Privacy Policy
Last updated 4 September 2026
1. Who we are
Top Essay (www.topessay.io) is run by Russell Young. In this policy "we" means Top Essay. For anything about your data, write to info@topessay.io.
This policy explains what we collect when you use Top Essay, why, who can see it, and what you can do about it. The Terms of Service cover the rules for using the site.
2. What we collect
Your account. When you sign in with Google, we receive your name, your email address, a link to your Google profile picture and a Google account identifier. When you sign in with an email link, we receive your email address. We also keep the display name you or Google gave, and whether your account is a student's or a counselor's.
Your work. The schools and application rounds you choose, the custom schools and prompts you add, every essay draft with its edit history, and whether you marked an essay done.
Sharing. The names you type for reviewers, the notes reviewers leave, the invitation links you make, which counselors have access to your essays and since when, and who last edited each essay.
Technical data. Our hosting providers keep request logs with your IP address and browser details for a short time. We keep your analytics answer in a cookie. The country a request comes from is read from the connection to decide whether to ask for consent; it is not stored.
Analytics. Where analytics runs (see section 6), Google Analytics receives the addresses of the pages you visit and basic device information. It never receives what you write, and it is not loaded on shared-link pages, invitation pages, or the page that completes a sign-in.
3. What we do not do
We do not collect payment details, because there is nothing to pay for. We do not show advertising. We do not send marketing email. We do not sell, rent or trade your data. We do not send what you write to analytics or to anyone you have not authorised.
4. Why we use it
- To run the service you signed up for: showing your prompts, saving your drafts, syncing them between your devices, and letting the people you chose read or edit them. For readers in the UK or the European Economic Area, this is performance of a contract.
- To keep the service safe: preventing abuse, investigating problems, and keeping backups. This is our legitimate interest in running a reliable service.
- To understand which pages help students, through analytics. In the UK and the European Economic Area this happens only with your consent.
- To answer you when you write to us.
5. Who can see your work
- You.
- Counselors you invite, or whose invitation you accept, until you remove them from your counselors list. They can read and edit every essay and see who is editing.
- Reviewers you send a link and a code, for that one essay, until the link expires or you stop it. They can read the draft and leave notes.
- Russell Young, only when needed to run the service or to help you when you ask.
- The service providers in section 7, who process data on our instructions.
- Nobody else, unless the law requires it.
6. Analytics and consent
We use Google Analytics to see which pages are visited. If you are in the United Kingdom or the European Economic Area, analytics stays off until you choose Accept in the banner. Choosing Decline keeps it off, and the banner does not appear again for a year. Elsewhere analytics runs without a banner, because those regions do not require consent; you can block it with your browser's tracking protection or an extension. Analytics records page addresses only, never what you write.
7. Where your data is stored and who processes it
- Supabase: the database, sign-in, the email that carries your sign-in link, and backups. Located in Seoul, South Korea.
- Vercel: hosting and worldwide delivery, with servers in the United States and short-lived request logs.
- Google: Sign in with Google, and Google Analytics as described in section 6.
These providers act on our instructions and are bound by their own privacy commitments. Because Top Essay is hosted in South Korea and the United States, your data may be stored and processed outside your own country.
9. How long we keep it
- Your account and work: for as long as your account exists.
- Shared links: until they expire or you delete them. Notes stay with their link.
- Counselor access: until you or the counselor ends it. The record of who had access stays with your account.
- Request logs: a few days at most, kept by the hosting providers.
- After a deletion request: your account and everything in it are deleted within 30 days, and provider backups expire within a further 30 days.
10. Your rights and choices
You can see and change your schools, drafts and sharing in the app at any time. Email info@topessay.io to have your account deleted, to receive a copy of your data, to correct something you cannot change yourself, or to ask a question. We answer within 30 days.
Withdraw analytics consent by clearing the topessay-consent cookie, after which the banner asks again, or by blocking analytics in your browser.
If you are in the UK or the European Economic Area you also have the right to object to processing based on legitimate interests, to receive your data in a portable form, and to complain to your data protection authority.
11. Children
Top Essay is for people aged 13 and over. If you are under 18, use it with a parent's or guardian's permission. If we learn that an account belongs to a child under 13, we delete it. Parents and guardians can write to info@topessay.io.
12. Security
Connections are encrypted. Every row in the database is locked to the account that owns it, and a counselor reaches a student's essays only through an access record the student can revoke. Shared links need a code, and five wrong codes pause the link until the student re-enables it. Each essay records who last edited it. No system is perfectly secure; if you believe something is wrong, write to info@topessay.io.
13. Google user data
Sign in with Google gives us only your basic profile: name, email address, profile picture link and account identifier. Top Essay's use of information received from Google APIs adheres to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including its Limited Use requirements. If we ever add a feature that reads your Google Drive or Google Docs, we will ask for that permission separately at the time, use it only for that feature, and update this policy first.
14. Changes to this policy
When this policy changes, the date at the top changes with it. Material changes are announced in the app before they take effect. The current version is always at www.topessay.io/privacy.
15. Contact
Russell Young. info@topessay.io.