Privacy and your data

Scope builds its index of your courses in your browser, and searching happens on your computer. Some features need to send information somewhere, such as asking a question or sending a file to your iPad. This page explains, in plain words, what stays in your browser, what goes with your account, and what’s sent when you use each feature. For Scope’s full privacy policy, which covers all Scope apps, see Privacy.

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What stays in your browser

Everything in the following table is saved only in Chrome on this computer, unless a later section says otherwise. Scope reads the course pages you open while you’re signed in to your school. It never sees your school password, and it doesn’t run on your school’s sign-in pages. Scope doesn’t read your browser history or your clipboard.

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What’s kept with your account

You don’t need an account to use Scope. If you sign in, Scope keeps these with your Scope account:

• Your name and email address, from Google.
• Files you send to Lectra, so they can reach your iPad. They count toward your Lectra storage.
• Your search preferences, so ranking works the same on your other computers.
• Your student profile, if you fill it in.
• Your personalized-suggestion settings and their short summaries. You can delete these in Settings > Personalized suggestions > Delete Suggestion Data.
• Your notes, to-dos, saved GPA scenarios, and Canvas appearance choices, as a copy of what’s in your browser.
• Your Canvas connection, if you connect Canvas: your school’s Canvas address, your Canvas name, and the access token you pasted. The token isn’t sent back to your browser.
• Your course text, only if you turn on Sync course text across devices. See the following section.

Your course index itself isn’t saved to your account.

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Course text sync (off unless you turn it on)

Sync course text across devices is in Settings > Search & AI. It’s off by default, and you have to be signed in to turn it on. When it’s on, Scope saves the text it reads from your course files with your account. Then Scope on another computer where you’re signed in can search that text too, without reading every file again. When you turn it off, Scope stops saving new course text. Text that was already saved stays with your account. To have it removed, contact Scope.

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What’s sent when you use AI features

Scope doesn’t have an AI model of its own. To answer a question, it uses an outside AI service.

• Ask Scope, practice exams, and syllabus reading: Scope sends your question, your student profile, and the parts of your course materials, deadlines, grades, and calendar it needs for that answer. The answer comes back to your browser.
• Quick answers (such as Smart study plan, Practice quiz, and Daily briefing): if Chrome’s built-in AI is available on your computer, these run on your computer and nothing is sent. Otherwise, when you’re signed in, your question and the relevant course text are sent to an AI service to write the answer.
• Morning briefing: once a day while you’re signed in, Scope sends your deadlines and grades to write your briefing. You can pause it. See Pause or resume the morning briefing.
• Connect Canvas: when you ask about your courses, Scope uses your access token to fetch your courses, assignments, modules, pages, file links, announcements, and course events from your school’s Canvas, and shows you the result.

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Google Calendar

When you sign in with Google, you give Scope access to your Google Calendar. Scope uses it only for something you asked for, or for the morning briefing:

• It reads the events in the time it needs, such as this week, to find free time or show clashes.
• It adds events you choose: study blocks, syllabus deadlines, and classes from the Schedule Planner.

Calendar events Scope reads go to your browser for that task. Scope doesn’t keep them. Signing out stops Scope from using your calendar. To remove its access completely, remove Scope from the third-party access page in your Google Account.

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Berkeley’s Schedule Planner

When Schedule Planner insight is on and you’re signed in, Scope looks up the classes and instructors on a Schedule Planner page you open:

• Instructor names go to Rate My Professors.
• Instructor names go to Reddit as searches, made with your own Reddit sign-in, the same as if you searched Reddit yourself.
• The subject, course number, and instructor of each class go to Berkeleytime.

These lookups don’t include your Scope account. To stop them, turn off Schedule Planner insight in Settings > Features.

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Counting how many people use Scope

Scope counts how many people use it, so the team knows whether it’s working. When you open Scope or use a course page, it sends a short signal with a random number created on your computer, which product it is, and the version. If you’re signed in, the signal is linked to your account, so two computers count as one person. The signal never includes what you searched for, which pages you visited, course or file names, or anything you read or wrote.

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What Scope doesn’t do

• Show ads or track you across websites.
• Sell your data.
• Use your Google Calendar or Canvas data for advertising.

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Clear Scope’s data from this browser

You can remove what Scope has saved in this browser without signing out or touching your account. The next time you open your course site, Scope starts finding your courses again.

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Remove everything

• To remove everything Scope keeps in this browser, uninstall the extension. See Uninstall Scope.
• To remove what’s kept with your account, delete your Scope account. See Your Scope account.