Terms of Service
Welcome to StudyBuddy. These Terms of Service ("Terms") govern your use of the StudyBuddy mobile app, website and related services ("StudyBuddy", "we", "us"). StudyBuddy is developed and operated by Marcbrain Ltd to help students in Africa study, organise their courses and share past questions ("pasco") and learning materials.
Not affiliated with any school. StudyBuddy is an independent service. We are not affiliated with, endorsed by or connected to any school, college, university, examination body or ministry of education. Never use your school portal or MIS password in StudyBuddy.
1. Acceptance of Terms
By creating an account or using StudyBuddy, you confirm that you have read and agree to these Terms and our Privacy Policy. If you do not agree, please do not use StudyBuddy.
2. Who Can Use StudyBuddy
- StudyBuddy is for students at Junior High, Senior High and tertiary levels, and for anyone who wants to learn.
- If you are under 18 (or under the age of legal consent where you live), you may only use StudyBuddy with the permission and supervision of a parent or guardian, who agrees to these Terms on your behalf.
- If you are under 13, a parent or guardian must create and manage the account for you.
3. Your Account
Offline accounts
When you sign up, your account is created on your phone only. An offline account cannot be recovered: if you uninstall the app, clear its data or lose your phone, the account and everything in it are lost, and the password cannot be reset.
Cloud accounts
You can choose "Save my account to the cloud". Your account, courses, materials, reading progress and settings are then stored on our servers so you can reset your password by email, sign in on other phones and restore your shelf after reinstalling.
Your responsibilities
- Give accurate information (name, email, phone number, school and level).
- Keep your password secret and use a password you do not use anywhere else.
- You are responsible for everything done with your account. Tell us immediately if you think someone else has used it.
- Do not create accounts for other people without their permission, or impersonate anyone.
4. Sharing Materials (User Content)
You can add notes, slides, documents and pasco to your shelf. Private materials stay private. When you mark a material as Public, it appears in the Public Library, where other students can view, download, like, dislike and report it, and students in the same course, programme or school may be notified.
By sharing a material you confirm that:
- You have the right to share it (for example, it is your own work, it was given to students to share, or it is openly licensed).
- It does not contain copyrighted textbooks or paid content you are not allowed to distribute.
- It does not contain other people's personal information (phone numbers, addresses, grades, photos) without their consent.
- It is not offensive, hateful, sexual, violent, misleading or harmful, and contains no viruses or harmful code.
You are credited as the uploader, not the author. You keep any rights you have in your materials, and you give Marcbrain Ltd a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free licence to store, copy, display and distribute public materials inside StudyBuddy for as long as they are shared. You can make a material private or delete it at any time.
StudyBuddy does not check every material before it is published and is not responsible for the accuracy of materials shared by students. Always confirm important information with your lecturer or teacher.
5. Reporting, Moderation and Blocking
- Any student can report a material (wrong course, poor quality, inappropriate, copyright or spam).
- We review reports and may hide, remove or move materials, and may warn, suspend or close accounts that break these Terms, with or without notice.
- Repeated copyright or abuse violations lead to permanent account closure.
6. Copyright Complaints (Takedown)
If you believe a material on StudyBuddy infringes your copyright, email marcbrain.ltd@gmail.com with the subject "Copyright takedown" and include:
- Your name and contact details, and the work you own.
- The title and course of the material on StudyBuddy (a screenshot helps).
- A statement that you believe in good faith the use is not authorised, and that the information you give is accurate.
We aim to remove infringing material quickly after verifying the complaint, and we notify the uploader.
7. AI Features
StudyBuddy can create AI summaries of your materials. To do this, the text or file of the material you choose is sent securely to our AI service provider for processing. AI summaries can be incomplete or wrong; use them as a study aid, not as a replacement for your materials or your lecturer. Do not use AI features on documents that contain confidential or personal information.
8. Reviews
Ratings and reviews you submit are public and show your first name and last initial (and your school for cloud accounts). Do not include personal information or links. We may reply publicly and may hide reviews that are abusive, spam or unrelated to StudyBuddy.
9. Acceptable Use
You agree not to:
- Use StudyBuddy for anything unlawful, or for cheating in examinations or assessments where this is prohibited.
- Harass, bully or threaten other users.
- Try to access other people's accounts, our servers or data you are not allowed to access.
- Use bots, scrapers or automated tools to download materials in bulk or overload the service.
- Copy, resell or redistribute StudyBuddy or its content outside the app.
10. Deleting Your Account
You can delete your account at any time in the app (Account > Delete account) or on the web at studybuddy.marcbrainltd.com/delete-account. Deletion is permanent. See the Privacy Policy for what is deleted.
11. Intellectual Property
The StudyBuddy name, logo, app design and software belong to Marcbrain Ltd and are protected by law. Materials shared by students belong to their respective owners.
12. Disclaimer and Limitation of Liability
StudyBuddy is provided "as is" and "as available". We do not guarantee that it will always be available, error-free or that materials are accurate or complete. Keep your own copies of important files. To the maximum extent permitted by law, Marcbrain Ltd is not liable for any indirect, incidental or consequential loss, including lost data, lost marks or examination results, arising from your use of StudyBuddy.
13. Changes to These Terms
We may update these Terms. We will tell you about important changes in the app (Updates tab) or by email. Continuing to use StudyBuddy after changes means you accept the updated Terms.
14. Governing Law and Contact
These Terms are governed by the laws of the Republic of Ghana. Nothing in them removes rights you have under the consumer or data protection laws of your country.
Questions or complaints: marcbrain.ltd@gmail.com
Marcbrain Ltd, Ghana
Privacy Policy
This Privacy Policy explains what information StudyBuddy (operated by Marcbrain Ltd) collects, why, where it is stored, who we share it with and the choices you have. We follow the principles of the Ghana Data Protection Act, 2012 (Act 843) and the Nigeria Data Protection Act, 2023.
In short: offline accounts stay on your phone. If you choose cloud backup, your account and shelf are stored on our servers so you can recover them. Materials you make public are visible to other students. We never sell your data and we do not show ads.
1. Information We Collect
Account information
- First and last name, username, email address, phone number and country.
- Education details: level (e.g. JHS 2, SHS 3, Level 300), school and programme or subjects.
- Profile photo (optional).
- Your password, which is stored only in a securely hashed form, never as readable text.
Your study content
- Courses you add, course cover images, materials you add (documents, slides, spreadsheets, PDFs), their titles, descriptions and whether they are private or public.
- Reading progress, likes, dislikes, saved materials, reports and reviews.
Device and usage information
- A random install ID, phone model, operating system and app version.
- A push notification token and the notification topics your phone follows (for example your school, programme, level and courses).
- Technical logs: IP address, time of requests, errors and security events, used to keep the service running and secure.
Requests you send us
If you request a missing school, programme or course, we store the request and the contact email you provide.
2. What Stays on Your Phone vs. the Cloud
Offline account (default)
Your profile, courses, materials and progress are stored only on your phone. We receive only what is needed to provide online features you use, such as searching the Public Library, submitting a request, sending a review or receiving notifications.
Cloud account (optional)
When you turn on cloud backup, we store your account information, courses, course covers, private and public materials, reading progress and profile photo on our servers so they can be restored. Private materials are never shown in the Public Library and can only be downloaded by you through time-limited secure links.
Public materials
Materials you make public, with your name, school and upload date, are visible to other StudyBuddy users.
3. How We Use Your Information
- To create and run your account, including sign-in, email verification and password reset.
- To back up and restore your shelf (cloud accounts).
- To show the right materials, courses and schools for your level and programme.
- To send notifications you can control: new materials in your courses, school or programme, announcements, app updates and study reminders.
- To create AI summaries when you ask for them.
- To moderate content, handle reports and protect users from abuse, fraud and security threats.
- To understand how StudyBuddy is used (counts of students, installs, downloads and likes) and improve it.
We do not sell your personal information, and we do not use it for advertising.
4. Service Providers We Use
We share information only with providers that help us run StudyBuddy, and only what they need:
- Hostinger: hosts our servers and database.
- Cloudflare R2: stores uploaded files, profile photos, course covers and banners.
- Google Firebase Cloud Messaging: delivers push notifications.
- Google (Gmail): sends account emails such as verification and reset codes.
- OpenRouter and its AI model providers: process the text or files you choose to summarise with AI.
Some of these providers may process data outside Ghana or Nigeria. We choose providers that protect data with appropriate security. We may also disclose information if required by law or to protect the safety of users.
5. Security
- All connections to our servers use encrypted HTTPS.
- Passwords are stored using strong one-way hashing (salted), never in readable form.
- Sign-in attempts are rate-limited and accounts lock temporarily after repeated failures.
- Private files are only available through time-limited signed links.
- Administrator access is restricted and every administrative action is logged.
No system is perfectly secure. Protect your phone with a screen lock and use a unique password for StudyBuddy.
6. How Long We Keep Data
- Account and cloud backup data: until you delete your account.
- Public materials: until you make them private, delete them or delete your account, or until we remove them after a report.
- Technical and security logs: usually up to 90 days.
- Reviews: published reviews stay public, but are no longer linked to your account after deletion.
7. Your Rights and Choices
- Access and correct: view and edit your details in the app under Account.
- Notifications: turn push notifications on or off in Account > Preferences, or in your phone's settings.
- Public or private: change any material's visibility at any time.
- Delete: delete your account in the app (Account > Delete account) or at studybuddy.marcbrainltd.com/delete-account.
- Other requests: to request a copy of your data, object to processing or make a complaint, email marcbrain.ltd@gmail.com. You may also complain to the Data Protection Commission (Ghana) or the Nigeria Data Protection Commission.
8. Deleting Your Account
When you delete a cloud account, we permanently delete your profile, courses, course covers, private and public materials (and their files), reading progress, likes, dislikes, saved items, sign-in sessions and notifications. Deletion happens immediately. Security logs without personal details may be kept for up to 90 days. Offline data on your phone is removed when you delete the account in the app or uninstall StudyBuddy.
9. Children
StudyBuddy is used by Junior and Senior High School students. Users under 18 should use StudyBuddy with a parent's or guardian's permission, and users under 13 need a parent or guardian to create and manage the account. We collect only what is needed to provide the service. If you believe a child has given us information without permission, contact us and we will delete it.
10. Changes to This Policy
We may update this Privacy Policy. We will announce important changes in the app or by email, and update the date below.
11. Contact Us
Email: marcbrain.ltd@gmail.com
Marcbrain Ltd, Ghana