Privacy Policy

1. Who runs this site

German AI (germanai.org) is a personal project built and operated by Farez Vadsaria ("I", "me", "my"). It is not run by a company. I decide how personal data on this site is used, which makes me its controller under data protection law, including the EU and UK General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

This policy explains what data the site collects, why, which service providers process it for me, how long it is kept, and your rights. You can reach me about any of it at [email protected].

2. What I collect

2.1 Information you provide

• Email address: when you sign up for the newsletter or waitlist, request a conversation transcript by email, or sign in
• Conversations: the text you type and the answers the AI gives you
• Voice: when you start a voice conversation, your microphone audio is streamed to the voice provider listed in section 4 so it can understand you and reply. I do not record or store your audio on my own systems.
• Image prompts and text-to-speech text: the descriptions you write to generate images, and the text you ask to have read aloud
• Account data (where sign-in is available): your email address, verified with a one-time code, and, while you are signed in, your conversations and a short learning-profile summary (such as topics you have practiced and your approximate level), saved to provide memory and history features
• Messages to me: anything you send when you email me

2.2 Collected automatically

• IP address, used for rate limiting and abuse prevention and seen by the hosting provider
• Device and browser information (such as browser type and operating system) and approximate location
• Pages visited, feature-usage events (for example, starting a voice call or generating an image) and page-performance measurements

2.3 Stored in your browser

The site keeps a few small values in your browser's local and session storage: your theme preference, usage counters for the free voice and image features, whether you have already shared your email, and which saved conversation to reopen. If you sign in, the sign-in provider (Clerk) sets cookies to keep you signed in. You can clear all of these in your browser settings; doing so may sign you out or reset those preferences.

3. How I use it, and on what basis

• To provide what you ask for (answering your messages, voice conversations, images, text-to-speech, emailing a transcript you request and, if you sign in, saving your history and memory). Basis: providing the service you request.
• To send the newsletter and welcome emails you sign up for. Basis: your consent, which you can withdraw at any time by unsubscribing.
• To keep the site working and protect it from abuse (rate limiting, security, debugging). Basis: my legitimate interest in running a reliable, safe service.
• To understand how the site is used (aggregate analytics and performance measurement) so I can improve it. Basis: my legitimate interest in improving the site.
• To comply with the law when legally required.

I do not sell your personal information, and I do not use your data to train my own AI models.

4. Service providers who process your data

The site relies on the following third-party services. Each receives the data it needs to do its job and handles it under its own privacy policy.

AI and voice

• OpenAI: generates chat answers and, for signed-in users, the learning-profile summary
• Perplexity: answers questions that need current information from the web
• Cloudflare (Workers AI): labels a sample of chat messages by topic (for example, translation or homework) so I can see what the site is used for. Only the labels are kept, never the message.
• Hume AI: powers voice conversations on this site (receives your microphone audio during a call)
• ElevenLabs: powers text-to-speech (receives the text you ask to have read aloud)
• fal.ai: generates images from your prompts

Email

• Beehiiv: hosts the newsletter and its subscriber list
• Resend: sends welcome emails and the conversation transcripts you request

Accounts and storage

• Clerk: handles email sign-in, where sign-in is available
• Supabase: stores signed-in users' saved conversations and learning-profile summaries
• Upstash: stores short-lived rate-limiting counters (keyed by IP address or account) and the consent record for transcript requests described in section 5

Hosting and analytics

• Vercel: hosts the site and provides Vercel Web Analytics and Speed Insights (page views and performance)
• OpenPanel: product analytics (page views and feature-usage events)
• Ahrefs Web Analytics: website traffic analytics

AI and voice providers may keep your inputs for a period under their own policies and, depending on their terms, may use them to improve their models. I do not control that, so please avoid sharing sensitive or confidential information in conversations.

I may also disclose information when required by law, court order or a government authority, or where needed to protect the safety of users or others. If I ever hand a site over to someone else, its data may go with it, and I will update this policy before that happens.

5. How long data is kept

• Newsletter: your email stays in Beehiiv until you unsubscribe or ask me to delete it.
• Transcript emails: I send the conversation to the address you give via Resend and do not store the conversation content myself. The recipient address remains in Resend until you ask me to delete it. To document your consent, I keep a record of each request: a hashed form of your email address and a timestamp. Subscribing to the newsletter from the transcript form is optional and separate.
• Signed-in conversations: saved conversations and the learning-profile summary are kept until you delete them or your account. I do not store conversations you have while signed out. To delete your account, email [email protected]; I remove your stored conversations and summaries within 30 days.
• Rate-limiting counters expire automatically after a short window.
• Analytics and provider data are kept according to each provider's own retention settings and policies.

6. Your rights

Depending on where you live (including the EU, EEA and UK), you may have the right to:

• access the personal data I hold about you
• have inaccurate data corrected
• have your data deleted
• restrict or object to certain processing
• receive your data in a portable format
• withdraw consent at any time (for example, by unsubscribing from the newsletter)
• complain to your local data protection authority

To exercise any of these rights, email me at [email protected]. Data already held by an AI provider is also subject to that provider's own retention and deletion policies.

7. Security

I take reasonable measures to protect your information, including encrypted connections and limiting what is stored. No method of transmission over the internet or of electronic storage is completely secure, so I cannot guarantee absolute security.

8. Children

The site is not intended for children under 13, and I do not knowingly collect personal information from them. Creating an account requires confirming that you are 16 or older. If you believe a child has given me personal information, please contact me and I will delete it.

9. International transfers

Several of the providers above are based in, or process data in, the United States and other countries that may be outside your own, including outside the EU and UK. Those countries may have different data protection laws.

10. Links to other sites

The site links to other websites and services. Their privacy practices are their own, so please review their policies.

11. Changes to this policy

I may update this policy as the site changes. The "Last updated" date at the top shows when it last changed.

12. Language

This policy is available in English only. If you need help understanding it in another language, email me at [email protected].

13. Contact

For questions about this policy or your data, contact:

Farez Vadsaria
Email: [email protected]