Privacy Policy

Last updated: October 26, 2026

PeerPath is an early-stage product. This policy explains what information we collect, how we use it, and what choices you have. We write this to be readable, not just legally safe.

Who we are

PeerPath is an undergraduate application guidance product built and operated by Yiran. We serve students, mentors, and families globally through peerpath.co.

Information we collect

Account information: Your email address and, if you add it, your name. We use this to identify your account and to contact you.
Profile information: Details you add to your student or mentor profile, such as graduation year, target schools, intended major, country/region, and bio. This is optional beyond the basics.
Application content: Materials, essays, activity descriptions, and other content you create or upload in PeerPath's workspace features.
AI Review inputs and outputs: The text you submit for AI Review and the feedback it generates. See the AI section below for how this is processed.
Mentor and session information: Booking details and session context if you use the mentors feature. If you choose to share essays or activities when you request a session, that mentor can read them, and leave comments and suggested edits, until 7 days after the session. For an activity they see its name, role, organization, dates, hours and description, not your private notes. You can stop sharing at any time from the session page, nothing in your work changes unless you apply a suggestion yourself, and deleting an essay or activity deletes the mentor's comments on it.
Session attendance (PeerPath Meet): when a mentor session is held in PeerPath Meet, our video provider Daily keeps a record of when each person joined and left the call. After the session, PeerPath reads that record to work out how long the student and the mentor were in the call together. When the same student and mentor have sessions back to back, PeerPath reads the records of those calls too, and counts each minute for one session only: the one whose booked time it falls in. We keep only the result: how long each person, and both together, were in the call, how that was worked out, and when we read it. We do not keep names, Daily's own participant or meeting identifiers, or anything that was said or shown, and we never use a Pipp transcript, Pipp's notes or Pipp's consent records for this. Nothing is read for a session held through another meeting link.
Usage and performance data: Pages visited, features used, and performance metrics collected by our analytics providers. This helps us understand how the product is being used and where it can improve.

How we use your information

Operate and provide the PeerPath product and its features.
Process your AI Review submissions and return feedback to you.
Send account-related emails: sign-in links, booking confirmations, requests to rate a session or to confirm that it happened, and occasional product updates from the founder.
Confirm that a mentor session took place. When the attendance record shows the student and the mentor together in that session's own call for at least half of the booked time, and at least 10 minutes, the session is marked complete. When it does not, or the session was held somewhere else, we ask you both, in PeerPath and by email, to confirm that it happened or to report a problem. A message we sent is not proof that you saw it: a session is never marked complete, and nobody is recorded as absent, because a question went unanswered. A session that is still not settled 7 days after it ended is reviewed by a member of the PeerPath team. Attendance shows that a session took place, not how good it was. PeerPath also uses it when deciding whether to hold or release a mentor's payment and when handling a dispute. Either of you can still report a problem in PeerPath. If a session did not take place as booked, PeerPath reviews it and can arrange a refund. Who can see it: the members of the PeerPath team who review sessions and payments. When we ask you to confirm a session, the message may say about how many minutes you were in the call together. We do not show either of you the other person's join and leave record.
Understand how the product is used and where to improve it.
Maintain platform safety, prevent abuse, and protect users.

When you are signed in, PeerPath sets one cookie named pp_tz so that times, and labels such as “today”, “tomorrow” and “overdue”, are shown in your local time zone.

What it contains: only the name of the time zone your browser reports, for example “Asia/Shanghai”. Nothing else is stored in it.
How long it lasts: it is a session cookie. It has no expiry date and is normally deleted when you close your browser.
How it is set: it is a first-party cookie for peerpath.co, marked Secure (sent only over secure connections) and SameSite=Lax.
What it is not used for: tracking, advertising, analytics or profiling. It is not shared with anyone.
Without it: the page works out its times, and labels such as “today”, in your browser from your device's time zone once it has loaded. The page is not reloaded.
Your choice: you can delete or block it at any time in your browser's settings. PeerPath keeps working; each page then works out its times in your browser instead.

If you are a mentor and have set a time zone in your profile, that setting is used instead of the browser's time zone.

AI Review and third-party processing

When you submit content for AI Review, that content is sent to a third-party AI model provider (currently Google Gemini) to generate feedback. By using AI Review, you agree that your submitted content may be processed by that provider under their terms.

We do not sell your data to third parties. We do not use your application materials to train AI models without your explicit consent.

Pipp session notes

Pipp session notes are optional. In a PeerPath Meet session, a student can ask Pipp, PeerPath's AI companion, to take notes, and Pipp starts only if the mentor also agrees for that session. Pipp does not take notes if the student has turned AI features off in Settings.

While notes are on, what both people say is transcribed live by our video provider, Daily, which uses its transcription subprocessor, Deepgram. The student chooses the language Pipp listens in. The student's browser sends the transcript text to PeerPath.

The transcript is temporary. Google (Gemini API) processes the transcript, together with the session's topic and the goal, questions and titles the student added to the session, to write short notes about the session for the student. Pipp stops using the transcript 24 hours after the session, and it is then deleted.

Pipp keeps its written notes for the student for up to 12 months after the session, then deletes them. The notes describe what was discussed; they do not record who said what. Pipp may also put its notes into a takeaway draft, which the student reviews. Only what the student saves becomes their takeaway. If the draft is never saved, the notes Pipp put in it are also deleted 12 months after the session. A note the student adds to their takeaway themselves is part of their takeaway and stays until they remove it.

A student can also ask Pipp a question about one of their sessions. To answer it, the question and Pipp's written notes for that session are sent to Google (Gemini API). PeerPath does not save the question or the answer. It keeps only a record that a question was asked and charged, not what the question or the answer said. Mentors never see a student's questions or Pipp's answers.

Only the student can see Pipp's notes and their takeaway. The mentor cannot.

Either person can turn Pipp off during the session, which stops the transcription and deletes what Pipp captured. After the session, the student can delete Pipp's notes from the session record, and the mentor can delete them from their booking page. A takeaway the student has saved is the student's own record and stays.

Pipp does not record audio or video.

Counselor Pipp (beta)

Counselor Pipp is a chat where a student asks Pipp about their own applications. It is in beta and may not be available on every account. Only students can use it, and it does not work if the student has turned AI features off in Settings.

What Pipp reads. For each question, Pipp reads a small set of things from the student's PeerPath workspace that are related to that question, not the whole workspace. It can include: profile basics (graduation year, region, application systems, curriculum, up to three intended majors, application stage and the priority chosen during onboarding); a few schools on the student's list (name, round, deadline, status, course and open checklist items); essays (title, type, school and word count, and for the essays the question is about, the essay prompt and the relevant part of the draft text, shortened to a length limit, at most three essays for one question); a few activities (name, role, organization and category, and for activities related to the question, the time period, weekly hours, description and impact); a few open plan tasks (title, type, school and due date); and how many schools, essays, activities and open tasks the student has. When a question is about one essay, Pipp also reads that essay's Pipp Review or Deep Review results, if it has any. A student can also attach essays, schools or activities to a chat, or pin them to a Counselor project; Pipp then reads them for the questions in that chat. Under each answer, the student sees a list of what was read for it. Pipp does not read mentor sessions, Pipp session notes, session takeaways, messages or payment information.

What is sent to Google. To answer, the question, the workspace details Pipp read for it (including any review results it read), Pipp's short memory of that chat and the last few questions and answers of that chat are sent to Google (Gemini API).

What PeerPath stores. The student's chats: in each chat, the student's questions and Pipp's answers, the list of what was read for each answer (names and titles, not essay or activity text), the suggested next step, and a short memory of that chat: brief notes about what the student decided, prioritised, worried about, prefers, left open or planned in it. Also each chat's title, the student's Counselor projects (a name and references to the schools, essays and activities pinned to it, not copies of them), references to what the student attached to a chat, and a record of the steps Pipp ran for each question (which kind of step and which of the student's records it used, by reference, without any text). The memory is used only by Counselor Pipp. If Pipp cannot answer a question, the question is not kept, unless a Review the student approved already ran for it: then the question is kept so its answer can be finished, until the student continues it or deletes the chat. These are stored separately from the student's application workspace. Mentors cannot see a student's Counselor chats, and PeerPath has no screen that shows them to anyone else.

The free trial and the pass. When the free trial is on, a student's first question starts 5 free days. PeerPath stores when the trial started and, if the student buys the Counselor Pipp Pass, when the pass ends: two dates, no content. Deleting chats or all Counselor history does not reset them; deleting the account removes them. PeerPath may email the student about the trial: once when it starts and, unless they unsubscribe, once one day before it ends and once when it ends. None of these is sent while a pass is active. The record of each reminder sent (the address and the subject) is deleted with the account.

Nothing is written back by itself. Counselor Pipp never changes a student's schools, essays, activities, plan, AI Reviews or session takeaways by itself. When an answer suggests a next step, it becomes a task in the student's plan only if the student chooses "Add to my plan". When a question asks for a full review of an essay, Pipp may offer to run a Pipp Review: it runs only if the student confirms the Energy it costs, and its result is saved like any other Pipp Review.

How long it is kept, and deleting it. In the current beta, chats, projects and memory are kept until the student deletes them or deletes their account; nothing expires on its own. "Delete" on a chat deletes that chat's questions, answers and memory straight away. "Delete all Counselor chats" deletes every chat, every project and all memory straight away. Tasks the student added to their plan and Pipp Reviews they ran stay, because they are part of the workspace. To keep the beta within fair use, PeerPath also counts how many questions a student asks each day, without what they asked. Deleting chats does not reset that count. Counts older than 30 days are deleted the next time the student asks a question. Deleting the account deletes the chats, the projects, the memory and the counts.

Calendar sync

Calendar sync is optional, and only a student can turn it on, from their Timeline. It copies dated items from the student's PeerPath plan to a calendar they choose: Google Calendar or Outlook, where available, after they connect that account, or any calendar app they subscribe with their PeerPath calendar link, such as Apple Calendar. It only sends information out. PeerPath does not read the student's other calendars or events.

For each kind of item the student keeps switched on in Manage sync, the calendar receives:

School deadlines and checklist due dates: the school name, the deadline round or checklist item title, the date, and whether it is marked done.
Tasks: the task title, the school label if the student added one, the due date, and whether it is marked done. This includes a task the student created from a next step in a session takeaway or a Counselor Pipp answer with "Add to my plan", whose title is the wording of that step. A task is sent only once it has a due date. Task notes are not sent.
Mentor sessions: the date and time, the mentor's name, the session topic and length, whether payment is still needed, and, if the session is canceled, who canceled it.

Each event also carries a short line saying it comes from PeerPath and a link back to PeerPath. The rest of a takeaway, Pipp's notes, session transcripts, the goal and questions a student adds to a session, and a mentor's meeting link are never sent to a calendar. Mentors get no access to a student's calendar.

When a student connects Google Calendar or Outlook, PeerPath creates a separate calendar named PeerPath in that account and writes only to it. For Google, PeerPath asks only for permission to manage calendars it creates. Microsoft offers no permission that narrow, so Outlook asks for access to the student's calendars; PeerPath still uses it only for the PeerPath calendar. To keep that calendar up to date, PeerPath looks up which events it has already added there. PeerPath stores the connected account's email address and account ID, and the access tokens the provider issues, which are encrypted.

A calendar subscription link works like a password: anyone who has it can see these events. The student can reset the link or turn the subscription off in Manage sync, and every earlier link stops working.

The student can disconnect at any time. Disconnecting deletes the stored tokens and stops syncing, and for Google, PeerPath also withdraws its access. Microsoft does not let an app withdraw its own access, so to remove it fully, the student removes PeerPath in their Microsoft account settings. PeerPath keeps a note of which account was connected, so that reconnecting continues the same calendar. The PeerPath calendar stays in the student's account unless they choose to remove it when disconnecting. Deleting the PeerPath account deletes the connection and withdraws Google access the same way. Events already in a calendar are held by that calendar provider under its own privacy policy.

Service providers

We work with third-party providers to operate PeerPath. Each provider accesses only what they need for their specific service:

Hosting and infrastructure: Vercel
Authentication and database: Supabase
Video calls: Daily (daily.co), which carries the audio and video of a mentor session while it is happening. Calls are not recorded. Daily also keeps a record of when each person joined and left a call, which PeerPath reads after the session (see Information we collect). If both people turn on Pipp session notes, Daily also transcribes the call live, using its transcription subprocessor Deepgram (see Pipp session notes).
Email delivery: Resend
AI model processing: Google (Gemini API), for AI Review, for Pipp session notes, and to answer questions students ask Pipp about a session. It also answers questions in Counselor Pipp (see Counselor Pipp).
Analytics and performance monitoring: Vercel Analytics and Speed Insights
Calendars, only if a student turns on calendar sync: Google Calendar, Microsoft Outlook, or the calendar app the student subscribes with, which receive the events described in Calendar sync.

Data retention

We keep your data while your account is active or as needed to provide the service. When you delete your account from Settings, we delete your account and the personal data in it, including your profile, application materials, AI Review records, plan, Energy balance and the files you uploaded.

If your account has any session bookings (including requests that did not go ahead) or a completed payment, it cannot be deleted from Settings. A session record also belongs to the other person in the session, and payment and refund records are needed for accounting, refunds and disputes. Contact support or email us (see Contact below) to ask for your account to be deleted. We then delete or anonymize your personal data by hand and keep only the session and payment records we still need for those purposes. If a payment, refund or session payout is still being processed, it has to be settled before the account can be deleted.

Some records are kept after an account is deleted: records of how the service was used (usage events), linked to the former account's internal ID, and, if you unsubscribed, an email to you bounced or you reported one as spam, your email address on our do-not-email list, so that we keep respecting it. Copies of deleted data can remain in database backups.

Pipp session transcripts: used for up to 24 hours after the session, then deleted.
Pipp's written notes: kept for up to 12 months after the session, including any Pipp put in a takeaway draft that is never saved, unless deleted earlier.
Counselor Pipp conversation and memory: kept until the student clears their Counselor history or deletes their account. Daily question counts (no content): older than 30 days are deleted the next time the student asks.
Session attendance results: deleted 180 days after the session's scheduled end. They are kept longer only while something about that session is still open: its outcome has not been settled, including a reported no-show or conflicting reports that PeerPath has not yet decided; the mentor's payment for it has not been finally paid or cancelled; a refund for it is still being handled; or someone has said they paid for it and PeerPath has not yet confirmed or rejected that payment. They are then deleted at a cleanup shortly after that is resolved. The rest of the session's record stays with the booking, for as long as we keep session and payment records for accounting, refunds and disputes, and is deleted with it: the session's outcome, and the record that we asked each of you to confirm the session, including the reason we gave and, only where our message stated one, the approximate number of minutes it stated (never the exact attendance figures). While a message to you is being sent, we keep a copy of it (your email address and the text) so that a retry sends exactly the same message. The copy is kept only while the message is being sent: it is deleted once the message has been sent, is no longer needed, or we stop trying. If sending is paused, the copy stays until sending resumes and the message is sent or given up. After that we keep only a fingerprint of the message (a SHA-256 hash), from which the message cannot be read back. Daily keeps its own join and leave record under its own policies.

Your choices

Access and update your profile from the Profile page in your workspace.
Delete your account from Settings → Account → Delete account. If your account has session bookings or a completed payment, contact support or email us instead (see Data retention above).
Contact us for any other privacy or data request.

Children and students

PeerPath is intended for users 13 years of age and older. If you are under 18, we encourage you to use PeerPath with guidance from a parent, guardian, school counselor, or other trusted adult.

We do not knowingly collect information from children under 13. If you believe a child under 13 has created an account, please contact us so we can remove it.

Contact

For privacy questions or requests, email us at:

hello@peerpath.co