Information Policy

This Information Policy explains how bConsulted LLC (“we,” “us,” or “our”) collects, uses, shares, and protects information when you use Atlas Apologia (the “Service”). It should be read alongside our Terms of Use.

1. Information we collect

• Account information — such as your name, email address, role, and any profile details you provide when you accept an invitation.
• Content you create — claims, arguments, sources, comparisons, notes, and discussion posts you author in the Service.
• AI conversation inputs — the questions and prompts you submit to AI features, and the resulting exchanges.
• Usage information — activity within the Service (for example, features used and participation), and basic technical data such as device and browser information and log data. Some of this is measured in aggregate by a third-party analytics provider; see section 8.
• Payment information — where you subscribe, billing details are collected and processed by our payment processor. We receive confirmation and limited billing metadata, not full card numbers.
• Preferences — settings such as theme and text size, which may be stored locally in your browser.

2. How we use information

• to provide, operate, secure, and improve the Service;
• to authenticate you and manage invitations, accounts, and cohorts;
• to enable AI features and the analysis of arguments;
• to process subscriptions and payments;
• to communicate with you about the Service, including service and security notices;
• to monitor for misuse and to comply with legal obligations.

3. AI processing

When you use AI features, your inputs are sent to our AI model providers to generate a response. We instruct these features toward neutrality and source-grounded reasoning, but outputs are generated automatically and may be imperfect. We do not use your private conversations to publicly identify you. [Confirm whether inputs may be used by providers for their own model training, and disable where required.]

4. How information is shared

We do not sell your personal information. We share it only with service providers who process it on our behalf and under appropriate obligations, including:

• Hosting and database — our cloud hosting, database, and storage provider;
• Payments — our payment processor, for subscriptions;
• AI providers — for generating AI responses;
• Email delivery — for transactional and service emails;
• Analytics — Google Analytics, for measurement of how the Service is used. It sets its own cookie so that a returning visitor is recognised as the same person; advertising features stay switched off. It receives a generalised page label, never a page address that identifies you, an account, a group, or a preview link, and whenever you pay for anything — a subscription or a one-off credit pack — it is told that a purchase happened and what it cost, under a reference that means nothing outside our records;
• Organisations — where you participate through an institution, relevant administrators and moderators of your cohort may see your participation and content within that cohort.

We may also disclose information where required by law or to protect the rights, safety, and security of the Service and its users.

5. Retention

We retain information for as long as your account is active and as needed to provide the Service, then for any further period required to meet legal, accounting, or security obligations. You can delete your account from your account settings; we will delete or de-identify associated personal information except where we must retain it by law.

6. Security

We use technical and organisational measures designed to protect information against unauthorised access, loss, or misuse. No method of transmission or storage is completely secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.

7. Your choices and rights

Depending on your location, you may have rights to access, correct, export, or delete your personal information, and to object to or restrict certain processing. You can update much of your information in your account settings, or contact us to exercise these rights. [Tailor to GDPR / UK GDPR / other regimes as applicable.]

8. Cookies and local storage

We use cookies and similar technologies (including browser local storage) for sign-in, security, and to remember preferences such as theme and text size. You can control cookies through your browser, though some features may not work without them.

Our analytics sets a cookie.Google Analytics stores an identifier on your device so that several visits can be recognised as one person rather than several strangers; without it we cannot tell whether anyone comes back, or which page led someone to subscribe. Advertising and cross-site features remain switched off, and we do not share this information with advertisers. We honour the “Do Not Track” setting — if your browser sends it, no analytics is loaded at all, and nothing is stored.

What we receive is a generalised description of the page (for example /preview/[token]/compare, never the preview link itself), your approximate location, and your device and browser type. Addresses that contain a preview link, an invitation, a group, a purchase reference, or a sign-in code are stripped before anything is sent. When any payment completes — a subscription or a one-off credit pack — we also record the amount, alongside a one-way reference derived from the payment: not the payment identifier itself, which would let whoever held it act on your purchase.

9. Minors and educational use

The Service is intended for use by adults and by supervised cohorts within organisations. Where members below the age of majority participate through an institution, the institution is responsible for obtaining any consent required and for supervising their use. [Confirm approach for minors in your jurisdictions.]

10. International transfers

Information may be processed in countries other than your own, including by our service providers. Where required, we put in place appropriate safeguards for such transfers. [Specify regions and safeguards.]

11. Changes to this policy

We may update this Information Policy from time to time. We will revise the “last updated” date above and, where appropriate, notify you of material changes.

12. Contact

For questions about this policy or your information, contact us at barton@bconsultedfirst.com, or by mail at bConsulted LLC, 5990 Richmond Hwy, Alexandria, VA 22303.