Privacy Policy

Kivo is provided by [To confirm: The legal name of the person or company that provides Kivo]. You can contact us at [To confirm: A contact email address for privacy and legal questions]. [To confirm: A postal address, if the law that applies to you requires one]

Your account. Your name and email address, and whether that address has been confirmed. If you sign up with a password, we store it only as a one-way hash, never the password itself. If you sign in with Google, we receive from Google your email address, your name, a link to your profile picture and your Google account identifier. Google’s sign-in tokens are not stored.

Your answers when you set up. What you are working toward, what you are learning for (school, college, work or other), how firmly you want to be nudged, when you would like a daily check-in, and your timezone. If you answer the four short statements at the end of setup, we keep your answers and a summary of them. The summary is used to match you with a companion and, where that feature is turned on, to adjust how it phrases its coaching. It is not a personality test result.

What you study and create.

• Your subjects, topics, exams and other dates, your goals, and your usual study time.
• Your study sessions: when they started and ended, how long they were, your answer to “How did it go?”, and any short note you add afterwards.
• Your tasks, your notes (including what you write in them), and where you put cards on your Knowledge Map.
• Each day’s flow on Today: the items you planned, their order and times, and what the day is for.
• Your calendar events and the reminders you set on them.
• Workspaces you build with Nova: the conversation, the plan’s versions and what was created from it. Files you attach (a PDF or a photo) are kept with that conversation until the workspace is built or the conversation is cancelled, and then deleted.
• Research papers you import: the paper’s link, its details (title, authors, identifiers), its abstract and any text its source shares openly, saved as one of your notes.
• Pages you save: their address, title, site and the subject and topic you file them under. If you save a selected passage from a page, that passage too.

What Kivo works out from that. Estimates of how well you know each topic, when topics are due for review, your progress over time, and patterns in how you study. These come from your own records and answers. They are estimates, not test results.

Your profile. What you choose to add on your Profile page: a headline, organisation, location, a short bio, skills and links. Only you see it, and Nova does not read it.

Your agreement to these documents. When you create an account, which versions of the Terms of Service and this Privacy Policy you agreed to, when, and whether you signed up with email or Google. Nothing about your device or network is recorded with it.

Billing, if you subscribe. Your plan, its status and its renewal dates. Payments are handled by Polar; Kivo does not receive or store your card details.

Your conversations with Nova. The messages you send Nova on Telegram and in the chat on the web, and Nova’s replies, with Kivo’s reading of each message (for example, whether you asked for a plan). Nova also keeps facts you mention that matter for planning, such as being ill this week or working a job, so it does not push you when it should not. Two conversations are not stored by Kivo at all: planning your day with Nova on Today, and studying a note with Nova. They stay in your browser tab and are gone when you close it.

Telegram, if you connect it. Your Telegram chat identifier, your name as it appears on Telegram and your Telegram username.

The browser extension, if you use it. When you press its buttons: the page’s address and title, the subject and topic you choose, and a passage only if you choose to save one. For each connected browser, a label such as “Chrome on macOS”, when it was connected and last used, and a one-way hash of its credential.

Sign-in safety. To limit repeated sign-in, sign-up and reset attempts, we count attempts per email address, stored in a hashed form.

• To run Kivo for you: building today’s plan, timing and recording study sessions, scheduling reviews, and showing your progress, notes, tasks, saved pages and map.
• To send you account emails: sign-up codes, password-reset links, and notices about your account (for example, that an address is already registered).
• To message you on Telegram if you connected it, including the check-in at the time you chose and reminders such as a review falling due.
• To answer and help you with AI, as described below.
• To keep accounts safe, for example by limiting repeated sign-in attempts.

[To confirm: Whether Kivo sells personal data or shares it with anyone other than the service providers listed]

Some features send information to an AI model provider to produce a reply. Kivo decides what to send for each feature:

• Talking to Nova (web or Telegram): your message, recent conversation, and the parts of your study record that the reply needs, such as today’s plan or your goals.
• Planning today with Nova: your message, the recent conversation, today’s flow, your upcoming dates and goals, and the names of the subjects and topics on your Knowledge Map.
• Building with Nova: your messages, the plan so far, and any file you attach.
• Nova as your note editor: the note’s text and what you asked it to change.
• Transcribing a PDF or photo into a note, when you ask for it: that file. Kivo does not keep the file afterwards.
• Nova’s help on a note: that note’s text, and a few of your related notes and saved pages.
• Filing a saved page: the page’s title, its site name, any passage you saved, and the names of your subjects and topics. Not the page’s address. Kivo never opens the page.
• Asking Nova to update your subjects: the names of your subjects and topics, your goals and your request.
• Asking about a page from the browser extension: your question, the page’s title and site name, and any text you selected. The question is not stored.

The note you add after a study session is not sent to the AI model. AI replies can be wrong; nothing an AI reply says changes your records unless you confirm it.

The provider used is [To confirm: Which AI provider production uses (the code supports Anthropic’s Claude, Google Gemini and OpenAI, chosen by configuration) and that provider’s terms on the data it receives].

When you import a paper, Kivo’s server asks the source’s own public service for it (arXiv, Crossref, DataCite, Semantic Scholar, OpenReview or Europe PMC, depending on the link). That request names the paper, not you. Kivo takes only what the source shares openly, never anything behind a sign-in or a paywall.

When you open a paper’s PDF or a note’s source beside your note, Kivo’s server first reads that site’s response headers to see whether it allows being shown inside another site. Your browser then loads the PDF or page directly from that site, as it would in a new tab, so that site sees your visit under its own privacy policy. Kivo does not copy or store the PDF.

Kivo relies on service providers to host and deliver it. Each receives only what its part of the service needs:

• Hosting for the web app and the server, and the database. [To confirm: The service providers used in production and where they store data. The code points to Vercel (web app), Render (API), Neon (database), Resend (email) and Polar (billing); confirm these and their regions]
• Resend, which delivers Kivo’s emails.
• Polar, which takes payment if you subscribe to Pro.
• Google, if you choose to sign in with Google.
• Telegram, which carries your messages with Nova if you connect it. Telegram’s own privacy policy applies to your use of Telegram.
• The AI model provider described above.
• Vercel Web Analytics, which records visits to Kivo’s pages. [To confirm: How Vercel Web Analytics is configured and what it records]

[To confirm: Whether the hosting providers’ request logs record IP addresses, and for how long]

• Session cookie. Keeps you signed in, for up to 30 days.
• Google sign-in cookie. A short-lived cookie used only while you sign in with Google, to check the reply really comes from your sign-in.
• Stored in your browser only. Your theme choice, unsaved drafts of notes and a few display preferences stay in your browser’s storage and are not sent to Kivo until you save.
• Music in Focus. If you play music in the Focus room, it plays in YouTube’s, Spotify’s or Apple Music’s own player, loaded from their sites, which may set their own cookies.
• Your timezone. Your browser reports it to Kivo so that “today” and your check-in time match your day.

• Edit or delete your notes, tasks, saved pages, exams and other dates, and goals. Topics you no longer study can be archived.
• Change your check-in time and other preferences in Settings.
• Disconnect the browser extension from its popup or from the Browser Extension page.
• Reset your password from your Profile, or with Forgot password on the sign-in page.
• Delete your account in Settings. This deletes your account and your Nova study record with it: subjects, topics, sessions, notes, tasks, saved pages, your map, connected browsers, and your conversation with Nova. Two exceptions: if another Kivo account is connected to the same Telegram chat, that chat’s history is left for that account; and a Telegram chat first set up with Rex, Kivo’s earlier companion, keeps its own history.
• There is no button to disconnect Telegram yet. You can stop Nova messaging you by blocking the bot in Telegram, or by deleting your account.
• There is no self-service download of your data yet. [To confirm: How someone asks for a copy of their data, or for deletion if they cannot sign in]

A sign-up code stops working after 10 minutes, and a password-reset link after one hour. A connected browser’s credential stops working after 30 days without use. Everything else is kept while your account exists, until you delete it or delete your account.

[To confirm: How long account data, conversations and study records are kept, and how long backups are kept]

[To confirm: How long sign-up agreement records are kept, including whether any record is kept after an account is deleted]

Passwords, sign-up codes, password-reset tokens and browser credentials are stored only as one-way hashes. Each request is checked against your own account, so one learner’s records are not reachable from another’s. No system is perfectly secure, and we do not promise that yours will never be exposed.

[To confirm: The minimum age to use Kivo, and whether younger users need a parent or guardian’s consent]

Depending on where you live, you may have rights over your personal data, such as to access, correct or delete it. Use the controls above, or contact us at [To confirm: A contact email address for privacy and legal questions].

[To confirm: The legal bases for processing and the rights section required where your users are (for example the GDPR in the EU and UK), if it applies]

[To confirm: How changes to these documents will be announced] Questions about this policy: [To confirm: A contact email address for privacy and legal questions]. See also the Terms of Service.