Privacy policy
Short version: your spreadsheet data stays in your spreadsheet. ExplainStats has no servers that receive it, no accounts and no advertising.
ExplainStats runs entirely inside Google Sheets. It reads the cells you select, calculates, and writes the results into the same spreadsheet. Your data is never sent to us or to anyone else. We don't ask for your name or email, we don't use cookies in the add-on, and we never sell or share data.
1. Who is responsible
This policy covers the ExplainStats add-on for Google Sheets and the website explainstats.com. The publisher is identified in the legal notice. For any question about privacy, write to contact@explainstats.com.
2. What the add-on can access
When you install ExplainStats, Google asks you to grant two permissions (OAuth scopes):
| Permission | Why ExplainStats needs it |
|---|---|
spreadsheets.currentonlySee, edit, create and delete only the specific spreadsheets you use the add-on with | To read the range you select and to write the result tables, charts and “show the steps” sheets into that spreadsheet. The add-on cannot open your other files, your Drive, your email or your contacts. |
script.container.uiDisplay and run third-party web content in prompts and sidebars inside Google applications | To show the ExplainStats sidebar and menu inside Google Sheets. |
3. How your spreadsheet data is used
- All calculations run inside Google's Apps Script environment, on Google's infrastructure, while you use the add-on.
- Your data is used only to produce the results you ask for. It is not sent to ExplainStats servers (we don't have any that receive it), not shared with third parties, not used for advertising and not used to train artificial-intelligence models.
- We, the developers, cannot see your spreadsheets or their content.
4. What the add-on stores
- Your settings (the interface language and one display preference) are saved in your own Google account through Google's Apps Script user properties, so the sidebar remembers them. Only the add-on, running for you, can read them.
- Exam mode: when a teacher turns it on, the spreadsheet stores an on/off marker and a SHA-256 hash of the PIN, never the PIN itself. This information is stored inside the spreadsheet so that copies keep exam mode.
- Results: the sheets and charts the add-on creates are ordinary content of your spreadsheet. You can edit or delete them at any time.
5. Error reports
If the add-on hits an unexpected error, Google Apps Script may record a technical error report (the error message and where in the code it happened) in our Google Cloud project logs. We use these reports only to fix bugs. They are kept for up to 30 days. The add-on is not designed to write your spreadsheet content to these logs.
6. Google API Services User Data Policy
ExplainStats' use and transfer of information received from Google APIs adheres to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements.
7. The website
- explainstats.com is hosted on Cloudflare Pages. To deliver and protect the site, Cloudflare processes technical data such as your IP address and browser type. See Cloudflare's privacy policy.
- We may use Cloudflare Web Analytics to count visits. It does not use cookies or collect personal information, and shows us only aggregated numbers (pages viewed, countries, referring sites).
- The website sets no cookies, has no advertising and no social-media trackers.
8. When you email us
If you write to contact@explainstats.com, we use your email address and message only to answer you. We keep them for as long as needed to follow up on your request, and at most three years after our last exchange.
9. Paid plan
All features are free until January 31, 2027. Before a paid Pro plan starts, this policy will be updated to explain what is needed to manage a subscription (for example, the payment provider used and the email linked to your license). No new data will be collected before that update is published.
10. Your rights
Under the GDPR and similar laws, you can ask to access, correct or delete personal data we hold about you, or object to its use, by writing to contact@explainstats.com. In practice, the only personal data we may hold is the content of emails you send us. You can also file a complaint with your data protection authority (in France, the CNIL).
To stop using ExplainStats, uninstall it from Google Sheets (Extensions › Add-ons › Manage add-ons) and, if you wish, remove its access at myaccount.google.com/permissions.
11. Students and schools
ExplainStats is used by students, including in schools. Because the add-on does not collect personal information from anyone, it collects none from students either.
12. Changes
If we change this policy, we will update the date at the top of this page and, for important changes, announce them on this website before they take effect.