Last updated 31 October 2026
The short version
- We collect what we need to run OliveAI: your account details, the course material and lecture audio you choose to process, and what we generate from it.
- Your study data is private to your account. Other users cannot see it, and we do not sell it or use it for advertising.
- We do not train AI models on your content.
- To transcribe, translate and summarise lectures we send audio and text to a small number of specialist providers, some of them in the United States. They are listed below, with what each may do with that data, including whether it may be used for model training.
- We never ask for or store your university password.
- You can download a copy of your data or delete your account from Settings at any time, or ask us to correct anything we hold.
Who we are
OliveAI is run by Daniel Joohyung Uhm, a sole trader based in Christchurch, New Zealand ("OliveAI", "we", "us"). OliveAI provides live captions, translation and study notes for university lectures through our website and web app (together, the "Service"). This policy explains how we handle personal information under the New Zealand Privacy Act 2020. It applies wherever you use the Service from.
OliveAI is an independent product and is not affiliated with or endorsed by any university. Our Terms of Service also apply to your use of the Service.
What we collect
Information you give us
- Waitlist details: first name, email, institution, study level, courses, the language you want translations in, what you want from OliveAI, and how you heard about us.
- Account details: first name, email, password (stored hashed by our authentication provider, never readable by us), time zone and onboarding status.
- Your study content: courses you create (a course code and name), timetables, deadlines and to-dos you add, files you upload, notes you write, questions you ask the AI tutor, quiz and flashcard answers, and short check-in responses (including any reason you type).
- Feedback and messages you send us.
Lecture audio, transcripts and course material
- Live captions: while a live session is running, audio from your microphone or the browser tab you share is streamed directly to our transcription provider. We store the resulting caption text, translations, live summaries and any notes you take. We do not store the live audio itself.
- Recorded lectures: if you upload a recorded lecture, we hold the audio temporarily in our file storage, send it to our transcription provider, and keep the transcript. Our temporary copy is deleted once transcription finishes.
- Course material: files from your course (for example slides and readings) that you upload to a course you create, or that your university or lecturer supplies for a course they set up.
Lecture recordings and live audio can contain the voices of lecturers and other students. We process that content only to produce captions, translations and notes for the account that captured it.
Past browser extension users
We no longer offer the OliveAI Connector browser extension. If you paired it in the past, it sent us the login session cookies your browser held for your university's learning platform and lecture-capture service, so we could fetch material you already had access to. Those cookies were encrypted before storage and are not your password. Any we still hold expire within seven days and are then deleted. You can remove the extension from your browser.
Information collected automatically
- Usage records: which AI features you used, how much processing they took and what it cost, and the status of processing jobs (including error messages), so we can run the Service and control costs.
- IP address: used briefly to rate-limit sign-up and invite requests and stop abuse.
- Server logs: our hosting providers keep standard request logs (such as IP address, time and requested page) for security and operations.
We do not use advertising trackers, and we do not currently run third-party analytics on the Service.
How we use it
- To provide the Service: create and secure your account, transcribe and translate lectures, generate notes, guides, quizzes, flashcards and answers, and show you your courses and deadlines.
- To run the private beta: review waitlist applications and send your invite.
- To communicate with you about your account, the Service, changes to it, and security or billing matters. We will only send marketing email if you have agreed to it, and you can opt out at any time.
- To keep the Service working and safe: monitor cost and usage, fix errors, prevent abuse, and enforce our Terms.
- To improve the Service, using aggregated usage information (for example how often a feature is used), not the content of your lectures or notes.
- To comply with the law.
We do not sell personal information, use it for targeted advertising, or train AI models on your content. AI-generated output is produced automatically and is not used to make decisions about you.
Who we share it with
We share personal information only with service providers that process it on our behalf to run the Service, and only what each needs:
- Supabase: database, authentication and file storage (account details and all study content).
- Vercel: hosting for the website, web app and background processing.
- AssemblyAI: speech-to-text for live captions and recorded lectures (lecture audio, plus course keywords to improve accuracy). Its terms allow it to use data it processes, including to train its AI models, unless the customer has opted out.
- Anthropic, and in some cases OpenRouter: AI models that translate captions and generate notes, summaries, study material and tutor answers (transcript text, course material and your questions). We use Anthropic through its commercial API, and its terms do not allow it to train models on that content. OpenRouter is a routing service that does not keep prompts or responses by default; requests sent through it go to the underlying model provider.
- Resend: sending email such as waitlist confirmations, invites and feedback notifications.
We use these providers' business services under their own terms and privacy policies, which also set how long each keeps data. We may also disclose information if required by law, to protect someone from serious harm, to our professional advisers, or to a buyer or successor if OliveAI is sold or restructured (in which case this policy will continue to apply to your information).
Where it is stored and processed
Our database and file storage, and our web hosting and background processing, are in Sydney, Australia. Our transcription and AI providers process data in the United States. This means your information, including lecture audio and transcripts, is sent outside New Zealand.
Australia and the United States have their own privacy laws, which may not offer the same protections as the New Zealand Privacy Act. We choose established providers, send them only what is needed for the task, and remain responsible for how your information is handled on our behalf.
Universities and lecturers
If your university or a lecturer provides OliveAI for a course, we may process course content they supply and make the resulting captions and notes available to students in that course. Where we have a separate agreement with an institution, that agreement may set additional rules for how we handle the information involved, and the institution may have its own privacy obligations to you.
How long we keep it
- Account and study content is kept while your account is active. You can delete a course and its files, or your whole account, from the Courses page and Settings at any time. It disappears from your account straight away. Stored files and copies held by our providers are queued for deletion, usually within a few hours, and retried if a provider is unavailable. If you would rather we do it, email us and we will delete your account within 30 days.
- Waitlist details are kept until the beta ends or you ask us to remove them. Deleting an account removes the waitlist entry linked to it; for any other entry, email us.
- Rate-limit records containing IP addresses are deleted about a day after they expire.
- Audio sent for transcription is not kept by OliveAI after processing. When you delete a course or your account, we also ask our transcription provider to delete the recorded-lecture audio and transcripts it holds for it. Live-caption audio is streamed to the provider and handled under its own data retention terms.
Security
Data is encrypted in transit, and our database and storage providers encrypt it at rest. Each account's data is isolated with database access rules so one user cannot read another's. See our security overview for more detail. No system is perfectly secure; if a privacy breach is likely to cause you serious harm, we will notify you and the Privacy Commissioner as the Privacy Act requires.
Your rights
Under the Privacy Act you can:
- ask whether we hold personal information about you, and get a copy of it;
- ask us to correct information that is wrong;
- ask us to delete your account and information; and
- opt out of any marketing email.
You can download a copy of your data, or delete your account, yourself at any time from Settings in the app. For anything else, email contact@oliveai.co.nz from the address on your account. We may need to confirm your identity first. We will respond within 20 working days, and we do not charge for these requests.
Age
OliveAI is built for university students and staff. You must be at least 16 to use it. If you believe someone younger has given us personal information, contact us and we will delete it.
Changes to this policy
We will update this policy as the Service changes. When we do, we will change the date at the top, and if a change is significant we will tell you by email or in the app before it takes effect.
Contact and complaints
For any privacy question, request or complaint, contact our privacy officer at contact@oliveai.co.nz. We will try to resolve it with you directly. If you are not satisfied with our response, you can complain to the Office of the Privacy Commissioner at privacy.org.nz.