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Privacy Policy

Last updated

This policy explains what information Kugi collects when you use kugi.study and Kugi World, how we use it, who we share it with, and the choices you have. We follow the Philippine Data Privacy Act of 2012.

1. Who we are

Kugi is a learning community for Filipino learners at kugi.study, with communities, study tools, Kugi AI and the 3D Kugi World. In this policy, “Kugi”, “we” and “us” mean the team that runs kugi.study. For any privacy question or request, email hello@kugi.shapeshadows.tech.

2. Information we collect

  • Account details: your name, username and email address, your password (stored only as a one-way hash, never in readable form), and anything you add to your profile, such as your school, photo or bio.
  • Google sign-in: if you choose Continue with Google, Google shares your Google account ID, name and email address with us after it has verified the email. We never receive your Google password, and we do not ask for access to your Gmail, Drive, contacts or any other Google data.
  • What you create: posts, comments, reactions, messages, communities, courses, notes, flashcards, quizzes, mock exams, and the files, screenshots and links you keep in your Study Library.
  • Study Library: the files you upload (PDFs, photos and screenshots, Word, PowerPoint, Excel and text files), the links you save, your folders, and which file you last opened and on which page. Kugi reads the text in your files on our own servers, including scans, screenshots and photos (with character recognition for English and Filipino), and keeps that text with the file so you can search inside your files and make quizzes, mock exams and flashcards from them. Kugi also makes small preview pictures of your files. Photos are kept exactly as you upload them, including details your phone saved in them, such as where a photo was taken.
  • Study activity: quiz and exam results, focus and study time, streaks, quests, experience points (XP), levels and badges.
  • Kugi World: your owl’s look, where it is and where it faces, its emotes, the room or seat you join, and what you say in the World.
  • Coins, Crests, items and purchases: your Coin and Crest balances and history and the items you own. For paid purchases, such as Crest bundles, we keep the payment reference, the bundle, the amount and any discount, the status and the time. We never receive or store your card number or e-wallet details.
  • Usage and device information: which features you use, your device type (phone, tablet or computer) and when, and whether you have Kugi open right now (which Kugi administrators can see). Our servers also log IP addresses, browser type, the addresses requested (which can include words you search for in your Study Library) and request times, and keep a scrambled (hashed) form of IP addresses to limit repeated requests and block abuse.
  • Messages to us: anything you send when you email us.

If you had an account on the earlier version of Kugi, your account and study data were carried over to kugi.study so you can keep using them.

3. How we use your information

  • To create your account, sign you in and keep it secure, including verification codes and password resets by email.
  • To run Kugi’s features: communities, study tools, Kugi AI, Kugi World, leaderboards, quests and the Store.
  • To read the text of the files you upload, so you can search inside them and make study tools from them.
  • To show your profile, content and progress to other people as described in section 6.
  • To see which features are used, as totals and trends, so we can improve them.
  • To prevent spam, cheating, fraud and abuse, and to enforce our Terms of Service.
  • To process purchases and keep the records the law requires.
  • To send service emails such as verification codes, password resets and important notices about your account.

We do not sell your personal information, we do not show ads, and we do not use third-party tracking or advertising tools.

4. Kugi AI

When you use Kugi AI, for example to make quizzes, mock exams or flashcards from your materials or to ask about a topic, the text and materials you give it are processed by an AI model that runs on a private server on our network, not by a public AI service. We use them only to produce your result, and we do not use your materials to train AI models. When you choose files or folders from your Study Library, Kugi sends the text it read from them, with their names, to the AI model, up to a size limit and only for that request, and remembers which parts a quiz or mock exam already used so the next one covers new parts. Quizzes, mock exams and flashcards you keep are saved to your account like anything else you create. AI answers can be wrong, so check anything important.

5. Cookies and storage on your device

  • Sign-in cookie (kugi_session): keeps you logged in. Scripts on the page cannot read it, and it lasts up to 30 days or until you log out.
  • Storage on your device: your sign-in token and basic profile so Kugi opens quickly, your theme and display settings, your cookie choice, whether you hid the pop-ups, and short-lived state such as your place in Kugi World so a refresh can pick up where you were. If you open someone’s referral link, its referral code is kept until you sign up (or sign out), so the person who invited you gets credit for a new account.
  • Google: when you use Continue with Google, Google’s sign-in script loads from accounts.google.com and Google may set its own cookies under Google’s Privacy Policy.

Kugi uses no advertising or analytics cookies. “Essential only” and “Accept” in the cookie notice both keep the essential items above, because Kugi cannot sign you in without them.

6. What other people can see

  • Other Kugi users can see your profile: your name, username, photo, frame and level.
  • Leaderboards show your name, frame and XP unless you set your profile to private.
  • Posts, comments and other content in a community can be seen by that community’s members, and by everyone if the community is public. Community owners and moderators can see who has joined their community; other members see only the owner, the moderators and the people they follow each other with. When you post anonymously, members and the community team see only your anonymous name; Kugi’s admins can see who wrote it so they can act on reports.
  • In Kugi World, other players see your owl, its name, where it is, its emotes and what you say there.
  • Your Study: other learners never see your notes, files, flashcards, practice exams or Kugi AI chats. Kugi administrators can open them to enforce the Terms. If one breaks the rules, an administrator can take it down: it is hidden from your Study, you get a notification with the reason, and it can be restored later.
  • Referrals: if you signed up with someone’s referral link or code, they see that one more person signed up with it and, later, that one more finished Learner basics (the starting quests), because every 5 who finish earn them a reward. They see counts only: never your name or anything else about you.
  • Pop-ups: on the home, sign-in and sign-up pages, short notices say that new learners joined Kugi or signed in, one learner at a time. For public profiles, these notices show only a first name; private profiles are left out. Inside Kugi (on computers, not phones or tablets), notices show recent Store and Crest purchases anonymously as “A Kugi learner”. The notices never show an email address, photo or the amount paid, give the time only roughly (“40 min ago”), and leave out deleted accounts. Anyone can turn the notices off on their device with “Hide these”.

7. Who we share it with

We share personal information only with services that help run Kugi, and only what they need:

  • Google: Sign in with Google, if you use it, and delivery of Kugi’s emails through Gmail.
  • PayMongo: paid purchases, such as Crest bundles. Kugi’s payment service (a small function on our Supabase service) creates the checkout with PayMongo and passes PayMongo’s payment confirmations back to Kugi. PayMongo handles your card or e-wallet details under its own privacy policy and tells us only whether a payment went through.

Kugi’s website, database, AI model, the realtime service behind Kugi World and the files in your Study Library are on servers we manage in the Philippines. Kugi reads the text in your files with tools on those same servers; no outside service receives your files. We may also disclose information when the law, a court or a government authority requires it, or when it is needed to protect the safety of our users or the public. If Kugi is ever reorganized or transferred, your information would move with it and stay covered by this policy.

8. How long we keep it

  • Your account and content: for as long as your account is open.
  • Your Study Library: files, notes and folders you delete go to the Bin, where you can restore them for 30 days. After that they are erased, with the text Kugi read from them, the next time you open your Study Library. Delete forever and Empty bin erase them at once. Quizzes, mock exams and flashcards you made from a file stay after the file is erased. Anything carried over from the earlier version of Kugi leaves your library the same way, but that version’s own copy is kept; email us to have it erased.
  • When you delete your account in Settings, we delete your account and sign you out on every device. To have every remaining record linked to it erased as well (such as activity history, posts, and the files in your Study Library with the text read from them), email us and we will erase them and confirm.
  • Server logs and abuse-prevention records: only as long as needed for security and troubleshooting.
  • Payment records: as long as tax and accounting laws require.

9. How we protect it

Kugi is served over HTTPS, passwords are stored only as one-way hashes, the sign-in cookie cannot be read by scripts, repeated requests are limited, and access to production systems is limited to the people who run Kugi. No system is perfectly secure. If a breach ever puts your information at risk, we will tell you and the National Privacy Commission as the law requires.

10. Your rights

Under the Data Privacy Act of 2012 (Republic Act No. 10173), you have the right to be informed about how your personal information is used, to access it, to have it corrected, to object to its use, to have it erased or blocked, to get a copy in a portable format, and to claim damages. You can also file a complaint with the National Privacy Commission.

You can change most of your details yourself in Settings, and delete your account there. For anything else, email hello@kugi.shapeshadows.tech from the address on your account and we will reply as soon as we can.

11. Children

Kugi is made for students and reviewees. If you are under 18, use Kugi with the permission of a parent or guardian. Kugi is not meant for children under 13; if we learn that a child under 13 has an account, we will delete it. Parents and guardians can contact us about a child’s account at any time.

12. Information from Google

Kugi’s use and transfer of information received from Google APIs adheres to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements. We use your Google account ID, name and email address only to sign you in and set up your Kugi profile, and we do not share them except as this policy describes.

13. Changes to this policy

When we change this policy, we will update the date at the top of this page. If a change matters for how your information is used, we will also let you know in Kugi or by email before it takes effect.

14. Contact us

Questions, requests or complaints about privacy: email hello@kugi.shapeshadows.tech.