Privacy Policy

1. Who we are

Academic Decoder is operated by Academic Decoder Ltd, a company registered in England and Wales (company number 17442654), with its registered office at 71–75 Shelton Street, Covent Garden, London, WC2H 9JQ, United Kingdom ("we", "us", "our"). We provide the Test Navigator and Result Decoder tools through this website. This Privacy Policy explains what information we collect, why we collect it, how we use it, and the choices and rights available to you.

2. Information we collect

• Account information: your email address and password (stored securely by our platform provider, never in plain text), used to create and secure your account.
• Statistical values you enter: the numbers you type into the Result Decoder (means, standard deviations, sample sizes, test statistics, p-values, and similar figures) so we can generate your results paragraph and, if you choose, save it to your account. These are numeric statistical values — we do not ask for or knowingly collect personal data about your research participants.
• Saved sessions: if you use Save Session, we store the write-up and the values behind it against your account so you can return to it later.
• Payment information: when you purchase access, payment is handled directly by our payment processor. We do not receive or store your card details.
• Purchase records: for each purchase we keep a record of the amount, currency, payment status, any refund and the payment processor's reference numbers, linked to your account. We need these records to provide access, handle refunds and keep our accounts.
• Optional analytics information: only if you accept optional analytics — see Section 6.

3. How we use your information

We use your information to: provide and maintain your account and access; generate and save the results you ask for; process payment for the Result Decoder; respond to support requests; and keep the service secure and working correctly. We do not sell your information, and we do not use your statistical inputs for anything other than generating the output you requested.

If you accept optional analytics, we also use analytics information to understand how the site is used, which websites and social platforms (for example TikTok, Instagram, YouTube or Google Search) bring visitors to Academic Decoder, and how many visitors go on to view the paywall, start checkout or make a purchase. We use this to decide where to publish content and how to improve the site. We do not use it for advertising or to make decisions about you.

4. Lawful bases for processing

We process account and purchase information where necessary to provide the service you have requested and to perform our contract with you. We process certain security, service-reliability, and support information where necessary for our legitimate interests in operating and protecting Academic Decoder. Where consent is legally required for a particular activity, we will ask for it separately from this policy.

Optional analytics, including Google Analytics and traffic-source measurement, is based on your consent, which you can withdraw at any time (see Section 6). We keep purchase records because they are necessary to perform our contract with you and to meet our legal and accounting obligations.

5. Who we share information with

We use third-party providers to run the service, and your information is processed by them only as needed to deliver it to you:

• Base44, our application hosting and account-management platform, which stores your account and saved-session data.
• Our payment processor, which handles checkout and payment for the Result Decoder. We do not see or store your full card details.
• Google (Google Analytics), only if you accept optional analytics. Google provides Google Analytics to us as a data processor.

Base44 stores app data in the United States by default. Where personal data is transferred from the UK to the United States, Base44 states that it relies on recognised international-transfer safeguards, including the Standard Contractual Clauses and the UK Extension to the EU-US Data Privacy Framework, where applicable. Base44 also requires relevant vendors and sub-processors that receive personal data to be subject to data-processing agreements. Further information is available in Base44's Data Processing Agreement and sub-processor list.

Google Analytics data may be processed by Google LLC in the United States and other countries where Google operates. Google states that it relies on the UK Extension to the EU-US Data Privacy Framework for transfers from the UK to the United States and, where that does not apply, on Standard Contractual Clauses, under its data processing terms for Google Analytics.

We do not share your information with advertisers.

6. Cookies, local storage and analytics

Academic Decoder uses browser storage technologies to provide essential account functionality and to understand how the service is used.

Essential storage

Our platform provider, Base44, stores authentication information in your browser's local storage. This is used to keep you signed in and provide account functionality that you request. Authentication sessions may remain active for up to 90 days.

This storage is considered necessary for the operation of account and login functionality and is not used for advertising.

Optional analytics (only with your consent)

Nothing in this part runs until you choose “Accept all” in our cookie banner. If you choose “Reject non-essential”, or make no choice, none of it runs and nothing is stored for it.

If you accept, Academic Decoder uses three kinds of optional analytics:

• Base44 analytics, our platform provider's built-in traffic and analytics functionality, described below.
• Google Analytics 4, provided by Google. It sets cookies named _ga and _ga_ followed by our measurement ID, which last up to 12 months, to recognise your browser between visits. It collects pages viewed, how you arrived (for example from Google Search or a social platform), approximate location, device and browser information, and the funnel steps listed below. Google Analytics 4 does not log or store IP addresses. We have turned off Google signals and advertising personalisation, and we do not use Google Analytics for advertising. Google keeps this data for up to 14 months.
• Traffic-source measurement, our own. We store a small record in your browser's local storage (ad_attribution_v1) with the platform that first brought you to the site and the most recent one (for example “tiktok” or “google”), the type of link (for example social or search), any campaign name in the link, the page you arrived on and the date. It contains no personal information, and each entry is deleted automatically after 90 days. We also store the time of your last activity on the site in local storage (ad_last_activity), so that a visit is counted once rather than once per page, and a new visit starts only after 30 minutes without activity; it is replaced each time you use the site and deleted if you withdraw consent. We use your browser's session storage to note a just-completed sign-in, which is deleted when you close the tab.

The source label is added to optional analytics events and, if you buy, to a separate attribution record linked to the checkout (not to your account details). It is never used for pricing, access or anything else in checkout. If you have not accepted optional analytics, no source information is recorded for you and your purchase is counted as “unknown source”.

We also keep anonymous counts of steps such as visits, Result Decoder and paywall views, sign-in and sign-up, and checkout clicks, together with the source labels above. These counts contain no user, session, device or IP identifier and are kept for up to 13 months; weekly totals made from them contain no personal data and are kept for our records. We also keep an anonymous count of how many visitors accept or reject optional analytics, with no identifier and nothing stored in your browser, so that we know how complete our figures are.

When you arrive from an advertising or social link, we remove advertising click identifiers (such as gclid, fbclid and ttclid) from the page address before any analytics runs, so they are not collected.

Base44 analytics

With your consent, Academic Decoder uses Base44's built-in traffic and analytics functionality to help us understand how the service is used and improve its performance and usability.

Analytics information may include:

• session and user identifiers;
• pages or URLs visited;
• country;
• device type;
• operating system;
• session duration;
• feature-usage and funnel events, such as completing the Test Navigator, viewing the Result Decoder or the checkout page, viewing the sign-in or sign-up page, signing in, opening a decoder or copying a generated result. These record which feature or test was used, not the values you enter;
• the traffic-source labels described above, and the campaign tags (UTM tags) and referring website of the page you arrived on; and
• technical usage events, including events used to measure active visitors.

Base44 has informed us that analytics event data is retained for up to 60 days. Analytics history available to us through our current Base44 dashboard is retained for up to 30 days.

Academic Decoder does not currently use Base44's session-recording functionality.

Your choice, and changing it

You can reject optional analytics without affecting sign-in, the Result Decoder or checkout. You can change your choice or withdraw consent at any time using the “Cookie settings” link at the bottom of our pages or the button below. When you withdraw consent, optional analytics stops straight away and we delete the traffic-source record, the Google Analytics cookies and the other optional items described in this section from your browser. Data already sent before you withdrew is kept for the periods above. We ask again after 12 months, or sooner if what we use changes.

Change cookie settings

If you choose “Accept all”, we may store a small flag in your browser's local storage to remember that you have used the free Test Navigator. This allows us to show a more relevant call-to-action. The flag does not contain personal information.

If you choose a test from a Test Navigator result, we briefly store the name of that test in your browser's session storage so the Result Decoder can open on it after you sign in or complete payment. This is needed to provide the feature you asked for, contains no personal information, and is deleted when the Result Decoder opens or when you close the browser tab.

Certain operational events, such as account login events and automated crawler traffic, may be processed separately from optional analytics and may continue regardless of your analytics consent choice where required for the operation, security or technical administration of the service.

We are obtaining further technical information from Base44 regarding the specific browser-storage identifiers used by its platform and will update this notice where necessary.

7. How long we keep your information

We keep your account and saved-session information for as long as your account is active. You can request deletion of your account at any time by emailing us at support@academicdecoder.com. If you ask us to delete your account or saved-session personal data, it will be removed from active use and may remain recoverable through Base44's Recently Deleted system for up to 30 days. Residual copies may then remain in Base44's automatic backups for a further period and are automatically overwritten and deleted. Based on Base44's current retention practices, deleted data may remain on its infrastructure for up to approximately 120 days in total. We may retain certain records for longer where required for legal, regulatory, tax, accounting or fraud-prevention purposes, such as payment and purchase-consent records. Optional traffic-source attribution linked to a checkout that was not completed is deleted after 90 days. Retention periods for optional analytics are set out in Section 6. Account deletion is handled through support on request — we do not currently offer a self-service delete-account feature.

8. Your rights

Depending on where you live, you may have rights to access, correct, delete, or export the personal information we hold about you, and to object to or restrict certain uses of it. To exercise any of these rights, contact us at the email below. If you're in the UK and remain unhappy with how we've handled your information after contacting us, you also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) at ico.org.uk.

9. Children's privacy

Academic Decoder is intended for use by students at university level and is not directed at children.

10. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time. If we make significant changes, we'll take reasonable steps to let you know.

11. Contact

Questions about this policy or your information? Email support@academicdecoder.com.