AutoTopHat Privacy Policy

Effective date: September 4, 2026

This Privacy Policy describes how AutoTopHat (the Chrome extension and its companion backend API) collects, uses, stores, and shares information when you use the service.

AutoTopHat’s single purpose is to automatically answer TopHat lecture questions for the signed-in student.

Contact: jhlam@wisc.edu

1. Who we are

AutoTopHat is provided by the publisher listed on the Chrome Web Store item page. The extension runs in your browser; the backend runs as a Cloudflare Worker and stores account data in Cloudflare KV.

2. Information we collect

Personally identifiable information

Google account email address and Google account id (sub), obtained when you sign in with Google
TopHat student user id (from TopHat lecture WebSocket traffic)
Course id for the lecture you are attending

Authentication information

Short-lived Google OAuth access tokens used to authenticate requests to our API

We do not collect or store your Google password.

Financial and payment information

Subscription and billing status (for example plan, Stripe customer id, subscription id, current period end)

Card numbers and full payment details are processed by Stripe; we do not store credit card numbers.

Location

IP address (from Cloudflare’s connecting IP), retained briefly to detect abuse

User activity

TopHat lecture question events observed over the lecture WebSocket while the extension is active on a matching lecture page

Website content

Question text, answer choices, and question images needed to generate an answer

Data stored only on your device

Extension settings and session state
Optional local WebSocket/event logs in IndexedDB when logging is enabled

We do not collect health information, personal emails/texts/chats, or a general browsing history outside TopHat lecture pages the extension is designed to work with.

3. How we use information

Sign you in with Google
Permanently map one email to one TopHat student id (anti-abuse)
Run free-trial (10 solves), monthly subscription, and pay-as-you-go entitlements and quotas
Send question content to our server-side model provider to generate answers
Cache answers briefly so repeated identical questions can be served efficiently
Process checkout and subscription changes via Stripe
Detect abuse and operate the service

4. How we share information

Recipient	Purpose
Google	Sign-in / token validation (`openid`, `email`)
Stripe	Checkout, subscriptions, customer portal
Google Gemini	Generate answers from question text/images
Cloudflare	Host the API and store KV data
TopHat	Answers are submitted through your existing lecture WebSocket in the browser; we do not send your Google credentials to TopHat

We do not sell your personal information. We do not share data with third parties for their advertising.

5. Retention

Data	Typical retention
Student / binding / subscription records	While needed for trial, binding, and billing
Cached answers	About 24 hours
Daily quota counters	About 48 hours
IP addresses (abuse checks)	About 48 hours
Google token validation cache	Short-lived (hours)
On-device settings and logs	Until you clear extension data or clear logs

6. Security

We use HTTPS for API traffic, keep model and payment secrets on the server (not in the extension), and limit API access to the published Chrome extension origin where applicable. No method of transmission or storage is 100% secure.

7. Your choices

Sign out clears the cached Google auth token from the extension.
Manage subscription opens Stripe’s customer portal.
Clear logs removes on-device IndexedDB event logs.
Uninstalling removes local extension storage; server-side account and billing records may remain as needed for abuse prevention and subscription records.
To request unbinding of a Google account from a TopHat student id, contact jhlam@wisc.edu.

8. Children’s privacy

AutoTopHat is intended for students using TopHat in an educational setting. It is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13.

9. Changes

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. The effective date at the top will change when we do. Continued use after an update means you accept the revised policy. Material changes will also be reflected in the Chrome Web Store privacy disclosures.

10. Chrome Web Store disclosures

This policy is intended to match the data types disclosed on the AutoTopHat Chrome Web Store listing, including personally identifiable information, authentication information, financial and payment information, location (IP address), user activity, and website content.

This document describes product behavior; it is not legal advice.