Privacy policy

Matching your own AnKing deck

AnKing matching reads the deck you choose through desktop Anki and AnkiConnect. It searches only core question and answer fields, not Extra fields, personal notes, or media. Your card text and matches stay on your device; we do not upload them or share them with other students.

Meaning search downloads a public embedding model and its runtime from Hugging Face and the runtime's asset host. Those hosts receive ordinary download requests, including your IP address, but not your card text. The model compares candidate cards with lecture facts inside your browser.

If you choose to remember a deck, its core card text stays in this browser, scoped to your account. Leave this off on shared computers. Forget deck removes that copy, and deleting your account from this browser also tries to remove it. We cannot clear copies on other devices remotely; use Forget deck or clear this site's data on each device.

The connection never changes cards, tags, scheduling, or suspended status. Suggestions are not medically verified, and a missing match does not prove that AnKing has no relevant card. Image-only cards and unsupported clozes are excluded and counted.

The short version

• You sign in with Google or Apple. We keep your email address, your plan and the school you tell us you are from.
• We keep the original files you upload, so we can rebuild your study materials and check their quality. You can delete them for one lecture or all lectures at any time, and they are deleted with your account. If processing stops unexpectedly before we have copied them, a storage rule removes the upload 1 to 2 days after upload. If we need you to confirm a lecture's learning objectives, we hold the upload for 3 days while we wait.
• The study materials we make are kept until you delete your account, together with the figures they cite from your slides.
• If another student already uploaded the same file, we reuse the study materials made from it. Nothing personal is shared between students.
• Anthropic writes and checks your study materials. Recordings are transcribed on our own servers.
• We keep records of how the pilot is used, such as when lectures finish processing and the ratings you give. They hold no lecture content.
• After you agree to the privacy summary, we record how you use Notochord: which parts you use, for how long, and whether your practice answers were right and how long they took. These records stay on our own server, hold no lecture content, and are deleted with your account. If your browser sends Do Not Track or Global Privacy Control, we treat it as a request that we never sell or share your data.
• Analytics and session replays run only if you allow them, and lecture content, lecture titles included, is hidden from replays.
• You can keep your lectures in class folders and add your own files. Your files are private and are never sent to anyone unless you turn one into a lecture.
• Before your first upload, you agree to a short summary of this policy and tell us your school.
• Notochord does not sell your personal information or your lecture content.
• Taking part in research is optional and separate, and it is not active.
• You can delete your account and everything in it at any time.

What we collect

Your account. When you sign in, Google or Apple tells us your email address and an account id. We never see your password. Apple may give us a private relay address instead of your own. Google also tells us whether it has verified your email address and, for a school or work account, the domain that manages it. When this site is limited to one school's accounts, we check those two facts each time you use it, and we don't save them with your account. We store these with your plan and when it started, the date you joined, a random id used only for analytics, and when you finished or skipped the upload page's walkthrough, so it is not shown again, your saved Study Guide layout preference for future guides, whether future Study Guides include diagrams and tables and AI illustrations, and which flashcard styles future decks include (recall, conceptual or both). We keep how you came to the pilot (an invitation, a classmate or a faculty member), as the person running the pilot noted it on your invitation. We keep the school you tell us you are from, which you can change on your account page: we ask so we can understand who uses Notochord and report results by school. If your email address belongs to a school we know, we suggest it, and nothing is saved until you confirm. We keep whether you keep your original files (see How long we keep it). If you use the ideas board, we keep the name you choose to show there and any bonus lectures you were granted (see The ideas board). We also keep which version of the privacy summary you agreed to and when, and, if you answer it, your answer to the optional research study (see Optional research participation).

What you upload. Your slide deck, your transcript or recording, and the title you give the lecture. We keep the original files unless you delete them (see How long we keep it).

What we make from it. Your study materials; the verified outline they are built from, which quotes the exact text from your slides and transcript that each point cites; the figures from your slides that points cite; any illustrations drawn for Parallax; the room scenes drawn for the Memory Palace; the diagrams, tables and AI illustrations in your Study Guide, which are drawn from those points; the conceptual flashcards, whose questions are written from those points and whose answers are those points; which words of a point each recall flashcard hides, always words of that point; and, if requested and enabled, checked story beats, narration videos and captions.

What you do in the app. Your practice answers, your flashcard reviews, the learning objectives you confirmed or edited, and how many lectures you submitted each day or week. For each flashcard review we keep a history: the grade you gave, whether the card was due, and how many days until it comes back. If you choose to save a completed case-game run, we also keep its fixed-choice actions, seed and educational report.

Ratings and problem reports. The 1 to 5 ratings you give your study materials, and the problems you report: the reason you choose from a list and, when you name one, which question or card. There is no text box, so a report holds nothing you typed.

Feedback. What you write in the feedback form or the early-days feedback card, the type you chose, whether you said it's OK to email you about it, the page you were on and, when you were looking at a lecture, which one. A thumbs up or down on a Study Guide section, a question, a flashcard or an AnKing match is kept the same way, with which item it was, the reasons you tapped and any words you added. Only the people who run the pilot read it, and your email address is shown to them only when you ticked the box. You can send feedback without signing in. Deleting your account deletes all of it.

Usage records. For each lecture, how much model processing it used: counts of the text it processed and a cost estimate. They contain no lecture content. We add up these estimates to keep the pilot within its budget, which includes a limit on how much processing each account can use each day, counted from midnight Pacific time.

Records of how the pilot is used. To run the pilot and see what works, we keep a few records with your account, whether or not you allow analytics. When your account is created: how you signed in and how you came to the pilot. For each lecture you upload: your plan, which kind of transcript you sent, which formats you asked for, and the deck's page count and the lecture's length in broad ranges. When a lecture is built from another student's upload of the same file: how many formats were reused and how many were made new, and whether it counted toward your lecture limit. When it finishes: whether it succeeded, a short code for why it failed, how long it took, how many formats were made, how many points were kept or removed in checking, and whether we used only the part of your transcript that matches your slides or all of it. When you reach your lecture limit: your plan, and whether the limit was daily or weekly. When an upload is refused because processing is paused or a spending limit is reached: which of those it was. These records hold no lecture content, no titles and no file names. They are deleted with your account, and one record is written in their place: that an account was deleted and how many whole weeks it existed, linked to no one.

Abuse prevention. To limit repeated uploads, feedback and waitlist requests, the API uses the IP supplied by its trusted host proxy. It stores a keyed hash of that address in Redis, not the address itself, for up to 60 seconds. The default limits are 10 uploads and 10 feedback messages per minute from one IP address, and 5 waitlist requests. The temporary identifier is not attached to your account or lecture and expires automatically.

Analytics, only if you allow it. See Analytics and session replay.

Like most websites, the servers that run Notochord may keep standard request logs, such as IP addresses and the pages requested. Owner to fill before launch: name the hosting provider and how long its request logs are kept.

Agreeing before you upload

Before your first upload, we show you a short summary of this policy and ask you to agree to it. We keep which version of the privacy summary you agreed to and when, with your account. If the summary changes in a way that matters, we ask you to agree again before your next upload. This agreement is separate from the optional research study. Before your first upload, we also ask which school you are from.

Upload only lecture material you are allowed to use for your own study, and never upload anything that identifies a patient.

How long we keep it

We keep your original files. We keep the original files you upload (your slides, transcript or recording) so we can rebuild your study materials when we improve Notochord and check the quality of what we make. You can delete them for one lecture or all lectures at any time, and they are deleted with your account. We don't sell them.

How keeping works. When processing finishes with your files, whether it succeeded or failed, we copy them to a storage area that nothing removes automatically, and delete the working copy. A PowerPoint or OpenDocument deck is kept as the PDF we made from it. The transcript we make from a recording, and the slide timing we work out from a video, are kept with your files. We never save frames from a video. If copying fails, we delete what we copied. If a copy can't be deleted right away, that lecture's page offers to delete it. We keep only files uploaded after you agreed to a version of the summary that says we keep them; files uploaded before were deleted as the earlier summary promised.

You decide. "Keep my original files" on your account page is on until you turn it off. Turning it off deletes every original file we kept for you at once, and we stop keeping new ones. Turning it on again keeps the files of lectures you upload after that, and brings nothing back. To delete one lecture's files, use "Delete original files" on that lecture's page. Your study materials stay either way. If a deck you uploaded identifies a patient, delete its original files.

How we use them. Only for you and to run and improve Notochord: to rebuild your study materials and to check the quality of what we make. When you add a transcript to a finished lecture, we use the slides we kept for it to make a new version of that lecture. We don't combine them into a dataset or share them. We don't use them for research. A future study could use them only after an institutional review board approves it, we update this policy, and you agree separately. No page or link in Notochordopens them, and the dashboard shows the person who runs this pilot only how many there are and how much space they take. That person can reach them in storage, and opens them only for the uses above.

While processing. Until processing finishes with them, your files are kept in a separate working area with an automatic rule that removes anything left there 1 to 2 days after it was uploaded, so an upload is removed even if processing stops unexpectedly; nothing removed that way is kept. The storage service applies the rule at midnight (UTC) and can take a little longer to finish, which is why this is a range rather than an exact time.

One case holds them longer while processing. If we are not sure we read your lecture's learning objectives correctly, we ask you to confirm them before we continue. While we wait for you, your upload is held for 3 days. If you have not answered by then, the lecture is cancelled within the following hour: the working copy is deleted, after we keep the original files if you keep them, and the lecture no longer counts toward your lecture limit. A second automatic storage rule removes any held upload 4 to 5 days after we started holding it, in case the first step ever fails.

Figures from your slides stay with your study materials. When a point in your study materials cites a figure on one of your slides, a copy of that figure is kept with your study materials, so the point can show where it came from, even after you delete your original files. These are exact copies of images from your upload, kept for as long as your study materials are. Illustrations drawn for Parallax, for a learning objective with no figure of its own, the room scenes drawn for the Memory Palace and the pictures in your Study Guide's AI illustrations are kept the same way. Optional narration videos, their captions and generated story visuals are also kept with your study materials until you delete your account.

When another student uploads the same lecture. If another student already uploaded the same file, Notochord reuses the study materials made from it: the outline they are built from and the figures it cites. Your materials are then ready sooner and, when nothing new has to be written, the lecture doesn't count toward your lecture limit. We compare files by their content only after you upload yours, so there is no way to see or ask for a lecture you did not upload. Nothing personal is shared between students. We never copy another student's name, title, objective edits, answers, ratings, reports or reviews, and we never tell either student who the other is or how many there are. It works the same way for you: if you upload a lecture first, a student who later uploads the same file gets study materials made from yours, with nothing personal of yours. Each student's copy is their own, so deleting your account deletes yours and does not change theirs.

Everything we make is kept until you delete your account. Your study materials and the outline they are built from, the figures and illustrations, your podcasts and their transcripts, your practice answers and your flashcard reviews stay in your history, ready to download again, until you delete your account. Changing your plan never removes them.

Case-game attempts are saved only when you choose to save one. We keep the completed run's fixed-choice actions, seed and educational report with its lecture until you delete your account. The report is part of the learning exercise, not a clinical assessment.

Who processes your lectures

Writing and checking your study materials. To write your study materials, and then to check every point against your slides, we send the text read from your slide deck, your transcript and the figures being cited to Anthropic, through Anthropic's API. Every plan, Free included, uses the same model today: claude-opus-5-5.

Zero data retention, where the content of a request is not stored after the response is returned, is not turned on for our Anthropic account. Anthropic may keep API requests for a limited time under its standard API terms, for example to check for abuse. Those terms do not allow it to use them to train models. So this is our commitment: Notochord processes lectures only under terms that do not allow your content to be used to train models.

If the Free plan ever uses a different provider. If lectures on the Free plan are ever processed by a different provider or model than the other plans use, the upload screen will name it before you submit, and this policy will be updated to say who it is. That provider must meet the same no-training commitment.

Transcribing recordings. An audio or video recording is transcribed on our own servers, by an open-source speech recognition program (faster-whisper). Your audio is not sent to any other company. The text transcript it produces is then processed like a typed transcript. If our servers cannot transcribe, the upload screen refuses recordings rather than sending them anywhere else.

Optional narration videos. The Kokoro voice and speech check run on our own servers. No narration script or generated voice is sent to a separate speech company. Story video is off today. If it is enabled after written privacy terms are confirmed, short scene descriptions derived from checked story beats will be sent to Higgsfield to make animated visuals. The slide deck, source quotations and narration are not sent to that visual provider. We will update this policy with its agreed retention terms before enabling it for real lectures.

Storing files. Uploads, the original files we keep and study materials are kept in cloud file storage that we control. Owner to fill before launch: name the storage provider.

Signing in. Google or Apple confirms who you are, as described above.

Analytics. PostHog, only if you allow it, as described next.

Who can see your account

The person who runs this pilot can see each account's email address and plan, the school it gave, usage counts such as how many lectures each account submitted, and the processing cost recorded for each lecture, as well as the records of how the pilot is used, the records of how you use Notochord, the ratings and the problem reports described above, and the feedback you send. They can download the usage records for analysis, with students and lectures shown as random codes rather than email addresses. They see schools as counts of accounts, uploads and active students for each school, however few students a school has. They also see how many lectures have original files kept and how much space they take, but cannot open those files from the dashboard. They use these only to run the pilot: to manage invitations and plans, to answer your questions, to find and fix problems in the study materials, to report results by school, and to keep spending within the pilot's budget. They can also see and download the waitlist described below, see and moderate the ideas board, and see the questionnaire's results.

The waitlist

Notochord is open to Stanford students for now. If you join the waitlist, we keep the email address and school you give us, your year if you choose one, which page you joined from and when. We keep them only to tell you when Notochord opens at your school and to see which schools are asking. They are not linked to an account, only the person who runs the pilot can see them, and we do not sell or share them.

To be taken off the waitlist, ask us and we delete your entry. hkonsker@stanford.edu

The ideas board

The ideas board is where signed-in students suggest features, vote and comment. What you post there is public to every other signed-in student: the idea's title and how it would help you, your comments, and how many votes, likes and offers to help each idea has. Your posts and comments show "A student" unless you choose to show the name you set, and then they also show any badge you earned ("Idea shipped" or "Bug found"). Other students never see your email address, who voted or liked, or who offered to help. Please don't post patient information or course material.

We keep your posts, your votes and likes, your offers to help (the skills you chose and your note), the name you set, which ideas you follow so we can show you their updates, and a count of the duplicate checks you run before posting, without their text. To check whether an idea is already on the board, we send its text and the closest existing ideas to Anthropic, the same company that processes your lectures, under the same terms. The person who runs the pilot can see everything on the board, including posts they hide, and sees the email address of each student who offers to help, so they can contact you. They can grant bonus lectures for an idea that was built or a bug you found, and keep a record of each grant.

The questionnaire

We sometimes ask a few optional questions: how you study when you start, how your first lecture went, one short question a week at most, a standard usability questionnaire once, and after an exam date you gave us, how the exam went and what Notochord would be worth to you. Every question can be skipped. We never ask for exam scores, grades, demographics or disabilities.

We keep your answers with your account, with which version of each question you answered and when, and which surveys we offered you. They are never sent to analytics or session replay. The person who runs the pilot sees them as counts and averages, and can download them without your email address or account id. We use them to decide what to build and to understand whether Notochord helps. Deleting your account deletes your answers.

We do not sell your information

Notochord does not sell your personal information or your lecture content.

Analytics and session replay

Analytics is off until you choose. The first time you visit, we ask. Until you answer, and if you decline, the analytics software is not even loaded, so nothing is recorded.

If you allow it, we use PostHog Cloud to record:

• the pages you visit, and how long you stay on each;
• what you click;
• a session replay: a reconstruction of the pages as you used them, including scrolling and mouse movement.

Until October 4, 2026, allowing analytics also recorded on our own server, with your account: which study materials you open, how long you actively study in the app's study views (counted in 30-second steps, only while the page is in front of you and in use), and when you download an Anki deck. We no longer record these as part of analytics; the records described in How you use Notochord replaced them. Records already kept hold no lecture content and are deleted with your account.

Replays never show your lecture content. Every part of a page that shows material from your lecture (lecture titles, study materials, practice questions and their answers, flashcards, learning objectives, figures, citations and Parallax scenes) is blocked from the recording and appears in it as an empty box. Links to your downloadable study materials are blocked too. Everything typed into a text box is hidden, including feedback, and so is your email address wherever the app shows it. Replays do not record network requests, console messages or errors.

Lecture titles are hidden too, wherever the app shows them, and clicks on a lecture in your history are not recorded, so a title is never sent as the text of a click.

When you are signed in, your activity is linked to a random id made only for analytics. It is never your email address or your account id. When you sign out, that link is removed from your browser.

Analytics is sent to PostHog Cloud. Owner to fill before launch: the PostHog region data is stored in, how long it is kept, and that IP addresses are discarded.

You can change your choice at any time here. Turning analytics off stops recording at once and removes the analytics id from your browser. Analytics recorded while you were signed in is deleted when you delete your account. Analytics from a browser that never signed in is not linked to any account, so we cannot find it to delete it.

Class folders and your own files

You can make a folder for each class and keep your lectures in it. A folder holds the name, course code, term and color you give it, and which of your lectures are in it, in your order. We also keep how many times you closed the prompt to put a lecture in a folder, so we stop asking after the third time.

You can add your own files to a folder: PDF, PowerPoint, Word, images, text and Markdown. We keep each file, its name and its size with your account. We check what each file is from its contents, not only its name. Each file can be up to 50 MB, and all your files together up to 2 GB. Your files are private: only you can open them, through a link that expires. We don't send them to Anthropic or any other company unless you turn one into a lecture, which then follows the rules for any upload. Upload only files you are allowed to keep for your own study.

Deleting a folder deletes the files in it and moves its lectures out of the folder. Deleting your account deletes all your folders and files. Downloads of your study materials (PDF, Anki, Quizlet text or a zip) are made from what we already keep for you and need no folder.

Copyright complaints about files students upload go to hkonsker@stanford.edu.

Do Not Track

We don't change what we record for our own use when your browser sends Do Not Track or Global Privacy Control. The records described in How you use Notochord and the others listed above are kept the same way either way.

We treat either signal as a request that we never sell or share your data. When we first see it, we note it on your account, with when we first and last saw it, and that request stays in place even if your browser stops sending the signal. We don't sell or share anyone's data today, and if we ever share data in the future, we will leave out every student who sent either signal.

Analytics and session replay run only if you allow them, whatever your browser sends.

Cookies and browser storage

Cookies. We use only the cookies that signing in needs: one that keeps you signed in for up to 30 days and is renewed while you use the site, and others used while you sign in, which protect sign-in against forged requests and remember which page to return you to. We do not use advertising cookies, and analytics does not use cookies.

Browser storage. Your browser also keeps, on your device:

• your light or dark theme choice;
• your analytics choice;
• a random id for your current visit, which links that visit's usage records and is forgotten when you close the tab;
• if you allow analytics, the random analytics id and details of the current visit;
• in study files you downloaded, such as Practice Questions, the answers you gave and display settings.

Optional research participation

We may later invite you to take part in a research study about how students use Notochord. Taking part is separate from agreeing to this policy, and it is optional.

• It is not active. It can start only after an institutional review board approves the study's protocol, and you would be asked separately, with the approved consent form.
• Using Notochord never depends on your answer, and saying no has no penalty.
• If you join, researchers analyze your usage records only after your email address and anything else that identifies you have been removed.
• You can withdraw at any time from your account page.

If you answer, we keep your answer, which version of the consent form you answered and when, and, if you withdraw, when you withdrew. They are deleted with your account.

Deleting your account

You can delete your account at any time from your account page. It cannot be undone. Files you downloaded to your own devices are not affected.

What is deleted

• Every lecture you have submitted, and every study material made from it: Study Guide, Practice Questions, Anki Flashcards, Podcast, AnKing cards, Exam Traps, Lecturer Emphasis, Parallax, Memory Palace, Story Explainer, Clinical Case Game.
• The figures from your slides that are kept with those materials, and any illustrations drawn for them.
• The original files we kept from your uploads: your slides, transcripts and recordings, and the transcripts we made from recordings.
• Any lecture still being processed. Processing stops, and any file you uploaded that is still being held, such as a deck waiting for you to confirm its objectives, is deleted.
• Your practice answers, your flashcard review history and the learning objectives you confirmed or edited.
• Your ratings, the problems you reported, and the records of how you used the pilot, including how long you spent on each part of the site.
• Any saved case-game attempts, including their fixed-choice actions, seed and educational report.
• The count of lectures you uploaded each week or day, and any feedback you sent while signed in.
• On the ideas board: your votes, likes, comments, offers to help, updates and the name you set, and every idea you posted that no other student voted on, commented on or offered to help with. Bonus lectures you were granted and not used.
• Your answers to the questionnaire.
• Your class folders and every file you added to them.
• Your invitation to the pilot, which holds your email address.
• Your Notochord account, and the analytics profile linked to it, including its usage events and session recordings.

What is kept

• A record of model usage for each lecture: token counts and cost estimates. It holds no lecture content, and once your account is deleted it is not linked to you or to any lecture.
• A one-way fingerprint of your sign-in, so that a session started before the deletion cannot bring the account back. It does not contain your email address.
• A record that an account was deleted and how many whole weeks it existed. It is not linked to you.
• If another student uploaded the same file as you, their own copy of the study materials made from it. It holds nothing personal of yours.
• Ideas you posted that other students voted on, commented on or offered to help with, shown as posted by "A student", with no name and not linked to you.
• The record of bonus lectures granted: how many, for what kind of reason and when. It is not linked to you, and the written reason is removed.

Your lectures, files and account are deleted as soon as you confirm. The analytics profile is deleted 10 minutes later, so that your last activity on this visit is deleted with it. If that, or deleting any file, does not succeed right away, a cleanup job retries every hour until it is done.

Changes to this policy

When this policy changes, the effective date at the top changes with it. If what analytics records changes in a way that matters, we will ask for your choice again.

Contact

Questions or requests about your data: hkonsker@stanford.edu