Who we are
withsilasogar ("we", "us") is an online training ground for modern software: courses, films, community and 1-on-1 consultations, on the web at withsilasogar.com and in our iOS and Android apps. It is run by Silas Ogar, who is the data controller for the personal data described here.
This policy covers the website, the apps and our API. Questions about it, or about your data, go to hello@withsilasogar.com.
What we collect
Your account
You sign in with Google or Apple through Firebase Authentication, a Google service. We receive and keep your name, email address, whether the email is verified, your profile photo link (if your provider shares one) and a Firebase user id. We don't receive your Google or Apple password. If you use Apple's "Hide My Email", we only see the relay address Apple gives us.
Your profile and settings
Your public handle, your time zone (so streaks and daily quests follow your local day), and anything you tell us when you set up your learning plan: your goal, your level, the hours a week you have and the sections that interest you. Also your notification preferences.
Your learning
Courses you enrol in, lessons you start and finish, where you stopped in a video, quiz and boss-fight answers and scores, XP, levels, streaks, leagues, quests, badges, crews, learning paths and certificates. We check unusual XP patterns to keep leaderboards fair.
What you post
Questions and answers on lessons, community and crew messages, showcase posts, bounty submissions, course reviews, and reports you send us about other people's posts. If you book a consultation, we keep the booking, the time and any note you add for the consultant. If you apply to teach, we keep your application (bio, expertise, credentials and the links you give us), and as an instructor or collaborator, your courses and earnings records.
AI tutor and other smart features
When you ask the AI tutor something, we store your question, the answer, and the point in the video you asked about, so you can come back to the conversation. To write the answer, we send your question, the earlier messages in that conversation and the lesson's context (its transcript, notes and the moment you're on) to Anthropic's Claude API. When you use the Path Finder, we send the goal, level and weekly hours you entered. We don't send your name or email address with these requests. The same API also writes lesson takeaways and helps instructors draft quizzes from their own lessons.
Purchases
Payments are handled by Stripe. You enter your card details on Stripe's checkout page, and we never see or store your card number. We keep a Stripe customer id, what you bought, the amount, currency and status of each payment, any refund, and your Pro subscription status and renewal date.
Your devices
- Push notifications. If you allow notifications, we store the push token from Firebase Cloud Messaging (or your browser's web-push subscription), the platform and a device name, so we can reach that device. You can turn notifications off at any time.
- Offline downloads (apps only). When you download a lesson, the app registers the device with a random device id, the platform and a device name (for example "Silas's iPhone", or the model), so you can see and remove your devices. We record which lessons are licensed to which device and when the licence expires.
Offline downloads stay on your device
Downloaded lessons are encrypted on your device and can only be played inside the app. The key that unlocks them is protected by your phone's Keychain or Keystore. Downloads are excluded from iCloud and Android backups. Removing a device, a refund or the end of your access revokes its licences.
Website analytics
To understand how the site is used, the website sends a short list of events to our own server: page views, sign-ups, enrolments, checkout starts, completed lessons, boss wins, learning paths created or started, searches (the words and the number of results) and opening the command menu. Each event carries a random id kept in your browser's local storage, and your account id if you're signed in.
- No cookies and no fingerprinting are used for this.
- If your browser sends Do Not Track or Global Privacy Control, the site sends no analytics events at all.
- Events are deleted automatically after 90 days.
- The mobile apps don't send these analytics events.
Video playback
Lessons are streamed as encrypted video from our storage on DigitalOcean Spaces through its content delivery network. Some older videos are still delivered by Mux while we move them over. When you watch one of those, Mux also measures playback quality (start-up time, buffering, errors) with your device and browser type, approximate location from your IP address and the video's id and title. We don't send Mux your name or email.
Server logs
Like any web service, our API logs each request: the time, your IP address, the method and path, the response code and how long it took. We use these to keep the service running and secure. Playback and connection tokens that appear in web addresses are replaced with "REDACTED" before anything is written to the log.
What we don't do
- We don't sell or rent your personal data.
- We don't show ads or share your data with advertisers.
- We don't use tracking cookies, cross-site trackers or device fingerprinting.
- We don't use your data to train AI models. Under Anthropic's commercial terms, what we send to its API isn't used to train its models either.
Why we use it, and our legal bases
Data protection law asks us to say why we use your data and on what legal basis.
- To provide the service you signed up for (contract). Your account, courses, progress, XP, certificates, community features, the AI tutor, offline downloads, purchases and Pro.
- To keep it secure and fair (legitimate interests). Preventing abuse, fraud and cheating, moderating reported posts, enforcing our terms, and server logs.
- To improve it (legitimate interests). First-party website analytics, which we keep minimal, short-lived and easy to switch off with Do Not Track.
- To send you notifications (consent). Push notifications only reach you after you allow them, and you can turn them off in the app, your browser or your phone's settings at any time.
- To meet legal obligations (legal obligation). Keeping payment and tax records, and answering lawful requests from authorities.
Where we rely on legitimate interests, you can object (see your rights). Where we rely on consent, you can withdraw it at any time; this doesn't affect what we did before.
What other people can see
Parts of withsilasogar are social by design. Other people can see:
- Your public profile at withsilasogar.com/u/your-handle: your name, photo, level, XP, streaks, league, badges, certificates, crew, featured showcase posts and when you joined.
- Leaderboards and leagues: your name, photo, rank and XP.
- What you post in public places: questions, answers, showcase posts and reviews. Crew and members-only community messages are visible to the members of that crew or community.
- Certificates: each certificate has a public verification page showing your name, the course and the date, so employers can check it.
Course teams (instructors and their collaborators) see the questions and submissions you make in their courses. A consultant sees your booking and the note you add.
Who helps us run the service
We use a small number of service providers ("processors") who handle data on our behalf and only to provide their service to us:
- Google FirebaseSign-in (Firebase Authentication) and push notifications (Firebase Cloud Messaging).
- AppleSign in with Apple, and delivering push notifications to iPhones and iPads.
- AnthropicThe Claude API, which writes AI tutor answers, learning paths, lesson takeaways and quiz drafts.
- StripePayments, subscriptions, invoices and refunds.
- DigitalOceanStorage and content delivery (Spaces and CDN) for encrypted lesson video, posters and captions.
- MuxVideo delivery and playback-quality measurement for older videos, until they move to our own storage.
- Our hosting providersThe cloud servers and managed database that run the website and the API.
We may also share data when the law requires it, to protect people's safety or our rights, or as part of a merger or sale of the service, in which case this policy keeps applying to your data.
How long we keep it
- Your account and everything tied to it (profile, progress, AI tutor conversations, devices): for as long as you have an account. When you delete your account, it is deleted straight away, and your community posts are anonymised, as described in deleting your account.
- Website analytics events: 90 days, then deleted automatically.
- Server logs: a short period for security and troubleshooting, normally no more than 30 days.
- Payment records: up to 7 years for tax and accounting, without your name or email once you've deleted your account.
- Push tokens: until you sign out of that device, turn notifications off, or the token stops working.
- Offline downloads: on your device until you delete them, remove the device, or your access ends.
International transfers
withsilasogar is used around the world, and our providers run servers in several countries, including the United States and the European Union. That means your data may be processed outside the country you live in, including outside Nigeria, the UK or the European Economic Area. When it is, we rely on safeguards the law recognises, such as adequacy decisions and standard contractual clauses in our providers' data processing terms.
Your rights
Wherever you live, you can ask us to do the following. If you're in the European Economic Area or the UK, the GDPR (and UK GDPR) gives you these rights. If you're in Nigeria, the Nigeria Data Protection Act 2023 (NDPA) gives you the same rights.
- Access: get a copy of the personal data we hold about you.
- Correction: fix anything that's wrong. Your name and photo come from your Google or Apple account.
- Deletion: delete your account and data (see below).
- Portability: receive your data in a common, machine-readable format.
- Objection and restriction: object to processing based on legitimate interests, or ask us to pause it while a concern is checked.
- Withdraw consent for anything that relies on it, such as push notifications.
- Not to be subject to decisions made solely by automated means that significantly affect you. We don't make any: AI tutor answers and learning paths are suggestions you're free to ignore.
How to use them
Email hello@withsilasogar.com from the address on your account and tell us what you'd like. We may ask you to confirm it's you. We'll answer within one month, and it's free. To delete your account, you can also do it yourself (see below).
Complaints
If you're unhappy with how we've handled your data, please tell us first so we can fix it. You also have the right to complain to a data protection authority: in Nigeria, the Nigeria Data Protection Commission (NDPC); in the UK, the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO); in the EEA, the authority in your country.
Deleting your account
You can delete your account at any time:
- In the app: open the You tab, then Profile & settings, and scroll to Delete account.
- On the web: sign in and open Settings, then Delete account.
- By email: write to hello@withsilasogar.com from the address on your account. We delete it within 30 days, usually much sooner.
Deletion is immediate and permanent. It removes your profile and sign-in account, your learning progress, XP and certificates, offline downloads on every device, AI tutor conversations, push tokens and analytics tied to you, and cancels an active Pro subscription. Community posts and messages stay so conversations still make sense, but they show "Deleted user" and no longer link to you. Payment records (amount, currency, date and the Stripe reference, with no name or email) are kept for up to 7 years because tax law requires it.
The full list is at withsilasogar.com/delete-account.
Children
withsilasogar is not for children under 13, and we don't knowingly collect their data. Where local law sets a higher age for using online services without a parent's permission, you must be at least that age, or have your parent's or guardian's permission where the law allows it. In Nigeria, the NDPA treats anyone under 18 as a child, so if you're under 18 there, a parent or guardian must agree to your use of withsilasogar. If you think a child has given us personal data, email hello@withsilasogar.com and we'll delete it.
Security
We protect your data with measures that fit the risk, including:
- Encryption in transit (HTTPS) for the website, apps and API.
- Encrypted video: lessons are stored and streamed encrypted, and each video's key is itself encrypted at rest. Offline downloads are encrypted on your device.
- Signed sign-in and playback tokens that expire, and a "sign out everywhere" option.
- Access to production data limited to the people who need it to run the service.
No system is perfectly secure. If a breach puts your data at risk, we'll tell you and the authorities as the law requires.
Changes to this policy
We'll update this policy when the service or the law changes, and change the date at the top. If a change matters, such as a new kind of data or a new provider that uses data in a new way, we'll tell you in the app or by email before it takes effect.
Contact
Privacy questions, requests or complaints: hello@withsilasogar.com. You can also reach us through the contact page. Our terms of service explain the rules for using withsilasogar.