Privacy Policy

1. Information We Collect

Information you provide

• Contact form: your name, email address, the topic you choose, the subject and the message you write.
• Account registration: your name, email address and password. Your password is stored only in hashed form, never as readable text. You can change your name and password from your account pages.
• Signing in with Google: if you choose “Continue with Google”, Google shares your name, email address, whether Google has verified that address, your profile picture and an identifier for your Google account with us. See Google sign-in in section 4.
• Comments: if you comment on an article while signed in, we store your comment together with your account. Comments are reviewed before they appear; once approved, your comment is shown publicly with your name and the date.
• Courses: if you enrol in a course, we store your enrolment, the lessons you complete, where you stopped in each lesson video and when you last watched it, and, for courses with quizzes, your quiz answers and results, so that we can show your progress and let you continue where you left off.
• Supporting Roborear: if you make a support payment, the email address you give us (or your account's email if you are signed in) and the order details described in Payments and the Supporter Pack in section 4.
• Email or phone: if you contact us directly, the details you choose to share.

Information collected automatically

• Sign-in sessions: when you sign in, we record your session together with the IP address and the browser/device information (user agent) it was started from, and when it expires. This is used to keep you signed in and to protect your account.
• Server logs: like most websites, our servers and hosting provider may keep standard technical logs, such as IP address, browser type, pages requested and referring website.
• Website usage (Google Analytics), only if you allow analytics cookies: how visitors use the public website, such as the pages visited and interactions with them, together with browser and device information and approximate location. See Google Analytics in section 4 and section 6.

This website does not currently show advertising (see section 5), and it does not send an email newsletter. The emails it does send are described in Emails we send in section 4.

2. How We Use Your Information

We use your information to:

• Provide, operate and maintain Roborear.
• Create and manage accounts and keep them secure.
• Send the emails needed to use your account, such as verifying your email address and resetting your password.
• Respond to your messages and inquiries.
• Review and publish comments, and show your course progress.
• Process support payments, deliver the Supporter Pack, and keep a record of each payment and its status.
• Understand how the website is used, so that we can improve its content.
• Protect the website against spam, abuse and security threats.
• Show your name as the author of articles, if your account has been given permission to publish on Roborear.

3. Cookies

Cookies are small text files stored on your device. Roborear uses:

• Sign-in cookie (named better-auth.session_token, with a __Secure- prefix when you use the site over HTTPS): set when you sign in, so that we can recognise your session. It is a first-party cookie, is not readable by scripts on the page, and lasts up to 7 days. It is required for accounts to function and is not used for tracking. If you never sign in, we do not set it.
• Google sign-in cookie (named better-auth.state, with a __Secure- prefix over HTTPS): set only when you choose “Continue with Google”, to protect that sign-in from being tampered with. It lasts up to 5 minutes and is not used for tracking.
• Cookie choice (named roborear_consent): set when you make a choice in the cookie banner or in Cookie settings, so that we remember it. It is a first-party cookie that stores only your choices for each optional category and the date you made them, and lasts 180 days; after that, we ask again. It is required to respect your choice.
• Google Analytics cookies (named _ga and _ga_ followed by an identifier) — optional: set by Google Analytics on the public website to measure how it is used, only if you allow analytics cookies. If you later turn analytics off, we delete them. See Google Analytics in section 4.

Roborear does not currently show advertising and does not set advertising cookies (see section 5). Roborear's own code does not use your browser's local storage or session storage. The sign-in cookies and the cookie-choice cookie are strictly necessary; Google Analytics cookies are optional and are only set with your permission (see section 6). Third-party services described below may set their own cookies when you use them. You can also manage or block cookies in your browser settings; if you block the sign-in cookie, you will not be able to stay signed in.

4. Third-Party Services

Google Analytics

If you allow analytics cookies, we use Google Analytics (Google Analytics 4), a web analytics service provided by Google, to understand how the public website is used. Until you allow it, Google's analytics script is not loaded at all. When it is loaded, your browser sends information to Google, such as the pages you visit, your interactions with them (for example scrolling, clicks on links to other websites, site searches, video plays, file downloads and form use), your browser and device information, and approximate location information derived by Google Analytics. Google Analytics uses the cookies described in section 3. The administration area of the website is not measured.

Google processes this information as described in How Google uses information from sites or apps that use its services and in Google's Privacy Policy. You can block or delete these cookies in your browser settings, or use Google's Analytics opt-out browser add-on.

Google sign-in

You can create an account or sign in with your Google account instead of a password. When you do, you sign in on Google's own pages, and Google shares your name, email address, whether Google has verified that address, your profile picture and an identifier for your Google account with us. We use these only to create and sign in to your Roborear account; we do not ask Google for access to anything else in your Google account. Google processes your sign-in as described in Google's Privacy Policy.

YouTube

The Roborear homepage shows the channel's latest videos. Our server reads the video titles, dates and thumbnails from the public feed of the Roborear YouTube channel and serves the thumbnail images from Roborear's own website, so showing the list does not make your browser contact YouTube or Google. When you click a video, you leave Roborear and YouTube's Terms of Service and Google's Privacy Policy apply.

Some articles and course lessons include YouTube videos. A video is not loaded from YouTube when you open the page: you see its thumbnail (also served from Roborear's own website), and until you press “Play video”, your browser does not contact YouTube for it. Pressing play does not change your cookie choices. When you press play, the video is loaded from YouTube's privacy-enhanced domain (youtube-nocookie.com), and YouTube and Google may receive information such as your IP address and device details and may use cookies, as described in Google's Privacy Policy. We do not control this, and we do not remember that you pressed play.

Payments and the Supporter Pack (Lemon Squeezy)

Supporting Roborear is optional. A support payment is a one-time purchase of the Roborear Supporter Pack, a set of digital downloads, at a price you choose, made to support Roborear's work. Payments are handled by Lemon Squeezy, our payment provider. When you start a payment, we keep a record of the checkout you started (the email address used and, if you are signed in, your account), even if you do not complete it, and we send Lemon Squeezy the amount you chose, your email address (to fill in its checkout form) and our own reference numbers for the payment (including, if you are signed in, your Roborear account's internal ID, so that the payment can be linked to your account). You then complete the payment on Lemon Squeezy's checkout page, where Lemon Squeezy collects the details it needs, such as your payment card details, name and billing information. We never receive or store your card details.

When Lemon Squeezy confirms a payment, it sends us the order details, and we store:

• the order and product reference numbers, the amount and currency, the date of the payment and its status (for example paid or refunded, and when a refund was made);
• the email address on the order, which is where we send your Supporter Pack;
• your Roborear account, if you were signed in when you started the payment, so that you can also open the Supporter Pack from your account;
• for the emailed Supporter Pack link: only a scrambled form of the link (a hash), whether the email was sent, the number of sending attempts, when the link was first opened and, if access was ended, when;
• a log of the payment notifications Lemon Squeezy sent us (which event it was, its reference numbers and how we handled it), used to process each notification once and to investigate problems.

Supporter Pack payments are normally non-refundable, except in cases of duplicate or unauthorized payments and where a refund is required by applicable law. If a payment is fully refunded, the Supporter Pack link for that order and its download from your account stop working; the payment record is kept and marked as refunded.

Lemon Squeezy processes your payment information as described in its Privacy Policy, and it may email you a receipt for your payment. Questions about a payment, including refunds or disputes, can be sent to us (refunds and disputes are processed through Lemon Squeezy) at shahrear@roborear.com; see also our Terms & Conditions.

Emails we send

We send emails only when they are needed for something you did: to verify your email address when you register, to reset your password when you ask for it, and to deliver your Supporter Pack link after a support payment. These emails are sent from no-reply@roborear.com through our email provider. When someone sends a contact message or posts a comment, Roborear may also email a notification about it to its own administrator.

Hosting, database and media

We use third-party providers to run the website: hosting, a database that stores accounts, articles, comments, course progress, contact messages and payment records, and Cloudinary, a media service that stores the images used in articles. These providers process data on our behalf.

External links

Roborear links to other websites, including social networks and online stores. We are not responsible for their content or privacy practices; please read their policies.

5. Advertising

Today: Roborear does not show advertisements, and no advertising cookies are set on this website.

Planned: we plan to show ads provided by Google AdSense in the future, to help fund free content. Before any ads appear, we will update this section and the “Last updated” date above. Once ads are shown:

• Third-party vendors, including Google, will use cookies to serve ads based on your prior visits to this website or other websites.
• Google's use of advertising cookies enables it and its partners to serve ads to you based on your visits to this website and/or other websites on the internet.
• Ads may be personalised (based on information such as your previous browsing) or non-personalised (based on context, such as the page you are reading, and general location). Non-personalised ads still use cookies or similar technologies, for example to limit how often you see an ad, for aggregated ad reporting and to combat fraud and abuse.
• Information about your device, browser, approximate location and how you interact with ads will be used to deliver ads and measure their performance.

You can opt out of personalised advertising from Google in Google's Ads Settings, and you can opt out of some third-party vendors' use of cookies for personalised advertising at www.aboutads.info. Google's and third-party vendors' use of this information is governed by their own privacy policies; see How Google uses cookies in advertising.

6. Your Privacy Choices and Consent

Cookie banner and settings (today): on your first visit, Roborear asks which optional cookies it may use. You can choose Accept all, Reject optional or Customize, and you can change or withdraw your choice at any time with Cookie settings at the bottom of every page. The categories are:

• Strictly necessary (always on): signing in, your account, courses, checkout and the Supporter Pack, and remembering your cookie choice. Rejecting optional cookies never affects these.
• Analytics: Google Analytics. Until you allow it, Google's analytics script is not loaded, and Google's consent settings for analytics and advertising are set to “denied” (Google Consent Mode). If you turn it off later, measurement stops straight away and we delete the Google Analytics cookies.
• Advertising: not used today, because Roborear does not show ads. Your choice is saved and passed to Google's consent settings, and will apply if ads are added.

You can also block or delete cookies in your browser settings, use Google's Analytics opt-out browser add-on (see Google Analytics in section 4), and leave embedded YouTube videos unplayed: they are not loaded until you press play.

When advertising is added (planned): we plan to use Google's own consent message (a Google-certified consent tool) so that visitors in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom and Switzerland are asked for their consent before their data is used for ads, and a “Privacy and cookie settings” link would then appear at the bottom of every page. Roborear's own cookie banner is not that Google-certified tool. Google's message and link are not active today; we will update this section before they go live.

7. How Long We Keep Your Data

8. Data Security

We take reasonable measures to protect your personal information:

• The website is served over HTTPS.
• Passwords are stored in hashed form.
• Supporter Pack links are stored only in hashed form, so the link itself cannot be read back from our database.
• We never receive or store payment card details.
• Administration tools are available only to authorised administrators.

However, no method of transmission or storage over the internet is 100% secure.

9. Your Data Protection Rights

Depending on your location, you may have the following rights:

You can update your name and password yourself in your account. To exercise any other right, or to have your account deleted, contact us at shahrear@roborear.com.

10. Children's Privacy

Our website is not directed to children under the age of 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you believe a child has provided us with personal information, please contact us immediately.

11. International Data Transfers

Your information may be transferred to and maintained on servers located outside your country, including those of the service providers listed above. By using our website, you consent to this transfer.

12. Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. We will notify you of any changes by posting the new policy on this page and updating the “Last updated” date. You are advised to review this Privacy Policy periodically.

13. Contact Us

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, please contact us:

• Email: shahrear@roborear.com
• Phone: +880 1773 551300
• Location: Dhaka, Bangladesh
• Website: https://roborear.com