Privacy Policy
For the plain summary of what DuckyHelper does with your data, start with the short version.
1. The Short Version
DuckyHelper is a Mac app that tutors you by voice. To do that, it listens to you, looks at your screen, and remembers what you are learning. Here is what that means for your data.
- Your voice goes to OpenAI, which runs the live conversation. We do not record or keep your audio.
- Screenshots and short descriptions of your screen go to OpenAI so Ducky can see what you are asking about. We do not store your screenshots.
- We store your account, a written transcript and summary of each session, your progress, tests, flashcards, what Ducky remembers about you, and the pictures and videos Ducky makes for you.
- We do not sell your data, we do not show ads, and we do not use your data for advertising.
- You can delete memories and other notes in the app, and you can ask us to delete everything.
The rest of this policy explains each point in detail.
2. Who We Are
This Privacy Policy explains how MingLLM ("MingLLM", "we", "us") collects, uses, and shares information when you use DuckyHelper: the DuckyHelper app for Mac, the website at duckyhelper.com, and the services behind them (together, the "Services"). By using the Services, you agree to the practices in this policy. If you do not agree, please do not use the Services. Words defined in our Terms of Service mean the same thing here.
DuckyHelper is in early access, so it changes often. When what we collect or how we use it changes, we update this policy first.
3. Information We Collect
Here is everything DuckyHelper collects, grouped by where it comes from.
A. Your Account
- Your email address, and your name if you give it. You create your account on our own sign up page with an email address and a password. We do not verify email addresses yet.
- Your password, which we store only as a salted hash. We never store it in a form anyone can read.
- Your plan and your monthly usage counts: minutes of live voice, pictures made, and seconds of video made.
To create an account, you must agree to our Terms of Service (called the Rules on the sign up page) and to this Privacy Policy (called the Privacy Notice there). Your account is kept in the same account system as Loom, another MingLLM product, so the same account also works with Loom. Sign in with Google, Apple, or X is not available yet. If we add it, we will update this policy first.
B. Your Voice and Conversations
- While the pill is open, audio from your microphone streams straight from your Mac to OpenAI, which runs the voice conversation. Our servers set up the connection, but they do not receive or record your audio.
- When a session ends, the app sends us a written transcript of what you and Ducky said (the most recent 400 lines at most), the topics you covered, and a list of what Ducky showed you. We use an AI model to write a one or two sentence summary of the session for your dashboard.
- If you use the pronunciation card, a short recording of your try (about 30 seconds at most) goes through our servers to OpenAI to be scored. We do not store it.
C. Your Screen
- Screenshots. When you start talking to Ducky, when you point at something with fn and cmd, or when Ducky needs to look, the app takes a screenshot of your screen and sends it to the AI through the live session. DuckyHelper's own windows are left out of the screenshot. The app may first read the text in the screenshot on your Mac, using Apple's built in text recognition, so Ducky can point at the right spot.
- Live viewing. While a session is open, the app checks your screen for changes twice a second using a tiny grey thumbnail that never leaves your Mac. When the screen changes, it sends a picture of it (at most one every 2 seconds) through our servers to OpenAI, which writes a short description for Ducky's voice. We do not store these pictures or descriptions.
Anything on your screen can end up in a screenshot, including other apps, messages, and notifications. Close anything private before you ask Ducky to look. The AI that describes your screen is told to leave out passwords, codes, and personal details such as addresses, phone numbers, and card numbers, but that is an instruction to an AI, not a guarantee.
D. What You Do in Tutorials
With the Accessibility permission, the app follows your clicks, which text field is active, and what you type in it, so it can tell when you really finished a step. It reads at most about 2,000 characters of a text field around your cursor, and it never passes on what you type into a password field. This is used during the session to check your steps, and it may be sent to the AI for that. We do not keep it as a separate record.
E. Your Learning Record
- Your progress by topic and skill, the tests you take with your answers and grades, and your flashcards with their review history.
- Mistake patterns: a kind of mistake Ducky noticed (for example, "sign error when dividing by a negative"), an example, and how often it happened each day over the last 60 days.
- Your profile, if you fill it in or tell Ducky: name, age, grade or school level, subjects, goals, interests, learning style, language, pace, and accessibility needs.
- Memories: short notes Ducky saves so it can help you better next time, such as "likes basketball examples" or "finds fractions hard". They can be about your preferences, interests, goals, struggles, strengths, and feelings. Ducky will not save a note that looks like an email address, a password, a phone number, a home address, or an ID or card number.
- Parent and teacher reports you create, and your report settings, such as the name of the parent or teacher a report is for.
F. Pictures and Videos Ducky Makes
When Ducky makes a picture or a short video for you, we keep the request it was made from, its caption, and the file, so it can show in your gallery.
G. Technical Data
Our servers keep basic technical logs, such as errors and how long requests take. The website does not use advertising or analytics cookies.
4. What Stays on Your Mac
Some things never leave your Mac:
- The tiny grey thumbnails the app uses to notice when your screen changes.
- Your sign in token and app settings, such as your theme.
- DuckyHelper's windows talk to a small web server that the app runs on your Mac. It only accepts connections from your own Mac.
5. Mac Permissions
DuckyHelper asks macOS for four permissions. Here is what each one is for.
- Microphone: to hear you when you talk to Ducky.
- Screen Recording: to see what you are looking at, through the screenshots and live viewing described above.
- Accessibility: to follow your clicks and typing in tutorials and to find the exact spot on screen Ducky should point at.
- Input Monitoring: to notice the fn key from any app, so you can open the pill.
You can turn any of these off in System Settings, under Privacy and Security. Without them, parts of DuckyHelper will not work.
6. How We Use Information
- To run the tutor: the voice conversation, seeing your screen, pointing and drawing, tutorials, quizzes, graphs, flashcards, pictures, and videos.
- To pick up where you left off. When a session starts, Ducky gets a short brief about you: your profile, your memories, your mistake patterns, the summaries of your last two sessions, and the skills you are still working on.
- To show your dashboard, your progress, and the reports you ask for.
- To apply usage limits, keep the Services secure, and find and fix problems.
- To contact you about your account, early access, or important changes.
We do not use your conversations, screenshots, or learning record to train AI models.
7. AI and Other Service Providers
DuckyHelper uses these companies to work. Each one gets only what its part of the job needs, and handles it under its own terms and privacy policy.
- OpenAI: the live voice conversation, the tutor's thinking, your screenshots and screen descriptions, web searches Ducky runs to answer you, session summaries, making and grading tests, pronunciation scoring, and pictures.
- Google: short videos. Google receives the request the video is made from.
- Amazon Web Services: hosting for our servers, database, file storage, and logs.
8. Sharing With Others
We do not sell or rent your personal information, and we do not share it for advertising. We share it only:
- With the service providers listed above, so DuckyHelper can work.
- When you share something yourself, such as a parent or teacher report.
- When the law requires it, or when we need to protect someone's safety or our rights.
- If MingLLM is part of a merger, sale, or similar change. We will tell you before your information becomes subject to a different privacy policy.
9. How Long We Keep Data
- Your account: until you ask us to delete it.
- Session transcripts and summaries, tests, progress, your profile, memories, flashcards, and reports: until you delete them or ask us to delete your account. Ducky keeps up to 200 memories; when it has more, the oldest ones that are not pinned are removed.
- Mistake patterns: the daily counts cover the last 60 days.
- Picture and video files: deleted automatically 180 days after they are made. The gallery entry, with its request and caption, stays until it is deleted.
- Audio, screenshots, live viewing pictures, and pronunciation recordings: we do not store them.
- Backups: our database keeps backups for up to 35 days, so deleted information can stay in a backup for up to 35 days before it is gone.
10. Your Choices and Rights
In the app you can:
- See and edit your profile.
- Delete single memories, mistake patterns, and reports.
- Use "Forget everything" to delete your profile, memories, mistake patterns, flashcards, and reports at once.
- End a session at any time with fn or the X on the pill, and turn off any permission in System Settings.
The app cannot yet delete your session history, tests, progress, gallery, or account by itself. Contact us and we will delete them for you. You can also contact us to get a copy of your information or to correct it.
Depending on where you live, laws such as the EU and UK GDPR or the California Consumer Privacy Act may give you more rights, such as the right to object to some uses of your information or to complain to a data protection authority. We will answer these requests from anyone, wherever they live, and we will not treat you differently for making one.
11. Children and Students
DuckyHelper is made for learners of any age, including children. Here is how it works today:
- Sign up asks for an email address and a password, and for agreement to our Terms and this policy. We do not ask for your age when you sign up, we do not verify email addresses yet, and there is no separate parent account or parent consent step yet.
- A learner's profile can include their age and grade if they or a parent add it or tell Ducky.
- Everything in this policy applies the same way to children. We never sell a child's information or use it for advertising.
If you are under 13, use DuckyHelper only with a parent or guardian who has read this policy and agrees to it. Parents and guardians can contact us at any time to see their child's information, to have it deleted, or to stop their child's account.
DuckyHelper is not offered through schools today, and we do not have agreements with any school. A school or teacher who wants students to use DuckyHelper should contact us first.
12. Parent and Teacher Reports
A learner can make a report of their progress for a parent or teacher. The numbers in it, such as minutes and scores, are counted from the learner's own records, and an AI model writes the words around them. We never send a report to anyone. The learner shares it themselves, by copying it, saving a PDF, or writing an email.
13. How We Secure Your Information
- The app and our servers talk over encrypted HTTPS connections.
- Stored files are encrypted and never public. Links to your pictures and videos stop working after one hour.
- Passwords are stored only as salted hashes.
- Our AI provider keys stay on our servers and are never sent to your Mac.
- Every request is checked against your sign in, and it can only reach your own information.
No system is perfectly secure. If we learn of a breach that affects your information, we will tell you as the law requires.
14. Where Your Data Is Stored
We store your information with Amazon Web Services in the United States. Our service providers may process it in other countries. If you use DuckyHelper from outside the United States, your information is transferred to the United States.
15. Changes to This Privacy Policy
We will update this policy when DuckyHelper changes, and we will change the "Last updated" date at the top. If a change is important, we will tell you in the app or by email before it takes effect.
16. Contact Us
For questions about this policy, or to ask us to see, correct, copy, or delete your information, contact MingLLM through our website at mingllm.com. Please include the email address on your DuckyHelper account so we can find it.
