Privacy policy
Last updated November 6, 2026
This policy explains what Aidan McCollum, sole proprietor, doing business as Patchwell ("Patchwell", "we") collects when you use the Service, and what we do with it. The short version: we process your files to do the job, then let them go.
What we collect
| What | Why | How long |
|---|---|---|
| Your email address | Receipts, account help and refunds | While your account has credit, then 2 years for tax records |
| Payment details | Handled entirely by Stripe; we never see your card number | Per Stripe's policy |
| API key (hashed) | To recognise your calls | Until you ask us to delete it |
| Billing records: tool, size, price, time | To charge correctly and show you your usage | 2 years |
| Refusal records: category, time and a one-way fingerprint of the request (never its text) | To stop abuse of the research tool | 24 hours rolling, longer if a key is suspended |
| Research questions and basic quality signals, with contact details removed | To keep the research tool accurate | 30 days. Switch it off any time, below |
| Results of long jobs | So you can collect them with the job ID | Briefly, then discarded |
Your files
Audio, video and data files are downloaded into a temporary container, processed, and discarded with it. We don't keep copies, and we don't use your files or results to train AI models.
Turn off question retention
Paste your API key and switch it off. It takes effect immediately, stays off, and deletes anything already kept.
Your key is sent only to Patchwell over HTTPS and is not stored by this page. From code:
POST /v1/account/privacy with {"keep_research_questions": false}.
Who we share with
We share only what each provider needs to run the Service: Stripe (payments), Modal (the cloud computers that run the tools), and search providers (Serper, Tavily), which receive the search queries the research tool writes, not your identity. We don't sell personal data.
Your choices
You can ask us to show, correct or delete what we hold about you at patchwell.support@gmail.com. Records we must keep for tax or fraud reasons are kept only as long as the law requires.
Security
Keys are stored hashed, payment confirmations are signature-verified, files are processed in isolated throwaway containers, and links to private or internal network addresses are refused.