Privacy Policy

This privacy policy describes how Explain Selected ("we" or "us") collects, uses, and shares information about you when you use our Chrome extension. This policy is effective as of 10/24/2023.

Information We Collect

We collect information as and when you provide it to us through your usage of the Explain Selected Chrome extension and web application. This information covers several categories of data as outlined below.

Profile Information: If you create an account, we collect your username, email address, and other information you provide in your profile. This helps us maintain your account.

Selections: When you highlight text on a webpage and click the Explain Selected icon, we collect the text you selected as well as some of the surrounding context to provide a personalized explanation in context. We additionally collect metadata about the webpage where you made the selection.

OpenAI Outputs: When you request an explanation of your selection, we send the selection and context to OpenAI collect the outputs generated by OpenAI.

Log Data and Device Information: We may collect log information about your use of Explain Selected, including browser type. This helps us diagnose problems and improve the extension.

How We Use Information We Collect

We use the information we collect to:

Provide our services and improve the extension. The selections you make and the context surrounding those selections are sent to OpenAI to generate explanatory text. We use your selections, context, and the AI-generated explanations to provide our core functionality. We may use this information in an aggregated and anonymized form to identify trends and improve the service.

Enable saving and sharing explanations. If you choose to save an explanation to your Explain Selected dashboard, we will store the selection, context, and explanation you saved. This allows you to access saved explanations later. If you choose to share an explanation, we generate a shareable link with the selection, context, and explanation to enable sharing the explanation with others.

Communicate with you. We may send emails related to your account or extension use. This includes welcome emails when you create an account and emails when explanations are shared with you.

Diagnose problems and monitor performance. We may use information like selections, context, explanations, and log data to monitor extension performance, fix bugs, and improve reliability.

Develop new features. We may use aggregated and anonymized data about how the extension is used to inform decisions about new features and offerings. For example, seeing popular highlighted selections and website categories could suggest adding functionality tailored to those use cases.

Comply with legal obligations. We may process personal information where we have a legal obligation to do so or where we believe it is necessary to protect our or others’ legal rights. For example, we may process account information to help you exercise your data protection rights.

How We Share Information

We do not sell or rent your personal information. We only share it in the following circumstances:

  • With third party service providers if needed to maintain our services. Service providers are restricted from using information other than to provide services on our behalf.
  • To comply with legal obligations, enforce our terms, or protect rights and safety.
  • In connection with a merger, sale, or acquisition if Explain Selected is involved in such a transaction. You will be notified if this occurs.

Your Choices

You can access and request to delete your account at any time. This will delete any personal information in your account. You can also uninstall the Explain Selected extension to stop any further collection of information.

How We Protect Information

We use technical and organizational security measures to protect your information against unauthorized access, alteration, disclosure, or destruction. However, no system is 100% secure and we cannot guarantee total security.

Changes to This Policy

We may occasionally update this policy. When we do, we will revise the effective date at the top. We recommend you check back periodically to stay informed about how we collect, use, and share information.