Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy explains what information Luminao ("we," "us") collects, how we use it, and the choices you have. It applies to the Luminao website and platform. By using Luminao you agree to this policy.

• Account information: your name, email address, and (for mentors) university and enrollment details.
• Profile information: bio, areas of expertise, rates, profile photo, and resumes you choose to upload.
• Mentor review documents: mentors who sign up also upload a photo of their student ID and their résumé, for mentor review. Only the Luminao team sees the ID photo.
• Content: essays, documents, and messages you share to receive feedback.
• Community activity: the questions, answers, and comments you post in the Community, your votes, the reports you file, and the handle we generate for you.
• Payment information: handled by Stripe. We receive limited details (such as the amount and the last four digits) but never store your full card number.
• Session data: bookings and basic session details. Sessions are not recorded.
• Usage data: basic technical information such as device, browser, and pages visited, used to operate and secure the platform.

• To provide the platform: create accounts, match students with mentors, and deliver sessions and edits;
• To process payments and pay out mentors;
• To send transactional emails such as booking confirmations, receipts, and message notifications;
• To keep the platform safe: verify mentors, prevent fraud and abuse, and respond to reports. Luminao staff may review messages to keep the platform safe and to investigate reports;
• To improve and support the service.

Posts in the Community are public. Anyone can read them, and search engines can index them.

• What other people see: your post, and either your handle or, if you choose to show your name, your first name and last initial with your class year (students) or your college (mentors). Every post also shows whether its writer is a student or a college student. Your email is never shown, and votes are never shown with your name or handle.
• What we keep: the account behind every post, including posts under a handle, so we can moderate, act on reports, and respond to lawful requests.
• Deleting: deleting a post or comment takes it off the site. Deleting your account takes down all of your posts and comments, clears their text, and removes your votes and your handle. Replies other people wrote stay up. A search engine may take some time to drop a page it has already indexed.

We do not sell your personal information. We share data only with the service providers we rely on to run Luminao, and only as needed:

• Supabase: authentication and database hosting;
• Stripe: payment processing and mentor payouts;
• Daily.co: live video sessions;
• Liveblocks: real-time collaborative editing;
• Resend: transactional email delivery;
• Google Analytics 4: measures how the site is used (pages visited, device and browser). It loads only after you accept analytics cookies;
• Vercel Web Analytics: page-view counts for the site, from our hosting provider Vercel;
• Google Gemini: when a mentor chooses to import their résumé, the résumé PDF is sent to Google's Gemini service to read it and draft profile entries. The mentor reviews every entry before anything is saved;
• Google Docs: when a student chooses to write an essay in Google Docs (see below);
• Our hosting providers, which store platform data.

We may also disclose information if required by law, or to protect the rights and safety of our users.

A student can choose to write an essay in Google Docs: a new Google Doc that Luminao makes in their Google Drive, a Doc they pick in Google's own file picker, or an essay they move from Luminao into a new Doc. Google asks first whether Luminao may use only the files used with it. Google's permission screen words this as “see, edit, create, and delete only the specific Google Drive files you use with this app”. Luminao can open those Docs and nothing else in the student's Drive, and it never deletes anything there. Connecting Google doesn't sign you in to Luminao or change your Luminao account.

To keep the essay in step, Luminao reads the Doc's text while the student or their mentor has it open, and before an order or a download, and keeps a copy of that text in the student's Luminao account. Mentors read that copy. A mentor the essay is shared with can ask to comment in the Doc: Luminao then gives that mentor's Google account comment-only access to that one Doc, and removes it when the student stops sharing the essay or stops writing it in Google Docs. While they have it, Google shows each of them the other's Google name and email address, as it does for anyone sharing a Doc. When the student accepts a mentor's suggestion, Luminao makes that one change in the Doc. We use the Doc only for this, only the student and mentors they choose can read our copy, and we don't use it for advertising or to train AI models.

The permission Google gives Luminao is stored encrypted on our servers. Choosing Stop using Google Docs on an essay ends its link (the Doc stays in your Drive). Removing Luminao at myaccount.google.com/connections, or deleting your Luminao account, ends Luminao's access to all your Docs; deleting your account also deletes the permission we stored and our copies.

Luminao's use and transfer of information received from Google APIs will adhere to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements.

Luminao is not directed to children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from them. If you believe a child under 13 has provided us information, contact us and we will delete it.

For users aged 13–17, we rely on a parent or guardian's consent (see our Terms of Service). A parent or guardian may review their child's information, ask us to correct it, or request its deletion by emailing support@luminao.app.

We keep your information while your account is active and as needed to provide the service, comply with legal obligations, resolve disputes, and enforce our agreements. You can ask us to delete your account and associated data at any time.

You may access, update, or delete your account information, and you can request a copy or deletion of your personal data by emailing support@luminao.app. Depending on where you live, you may have additional rights under laws such as the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA); we honor those rights where they apply.

We use reasonable technical and organizational measures to protect your information, including encryption in transit, payment handling by Stripe, and access controls. No system is perfectly secure, but we work to protect your data and to respond promptly to any incident.

We use essential cookies and browser local storage to keep you signed in and to operate core features. If you accept analytics cookies in the banner, we also load Google Analytics 4; if you decline, it does not load. We do not use third-party advertising trackers. You can clear this data through your browser, though some features may stop working.

We may update this Privacy Policy as our practices change. We will post the new version with an updated date and, for material changes, notify registered users by email.

Questions about your privacy? Email support@luminao.app or visit our contact page.