lecturemates.
for usc students

privacy policy

this page exists so the shape of our privacy policy is visible before anyone signs up — not to be the policy itself. every section below is a placeholder for what the reviewed policy will say, written now so nothing gets decided quietly later.

draft — not yet reviewed by counsel. everything below is a structural placeholder, not a binding policy. don't rely on it, and don't ship a public signup against it until this notice comes down.

who this is

lecturemates, an independent product for usc students. it is not part of, operated by, or endorsed by the university.

what we collect

the final policy will itemize this exactly. at a minimum it will cover:

  • the .edu address you verify with, used to confirm campus enrollment
  • the sections you add and the visibility you choose for each one
  • profile fields you choose to show — photo, first name, year, major
  • messages you send, including anonymous posts and greek rank votes
  • basic device and diagnostic data needed to keep the service working

how visibility works

the final policy will state, specifically:

  • your .edu address is never shown to classmates and is not reachable through the app itself
  • a section's roster only appears once enough classmates in it have opted in — small classes may show no roster at all
  • anonymous messages are not filtered by blocks — blocking someone hides their named messages from you, not their anonymous ones, because doing the reverse would let you unmask who they are by elimination. the control here is "hide anonymous messages in this room," not per-person filtering
  • blocking someone leaves a record that survives even if either account is deleted

how long we keep things

the working target is messages retained through the end of the academic term plus roughly 90 days, then removed. this is a design target, not a committed number yet — the reviewed policy will state the real figure and how it's enforced.

deletion and export

you'll be able to export your data and delete your account from settings. what happens to messages you've sent when you delete your account is still an open decision — the reviewed policy will say plainly whether they're removed, anonymized, or left in place for the people you were talking to, rather than leaving it ambiguous.

who can see reports

reported content is reviewed by moderators, not published or shared beyond what's needed to act on it. the reviewed policy will name the moderation and escalation process in full.

age

lecturemates requires accounts to be 18 or older; this is checked at signup.

changes to this policy

once the real policy ships, its version will be recorded against your account at the time you agreed to it, and material changes will be called out rather than silently reflowed.

contact

a monitored privacy contact address will be published here once it exists. this page will stop saying "draft" the day that's true.