Privacy Policy

• Effective date: October 27, 2026
• Last updated: October 27, 2026
• Applies to: grindlabs.ca, lagrind.ca, grindclinic.ca, grindmarket.ca, the Grind Labs web and progressive web applications, the Grind Labs apps for iPhone, iPad, Android and Windows, Grind Clinic, Grind Market, CBSE Grind and other Grind Labs or La Grind products, and related digital services that link to this Policy (collectively, the “Service”).

What changed on October 27, 2026. This version adds Grind Clinic and how it handles your patients' details (section 11), covers Grind Market, Casper coaching and gifts of Grindstones, names OpenAI and Groq as our AI providers, covers our apps for iPhone, iPad, Android and Windows and the app stores they come from, sets the minimum age at 16, and adds a page with the steps to delete your account.

Key facts

• Grind Labs Inc. is accountable for personal information under its control. The Privacy Officer is reachable at hello@grindlabs.ca.
• We collect account, profile, study, communication, file, AI, purchase, device, security, and usage information as needed for the features you use.
• Some information stays on your device; some is synchronized or stored in private server storage; some is shown to users you choose; and selected AI inputs go to our AI providers.
• Grind Clinic is only a reminder and planning tool. It helps you plan your clinic week and remind patients of their visits, and nothing more. We do not want any private or sensitive information about your patients, such as their health: enter only a first name or initials, a phone number and the visit. Their names and phone numbers stay on your device, and Grind Clinic does not encrypt them there; your device's own lock protects them. If you turn on Every device, the copy kept in your account is encrypted with a passphrase that only you know, so Grind Labs can never read it. We never text or call your patients; you send reminders from your own phone.
• Casper coaching. When your plan includes coaching or a review, the coaches assigned to your take see and hear it, with its transcript.
• Our main service providers are Supabase, Cloudflare, Resend, Stripe, Apple, Google, Microsoft, OpenAI, Groq, and ipwho.is. Their roles are explained below.
• We do not sell or rent personal information, disclose it to data brokers, or use it for cross-context behavioural advertising.
• You may have rights to access, correct, delete, or port information, withdraw consent, object or restrict processing, and complain to a regulator. The rights that apply depend on where you live.
• Security reduces risk but cannot eliminate it. Contact us promptly if you suspect unauthorized account access or a privacy incident.

This summary highlights important points. The complete Policy below explains the details.

1. Who is responsible

Grind Labs Inc., a Canadian corporation based in Quebec, Canada, is responsible for personal information under its control. Grind Labs is our English-facing brand, La Grind is our French-facing brand, and CBSE Grind is one of our study products.

Our Privacy Officer oversees this Policy and privacy requests. Contact:

• Email: hello@grindlabs.ca
• Phone: 514-928-7434
• Mail: Privacy Officer, Grind Labs Inc., 71 rue Papillon, Dollard-des-Ormeaux, Quebec H9B 3J7, Canada
• Subject line recommended: Privacy request

The Privacy Officer may verify identity and authority before disclosing or changing account information. This contact route also accepts privacy complaints and questions about our service providers or practices.

2. Scope and key facts

This Policy covers information handled through Service accounts, websites, progressive web and packaged applications, study tools, purchases, community and collaboration features, calls, AI tools, Grind Clinic, Grind Market, digital coaching surfaces including Casper coaching, support, and security operations. It does not govern a third-party site or service that has its own policy, even when linked from the Service.

We collect, use, retain, and disclose personal information for identified purposes, with consent or another lawful basis where applicable. We aim to limit information to what is reasonably needed for those purposes, but the exact information depends on the features, account role, purchase, device, settings, and interactions you choose.

We do not sell or rent personal information, disclose it to data brokers, or use personal information for cross-context behavioural advertising. We do not run third-party advertising trackers. We may use aggregate or de-identified information that does not reasonably identify a person for research, quality measurement, security, reporting, and Service improvement.

3. Information we collect

We may collect the following categories.

Some information may be sensitive because of its content or context. Do not submit patient records, health information about an identifiable person, government identifiers, financial-account credentials, biometric identifiers, exam-confidential content, or other highly sensitive material unless a feature expressly requests it and you have lawful authority and informed consent. Grind Clinic is the one feature that asks about real patients, and only for the scheduling details described in section 11.

4. Where information comes from

We collect information:

• from you, when you create an account, complete a profile, study, upload, post, message, call, buy, apply, ask for support, change settings, or use an AI feature;
• from your device and Service activity, through local storage, application events, network requests, security logs, analytics, diagnostics, and feature operation;
• from another user or organization, such as when a cohort president or authorized school representative adds an email to a roster, a user sends you a message or friend request, a collaborator shares an item, or someone submits a report involving your content;
• from service providers, including identity, payment, app-store, delivery, infrastructure, AI, and approximate-location providers; and
• from lawful public or institutional sources, only where needed for verification, safety, fraud prevention, rights enforcement, or legal compliance.

When we receive information from another user, they are responsible for having authority to provide it. We may notify, verify, restrict, or delete that information as appropriate.

5. Why we use information and our legal bases

We use personal information for these purposes:

• create, authenticate, secure, recover, and administer accounts;
• provide, synchronize, personalize, and remember study tools and settings;
• deliver purchases, subscriptions, entitlements, receipts, Grindstones and gifts of stones, and restorations;
• operate profiles, directories, cohorts, rosters, sharing, messaging, collaboration, community, moderation, and calls;
• operate Grind Clinic: synchronize your séances, show the weeks you share to the friends you choose, run séance trades, share the messages you choose to share, and send the alerts you turn on;
• operate Grind Market: show published resources and their creators, review resources before they become public, deliver the resources you add, and handle reports;
• provide Casper coaching: let the coaches assigned to you review your takes, write to you and meet with you;
• process user-directed files, Google Drive actions, AI generation, and the transcription of spoken Casper answers;
• send transactional, security, account, support, purchase, and service messages;
• answer requests, troubleshoot, moderate, enforce terms, and protect users;
• detect, prevent, and investigate fraud, cheating, infringement, spam, abuse, security incidents, and unlawful activity;
• measure feature use, reliability, learning flows, and content quality and improve the Service;
• comply with tax, accounting, consumer, privacy, court, regulatory, and other legal obligations; and
• establish, exercise, or defend legal rights and support a corporate transaction subject to safeguards.

The lawful basis depends on the activity and jurisdiction. It may include your consent; performance of a contract or steps you request before a contract; compliance with law; protection of vital interests in an emergency; and our or another person's legitimate interests in providing, securing, improving, and protecting the Service where those interests are not overridden by your rights. In Canada and Quebec, we seek meaningful consent where required and rely on statutory exceptions only when applicable. In the EEA or United Kingdom, we identify the relevant basis for the processing rather than treating consent as the basis for every activity.

You can decline optional information, permissions, analytics, or marketing where the Service offers that choice. Some information is required to create an account, deliver a purchased feature, keep the Service secure, or comply with law; without it, the related feature may not work.

6. When we disclose information

We may disclose personal information:

• to people and organizations you direct, according to profile, directory, post, message, cohort, roster, collaboration, sharing, call, export, and other audience choices;
• to service providers listed in section 7, only for the services they perform for us or for the separate transaction or service you request from them;
• to authorized staff and contractors who need access for support, operations, security, moderation, finance, legal compliance, or development and who are subject to confidentiality and access controls;
• to professional advisers, auditors, insurers, financial institutions, and counterparties where reasonably necessary and protected;
• to courts, regulators, law enforcement, exam owners, schools, or other authorities when required by law, a valid legal process, or when reasonably necessary to protect rights, safety, integrity, or prevent serious abuse; and
• in a financing, reorganization, merger, acquisition, insolvency, or sale, subject to lawful notice, confidentiality, due diligence limits, and continued protection.

We may preserve and disclose content or account records to investigate a report, fraud, infringement, exam misconduct, security event, or legal claim. We assess requests and disclose only what we reasonably believe is lawful and necessary. We may challenge an overbroad request where appropriate.

Aggregate and de-identified information may be shared when it does not reasonably identify an individual. We do not attempt to re-identify information treated as de-identified except to test safeguards or as permitted by law.

7. Service providers

Our current provider categories and principal providers include:

When you enable device notifications, the browser or operating system selects its push provider, such as Apple, Google or Mozilla. We store the delivery endpoint, subscription keys, account association and time zone needed for delivery and quiet hours. The provider handles encrypted notification delivery and related network metadata. The current browser notifications use generic text without message or study content. You can disable this device in Profile and manage permission in your browser or device settings.

App stores. When you download one of our apps from the App Store, Google Play or the Microsoft Store, that store handles the download, your store account, your ratings and reviews, and the information it collects under its own terms. Our apps sell nothing; any purchase happens on our website, through Stripe.

Providers may process information in countries where they or their subprocessors operate. Their own privacy notices govern information they process independently, such as an Apple, Google, or Stripe account. Provider names and roles may change; we will update this Policy or provide notice when a change is material.

8. Device storage, cookies, and similar technology

The Service uses browser local storage, session storage, IndexedDB, Cache Storage for appropriate public application assets, native application storage, and similar technology to keep sessions, preferences, security state, drafts, offline work, and feature data. The exact keys and duration depend on the application, account, and feature.

We do not use advertising cookies or cross-site advertising trackers. Our applications generally rely on token and device storage rather than a first-party advertising profile. However, required providers and external checkout, authentication, support, or linked services may use their own cookies or storage under their notices. A provider page can therefore set technology that is outside our direct control.

Some study files and drafts remain only on the device. Other enabled synchronization, sharing, collaboration, coaching, review, or storage features send files or their contents to private server storage. Clearing device storage can sign you out and delete unsynchronized local work, but it does not delete server records or copies already shared with others.

The student account controls separate three optional purposes: feature usage (app areas and completed actions), learning trends (session totals, duration and recall outcomes), and diagnostics (app version, fixed error codes and performance measurements). Each is off by default and requires a separate affirmative choice under Profile → Your data. These measurements exclude search terms, message bodies, notes, files, card text, written answers, recordings and raw error stacks. They are linked to your account and a temporary session identifier; they are not anonymous. Consent records include the choice, time and notice version. Withdrawing a choice stops future collection for that purpose and drops unsent measurements. Previously received data remains subject to the retention and deletion rules below. Required account, transaction, security, fraud, synchronization and operational records remain separate.

9. Visibility and choices

Information visibility depends on the feature and your role or settings:

• profile and directory fields may be private, visible to friends, visible to a cohort or school, or visible more broadly as indicated;
• posts, comments, group content, rosters, and shared study items are shown to the intended audience identified by the feature;
• direct messages are intended for participants, while reported material may also be reviewed by authorized moderators or staff;
• collaboration permissions determine who may view, comment, edit, or review an item;
• in Grind Clinic, the friends you choose see the weeks you share (your name and, for each séance, the day, half-day and clinic) and your trades and patient posts; they never see your patients. A message you share with friends shows your first name; one you share with everyone reaches other students only after our review, and shows your year, not your name;
• on Grind Market, your creator name, bio and published resources are public, and a review you post shows your name and rating;
• when you give stones, your friend sees your name and the number of stones, and your history shows theirs; if either of you deletes an account, that person's name is removed from the other's history;
• in Casper coaching, your take can be opened only by the coaches assigned to it and the people who supervise coaching, and each opening is recorded;
• call participants receive the identity and call state needed to communicate; and
• an administrator, coach, cohort representative, or school role receives only the information authorized for that role and feature.

Check the intended audience before submitting. Privacy settings reduce visibility but cannot retract a message or copy another person already received, exported, photographed, or recorded outside the Service. Blocking limits future interactions through supported features; it does not erase lawful records or guarantee that another person cannot encounter public content.

Your choices may include language and theme, profile visibility, analytics, notification and marketing preferences, sharing permissions, camera and microphone permissions, Google authorization, and subscription cancellation. Withdrawing a permission or consent applies prospectively and may disable the feature that needs it. Use in-app controls where available or contact the Privacy Officer.

10. AI and uploaded files

Files follow different paths depending on the feature:

• a local viewer, draft, or offline feature may keep a file on the device;
• an enabled synchronization, sharing, collaboration, coaching, roster, Casper, review, or storage feature may upload the file or its contents to private server storage;
• a Google Drive feature sends the user-directed file or action to Google;
• Grit sends the text and pictures of the notes you pick (picture files, and pages with diagrams, tables, photos or scans), with your instructions and ours, to OpenAI to make cards, questions or research answers, and we never keep those pictures;
• Research with Grit sends a short search phrase made from what you select, from our server and without your name, email or account, to free public sources (PubMed, Europe PMC, NCBI Bookshelf, MedlinePlus and Wikipedia); only when you say yes to a wider search, Grit also runs up to two web searches through OpenAI, written from what you selected, and our server then opens the pages Grit cites to check them, sending nothing about you;
• a Bring your own AI step gives you our prompt to copy into the AI service you choose; that service's terms apply to what you send it, and we do not see that conversation; and
• a spoken Casper answer is sent to Groq for transcription, or to OpenAI if Groq cannot transcribe it.

The feature interface and this Policy should be read together. Do not assume that every file stays local or that deleting the device copy deletes server, provider, recipient, or backup copies.

AI interactions may include prompts, instructions, selected content, outputs, safety and technical metadata, usage, and stone transaction records. We use them to return the requested output, operate and secure the feature, troubleshoot, account for use, and enforce the Terms. Provider processing is also subject to its contractual and legal obligations. Do not submit patient-identifying, exam-confidential, credential, biometric, financial-account, trade-secret, or other highly sensitive information without express feature support, lawful authority, and informed consent.

11. Grind Clinic and patient details

Grind Clinic helps dental students plan their clinic séances, follow their quotas and remind patients of their appointments. It is the one feature that asks you about real people who are not users: your patients. It is a reminder and planning tool, nothing more: it is not a patient record, and we do not want any private or sensitive information about your patients. Grind Clinic never sends us a patient's name or phone number in a form we can read. This section explains what happens to that information.

• What you enter. For each patient: a first name or initials, a phone number, and the visits you book with their date, time and clinic. Some clinics also ask for a few words on the planned visit, such as “a filling”, which go into that patient's own reminder. You may also keep short notes for yourself. Enter only what booking the visit and reminding the patient need. Never enter any other health information: no medical history, diagnoses, medications, X-rays, clinical notes or records, and no health card or file numbers. Those belong in your clinic's own record system.
• Where it is kept. On your device, in the storage of the browser or app you use. Grind Clinic does not encrypt it there: your device's own lock protects it, so use a passcode on any device that holds your clinic. It does not leave that device unless you turn on Every device.
• Every device (optional). If you turn it on, your device encrypts a copy of your clinic (AES-256) with a passphrase that only you know, and that encrypted copy is kept in your Grind Labs account so your other devices can open it with the same passphrase. We hold the locked copy and its locked key. We never receive your passphrase, your recovery code, or any readable name or phone number, so we cannot read the copy, and we cannot open it for you if you lose both the passphrase and the recovery code. The clinic on each of your devices is still not encrypted there. Everything Grind Clinic exchanges with our servers travels encrypted (HTTPS).
• What synchronizes in readable form. When you are signed in, your séances (day, half-day, clinic, year and semester) synchronize with your account. The weeks you share go to the friends you choose. Séance trades and patient posts go to your friends; a patient post names a clinic and a date, never a patient. An alert carries only its kind and time; its text is fixed and never names a patient. A message you share with friends goes to them with your first name; a message you share with everyone goes first to a Grind Labs reviewer, then to other students with your year and not your name. A shared message must not contain any patient's details, and Grind Clinic refuses words that look like a phone number, an email address, a health card number or a file number.
• Texting patients. We never text or call your patients. When you send a reminder, Grind Clinic opens the messaging app of your own phone with the message ready, and you send it from your own number. On a computer that cannot send texts, Grind Clinic draws a code on your screen instead; your phone's camera reads it and opens the message on your phone. You can also copy the text and the number, or share them with an app you choose. The code is made on your device, and the message and the number never pass through our servers.
• AI. Grit, our built-in AI, can read a screenshot of your schedule or quota sheet. The picture goes once to OpenAI to be read; we never keep it, and OpenAI does not use it for training. We keep only the dates, half-days and clinics, or the quota lines, that Grit finds. Crop every patient name out of the screenshot first; Grind Clinic asks you to. When you write a message with your own AI, our prompt holds only what you typed about the message and placeholders such as [date]; Grind Clinic fills in each patient's details on your device. When you import a schedule or a quota sheet with your own AI, send it only that document, never a patient list.
• Your clinic's rules. You are responsible for following your school clinic's privacy rules and for having each patient's agreement to receive reminders by text message. Remove a patient's details when you no longer need them.
• Use. We use Grind Clinic information only to run Grind Clinic for you. We never use patient details for analytics, advertising or AI training, and we never share them.
• Deleting. Removing a patient deletes them from your device and, with Every device on, from the locked copy and your other devices as they sync. Turning off Every device deletes the locked copy from your account. Deleting your account deletes your séances, shared weeks, trades, alerts, shared messages and locked copy from our servers. Patients kept only on a device stay there until you remove them or clear that device.

12. Retention and deletion

We retain information only for as long as reasonably needed for the purposes described, a valid business or security need, a legal obligation, or the establishment, exercise, or defence of claims. Current verified rules include:

• account, entitlement, and active study information is generally retained while the account or related feature is active and afterward only as needed for deletion processing, security, disputes, law, or backups;
• raw first-party analytics events are scheduled for deletion after 90 days, while aggregate or de-identified statistics may be retained longer;
• visible global or class chat may be purged after 90 days, and visible direct messages after one year, when the applicable retention job is active; removed, reported, audit, abuse, legal-hold, or dispute material may be retained longer;
• a handled review-queue report may be purged after 48 hours when its scheduled job is active, while associated moderation evidence may follow a different retention rule;
• purchase, subscription, receipt, tax, accounting, fraud, consent, security, and dispute records may be retained for the period required or permitted by law;
• Grind Clinic séances, shared weeks, trades, alerts, shared messages and the locked copy are kept while your account is active and deleted with it, and patients kept only on a device stay there until you remove them or clear that device;
• a Research with Grit answer and the source excerpts it cites are kept 7 days so you can ask follow-up questions, then deleted, and the text you selected is dropped from our record once the answer is made;
• support, application, roster, file, collaboration, Grind Market and coaching records are retained while needed for the feature, relationship, issue, or a lawful exception; and
• encrypted backups, provider systems, recipient copies, and technical logs expire according to their operational cycles and cannot always be removed immediately from every copy.

Profile → Your data → Delete your account starts an authenticated account-deletion flow with confirmation and a result explaining incomplete cleanup, if any. It also deletes your Grind Clinic data on our servers and closes eligible web billing. Google Drive copies remain in your Drive. Step-by-step instructions, including how to ask us by email, are at grindlabs.ca/delete-account.

The in-app “Delete local data” control removes data from that device only. In Profile, this device-only action is called Clear this device. It is not a request to delete the server account. A server deletion request for the account and personal information can be sent to hello@grindlabs.ca. We verify the requester and ordinarily target completion within 30 days, or within the period required by applicable law. We may retain or de-identify information where required for transactions, tax, security, fraud prevention, rights of others, legal claims, valid legal holds, or another lawful exception. We will explain a material refusal where law requires it.

Deleting content may remove it from active views without erasing a copy already received by another person. Our apps sell nothing through an app store, so there is no store subscription to cancel.

13. International processing

Grind Labs is based in Quebec, but providers and their subprocessors may process or store information outside Quebec and outside Canada. Exact locations vary by provider, feature, routing, account, and provider configuration. Information in another country may be subject to that country's laws and lawful access by courts, law enforcement, or national-security authorities.

Where required, we assess privacy risks before communicating information outside Quebec or introducing a qualifying information system, use contractual and technical safeguards, limit access and purposes, and consider the sensitivity, destination, legal framework, and provider practices. No cross-border safeguard eliminates every risk. You may contact the Privacy Officer for available information about relevant provider categories and processing locations.

14. Security and incidents

We use safeguards appropriate to the sensitivity and context of information. Depending on the feature, these include encryption in transit, access controls, authenticated sessions, role and row-level authorization, private storage, short-lived credentials, provider security controls, logging, monitoring, backups, staff-access restrictions, and incident procedures.

No system is perfectly secure, and we cannot guarantee that loss, misuse, unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration, or interruption will never occur. The Service does not promise universal end-to-end encryption. Protect credentials and recovery codes, use multifactor authentication when offered, secure your device, review recipients and permissions, and report suspected misuse promptly.

We assess suspected privacy breaches, contain and remediate them where possible, maintain required records, and notify affected people and regulators when applicable law requires it, including where a breach creates a real risk of significant harm under Canadian law or a risk of serious injury under Quebec law.

15. Your privacy rights

Depending on where you live and subject to lawful exceptions, you may have the right to:

• request access to personal information and information about its use and disclosure;
• request correction of inaccurate or incomplete information;
• request deletion, erasure, or de-identification;
• withdraw consent prospectively, where processing is based on consent;
• request a structured, commonly used copy or portability where applicable;
• request de-indexation or re-indexation where Quebec law applies;
• object to or restrict processing where applicable, including certain legitimate-interest processing;
• receive information about, submit observations concerning, or request available human review of a decision based exclusively on automated processing where applicable;
• unsubscribe from commercial electronic messages while continuing to receive necessary service, security, and transaction messages;
• complain to us, request review of a refusal, and receive the reason and available recourse where required; and
• complain to the regulator where you live.

Submit a request to hello@grindlabs.ca with enough detail to identify the account and right. Do not email passwords or recovery codes. We may verify identity, authority, jurisdiction, and request scope. We ordinarily aim to respond within 30 days, subject to the applicable legal period, extensions, fees permitted by law, and exceptions protecting another person's rights, security, privilege, investigations, and records we must retain.

Canadian regulators include the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada and, in Quebec, the Commission d'accès à l'information. You may also contact another competent privacy or data-protection authority where you live.

16. Children, changes, and contact

The Service is designed primarily for post-secondary and professional learners and is not directed to children. You must be at least 16 to have an account (Terms, section 2). If you believe that someone under 16 has an account or gave us personal information, contact the Privacy Officer and we will delete it.

We may update this Policy as the Service, providers, practices, or law change. We will post the updated version and date. For a material change, we will give reasonable notice and obtain renewed consent where required before using information for a materially different purpose.

Questions, requests, complaints, or incident reports: Privacy Officer, Grind Labs Inc. — hello@grindlabs.ca, 514-928-7434, or by mail at the address in section 1. The current Policy is available at grindlabs.ca/privacy and lagrind.ca/privacy.