# A plainer account of what we record

> The privacy policy now describes session recordings, attribution cookies and originality searches exactly as they work, on the website and in the app.

Source: https://www.alfredscholar.com/changelog/a-plainer-privacy-policy/
Published: 2026-10-15

We reread our privacy policy against what the website and the app actually do, and rewrote the parts that had fallen behind. Nothing about how we handle your data changed today; the policy now says it more plainly.

## What the policy now says

- **Session recordings** happen on our website and in the app, not only in the app. Password fields are always masked. Other text on screen, including document, chat and manuscript text, can appear in a recording, which our team uses only to find and fix usability problems. Recordings are kept for 30 days.
- **Attribution cookies** remember which link or campaign brought you to us, for up to about a year, so we can tell which channels bring people who sign up.
- **Ad measurement cookies** are on by default outside the EU, the UK and Switzerland, and choosing Decline on the cookie banner turns them off.
- **Originality checks** send a few short phrases from the manuscript being checked to open-access and web search services as search queries.

The cookie banner now mentions analytics and session recordings too. Read the full [privacy policy](/privacy), or write to hello@alfredscholar.com with any question.