Privacy Policy

CiteAsk (“we”, “us”) helps creators index captions from YouTube channels they own or control, and answer questions in Discord / Telegram communities they bind. This policy describes what we collect, why, and how you can control it.

1. Who this covers

Creators who sign in and connect a channel, and community members who send commands to our bots in a bound Discord server or Telegram chat. Member questions are processed so we can answer them; we do not sell member profiles.

2. Data we collect

• Account: Google account email, name, and profile image (OpenID), plus a session token.
• YouTube (YouTube API Services): channel id/title, video metadata, and caption/transcript text for videos on channels you authorize. OAuth tokens are stored encrypted at rest. We use these only to provide CiteAsk features for your account.
• Communities: Discord guild / Telegram chat ids and titles you bind; bind codes; messages that invoke bot commands (e.g. /ask, /bind).
• Usage & billing: daily ask counts, plan entitlements, and payment references from Stripe and (when enabled) RevenueCat / app stores — not full card numbers.
• Technical: standard request logs needed to operate and secure the service (Cloudflare Workers / related infrastructure).

3. How we use YouTube data

CiteAsk uses YouTube API Services to fetch captions and metadata for channels you connect. We do not scrape third-party channels. Indexed caption chunks are embedded and stored so we can retrieve matching passages and return caption excerpts with timestamp citations. We do not use YouTube data to independently contact your viewers outside the communities you bind, and we do not sell YouTube data.

Google’s privacy policy also applies to data Google processes: https://policies.google.com/privacy. You can revoke CiteAsk’s access in your Google Account permissions. Using Disconnect YouTube in the CiteAsk dashboard stops further sync, deletes indexed caption text and search vectors for your channel from our systems, and unbinds all Discord / Telegram communities. Short-lived infrastructure backups may linger briefly. Revoking Google access separately is still recommended so Google stops issuing tokens to CiteAsk.

4. Ask replies & AI processors

Default Ask replies are extractive: we retrieve caption chunks with Workers AI embeddings (and related Cloudflare Vectorize storage) and return quoted excerpts with YouTube timestamp links. We do not run a generative chat model over your captions on every ask. Cloudflare Workers AI may still process text for embeddings (and, if enabled later, optional synthesis). Outputs and retrieval can be wrong or incomplete; they are not professional advice.

5. Sharing

We share data with subprocessors required to run the product (e.g. Cloudflare for hosting, embeddings, and related AI infrastructure; Google for OAuth/YouTube APIs; Stripe / app stores for payments; Discord / Telegram to deliver bot messages). We do not sell personal information. We may disclose data if required by law or to protect the service and users.

6. Retention

• Account: until you delete it in the dashboard (or via a privacy request).
• Channel connection, captions, and vectors: until Disconnect YouTube or account deletion.
• Community bindings and pending bind codes: removed on Disconnect YouTube or account deletion.
• Ask usage counters: rolling daily aggregates (removed on account deletion).
• Billing records held by Stripe / app stores: per their policies; cancel subscriptions there so charges stop after you delete CiteAsk.

7. Security

We use encryption for OAuth tokens at rest, HTTPS in transit, and access controls on production systems. No method of transmission or storage is 100% secure.

8. Children

CiteAsk is aimed at creators running online communities. It is not directed at children under 13 (or the minimum age required in your jurisdiction). Do not use the service if you are under that age.

9. International transfers

Infrastructure may process data in the United States and other regions where Cloudflare and our providers operate. By using CiteAsk you understand that processing may occur outside your country.

10. Your choices

• Disconnect YouTube in the dashboard — deletes captions/vectors and unbinds communities; keeps your login and Pro entitlement.
• Delete account in the dashboard — permanently removes your CiteAsk user data (email backup: contact below if you cannot sign in).
• Revoke Google access at myaccount.google.com/permissions.
• Cancel Pro via Stripe Customer Portal or the relevant app store — deleting the CiteAsk account does not automatically cancel store billing.

11. Contact

Privacy requests: privacy@citeask.com (or the support address published on citeask.com if that mailbox is not yet active).

12. Changes

We may update this policy. Material changes will be reflected by the “Last updated” date and, where appropriate, a notice on the site or in the product.