explainthiss.com.