Passal is an educational study product for students. You upload your own lecture materials; Passal turns them into study cards and quizzes that quote your source, or it refuses when it cannot cite. Passal does not give medical advice. This privacy policy describes how Passal handles personal information, including when you sign in with Google.
Passal is operated by Dave Bettner (the “operator”). Contact for privacy and account requests: support@passal.app. Related terms of use: Terms.
Google sign-in
You can create or open a Passal account with Google Sign-In on the study app at study.passal.app/login. When you choose Google, Google shows its consent screen and Passal receives only the account information needed to authenticate you.
Google user data Passal receives: your Google account email address, your Google account name, and your Google profile picture URL when Google provides one. Passal does not receive your Google password.
OAuth scopes Passal requests for Google sign-in:
openid— verify your Google identityemail— read your Google account email addressprofile— read your basic Google profile (name and profile picture, when available)
Those are the sign-in scopes. Google Drive and Google Calendar are optional and described in the next section; Passal asks for them only when you choose to connect them, and Google shows its consent screen before either is granted.
How Google sign-in data is used: to create and secure your Passal account, keep you signed in, show your name or avatar in the study app, and sync your study data to that account. Passal does not use Google user data for advertising, does not sell it, and does not use it to train models.
Sharing of Google user data: Passal does not sell Google user data. It is not shared with other users. Limited processors that host or deliver the service may process it only to run Passal (see Sharing and subprocessors below). Passal’s use of information received from Google APIs complies with the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements.
Google Drive and Google Calendar (optional)
Google Drive — scope https://www.googleapis.com/auth/drive.file. Requested only when you choose “Add lecture from Drive”. You pick a PDF or PowerPoint file in Google’s own file picker; with this scope Google lets Passal open only the files you pick, never the rest of your Drive, and Passal cannot browse folders. For each picked file Passal reads its name, type and size and downloads its contents once, then stores a copy in your Passal course as a lecture, exactly like a file you upload yourself. Passal never creates, changes or deletes anything in your Drive.
Google Calendar — scope https://www.googleapis.com/auth/calendar.events.readonly. Requested only when you choose to connect your calendar. Each time your calendar syncs, Passal reads events from your primary calendar for the next 14 days and keeps only each event’s title, start and end time and ID. It never requests event descriptions, locations or guests. Passal uses these events to show your upcoming exams and deadlines next to your study plan, to suggest which events look like exams from their titles, and, when you tag an event as an exam for a course, to move that course’s reviews earlier so they fall before it. Passal never creates, changes or deletes calendar events.
Storage and security: Drive and Calendar access tokens are stored on Passal’s server encrypted (AES-256-GCM) and used only for the actions above. The file-picker window in your browser receives only a short-lived access token.
Deletion: “Forget Drive access” deletes Passal’s Drive tokens. Disconnecting your calendar deletes its tokens and every stored event. Deleting your account deletes all of these, plus lectures imported from Drive. You can also remove Passal’s access at any time from your Google Account at myaccount.google.com/connections.
Sharing: Google Drive and Calendar data is not sold, not used for advertising, not used to train AI models, and not shared with other users. Calendar data is never sent to any AI provider. A lecture imported from Drive is treated like any other lecture you upload: it is sent to an AI provider only if you choose to use your own AI assistant or turn on AI drafting, as described under “Using your own AI”. Passal’s use and transfer of information received from Google APIs adheres to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements.
Other account and study data Passal stores
- Account: email, display name, sign-in provider identifier (Google, Microsoft, Apple, or a passkey). Passal does not store a password; for a passkey it keeps only the public part of the key.
- Your materials: uploaded files, extracted text, and the cards, quizzes, and study guides made from that text.
- Study history: reviews, quiz answers, exam dates, and settings used to schedule what to study next.
- Optional connected services: if you connect Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive, or a calendar, encrypted access tokens for the files or events you choose.
- Product usage: which features your account uses and when (for example, that a lecture was uploaded, a card was accepted or a checkout was opened; never what your materials say), and, when you sign up, the ad or link tags and the referring site you arrived from.
How Passal uses this data
Passal uses your data to operate the study product for you and to improve it: authenticate your account, store your lectures and cards, run recall and quizzes, provide account settings, and learn which features help and where people get stuck. By default, cards and quizzes are generated on Passal’s servers from your source text. Passal does not sell personal data, does not use it for advertising, and does not use your materials to train models by default. Passal does not use third-party advertising or analytics trackers.
How you arrived: when you follow an ad or link to passal.app, a small script keeps its tags (such as utm_source) and the referring site for the current browser tab only, using session storage rather than a cookie, and adds them to the sign-in links. study.passal.app holds them in a first-party cookie for up to 7 days and, if you create an account, saves them with it. Product usage stays on Passal’s servers, is kept for up to a year, and is deleted with your account.
Retention and deletion
Passal keeps your account and study data while your account is active. From Settings in the study app you can download two kinds of export or delete your account at any time. The metadata export is a JSON file with your study records and extracted text; it does not contain original uploaded files or media, cannot restore an account, and is not a backup. The portable archive is a separate file, limited to 64 MB including study records even if your account storage limit is higher, that includes your original uploaded files and media alongside your study records; it can be restored into an empty Passal account while you have a current trial or subscription. You can also delete an individual source or course. Deleting your account removes your uploaded files, extracted text, cards, study history, AI drafting settings, and connected-service tokens. Passal may retain limited records (such as email, provider, provider account id, and deletion time) solely so an old session cannot restore a deleted account; signing in again later starts a new, empty account.
To request deletion by email instead of Settings, write to support@passal.app.
Where your data is stored: The study app at study.passal.app runs on a server Passal rents from netcup, in a data center in the United States. Your account, study records and the files you upload are stored on that server.
Backups: Once a day, Passal copies its database and uploaded files. One copy stays on the same server, where the 14 most recent copies are kept. A second copy is encrypted on the server before it is uploaded to Google Drive storage that Passal uses for backups, so Google stores only the encrypted copy. Passal keeps one encrypted copy per day for 14 days, one per week for 8 weeks and one per month for 12 months, and drops older ones on that schedule. The encrypted data from dropped copies is fully cleared only when the backup storage is compacted, which is not yet done automatically. Backups are used only to restore Passal after a problem. Material you delete, or a deleted account, can remain in backup copies made before the deletion until those copies are removed.
Payments and financial records
Stripe processes subscription payments and collects the payment method, contact and billing address information needed for checkout, tax, invoices and receipts. Passal does not store your full card number. Passal stores Stripe customer and subscription identifiers, subscription state, verified payment periods and payment-event audit records to manage access and resolve billing problems.
Deleting your account first stops its Stripe subscriptions. Passal then removes the active account link and retains subscription and payment audit facts under a random identifier for seven years for financial recordkeeping. Those retained records contain no study materials or account email. Stripe retains its own transaction records under its privacy policy.
You can manage your payment method and cancel through Settings on the web. Payment data is handled under Stripe's Privacy Policy.
Sharing and subprocessors
Passal does not sell your personal information. Passal shares data only with processors needed to run the service, for example:
- Google, Microsoft, or Apple, when you sign in with them or connect their drive or calendar services
- Cloudflare, which hosts the passal.app website, carries traffic to and from study.passal.app, and provides Cloudflare Web Analytics, a page-view measurement that uses no cookies and does not identify you
- netcup, which provides the server that runs the study app and stores your account, study records and uploaded files (United States)
- Google Drive, which stores Passal’s encrypted backup copies
- Stripe, to process subscription payments and provide payment management, receipts and invoices.
- Resend, to send payment-update emails after a failed renewal. Your email address and the message are sent.
- An AI provider you deliberately connect or enable, under that provider’s terms, only for the drafting path you choose
Processors may only use the data to provide their service to Passal, not for their own advertising.
Children
Passal is aimed at students in higher education and similar study settings. It is not directed to children under 13, and Passal does not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you believe a child under 13 has created an account, contact support@passal.app and we will delete it.
Using your own AI (optional)
You may choose to draft more cards with an AI assistant you already use. With a connector, after you approve Passal’s consent screen, that assistant can read course names, extracted lecture text, and existing cards and can add drafts. It cannot change or delete your data or see reviews, study history, or account details. You can disconnect it in Settings. With copy and paste, you choose what leaves your device. Lecture text sent to an assistant is processed under that provider’s terms, not Passal’s. Passal keeps a suggested card only when its quote appears word for word in your lecture.
Medical and sensitive content
Passal is for course materials. Do not upload patient records, clinical notes, or anything that identifies a patient. Passal is not designed for protected health information and does not provide medical advice.
Contact
Privacy questions, data requests, or account help: support@passal.app. Terms of use: https://passal.app/terms/.