Legal
Privacy Policy
Last updated 4 November 2026
The short version
- We collect only what an account needs: your email, a password, and optionally your name.
- If you're signed in, your quiz results are saved to your account so they appear on all your devices. If you're not, they stay in your browser.
- No ads, no tracking cookies, no third-party trackers. We never sell your data.
- We count page views to see whether anyone is using the site — as totals only, with nothing that identifies you.
- You can ask us to delete your account at any time.
Who we are
BioCentral IB (biocentral-ib.com) is an independent IB Biology study site run by Abdul Karim Karakira, a sole trader based in Lebanon, who is responsible for your information. In this policy, "we" and "us" mean BioCentral IB. You can reach us about anything in this policy at support@biocentral-ib.com.
What we collect
When you create an account
- Your email address — to sign you in, confirm your account and reset your password.
- Your password — stored by our sign-in provider in scrambled (hashed) form. Nobody at BioCentral IB can see it.
- Your name, if you choose to give it.
- Your country, if you choose to give it — so we know where our students are. It's the country you pick; we don't work it out from your connection.
- Your quiz results — see below.
- Tests your teacher assigns you, if you hand one in — see Teachers and students.
- Whether you're a student or a teacher, and which plan you're on — so we show you the right features.
Your quiz results
For each lesson quiz you finish, we save your score, the answers you chose and which questions you got wrong, so the app can show your results and let you re-practise what you missed.
- Signed in: these results are saved to your account, so they appear on every device you sign in on. When you log out, they're removed from that device's browser and stay in your account.
- Not signed in: they're saved only in your browser on the device you're using, and aren't sent to us. Clearing your browser's data for this site deletes them. If you later sign in on that device, they're added to your account.
What stays on your device
Your answers on a paper you're partway through sitting, and the name you type when sitting a paper, are saved only in your browser on the device you're using. They aren't sent to us — except when you hand in a test your teacher assigned with a 6-letter code, or, if the site's owner is your teacher, your multiple-choice score when you mark a paper (see Teachers and students). Ticking markscheme points to mark your own work always stays on your device.
To keep you signed in, your browser also stores a sign-in token for our site. We don't use cookies for tracking or advertising.
Counting visits
To know whether the site is being used, each page adds 1 to a counter on our own server. We store only the date, which page it was, and the country the request came from — as totals, never as a list of visits. We don't store your IP address, your browser, where you came from, or anything else, and nothing links a count to you or to an account. On the first page of a visit we also count where you came from — only the name of the website or app (for example google.com or Instagram), or "direct" if your browser doesn't say — again as a total, never the full address. A few steps towards paying are counted the same way — opening the Upgrade screen, copying your payment code, the pricing page's "How to pay" button — again only as totals. There's no cookie: your browser remembers, for as long as the tab is open, that it has already been counted once this session. It also keeps, on your device, the date of your first visit and how many visits it has made; on the first page of a visit it sends only that number and whether you first came on an earlier day, so we can count returning visits as totals. Nothing identifies you or your browser, and clearing your browser's site data resets both. If you sign in as the site's owner or as one of the owner's own students, your browser also remembers that: the owner's visits aren't counted at all, and the students' visits go into one separate total so they don't inflate the figures. Separately, the owner's students have the pages they open recorded for the owner as their teacher (see Teachers and students).
Requests for our pages from search engines and other automated programs are counted too, so we can tell them apart from people: we store the program's name and the text it identifies itself with (for example Googlebot), the date, the hour and the country, as totals. For people we store only that it was a browser, the date, the hour and the country — never your browser's details, your IP address or the full address.
Protecting the paid lessons
When your account opens a paid lesson, we record which account, which lesson, the date, how many times, and whether the request came from our app or another program. If a request for a paid lesson is refused, we count it by date, hour, country and lesson, without any account. We use this only to spot bulk copying, keep it for about 30 days, and delete it with your account.
Technical information
Like almost every website, our hosting and sign-in providers automatically record your IP address, your browser type and the pages you request. We use this only to keep the site running, secure it, and stop abuse — for example, to limit how fast one address can download lesson content.
What we don't do
- We don't show ads.
- We don't use third-party analytics, advertising or tracking pixels, and we set no tracking cookies.
- We don't sell, rent or trade your personal information.
- We don't send marketing emails. The only emails we send are the ones your account needs: confirming your address and resetting your password.
Who handles your data for us
We use a small number of service providers. Each handles only what it needs to do its job for us.
| Provider | What they do | What they see |
|---|---|---|
| Supabase | Stores accounts, saved quiz results, class membership, assessments teachers schedule, handed-in tests and teachers' marks, the record of how the site owner's own students use the site, and handles sign-in. Servers in Singapore. | Your account details, quiz results, IP address |
| Cloudflare | Hosts the website and protects it from attacks and abuse. | IP address, browser type, pages requested |
| Resend | Sends account emails (confirmation, password reset). | Your email address and the email's content |
| jsDelivr | Delivers a code library the site needs to sign you in. | IP address when your browser downloads it |
| Google Fonts | Supplies the typefaces used on the site and on revision slides. | IP address when your browser loads a page |
Because these providers operate internationally, your information may be processed in countries other than your own, including Singapore and the United States.
When you pay for Pro by Whish, the payment goes through your own Whish account, under Whish's own terms. From the transfer we see what Whish shows any recipient: the sender's name and phone number, the amount, the date and the note — which should contain your payment code. We use this only to match the payment to your account, and we keep a record of each activation (amount, method, the note and the pass's end date) for our accounts and for refunds. We never see card or bank details.
When you pay by card, where that's offered, the payment is taken by our online reseller Paddle.com, which is the Merchant of Record for the order. Paddle collects your name, email, billing country and card details to process the payment and handle tax, under its own privacy policy; we receive the order details (what you bought, when, the amount and your email) so we can switch Pro on. We never see your card number.
If you tap "I've sent the payment" on the Upgrade screen, we record that against your account, with the pass you chose and the time, so we know which transfer to look for.
How long we keep it
We keep your account information for as long as you have an account. When you ask us to delete your account, we delete your account information, your saved quiz results and the assigned tests you handed in. A teacher can delete an assignment at any time, which deletes every student's answers to it. The record of how the site owner's own students use the site is kept for a year. Our providers keep technical logs for limited periods for security reasons, then delete them.
Your rights
Wherever you live, you can ask us to:
- tell you what personal information we hold about you and give you a copy;
- correct anything that's wrong;
- delete your account and the information attached to it, including your saved quiz results.
Email support@biocentral-ib.com from the address on your account, and we'll respond within 30 days. You also have the right to complain to the data protection authority where you live.
Students and age
BioCentral IB is built for secondary-school students and their teachers. You must be at least 13 to create an account. If you're under 16, or under the age at which you can consent to data processing where you live, please get a parent's or guardian's permission first. If we learn that a child under 13 has created an account, we'll delete it.
Teachers and students
If you join a teacher's class with its code, that teacher sees your name and email address in the class list. They also see, for each assessment they set the class, whether you have started it and whether you have handed it in. You can leave a class at any time, and the teacher can remove you from it.
A teacher can assign a paper to their class with a 6-letter code. Sitting an assigned paper needs an account. When you hand it in, that teacher — and only that teacher — sees:
- your name and email address, so they know whose work it is;
- your answers, your multiple-choice score, when you handed in and how long you took;
- how many times, and for how long, you switched away from the test (another tab or app, or minimising) while it was open.
The teacher can mark your written answers and add comments. You see those marks and comments only once the teacher releases them to you.
Nothing is sent until you press Hand in, and you can only hand in once. Apart from the case below, teachers can't see anything else about you: not your other quizzes, your progress, the lessons you open or your plan. The ordinary paper codes teachers share (the longer ones) contain only the questions and settings for that paper — no personal information about anyone — and nothing else you do with them is sent to anyone.
If the site's owner is your teacher (you joined one of the owner's classes, or the owner added you to their class list), the owner also sees how you use the site, to follow your work: the days you used the app; which screens of the app and which pages of the site you open, and when (for example a lesson's notes, its quiz or its slides; a page opened while your sign-in has lapsed is kept on your device and sent the next time you open the app); how many minutes the app was open and in use; your score on each quiz you finish; your multiple-choice score on papers you mark yourself; and your saved progress (notes read and quiz scores). Only the owner sees this, it is kept for a year or until your account is deleted, and it applies to no other teacher's students.
How we protect your information
The whole site is served over encrypted HTTPS. Passwords are stored in hashed form, and our database only lets each signed-in person read their own account. No system is perfectly secure, but we take reasonable measures to protect what you trust us with.
Changes to this policy
If we change how we handle your information, we'll update this page and change the date at the top. If the change is significant, we'll tell account holders by email before it takes effect.
Contact
Questions or requests: support@biocentral-ib.com.