Privacy Policy

The short version

• Synapse only sends page content to us when you ask it to: when you highlight, circle, or reformat something. It does not track the sites you visit in the background.
• That content is processed by an AI model from Google (Gemini) or Anthropic (Claude) to produce your result.
• We do not sell your personal information, show ads, or share your data for advertising.
• We do not train our own AI models on what you read.
• Your reading profile describes how you prefer information to be presented. We never ask for a diagnosis.
• You can export your profile and delete your account, and everything linked to it, at any time.

Who we are

Synapse is operated by Akapo Abdul-Raheem (“Synapse”, “we”, “us”), who runs the website at usesynapse.cv, the Synapse dashboard, and the Synapse browser extension (together, the “Service”). We are the data controller for the personal information described in this policy.

For anything privacy-related, including requests to exercise your rights, email us at the address above.

What we collect

Account information

When you create an account we collect your email address and, optionally, your name and a choice of preset avatar. If you sign up with a password, we never store the password itself, only a securely encrypted form of it. If you sign in with Google we receive your Google account identifier, email address, name, and profile picture from Google. We also record when you verified your email address, when you last signed in, and when you accepted our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy, and which version.

Your reading profile

During onboarding you answer a few questions about how you process information. From your answers we set a reading profile (Load Reducer, Comprehension Gap, or Hyperfocus Reader) and your preferences for how information is presented to you. You can add free-text notes. Synapse adjusts these settings over time based on your feedback and keeps a log of each change, which you can see on your profile page.

Content you ask us to explain or reformat

When you use Synapse on a page or document, the extension sends us:

• the text you highlighted, or an image of the area you circled, which you confirm before it is sent;
• the surrounding paragraph, so the explanation makes sense in place;
• more of the page or document as context (its title, headings, and main text). On email, messaging, and banking sites this is not sent: only the text near your selection is;
• for reformatting, the text of the section or page you asked to reformat;
• the address (URL) and title of the page;
• what you already asked on the same page and the answers you got, so a follow-up makes sense. This stops when you turn page context off;
• your reading profile settings, so the result suits you.

We use this content to produce your result. Apart from saved history on paid plans (below), we do not keep the text or images after the response has been returned.

Suggested responses

On paid plans, Respond suggests a reply to a message, an answer to a question, or tips about what you highlighted or circled. It uses the same content listed above, plus any question you type. If you use it on an email or message, the text you selected is sent to the AI provider to draft the reply. If you are signed in, your name and email address are sent too, so the draft is written as you.

A suggested reply goes into a text box on the page only when you press Insert, and you can edit it first. Synapse never sends a message, submits a form, or presses a button for you. Suggested responses are not saved, on any plan.

Explanation history

On paid plans, Synapse saves your explanations so you can find them again on each site. A saved entry holds the site and page address, the page title, an excerpt of the explained text, the explanation and any re-explained versions, its position on the page, and, for circled areas, a small thumbnail image. The full-size image sent to the AI model is never stored. On the free plan, explanations are not saved on our servers.

Usage and feedback

We record reading sessions (page address and title, and how you used Synapse on the page) and the feedback you give on results, such as your rating, any note you write, time spent, and how far you read. This powers your dashboard statistics and is how your profile adapts. We count how much you use the Service to apply plan limits.

Your dashboard shows how you use Synapse: how often you use each feature, at what times, and on which sites. For the sites, we keep the site name and a count of what you did there, not the pages you read. Email, messaging, and banking sites are not counted, and you can clear the list from your dashboard.

We also keep technical records of AI requests that contain no page content, which we use to monitor cost and reliability.

Payment information

Payments are handled by Paystack. We never receive or store your full card number. We keep your Paystack customer and subscription identifiers, your plan, billing period, subscription status, and trial, renewal, and cancellation dates.

Support requests

When you contact support we keep your email address, the topic, subject, message, and our reply. You can choose to attach diagnostics: your plan, reading profile type, extension version, and browser details. You can untick this before sending.

Security and technical data

For each signed-in session we store the IP address and browser details it started from, to protect your account. We use IP addresses to prevent abuse and to apply usage limits. Our servers keep short-lived operational logs to keep the Service running.

Using Synapse without an account

You can try the extension without signing in. To apply free-tier limits, the extension creates a random identifier for your installation. We use it, together with your IP address, in a form that does not identify you directly.

What we do not collect

The extension does not record your browsing history, read pages you have not asked it about, or send anything in the background as you browse. We do not use advertising or analytics trackers on our website.

How we use it

We use personal information to:

• provide the Service: produce explanations, suggested responses, and reformatted pages, and keep your history and profile;
• personalise results to your reading profile and adapt that profile from your feedback;
• create and secure your account, keep you signed in, and send verification and password-reset emails;
• process payments, manage subscriptions, and apply plan limits;
• answer support requests;
• prevent abuse, fraud, and attacks, and keep the Service reliable;
• understand aggregate usage and cost so we can improve the Service;
• meet legal obligations, such as tax and accounting rules.

We do not make decisions about you that have legal or similarly significant effects by automated means.

Legal bases

Where data-protection laws such as the Nigeria Data Protection Act 2023, the EU or UK General Data Protection Regulation require a legal basis, we rely on:

• Contract: to provide the Service you signed up for, including processing the content you send us, your account, profile, and billing.
• Consent: for information you choose to give us about how you think or any condition you mention, for using page context on sensitive sites, and for attaching diagnostics to support tickets. You can withdraw consent at any time.
• Legitimate interests: to secure the Service, prevent abuse, and understand aggregate usage, where those interests are not overridden by your rights.
• Legal obligation: to keep financial records and respond to lawful requests.

AI processing

Explanations, suggested responses, and reformatting are produced by third-party AI models from Google (Gemini) and Anthropic (Claude). The content described above is sent to the provider for each request, and the provider returns the result to us.

These providers process the content under their own terms and privacy policies, which govern how long they keep it and whether they may use it to improve their services: Google Privacy Policy, Gemini API Terms, and Anthropic Privacy Policy. AI output can be wrong. Do not rely on an explanation for medical, legal, or financial decisions.

Please do not explain passwords, card numbers, or other information you would not want an AI provider to process. Circled areas are shown to you before they are sent, so you can check nothing private is inside.

Who we share it with

We share personal information only with service providers who help us run the Service:

• Google (Gemini API) and Anthropic (Claude API): AI processing.
• Google: sign in with Google, if you choose it.
• Paystack: payments and subscriptions.
• Resend: sending account and support emails.
• Upstash: temporary caching and rate-limit counters.
• Cloud hosting, database, and storage providers: running our servers, storing our database, and holding history thumbnails.
• Google Fonts: our website loads fonts from Google, which receives your IP address.

We may also disclose information:

• if required by law, or to respond to a valid legal request;
• to protect the rights, safety, or property of our users, the public, or Synapse;
• as part of a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets, in which case this policy will continue to apply to your information, or you will be told before a different policy applies.

We do not sell personal information and do not share it for targeted advertising.

Information about how you think

Synapse is built for people with ADHD, dyslexia, autism, and others who find dense pages tiring, but it never asks for a diagnosis. Your reading profile describes presentation preferences, not a condition. Even so, we recognise that a profile, or anything you write in your notes or feedback, could suggest something about your health. We treat all profile data as sensitive. We use it only to personalise your results, never share it for any other purpose, and delete it when you delete your account. If you choose to mention a diagnosis anywhere in the Service, you consent to us processing it for that purpose only.

Cookies and local storage

Our website does not use advertising or analytics cookies. When you sign in, your session is stored in your browser’s local storage so you stay signed in. Clearing your site data signs you out. The extension uses the browser’s extension storage to keep your session, your settings (such as page context on or off), your reading profile, which results you have rated, and a list of the pages you reformatted (address, title, and time) that you can clear from the extension. It stays on your device. Circled areas waiting for confirmation, and the last few circled areas (kept for up to an hour so a re-explain can look again), are held in the browser’s memory only and are cleared when the browser closes.

How long we keep it

We keep personal information only as long as we need it:

Deleting your account cancels any subscription and permanently deletes your account, profile, profile history, reading sessions, feedback, saved explanations, and thumbnails. Records we keep afterwards, as listed above, are no longer linked to you.

Your rights and choices

Depending on where you live, you may have the right to:

• access the personal information we hold about you and get a copy;
• correct information that is wrong;
• delete your information;
• receive your information in a portable format;
• object to, or ask us to restrict, certain processing;
• withdraw consent where we rely on it;
• complain to a data-protection authority.

Several of these you can do yourself, straight away:

• Edit or export your profile: on your profile page, including a JSON export of your profile and recent history.
• Delete saved explanations: one at a time or a whole site from the history panel in the extension, or everything at once from your profile page.
• Turn off page context: from the panel in the extension.
• Delete your account: from your profile page.

For anything else, email help@support.usesynapse.cv. We will respond within 30 days, and may need to confirm your identity first. We will not treat you differently for exercising your rights.

Security

We use industry-standard measures to protect your information, including encryption in transit (HTTPS), secure storage of passwords and sign-in credentials, abuse protection, and access controls that limit internal access to what is needed to run the Service. No system is completely secure. If we learn of a breach that affects your personal information, we will notify you and the relevant authorities as the law requires.

International transfers

Our service providers operate in several countries, including the United States, so your information may be processed outside the country where you live. Where the law requires it, we rely on appropriate safeguards for these transfers, such as standard contractual clauses or the provider’s own transfer mechanisms.

Children

The Service is not for children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect their information. If you are under 18, or under the age of digital consent where you live, you may use Synapse only with the permission of a parent or guardian. If you believe a child has given us personal information without that permission, email help@support.usesynapse.cv and we will delete it.

The Chrome extension

The Synapse extension asks Chrome for these permissions:

• Access to the sites you visit: so you can highlight, circle, and reformat on any page, and to capture the area you circle, after you confirm it. The extension reads a page only when you use it there.
• Storage: to keep your session and settings in your browser.

The extension only changes a page when you ask it to: it shows its panel and highlights, and, when you press Insert, types a suggested reply into a text box. It never sends or submits anything on the page.

The use of information received from Chrome APIs adheres to the Chrome Web Store User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements. We use this information only to provide and improve the Service’s single purpose of helping you read and understand content. We do not sell it, use it for advertising, or let humans read it, except with your permission, for security, or where the law requires.

Signing in with Google

If you sign in with Google, we receive only your basic profile (Google account identifier, name, email address, and profile picture) and use it only to create and sign in to your Synapse account. Synapse’s use and transfer of information received from Google APIs adheres to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements.

Notice for US residents

If you live in California or another US state with a consumer privacy law: in the last 12 months we have collected identifiers (such as email address and IP address), commercial information (plan and subscription), internet activity related to your use of the Service (page addresses and content you asked us about), and inferences about your reading preferences, from you and your use of the Service, for the purposes described above. We have not sold or shared personal information for cross-context behavioural advertising, and we do not use sensitive personal information to infer characteristics about you beyond what is needed to provide the Service. You have the right to know, correct, and delete your information, and to appoint an authorised agent to make a request for you.

Changes to this policy

We will update this policy as Synapse changes. The effective date at the top shows when it last changed. If a change materially affects how we use your information, we will tell you by email or in the Service before it takes effect.

Contact and complaints

Questions, requests, or complaints: email help@support.usesynapse.cv.

If you are not satisfied with our response, you can complain to your local data-protection authority. In Nigeria this is the Nigeria Data Protection Commission. In the EU, it is the supervisory authority in your country, and in the UK the Information Commissioner’s Office.