Privacy Policy
This policy explains what information Zen collects when you use this website and the Zen desktop app, how we use it, and who we share it with. We keep this deliberately short and only collect what we need to run the service.
Who we are
Zen is a small, independent study-notebook project. For any privacy question you can reach us at bencewokk@gmail.com.
What we collect
- Google account details. When you sign in with Google we receive your email address, name, profile picture, and a stable Google account identifier. We use these to create and identify your Zen account.
- Plan and subscription status. We store which plan you are on (free, trial, or DeepSeek Basic), your subscription status, the trial or billing period end date, and whether you have already used your one-time free trial.
- Payment information. Paid subscriptions are processed by Stripe. We never see or store your full card details — Stripe handles payment and returns only a customer and subscription reference that we link to your account.
- Session cookie. After sign-in we set a signed, HTTP-only session cookie so you stay logged in. It contains only your basic profile claims and an expiry, and is not used for advertising or cross-site tracking.
How we use it
- To authenticate you and keep you signed in.
- To grant, time-box, and enforce the free trial (one per account, limited to the first 30 testers).
- To activate and manage paid subscriptions and unlock the managed agent in the app.
- To provide software downloads and support.
We do not sell your personal information, and we do not use it for advertising.
Who we share it with
We rely on a few trusted providers to run the service, and share only what each needs:
- Google — for sign-in and identity verification.
- Stripe — for payment processing and subscription billing.
- MongoDB — the database that stores your account and plan record.
- Vercel — hosting for this website and its API.
- GitHub — delivery of desktop app download files.
Each provider processes your data under its own privacy terms.
Data retention
We keep your account record for as long as your account exists so your plan and trial history stay accurate. The permanent trial marker is retained to enforce the one-trial-per-account rule. You can ask us to delete your account and associated data at any time.
Your choices
You can request access to, correction of, or deletion of your personal data by emailing bencewokk@gmail.com. You can sign out at any time to clear your session cookie, and you can cancel a paid subscription from the app settings.
Changes to this policy
We may update this policy from time to time. When we do, we will revise the "last updated" date above. Continued use of Zen after a change means you accept the updated policy.