Privacy notice
For the Bathcards study tool and its Chrome extension. Last updated 4 October 2026.
Your lecture slides, readings, cards, notes and study history stay on your own computer. They are not uploaded, and there is no account holding them. Two things leave your machine, both only when you ask: the text of one source at a time, sent to have cards written from it, along with a record of how much that cost; and anything you type into the feedback box, which is stored for Alex to read.
Who is responsible
This is run by one person, Alex Drysdale, a student at the University of Bath. It is not a University of Bath service and the University does not operate it. For anything in this notice, including a request to delete your data, write to drysdalealex0@gmail.com.
What stays on your computer
The app runs on your laptop, not on a server. These never leave it, and are not visible to anyone running the service:
- the lecture slides, documents and readings the extension collects from Moodle;
- every flashcard, including its question and answer text;
- your study history, review times, streaks and progress;
- your notes, highlights and annotations;
- which course and units you have chosen.
They sit in a folder on your own disk. Deleting that folder deletes them; there is no copy elsewhere to ask about.
What is sent, and why
When you press Make cards, the app sends the extracted text of one
source to the card service at bathcards.xandidrysdale.com, which
passes it to Anthropic's Claude API to have cards written. The cards come back to your
computer and are saved there. This happens only when you ask for it.
Your request carries a device token, which is a random string created when you installed the app. It identifies the installation, not you by name.
What the card service records about each card request
| Recorded | Not recorded |
|---|---|
| date and time; the device token's identifier; a one-way hash of the unit code; whether the source was a lecture or a reading; the model and prompt version; the number of tokens in and out; the estimated and actual cost; how many cards came back; how long it took; how many attempts; whether it succeeded; and Anthropic's request identifier. | the source text; the cards; their questions or answers; your notes; the unit code in readable form; your name; your course; your study history; anything at all about what you study or how you are doing. |
In other words the service learns that a device made cards from something, and what that cost. It does not learn what the something said, and it cannot: the text is passed through to write the cards and is not written down here.
Feedback you send
The app has a box for sending Alex a note about it. Free text you type there is sent to the card service and stored there for him to read, together with the date and time, your device token's identifier, which tab you were on and which version of the app you are running. It is not sent to Anthropic, nothing is generated from it, and nothing is sent unless you press send.
It is kept against your device rather than your name, in a table of its own, separate from the usage records above - so deleting all of it is one instruction, and reading a note never shows your email address beside it.
Please do not type anything private into it. Not your health, finances or personal circumstances, not anybody else's, and nothing confidential about a member of staff or another student. It is a free-text box read by one person, so treat it as a message to him. If you need to say something private, email drysdalealex0@gmail.com instead, or ask for the note to be deleted and it will be.
Registration
Installing needs an invite code. Redeeming one records the device's identifier, a hash of the invite code, and the email address you type in if you give one, which is used to tell whose device is whose and to reach you about the trial. Invite codes are stored as hashes, never in the clear.
Your IP address
Like any web request, yours arrives with an IP address. It is used for two limits and nothing else: how many times one address may fail to redeem an invite code, which stops codes being guessed, and how many notes one address may send through the feedback box in a few minutes. It is held in memory for a short window and is never written to the database - not on a usage record and not on a note - so restarting the service forgets it. Web server access logging is switched off.
Anthropic
Anthropic processes the source text on the service's behalf, to write the cards, under its commercial terms. The card service runs on a server in London; Anthropic processes the text outside the United Kingdom under its own data protection terms.
Readings are today sent one at a time like lectures. If and when they move to Anthropic's batch route, which is cheaper, text sent that way is retained by Anthropic for up to 29 days; that will be stated in the app before it is switched on, per unit.
The Chrome extension
The extension collects one Moodle unit's files when you press Collect, and does nothing otherwise. There are no content scripts, no scheduled activity and nothing running in the background.
- It reads the unit page you have open, at the moment you open its popup, to list the sections that hold files.
- It downloads that unit's files using the Moodle session you are already signed in to. It never sees, asks for or stores your university password or MFA code.
-
It sends what it downloads to the app on your own computer, at
http://localhost:5173, and nowhere else. It has no server of its own and does not know where the card service is. - It stores two things in Chrome: the pairing code for the app, and the result of the last run, so the popup can show it.
What does not happen
- No analytics, no tracking pixels, no advertising, no cookies for either.
- Nothing is sold, rented or shared for anyone else's purposes.
- No profiling and no automated decisions about you.
- No tracking you across other websites. The extension only ever touches Moodle.
- No copy of your course material is held by the service.
Pseudonymous, not anonymous
The usage records, and any feedback you send, are keyed to a device token rather than your name. During a small closed trial that is a thin disguise, and it would be wrong to call it anonymous: with a handful of devices whose labels were chosen by hand, the person running the service can usually work out which device is whose. Treat it as pseudonymous.
How long it is kept
- Usage records: for as long as the trial and beta run, then deleted.
- Feedback you send: until it has been read and dealt with, and in any case no longer than the trial and beta, then deleted. Ask sooner and it is deleted sooner.
- Device tokens and registration details: until the device is revoked or you ask.
- IP addresses: minutes, in memory, never stored.
- Anything on your own computer: until you delete it. That is yours to do.
Your rights
Under UK data protection law you may ask for a copy of what is held about you, ask for it to be corrected or deleted, or object to it being held at all. Ask at drysdalealex0@gmail.com and it will be done; the amount of data is small and the answer is quick. You may also complain to the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk.
The basis for holding the little that is held is legitimate interests: providing a tool you chose to install, keeping its costs within a budget, stopping invite codes being abused, and reading and acting on feedback you choose to send. You can stop all of it by uninstalling, or by asking for the device to be revoked.
Changes
If what is collected changes, this page changes with it and the date at the top moves. During the trial you will be told directly rather than being left to notice.