Privacy policy

Doomscholar (https://www.doomscholar.com and the Doomscholar apps) is run by Afsal Ali, Dubai, United Arab Emirates. For anything about your data, write to dean@doomscholar.com.

Everything you do in the app — ideas read, quiz answers, your review schedule, streak, bookmarks, reading list, glossary, scratchpad, interests and settings — is stored in your browser's or app's own storage on your device. We don't receive it, can't see it, and can't restore it if it's deleted. That's why the Backup section in You lets you export it to a file you keep.

Downloaded ideas and source excerpts are cached on your device so the app works offline.

• Hosting logs. Like every website, our host (Vercel Inc.) processes your IP address, browser type and the page requested in order to deliver the app and protect it from abuse. These logs are kept briefly under Vercel's own retention and aren't used to identify you.
• Anonymous usage counts — website only, only if you allow it. To learn whether the app is useful, and only after you tap "Allow", we count which screens are opened, when a quiz is answered (which idea, right or wrong), when audio is played, whether onboarding was finished (how many interests, not which), when a "Get the app" button is tapped and from which page, and whether the app is installed. Each device gets a random ID so we can tell a returning visit from a new one. We never send your name, email, notes, scratchpad, glossary, search text or anything you type. No cookies, no advertising IDs, no fingerprinting, no profile.
• Email you send us. If you write to dean@doomscholar.com, we keep the conversation to answer you.

Nothing is counted unless you say yes. On the website we ask once; until you tap "Allow", no usage data is sent and no random ID is created. You can change your mind any time in You → Privacy & about, which also deletes the random ID from your device. If your browser sends a Do Not Track or Global Privacy Control signal, nothing is counted even if you said yes.

Usage counts are processed by PostHog Inc. on servers in the European Union, sent through our own domain, with IP addresses discarded and location lookup disabled. The legal basis is your consent. Usage records are kept for no longer than 24 months.

• iPhone. The iOS app carries all of its content inside it and works offline. It sends nothing to us: no usage counts, no logs, no identifiers. Your progress is kept in the app's own storage on your phone.
• Android. The Android app opens this website full-screen in Google Chrome (a "Trusted Web Activity"). Our hosting logs apply as they do on the website, and Chrome's own privacy terms apply to the browser. Usage counts are never sent from the Android app.
• Reminders. If you turn on review reminders in the iPhone app, they are scheduled on your phone by the operating system. There is no push server and nothing is sent to us. Turning reminders off cancels them.
• Sharing and links. Sharing an idea hands a public doomscholar.com link to your phone's share sheet; you choose where it goes. Source links open the publisher's site in a browser view under their privacy policy.

In both store listings we declare that the app collects no data, and these are the reasons that's true.

Narration uses the text-to-speech voices built into your device or browser. Most are on-device. Some browsers offer online voices (for example, Chrome's "Google" voices), which send the text being read to the browser maker; pick a voice without that label in the audio settings to avoid it. We never receive audio or what you listen to beyond the optional count above.

• No accounts, sign-in or passwords.
• No advertising, ad networks, tracking pixels or session recording.
• No selling or sharing of personal information — we have none to sell.
• No cookies. The only device storage is what the app needs to work, plus the random ID above if you allow usage counts.

Every idea links to its original sources. When you open one, you're on someone else's site under their privacy policy.

Doomscholar is a general-audience learning app and isn't directed at children under 13. We don't knowingly collect personal information from children. If you believe a child has sent us personal information, write to dean@doomscholar.com and we'll delete it.

Depending on where you live — including the EU and UK (GDPR), the UAE (PDPL), India (DPDP Act) and California (CCPA/CPRA) — you can ask to access, correct or delete personal information, object to or restrict its use, and withdraw consent. Because usage counts carry only a random ID, the simplest route is switching them off in the app, which deletes that ID; to erase everything else on your device, clear the app's or site's data. For anything else, write to dean@doomscholar.com. You can also complain to your local data protection authority.

Vercel serves the app from a global network, so hosting logs may be processed outside your country. Usage counts are stored in the EU. Both providers act as our processors under their data processing terms.

If this policy changes, the date at the top changes with it. If a change ever means collecting something new, we'll say so in the app before it happens.