Privacy Policy for VivaScholar

Last updated: June 11, 2026

VivaScholar ("we", "us", "the extension") is a Chrome browser extension that helps students discover scholarships, track applications, and get AI feedback on scholarship essays. This policy explains what data the extension collects, where it goes, and what we do not do with it.

TL;DR

We do not run user accounts. There is no sign-up, no email collection, no analytics tied to your identity.
Your scholarship list, profile, and saved data live on your device in Chrome's local extension storage. We never see it.
When you click "Get AI Feedback" on an essay, that essay is sent once to our backend, which forwards it to OpenAI. It is not stored on our servers, not logged, and not used to train any model.
When you click an "Apply" link, you go directly to the scholarship provider's site. We have no control over what they collect there — read their policy.

What the extension stores on your device

The extension uses chrome.storage.local (and falls back to localStorage in a regular browser tab during development). These keys never leave your machine:

Key	What it contains
`userProfile`	The profile you fill in on the Profile page (name, school, major, GPA, etc.). Used only to match scholarships locally.
`savedScholarships`	The IDs of scholarships you've bookmarked.
`appliedScholarships`	The IDs of scholarships you've marked as applied.
`customScholarships`	Any scholarships you added manually.
`pendingApplications`	A short-lived record of links you opened, used to prompt you on the next launch ("Did you apply?"). Cleared once you answer.
`savedPrompts`	Essay prompts you've saved in the Feedback page.

You can clear all of it any time by removing the extension or by going to chrome://extensions/ → VivaScholar → Site access → Clear storage.

What we send over the network

VivaScholar makes a small number of outbound requests:

GET /api/scholarships — fetches the curated scholarship list from our backend at launch. This request contains no personal data; it's anonymous.
POST /api/feedback — only when you click "Get AI Feedback." The request body contains the essay text you typed. The backend forwards it to OpenAI, returns the model's response, and discards the essay. We do not store, log, or persist essay contents anywhere. OpenAI's data usage is governed by their API privacy policy; essay submissions through the API are not used to train OpenAI models per their current terms.
https://calendar.google.com/... — clicking "Add to Calendar" opens Google Calendar with the deadline pre-filled. We have no Google integration; this is a standard URL link.
Application links — clicking "Apply" opens the scholarship provider's website in a new tab. We have no relationship with those providers and no visibility into what they collect.

We do not run analytics, telemetry, or tracking pixels. We do not use cookies in the extension itself.

What we do not do

We do not sell, rent, or share user data with third parties.
We do not have user accounts, sessions, or any login system.
We do not collect IP addresses for any purpose other than transient rate limiting on the feedback API (the count is in memory, not persisted, and not tied to any identity).
We do not run advertising of any kind.
We do not share your profile, scholarship list, or essay drafts with anyone, including scholarship providers.

Children's privacy

VivaScholar is intended for high school and college students. We do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 13. The extension stores all profile information locally on the user's own device; we never receive it.

Changes to this policy

If we materially change how the extension handles data, we will update this page and bump the "Last updated" date at the top. Significant changes will also be noted in the extension's release notes on the Chrome Web Store.

Contact

Questions about this policy? Email fabianmedina@utexas.edu.

For source-level review, the extension is open source at github.com/fabianmedina23/VivaScholar.