Privacy Policy

Last updated: October 12, 2026

ELLIS helps students improve their college application essays. Your writing may be personal, and we take that seriously. This policy explains what happens to it, what information we keep, and who helps us operate the service.

The short version

• You don’t need an account or email address to get essay feedback.
• We send your draft to OpenAI to generate coaching feedback. We don’t maintain an ELLIS archive of essays or coaching feedback.
• OpenAI API data is not used to train its models by default. ELLIS has disabled API training-data sharing and sends requests with store: false. OpenAI may still retain information for security and abuse monitoring.
• We keep limited operational statistics and any ratings or written feedback you choose to submit.
• We don’t sell your writing or personal information or use your essays for targeted advertising.
• ELLIS is intended for students ages 13 and older.

What happens when I submit an essay?

You select an application prompt or enter a custom prompt, paste your essay, and can tell ELLIS what concerns you have. Our server sends the essay, prompt, word limit, and optional concerns to the OpenAI API. The AI-generated coaching feedback is returned to your browser.

ELLIS does not intentionally store essays or coaching feedback in its application database, and it does not offer student accounts or saved essay histories. Your draft and feedback are temporarily processed by our hosting infrastructure and OpenAI. If you want a copy of your feedback, use the Copy Feedback feature before leaving the page.

Does OpenAI train on my writing?

ELLIS uses the OpenAI API, not a personal ChatGPT conversation. ELLIS has disabled optional API training-data sharing. OpenAI says it does not use API inputs and outputs to train its models by default. Our API requests also use store: false, which prevents storage as saved Responses API application state.

That is not a promise of immediate deletion. Under OpenAI’s standard practices, abuse-monitoring logs may contain submitted content and generated responses for up to 30 days, subject to exceptions such as legal or safety requirements. See OpenAI’s API data controls.

What else does ELLIS collect?

Request limits. To limit misuse, the server uses your IP address to create a cryptographically hashed identifier and a daily request count. ELLIS stores that identifier rather than the raw IP address in its rate-limit database. It is not your name, but requests from the same internet connection may be linked. Normal request-limit records expire when the daily allowance resets at midnight Pacific time. Separate Send Feedback limits expire after approximately 24 hours.

Performance measurements. We record the evaluation time, broad essay category (Common App, UC, or custom), duration, and whether the evaluation succeeded or failed. These records do not include student essays or generated feedback. We retain the latest 1,000 such records.

Optional usefulness ratings. You may rate whether the coaching provided a clear next step and optionally select why it was not useful. These individual records contain the prompt category, rating, optional reason, and a random identifier, and expire after 30 days.

Written feedback. If you use Send Feedback, we store your message, optional email address, related page path, and submission time. Please do not paste essays or sensitive personal information into this form: unlike the essay evaluation form, written feedback is saved for us to review. Email is optional and used for follow-up when appropriate.

How long is written feedback kept?

We keep at most 500 written feedback records. Records older than approximately 12 months are removed, and optional email addresses older than approximately 90 days are removed while eligible feedback messages remain. An automated cleanup is scheduled daily; information may remain until the next successful cleanup. Hosting-provider logs and backups may follow different schedules.

Who else processes information?

OpenAI processes essays, prompts, word limits, and optional concerns to produce coaching feedback. Vercel hosts our website and handles web requests and operational infrastructure. Upstash provides Redis storage for rate limits, operational measurements, usefulness ratings, and optional written feedback. These providers may rely on their own subprocessors and maintain technical records under their policies.

Vercel Analytics and Speed Insights are disabled for ELLIS. We do not use essay submissions for advertising. We may disclose information when required by law or reasonably necessary to secure the service.

Cookies, browser data, and security

The essay interface does not intentionally store essays or feedback in browser local storage or session storage. Private tester access uses an authorization cookie and server-side hashed code and session records, along with daily usage counters. These support tester authorization and rate limiting without storing submitted essays. Infrastructure providers may process request metadata, including IP addresses, and keep operational or security logs. ELLIS cannot guarantee absolute confidentiality or security, and we recommend leaving unnecessary sensitive identifiers out of submissions.

What about students under 18?

ELLIS is intended for students ages 13 and older and is not directed to children under 13. No account, birth date, or email is required for essay coaching. If we learn that we have received personal information from a child under 13, we will address it as required by applicable law. Parents and guardians can contact us with concerns.

What choices do I have?

You choose whether to submit an essay, add concerns, leave a usefulness rating, or send written feedback. An email address is not required. Depending on where you live, you may have rights to request access to, correction of, or deletion of personal information, or other rights concerning its use. Contact us to make a request. We may need information to verify it.

Because ELLIS does not maintain accounts or essay histories, we may not be able to locate a previous essay submission or connect an operational record to a particular visitor. Provider-held information is subject to those providers’ practices and applicable requirements.

Where is information processed?

Our providers may process information in the United States and other places where they operate. Privacy protections may differ by location. We do not claim that every service provider stores information in a particular region.

Changes to this policy

We may update this policy as ELLIS evolves. We will update the date above and provide additional notice or obtain consent when required by applicable law.

Contact ELLIS

ELLIS is a website operated by an individual, not an incorporated company. For privacy questions or requests, contact ellis.college.privacy@gmail.com.