Privacy policy

Last updated October 15, 2026

Scholar Help is a reading and writing toolbar for Chrome, made by a small business in Riverside, California. This page explains what information the toolbar and this website handle, and where it goes.

Using the toolbar without signing in

Scholar Help keeps everything it needs in Chrome’s own storage on your computer: your settings, your highlights, your vocabulary list (with its pictures), your Premium trial dates, and the words Word Prediction learns from your typing. If you use Chrome sync, Chrome copies your toolbar settings (not your highlights or word lists) to your other computers through your Google account. Removing the extension deletes what it stored.

Reading aloud with the natural voice, the Screenshot Reader, the PDF reader and Audio Maker all run on your computer. The natural voice is downloaded once from Hugging Face (huggingface.co), like any other download; nothing you read is sent with it. Reading aloud with one of Chrome’s own voices uses the voices that come with Chrome or your computer, and some of those are online voices provided by Google.

Tools that use an online service

These tools only work by asking a service on the internet. When you use one, your browser sends that service only what the tool needs, and it never passes through our server:

• Dictionary and Picture Dictionary sends the word you look up to the Free Dictionary API (dictionaryapi.dev), Wiktionary, Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons.
• Translator sends the text you translate to Google Translate, or MyMemory when Google Translate can’t be reached.
• Check It sends the text you check to LanguageTool (languagetool.org).
• Similar Word sends the word you want alternatives for to Datamuse (datamuse.com).
• Dictation sends what you say to Google, through Chrome’s built-in speech recognition.

Each of these services has its own privacy policy. We chose services that don’t need an account, and the toolbar doesn’t send them your name or email. Please don’t use these tools on text you wouldn’t want to share with them.

Signing in with Google

Signing in is only needed for Premium. Google confirms your email address to us, and that’s the only thing about you we use or keep; we never ask for your contacts, files or anything else. The toolbar then asks this website, about twice a day while you use it, whether that email has Premium. We don’t record which pages you were on.

On this website, signing in sets a cookie that keeps you signed in for 30 days, and a short-lived one that remembers which page to return to. Google’s sign-in button sets its own security cookie. We don’t use advertising or analytics cookies.

Premium for one person

Payments are handled by Stripe. We never see or store your card number. We keep your email address, Stripe’s customer and subscription numbers, whether the subscription is active, and the date it’s paid up to.

Schools

When a school buys Scholar Help, its staff give us a list of the students and teachers who should get Premium. How we handle that list is explained on our student data page.

Quote requests and email

If you ask for a school quote, we keep what you type into the form so we can reply. Our email runs on Google Workspace.

Where information is kept

This website and its database run on Fly.io in the United States, on disks that are encrypted, with daily backups that are kept for a few days. Email is kept in Google Workspace. Connections to this website always use HTTPS.

What we never do

• Sell, rent or trade personal information.
• Show ads, or use anything we hold to target ads.
• Track the websites you visit or build profiles about you.
• Use information for anything other than running Scholar Help.

Scholar Help’s use of information it receives from Google follows the Chrome Web Store User Data Policy, including its Limited Use requirements.

Children

K-12 students use Scholar Help through their school, and the school gives permission for that under the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). Premium for one person is for adults; children under 13 should not buy it or sign in on their own. A parent who thinks we hold their child’s information can email us and we’ll delete it.

How long we keep things

Subscriber records are kept while the subscription is active and afterwards for as long as tax and accounting rules require. A school’s list is deleted within 60 days after its licence ends, or sooner if the school asks. Quote requests are deleted when we no longer need them, and within two years.

Your choices

You can ask to see, correct or delete the information we hold about you by emailing support@scholarhelp.education. California residents have these rights under the CCPA; we don’t sell or share personal information as that law defines it. If you’re a student whose school gave us your email, please ask your school first, since the school controls its list.

Changes

If we change this policy, we’ll update the date at the top. If a change affects information we already hold, we’ll tell subscribers and schools by email first.

Contact

Questions about privacy: support@scholarhelp.education.