🦡 BuckyBot Privacy Policy

Overview

BuckyBot is a Chrome extension designed to help UW-Madison students with course planning and academic recommendations. This privacy policy explains how we collect, use, and protect your data.

Information We Collect

1. Account Information

• Email address: Used for account creation and authentication
• Name: Used to personalize your experience
• Password: Securely hashed and stored (never stored in plain text)

2. Academic Data

• DARS Report: Your Degree Audit Reporting System (DARS) PDF upload
  • Courses taken and grades
  • GPA and credit information
  • Major and degree requirements
• Course Queries: Questions you ask about courses, professors, and academic planning

3. Usage Data

• Chat History: Your conversations with BuckyBot for providing recommendations
• Session Data: Authentication tokens to keep you logged in

How We Use Your Information

We use your information to:

• Provide personalized course recommendations based on your academic history
• Analyze grade distributions and course difficulty
• Match you with relevant professors and course sections
• Improve the quality of our AI-powered responses
• Maintain your account and session security

Data Storage and Security

Storage Location

• AWS DynamoDB: All user data is stored in secure AWS databases in the US-East-1 region
• AWS Lambda: Application logic runs in serverless functions with encrypted environment variables

Security Measures

• Password Security: Passwords are hashed using PBKDF2 with random salts
• Data Encryption: All data is encrypted in transit (HTTPS) and at rest (AWS encryption)
• Session Management: Sessions expire after 30 days for security
• Access Control: Your data is only accessible to you when authenticated

Data Sharing

We only access external services for functionality:

• MadGrades API: Anonymous course grade distribution lookups
• RateMyProfessor: Public professor ratings (no personal data sent)
• DeepSeek AI: Anonymous query processing (no personally identifiable information)

Your Rights

You have the right to:

• Access: Request a copy of your data
• Delete: Request deletion of your account and all associated data
• Modify: Update your account information
• Opt-out: Stop using the service at any time

To exercise these rights, contact us at: kmmittal@wisc.edu

Data Retention

• Active Accounts: Data is retained while your account is active
• Account Deletion: All data is permanently deleted within 30 days of account deletion request
• Session Data: Sessions expire automatically after 30 days of inactivity

Cookies and Local Storage

BuckyBot uses browser local storage to:

• Store your session token for authentication
• Remember your login state
• Cache basic user preferences

No third-party cookies are used.

Children's Privacy

BuckyBot is intended for college students. We do not knowingly collect data from anyone under 13 years of age.

Changes to This Policy

We may update this privacy policy from time to time. Changes will be posted on this page with an updated "Last Updated" date.

Contact Us

For questions about this privacy policy or your data:

• Email: kmmittal@wisc.edu
• GitHub: github.com/krishangMittal/BuckyBot

Compliance

BuckyBot complies with:

• Chrome Web Store Developer Program Policies
• General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) principles
• California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) where applicable