THE SMALL PRINT, IN PLAIN ENGLISH
Privacy policy
This policy covers the Duely Mac app and website account. It is written by the maker of the product to be accurate. If anything here turns out to be wrong, please report it so we can fix it.
The short version:
- Your drafts, conversations, notes, and recordings are saved on this Mac. When you are signed in, the text Duely saves from your classes, including transcripts of class recordings, is also copied to your own account space.
- Lectures are transcribed on this Mac, not by a cloud transcription service.
- AI requests carry the approved material a task needs through Duely’s backend to OpenAI; the backend stores neither prompts nor outputs.
- A Canvas password you choose to save is kept in this Mac’s Keychain and is not sent to Duely’s servers or the AI.
- Usage measurement is off unless you turn it on.
- Deleting your Duely account removes its synced records and usage history from Duely’s service. What is saved on this Mac stays until you remove it.
Who operates Duely
Duely is operated by Duely, Inc., a Delaware corporation. Where this policy says “Duely’s operator” or “the maker,” it means Duely, Inc. That company is responsible for the data described below and is the party you are dealing with when you use the app. Written enquiries: support@duely.app.
About this website
The website signs you in with Google, or with an email address and password, through Firebase Authentication, to connect your Duely account, subscription, and Mac app. The Mac app opens this website when you sign in to Duely. Firebase keeps your sign-in session in your browser. If you use an email address and password, Firebase Authentication checks the password and sends the reset email when you ask for one. A short-lived, single-use code connects a browser sign-in to the Mac app; your password and sign-in tokens are not placed in that link. We do not use a website analytics integration. If you email us, the information you choose to send reaches Duely’s contact address through your email provider.
Stripe handles subscription checkout and billing management. Duely stores the Stripe customer and subscription identifiers, plan and subscription status, and usage records needed to provide your account’s allowance. Payment card details are collected by Stripe, not in the Duely app. Your email and account identifier are used to associate the subscription with the account you signed into. Payment and subscription records are handled separately from schoolwork and can remain after account deletion. Deleting your Duely account cancels its active subscriptions before the account is removed.
The shape of the system
Duely keeps your working semester and artifacts on your Mac. The configured production app requires account sign-in. An account connects Duely’s model service and course-file sync; it does not back up the entire workspace. Reading saved work does not require a new model request.
What stays on your Mac
Your class meeting times, class summaries, agent conversations, and the documents, PDFs, spreadsheets, and code drafts you make in Duely live in Duely’s folder on your Mac. Workspace files stay in the folder you approved, and workspace-file edits stay inside it.
Courses and assignments are stored locally, including when you are signed in. Your account-specific day plan, estimates, session-done marks, and optional Duely-local study blocks stay on this Mac and are included in work recovery. Those blocks do not create calendar events on their own; they reach a calendar only through the export you review, described under Calendar export below. Study history and tool preferences also stay on this Mac. Saved work survives a normal relaunch; keep your Mac backed up to protect it.
The local draft library belongs to the Mac user account. Documents, workbooks, PDFs, code drafts, and chats remain available when that Mac user changes Duely sign-in; signing out of Duely does not hide or erase them. Account-specific class and Study records keep their existing owner. Use separate macOS user accounts when different people share a Mac.
Recovery copies
Settings offers an optional saved-work recovery copy. It contains selected saved library files, including records for the Duely accounts used by this Mac user, in a folder you choose. Duely does not encrypt or upload the copy. A cloud-synced destination may upload it through that folder’s own service.
The copy excludes Duely’s account credentials, browser sessions, pending jobs, and submission approvals. External workspace and code-project folders need their own backup. Unsaved edits are not included.
Restoring requires inspecting and choosing a recovery copy, then restarting. Duely keeps the previous library in the local Duely Recovery folder and preserves existing account ownership. Restoring does not grant external project access or resume old jobs and approvals. Recovery copies and retained previous libraries stay until you remove them; account deletion does not remove those local copies.
Class notes and lecture recordings
Notes saves your writing, imported files, recordings, transcripts, corrections, and AI-made summaries on this Mac, kept separately for each Duely account. Signing out hides those notes from the next account; it does not erase them. Notes are not copied into the synced course files described below. A saved-work recovery copy can include your notes and recordings.
A recording starts only when you start it in Notes and confirm that you have permission to record the class. macOS also controls microphone access. The audio stays on this Mac. A transcript is made from the saved audio on this Mac, with Apple’s on-device speech recognition; macOS may ask you to allow speech recognition and may download a language model for it. If on-device recognition is unavailable, Duely tells you and keeps the audio. It is not sent to a cloud transcription service.
When you ask Duely for a summary, practice questions, a diagram, or another AI result from your notes, you first see the passages that will be sent to the model service. Sending them covers that one request; it does not turn the note on for later use. Separately, choosing Use this note in Study lets text from that note, its transcript, and the text read from its attachments be used in later Study, assignment, and Ask Duely requests for that class, including your future edits, until you turn it off. Recordings and original attachments are not uploaded by that setting. Turning it off stops future use; it does not recall earlier requests or erase results already saved.
Delete audio removes a note’s saved audio and keeps your writing and transcript. Delete note removes the note, its original files, recordings, transcript, and generated work for that account on this Mac. Copies you exported and recovery copies are separate. Passages from the note already saved in an assignment conversation or a Study room stay there, and deleting a note does not recall requests already sent to the model.
Audio and video files that your class posts in Canvas are transcribed on this Mac too. When Duely reads a class, it downloads those files through your signed-in Canvas session and turns their audio into a transcript in the background, with the same on-device speech recognition and no cloud transcription service. Unlike your notes, that transcript is saved with the class’s materials and copied, with the text of the class’s other pages and files, to your synced course files. The audio or video file itself is not uploaded.
The downloaded original is kept on this Mac only until its transcript is finished or Duely stops trying, in a folder for your Duely account that Duely marks to be left out of Time Machine backups. Stopping the transcription or removing the class removes it. If speech recognition is unavailable or not allowed, Duely keeps the download to try again the next three times it opens, then removes it. A download left by an account that signed out waits for that account, and is removed after a week untouched once another account uses Duely.
What syncs when you sign in
When course-file sync is available, the course files the agent reads are stored in your own account space in Firestore, in the US region: class summaries; the text Duely saved from class pages and class files, including transcripts of class recordings; files you add to a class; and, for assignments you work on in Duely, their directions, due dates, and the text of their attachments. Server-side security rules restrict synced records to your signed-in account.
Duely’s browser and signing in
Canvas, Google Docs, Slides, and other school websites open in the browser built into Duely, and you sign in on each site’s own page. The sign-in sessions those sites set are kept in a browser profile on this Mac, separate for each Duely account, and go back only to the sites that set them. Your bookmarks, the pages you visit (used to suggest addresses), and, with Reopen tabs from the last session on, your open tabs are kept on this Mac for your Duely account too. Clear Browser Data in Settings forgets those pages and tabs and signs you out of every site in Duely’s browser; your bookmarks stay until you remove them.
Duely reads your Canvas classes through your signed-in session; it does not need a developer key or anything set up by your school. A website in Duely’s browser can use your camera or microphone only after you approve its request.
Saving your Canvas sign-in is optional. If you choose Save Canvas sign-in, the username and password you type are stored in this Mac’s Keychain for your Duely account and that one Canvas site, and are not synced to other devices. Duely fills them into that site’s Canvas sign-in page, and you choose Sign In to Canvas. They are not sent to Duely’s servers or to the AI model. Forget, on that sign-in page, removes them, and deleting your Duely account removes every Canvas sign-in it saved on that Mac.
Google files
Connect Google is separate from signing in to Google in Duely’s browser. It opens your system browser and asks Google to let Duely use only the Drive files you use with Duely: the Docs and Slides Duely makes for your assignments, and the files you choose in Google’s own file picker. Duely cannot open anything else in your Drive. A Google file you opened yourself becomes available to Duely only after you choose it in that picker. A connection made with a version of Duely from before October 28, 2026 can also open your other Google Docs and Slides, and Settings says so, until you disconnect it and connect again. Duely limits each run to the Google files you attached to that assignment, and a change you decline is not made.
The authorization Google returns is kept in this Mac’s Keychain. Disconnect Google Workspace in Settings, or deleting your Duely account, removes it and asks Google to revoke it. Your school’s Google Workspace administrator can block apps like Duely from connecting. Your Google files stay in your Google account; deleting your Duely account does not delete them.
Duely’s use and transfer of information received from Google APIs adheres to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements. Duely uses the contents of a Google file you attached only to do what you ask Duely to do with it; for that, the content goes through Duely’s backend to the model described below. It is not used to train generalized AI or machine learning models, not sold, and not used for advertising, and no one at Duely reads it unless you ask us to, such as in a support request, or it is needed for security or required by law.
Calendar export
If you choose to put Duely on your calendar, Duely sends your classes, deadlines, and planned work, including study blocks you scheduled, to a calendar you pick from the ones connected to macOS. macOS asks you to allow full calendar access first. The export goes one way, from Duely to that calendar, and only after you review the events and the destination each time; nothing is sent in the background. Your other calendar events are not imported into Duely. Duely looks up only the events it exported, so it can update them and leave alone any you edited or removed. Removing an item in Duely does not delete the copy in your calendar.
Guidance and app control
Desktop guidance can capture a selected app window and recognize its visible text for your requested explanation. macOS manages Screen Recording consent. Raw captures are temporary; images you separately attach to a conversation are saved with that conversation.
The desktop companion brings visual guidance and approved work into the assignment conversation beside your selected app. It may use screenshots, recognized text, Accessibility content, and app integrations to understand selected work, and click, type, scroll, or drag when needed. A dedicated integration is not required. Guidance draws temporary overlays and waits for you to act. Control stays within approved apps and windows, checks the target and result, and provides an immediate stop. It will not type into a password field: passwords and authentication stay with you. The only password Duely stores and fills in for you is the Canvas sign-in you can choose to save, described under Duely’s browser and signing in, and you still choose Sign In to Canvas.
Available guidance and control depend on the app and Duely release; browser walkthrough overlays are still under development. App permissions do not approve changes, and macOS Screen Recording, Accessibility, and per-app Automation permissions still apply. Observations do not create a separate activity archive or background keystroke collection.
What reaches the model
When you use model-backed features such as course reading and agent runs, the approved material needed for that task is sent through Duely’s backend to OpenAI’s GPT API. This can include an approved browser page, files inside the workspace folder you chose, course material you pasted or imported, passages from your notes that you approved for that request or turned on for the class, your request, relevant course names and deadlines, the agent’s working notes, or a requested guidance window capture and recognized text. Companion context follows the selected app/window scope described above.
The assignment-agent context list shows what was included and what was withheld, with the reason. Your contacts, Keychain, background keystrokes, and unrelated content outside your selected pages, apps, windows, and files are not included. Production requests use the backend, which holds the model API key and verifies your sign-in. The separate development key mode calls OpenAI directly using a key supplied on that Mac.
Duely’s backend streams prompts and outputs through and stores neither. OpenAI processes that traffic under its commercial API terms, including its standard API data handling and short-term abuse monitoring. Duely has not opted into a training-data program. Your Mac retains saved work produced with the model. Contact us if you would like the full model disclosure.
App updates
A downloaded copy of Duely checks for a newer version about once a day by fetching an update file from Google Cloud Storage. When there is one, Duely downloads it in the background, checks its signature, and installs it when you quit. That request works like any download: it carries your network address and the app’s name and version. It does not include your Duely account, your coursework, or a profile of your Mac.
Analytics
Usage measurement is optional. It stays off unless you choose Share usage measurements in Settings and Duely’s service confirms the choice, and the production service currently has measurement switched off. Sending feedback does not enable collection, and local Canvas/test sessions do not collect it.
Approved events pass through Duely’s authenticated backend to PostHog’s US service. They include operation and feature names, outcomes, typed errors, timestamps, bounded durations and counts, app build, and random account, attempt, session and work references. Events about connecting a class also say how the class was read, the stage it reached, a fixed failure code, the HTTP status when known, whether a reading limit was reached, and counts of the classes, pages, links, sources, assignments, and blocked frames involved. PostHog receives no Duely email or raw account ID, and no Canvas account, course, or assignment identifiers. Analytics exclude prompts, answers, coursework, grades, titles, filenames, URLs, page contents, search text, screenshots, clipboard contents and keystrokes. There is no session replay, heatmap, generic autocapture or new automatic crash collector. Client IP data is discarded and GeoIP is disabled.
Separately, Duely keeps a small diagnostic receipt on this Mac for each attempt to connect a class, even when measurement is off. A receipt holds the same counts and fixed codes, plus a reference to the local class record so Duely can show that class’s recovery status after a relaunch. Receipts are kept apart for each Duely account and limited to the latest 50 attempts and seven days; older ones are removed the next time that account’s diagnostics are used. Keeping them does not turn on sharing, and the class reference is left out of reports and measurement.
Turning collection off stops capture on this Mac and requests removal of unsent events; the app shows storage failures and pending service confirmation. Already received events are separate. Delete measurement history requests their removal from Duely and PostHog and remains pending until the provider verifies erasure, which can take several days. Duely retains raw backend events for up to 90 days; PostHog’s selected Free plan retains them for up to one year. These periods are configured expiry targets; an outage or failed cleanup can delay removal.
Feedback you choose to send
Send feedback saves a local draft and previews the exact report before sending. You choose the category and text; the preview includes app version/build, coarse macOS version, feature and any typed error code. Coursework, logs and screenshots are not silently attached. Signed-out drafts can be copied or exported; sending requires the intended signed-in account. Drafts and queues stay separate by account and are excluded from coursework recovery copies.
Report a class connection problem, in Help, starts a feedback draft that adds the connection fields described under Analytics. The preview shows those exact fields before you choose to send. Opening the draft sends nothing and does not turn on measurement.
Submitted report text stays in Duely’s feedback service, visible to the maker through restricted operator access, for up to 180 days unless deleted sooner. It is not sent to PostHog or an AI. My reports shows receipts, status and deletion controls. Local copies remain until you remove them, separately from server retention.
What Duely’s operator can see
- Usage and cost ledgers per account, and a receipt per model run: model role, token counts, and dollar amounts, never message content.
- Backend logs, which redact secrets by shape and do not contain message content.
- Approved pseudonymous usage records from participating accounts, and the feedback text and technical fields students explicitly submit.
Retention and deletion
Synced account records, usage ledgers, and model-run receipts are kept until account deletion. Backend logs use the logging provider’s default retention, recorded as 30 days in our data retention details. OpenAI’s own API retention applies separately to model traffic.
Delete account is available in the app’s Settings. It requires a recent sign-in. It cancels active subscriptions, then prevents new product writes and requests PostHog measurement erasure. Pending erasure keeps the account available for an explicit retry; the app does not claim completion. Once verified, deletion ends signed-in sessions and removes synced account records, product reports/events, usage ledgers, receipts and the account itself. A content-free server fence prevents late requests from recreating records for 24 hours after confirmed account deletion; incomplete deletion keeps its fence until completion or operator repair.
Account deletion preserves your coursework, saved files and recovery copies on this Mac. While erasure is pending, the app stops collection and clears the affected account’s unsent analytics and local analytics references; storage failures are shown. Local feedback drafts and report copies remain until you remove them. Account deletion does not erase provider-retained logs. Removing the app alone does not erase its saved library in Application Support; delete local records or that library separately when you want them gone.
Deleting your account in the app also removes, from that Mac’s Keychain, every Canvas sign-in the account saved and its Google authorization, and asks Google to revoke that authorization. If Google can’t be reached at that moment, you can remove Duely’s access from your Google Account’s third-party connections. Signing out or removing the app leaves them; Forget on your school’s Canvas sign-in page and Disconnect Google Workspace in Settings remove them while you are signed in.
Signing out, deleting your Duely account, or removing the app does not remove what Duely keeps on this Mac for that account: its notes and recordings, and its sign-ins and remembered pages in Duely’s browser. To remove them, use Delete note in Notes and Clear Browser Data in Settings. Do this while you are still signed in to that account: once it is deleted, Duely has no control that removes them. Contact us for the full data retention details.
A question, or something to fix?
Email support@duely.app.