Who we are
TheBue is an independent project run by Al Moetasem Afifi (BUE 281785) and Mariam Omar (BUE 278094). This policy explains what data TheBue holds, who can see it, and how it's used. Contact: support@thebue.site.
What we collect
- Account details you enter: name, personal email, BUE ID, faculty, year, and a securely hashed password (we never store your password as plain text and cannot see it).
- Your study data: modules, timetable, tasks and events you add, and a profile photo if you choose to upload one.
- AI chat messages you send, and the assistant's replies, so your conversation continues across visits.
- Support messages you send to us, and any image attached to them.
- Your connected BUE email (only if you connect it): a secure, revocable reference token that lets us read your calendar and recent mail on your behalf — we never see or store your Microsoft password. Emails that look like assignments, schedule changes, room changes, or announcements are summarised by AI into things you can act on; we do not keep a permanent copy of your email inbox.
- Basic technical logs (e.g. error logs, sign-in attempt counts) to keep the service secure and working. These are kept only as long as needed to investigate problems and are not used for any other purpose.
Who processes it, and why
Running TheBue requires a small number of trusted infrastructure providers, each used strictly for the job below — never to sell or advertise with your data:
- Hosting — a secure hosting provider stores the website and database.
- AI processing — your AI chat messages and study data are sent to our AI service providers to generate the assistant's replies, and photos you upload (a timetable, or an image sent in chat) are processed to extract their content.
- Email connection — if you connect your BUE email, a secure connection broker handles the sign-in with Microsoft and lets us read your calendar/mail without us ever handling your password ourselves.
These providers only ever receive what's strictly needed to do their specific job, and are contractually and technically restricted from using your data for anything else.
What TheBue's administrators can and cannot see
We built this deliberately narrowly. An administrator can see:
- Your name, BUE ID, faculty, year, email-verification status, and whether you have premium access.
- That a support conversation or premium request exists, so it can be answered.
An administrator cannot see your password (nobody can — it's one-way hashed), the content of your AI chat conversations, the content of your connected email, or images you've sent in chat or support.
An administrator can permanently delete an account (including at your own request, or if it breaks the Terms of Service). Every such deletion is recorded in an internal log — which BUE ID, when, by whom — without recording anything from inside the deleted account. That log entry is not personal data about you beyond the fact that an account existed; it exists purely so administrator actions stay accountable.
How we use your data
Only to run TheBue for you: show your schedule and tasks, send verification and reminder emails, answer your AI questions using your own data, detect relevant updates in your connected email if you turn that on, and keep the service secure. We do not sell your data or use it for advertising.
AI processing
When you use the assistant, the relevant parts of your own study data and your message are sent to our AI provider to generate a reply. If you attach a photo, it's sent to our vision provider to read its content. Don't put anything in the chat, or in a photo, you wouldn't want processed this way.
What happens when you delete your account
Deleting your account (in Settings, or by an administrator at your request) immediately and permanently removes your profile, study data, chat history, and connected-email link. Two narrow exceptions, and here's exactly why each one exists:
- Your BUE ID stays on a short list recording that its free trial was used. This has no name, no email, no chat content attached to it — just the BUE ID and the date the trial started — and it exists solely so a deleted account can't be recreated to claim a second free trial. If you never started a free trial, deleting your account leaves no trace here at all.
- If an administrator deleted the account, the audit-log entry described above remains (BUE ID, date, which admin) — for the accountability reasons explained there, not as a record of anything you did or said.
Nothing else survives deletion. If you'd like either of these two remaining records removed as well, email support@thebue.site and we'll handle it directly.
Sharing
We share data only with the infrastructure providers described above, only as needed to run the features you use, and we may disclose data if legally required.
Your rights
You can view and edit your details in Settings, clear or export your AI history, disconnect your BUE email at any time, and delete your entire account (which erases your data as described above). To ask anything about your data, or to request the two narrow records above be removed, email support@thebue.site.
Security
Passwords are hashed, the site runs over HTTPS, and access to your data requires signing in. Your BUE email connection uses a revocable token, never your actual password. No system is perfectly secure, so please use a unique password.
Who this applies to
TheBue is intended for university students and staff, who are adults. We don't knowingly collect data from anyone under the age required to hold a university account.
Changes
We may update this policy; significant changes will be noted in the app.