Privacy Policy

1. Introduction

Samantar LLC ("Samantar," "we," "us," or "our") operates samantar.us (the "Service"), a data-driven platform designed to help students make informed decisions about education, careers, and the trade-offs between parallel paths.

We designed the Service with data minimization and privacy-conscious engineering principles in mind. We intentionally limit the collection of directly identifying information and avoid behavioral advertising, cross-site tracking, and unnecessary data retention. This Privacy Policy explains what information we collect, how we use it, and the choices available to users.

If you have questions, please contact us at admin@samantar.us.

2. Information We Collect

2.1 What We Intentionally Do NOT Collect

As part of our privacy-focused design approach, we intentionally do not request or maintain the following in our application databases or user profiles:

• Your name
• Your email address (see Sections 2.3 and 2.4 for narrow exceptions)
• Your password (we do not use passwords)
• Device fingerprints or hardware identifiers
• Precise timestamps of your actions
• Behavioral profiles or cross-session activity histories
• Quiz or calculator input history

We also do not intentionally store IP addresses in our application databases or user profiles. Limited transient processing of IP addresses may occur automatically at the network or infrastructure level for routing, security, fraud prevention, abuse prevention, and service delivery.

2.2 Passkey Credentials (Authentication Data)

We support passwordless authentication using the WebAuthn/FIDO2 standard. When you register a passkey:

• Your device generates a cryptographic key pair locally. The private key remains on your device and is not accessible to us.
• We store only the public key, credential identifier, and a randomly generated internal user handle. The internal user handle is not intended to identify you personally.

Temporary authentication challenge records are created during sign-in and are automatically deleted after authentication completes or after five (5) minutes, whichever occurs first.

2.3 Magic Link Email Address (Transient Only)

As an alternative to passkeys, users may request a one-time login link by email. If you use this feature:

• We process your email address solely to deliver the login link.
• We do not intentionally retain the email address in application databases after delivery.
• Limited transient processing or logging may occur through our email or infrastructure providers as necessary to provide the service securely and reliably.

2.4 Contact Form Submissions

The Service includes a contact form that allows users to submit feedback, bug reports, or questions. The form may collect:

• A category selection
• The page associated with the report
• A free-text message

The form does not require a name, phone number, or email address. We encourage users NOT to include identifying information in the message body. Please do not submit sensitive personal information through the contact form, including government identifiers, financial account information, medical information, educational records, or information relating to children under 16.

Messages submitted through the contact form are processed through Amazon Simple Email Service (SES) for delivery to our administrative inbox. We configure our systems not to intentionally persist contact form message bodies in application databases during normal operation.

To protect the Service from spam and abuse, we use automated anti-abuse controls, including rate limiting and integrity validation checks. As part of those controls, IP addresses may be transiently processed and transformed using cryptographic hashing techniques for short-term abuse prevention purposes.

2.5 Anonymous Usage Events

We collect limited usage analytics designed to help us understand aggregate feature usage and improve the Service. Usage event records may include:

These records are designed to minimize identification risk and are not intentionally linked to names, email addresses, or persistent advertising profiles.

Analytics retention architecture. The analytics system uses a two-tier model:

• Tier 1 — Raw event log: Individual event records are retained for 90 days, then permanently deleted.
• Tier 2 — Aggregated time-series: Event records are continuously rolled up into anonymous aggregate counts at three granularities: daily buckets (retained 13 months), weekly buckets (retained 2 years), and monthly buckets (retained 10 years). Tier 2 records contain no individual event detail — only counts per period, with no connection to any session, sequence of actions, or individual.

Geographic region attribution in both tiers is derived exclusively from the university or institution the user selects, or from the active ?state= URL parameter. It is never derived from IP geolocation.

The analytics system uses no third-party JavaScript (no Google Analytics, Mixpanel, Amplitude, PostHog, Hotjar, FullStory, or equivalent). It sets no cookies for analytics purposes.

2.6 Session Tokens

When you sign in, the Service issues a short-lived session token stored in your browser to maintain your authenticated session. The token expires automatically after approximately one (1) hour and is designed to contain only a minimal internal identifier rather than directly identifying information such as a name or email address.

2.7 AI Assistant Queries

The Service includes an AI Assistant — a conversational interface that allows users to ask questions about Samantar's published content and receive natural-language responses. When you use this feature, we receive and process the text of your query.

How the Assistant processes your query:

1. Your query text is received by Samantar's servers.
2. The most relevant passages from Samantar's published content are retrieved using a pre-computed search index hosted entirely on Samantar's infrastructure.
3. Your query text and the retrieved passages are submitted to a large language model that runs on servers controlled and operated by Samantar.
4. The model's response is returned to your browser.

No intentional third-party transmission. The underlying language model is a self-hosted open-weight model released under a permissive open-source license (such as Apache 2.0 or MIT). The model's weights are stored on Samantar's infrastructure and executed locally. Samantar does not intentionally transmit your query, retrieved passages, or the model's response to the model's developer, the model repository, or any other third party during normal operation.

If Samantar updates or replaces the model, any successor model will continue to operate under the same conditions — open weights, permissive license, and self-hosted execution.

3. How We Use the Information We Collect

Consistent with our data minimization approach, we use the limited information we collect only for specific operational, security, and Service-related purposes. We use collected information to:

• Authenticate users
• Maintain secure sessions
• Operate, maintain, and improve the Service
• Process AI Assistant queries and generate responses
• Detect abuse, fraud, spam, or unauthorized activity
• Respond to user feedback and support requests
• Comply with legal obligations

We do not use personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising, third-party profiling, or the sale of personal information to third parties. AI Assistant query text is not used to train AI models.

4. How We Share Information

We do not sell, rent, or trade your information. We may share information only in the following limited circumstances:

• Service providers: We work with vendors who help us operate the Service. These vendors have access only to what is necessary to perform their function and are contractually obligated to protect it. Vendors currently include:
  • Amazon Web Services (AWS) — cloud infrastructure and email delivery via Amazon Simple Email Service (SES) for contact form message relay
  • Cloudflare — DNS services and email routing for our administrative inbox
• Legal requirements: We may disclose information if required by law, court order, or government authority, or to protect the rights, property, or safety of Samantar, our users, or the public.
• Business transfers: If Samantar is involved in a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets, information may be transferred as part of that transaction. We will notify you via the Service before any such transfer occurs.

5. Cookies and Tracking Technologies

We do not use advertising cookies, third-party tracking pixels, or behavioral analytics cookies. We do not display a cookie consent banner, because our cookie use is limited entirely to strictly necessary functional cookies that do not require consent under applicable law (including GDPR and the Texas Data Privacy and Security Act).

Our Service uses:

• One strictly necessary session cookie to support your authenticated session (described in Section 2.6). This cookie is required for the Service to function and cannot be disabled while you are using authenticated features.

We do not use cookies to build profiles, target advertisements, or track you across other websites.

6. Data Retention

We retain information only as long as reasonably necessary for the purposes described in this Policy, including security, legal compliance, and operational needs. Examples include:

• Passkey public keys and credential identifiers: retained until revoked or deleted
• Temporary authentication challenges: deleted within five (5) minutes
• Session tokens: expire automatically after one (1) hour
• Anonymous usage events — Tier 1 (raw event records): 90 days
• Anonymous usage events — Tier 2 (aggregated time-series): daily buckets 13 months; weekly buckets 2 years; monthly buckets 10 years
• AI Assistant query text: not retained. Query text is processed transiently to generate a response and is not written to application databases or shipped to external logging. Aggregated technical metadata (e.g., latency, token counts, error codes) without any query content may be retained for up to 90 days for performance monitoring and abuse prevention.
• Contact form metadata: transient. The category label, page label, and submission timestamp are processed through Amazon SES for delivery to our administrative inbox and are not intentionally persisted in application databases. Ephemeral anti-abuse hashes (described in Section 2.4) are retained no longer than 24 hours.
• Contact form message body: not intentionally persisted in application databases; retained in administrative inbox per Samantar's internal email practices
• Magic link email address: not intentionally retained in application databases after delivery

7. Data Security

We apply security measures appropriate to the nature of the data we hold. Examples include:

• Passwordless authentication using WebAuthn/FIDO2
• Limited collection of directly identifying information
• Short-lived authentication tokens
• Restricted internal access controls
• Encryption in transit where appropriate

No method of transmission over the internet or electronic storage is 100% secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.

8. Children's Privacy

The Service is intended for users age 16 and older. We do not knowingly permit users under 16 to register or use the Service. If you believe a user under 16 has registered, please contact us at admin@samantar.us and we will promptly address it.

9. Your Rights

Depending on where you are located, you may have rights regarding your personal information, including:

• Access: The right to know what information we hold about you.
• Deletion: The right to request deletion of your information.
• Portability: The right to receive your data in a structured, machine-readable format.
• Objection / Restriction: The right to object to or restrict certain processing.

Because we intentionally minimize the collection of directly identifying information, we may have limited ability to associate information with a specific individual request. Users may revoke passkeys directly through their device or browser settings.

To exercise any rights or for questions, contact us at admin@samantar.us.

10. International Users

If you access the Service from outside the United States, you understand that information may be processed in the United States or other jurisdictions where our service providers operate. Where applicable, we rely on appropriate legal bases and safeguards for such processing.

11. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. When we do, we will revise the "Last Updated" date at the top of this page. If we make material changes, we will provide notice through the Service. Your continued use of the Service after any changes constitutes acceptance of the updated policy.

12. Contact Us

If you have questions about this Privacy Policy or our data practices, please contact:

Samantar LLC 5900 Balcones Drive STE 100, Austin, TX 78731, US admin@samantar.us