Privacy Policy

1 Who We Are

AskMeBro ("we", "us", "our") is an AI-powered product review analyzer accessible at askmebro.ai. We help consumers make informed purchasing decisions by analyzing product reviews, ratings, seller information, and pricing from major retailers.

If you have any questions about this privacy policy, please contact us at appcoteinc@gmail.com.

2 Data We Collect

We collect the following types of information:

Account Information

• Email address
• Name (if provided)
• Profile picture (if you sign in with Google)
• Password (stored as a secure hash — we never store your plain text password)

Search History

• Product URLs and product names you search for
• Analysis results returned by our AI
• Date and time of each search

Feedback

• Thumbs up / thumbs down ratings you submit on analysis results
• Optional comments you provide with feedback

Region Preference

• The country you select from our region selector, used to tailor product analysis and pricing to that market. Defaults to "Global" if you don't set one.

Community Chat

• Messages you post in a product's discussion chat, along with a display name derived from your account
• Chat messages are visible to other AskMeBro users viewing that same product — see our Terms of Service for details

Guest Accounts

• If you use AskMeBro as a guest, we create a temporary account with no email or password, and store your searches and chat activity against that temporary account the same way we would for a registered user

Usage Data (via Google Analytics)

• Pages visited and time spent
• Browser type, device type, and operating system
• Country and approximate location (city level)
• Referring website

Technical Data

• IP address (used for rate limiting, enforcing daily usage limits, and security)
• Session tokens (stored as secure HTTP-only cookies)

3 How We Use Your Data

We use your data to:

• Provide and operate the AskMeBro service
• Save your search history so you can revisit past analyses
• Improve our AI analysis accuracy using your feedback
• Prevent abuse, fraud, and excessive usage
• Send important service notifications (not marketing emails)
• Understand how the product is being used to improve it
• Comply with legal obligations

We do not use your data to show you advertisements, build advertising profiles, or train third-party AI models.

4 Data Sharing

We never sell your personal data. We share data only in these limited circumstances:

AI Providers

When you search for a product, the product URL or name (and your region, if set) is sent to an AI provider to generate the analysis. We currently use Google (Gemini), and may also use Anthropic (Claude) or OpenAI depending on configuration — we may switch between these providers at any time. These providers process the request but do not use it to train their models under our API agreements.

International data transfers. Our servers and AI providers are located in the United States. If you access AskMeBro from outside the U.S., your information will be transferred to and processed in the U.S., which may have different data protection laws than your country.

Google

• Google Sign-In: If you sign in with Google, we receive your name, email, and profile picture from Google.
• Google Analytics: We use Google Analytics 4 to understand traffic patterns. This data is anonymized and aggregated.

Legal Requirements

We may disclose your information if required by law, court order, or to protect the rights, property, or safety of AskMeBro, our users, or others.

Business Transfer

If AskMeBro is acquired or merges with another company, your data may be transferred as part of that transaction. We will notify you via email before this happens.

Internal Access

A small number of authorized administrators can access an internal dashboard showing aggregate usage statistics and feedback submitted by users (including the email address and comment associated with a piece of feedback, where provided) in order to improve the Service. We do not use this access to read your product search history outside of what's needed to investigate a specific reported problem.

5 Cookies & Tracking

We use the following cookies:

• access_token — Keeps you logged in (HTTP-only, secure, expires in 15 minutes)
• refresh_token — Renews your session automatically (HTTP-only, secure, expires in 30 days)

We also use localStorage (not a cookie) to remember your dark/light theme preference. This contains no personal data.

Google Analytics may set cookies to measure traffic. You can opt out of Google Analytics by installing the Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on.

We do not use advertising cookies, tracking pixels for ads, or third-party marketing cookies.

6 Data Retention

• Account data — Kept until you delete your account
• Search history — Kept indefinitely so you can revisit analyses. Items you delete from your history are soft-deleted (hidden from you) but retained in our database for 90 days before permanent deletion
• Feedback — Kept indefinitely to improve our service
• Server logs — Rotated and deleted after 7 days
• Analytics data — Retained by Google Analytics per their data retention settings (default 14 months)

7 Your Rights

You have the right to:

• Access — Request a copy of all personal data we hold about you
• Correction — Request correction of inaccurate personal data
• Deletion — Request deletion of your account and all associated data
• Portability — Request your search history in a machine-readable (JSON) format
• Objection — Object to processing of your personal data
• Withdrawal — Withdraw consent at any time (this does not affect past processing)

These requests are currently handled manually rather than through a self-service button in the app. To exercise any of these rights, email us at appcoteinc@gmail.com from the address associated with your account. We will respond, and complete deletion or export requests, within 30 days.

Legal basis for processing (EU/UK users). We process your data based on our contract with you (to provide the Service you signed up for), your consent (for optional features like Google Analytics), and our legitimate interest in operating and improving the Service securely.

If you are in the EU/UK, you also have the right to lodge a complaint with your local data protection authority.

8 Security

We take security seriously and implement the following measures:

• All data is transmitted over HTTPS (TLS encryption)
• Passwords are hashed using bcrypt with 12 rounds
• Authentication tokens are stored in HTTP-only cookies (not accessible to JavaScript)
• Rate limiting to prevent brute force attacks
• SQL injection prevention via parameterized queries
• Input sanitization on all user-supplied data
• Content Security Policy (CSP) headers to prevent XSS attacks

No system is 100% secure. If you discover a security vulnerability, please report it responsibly to appcoteinc@gmail.com.

9 Children's Privacy

AskMeBro is not directed at children under the age of 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If we become aware that a child under 13 has provided us with personal information, we will delete it immediately. If you believe a child has provided us with their data, please contact us at appcoteinc@gmail.com.

10 Changes to This Policy

We may update this privacy policy from time to time. When we do, we will update the "Last updated" date at the top of this page. For significant changes, we will notify registered users by email at least 14 days before the changes take effect.

Your continued use of AskMeBro after changes become effective constitutes your acceptance of the updated policy.

11 Contact Us

If you have questions, concerns, or requests about this privacy policy or your personal data, please reach out:

appcoteinc@gmail.com