Students often ask: "What happens to my essay after I submit it?"
The short answer: nothing, unless you want it to.
Key Takeaways
EssayHero doesn't store your essays by default. When you submit an essay for analysis, the feedback streams to your browser and nothing is saved. Storage only happens when you explicitly choose optional features like Dashboard History or Shareable Links.
Nothing Stored by Default
When you paste your essay and click "Analyse", your essay is sent to our AI provider for analysis. The feedback streams back to your browser. That's it.
We don't store a copy.
When you close the page, your essay and feedback are gone. There's no account required, no history, no record of your submission.
Optional Features That Store Data
EssayHero offers two optional features that do store data, but only when you explicitly choose:
Dashboard History
If you sign in with Google, you can save essays to your personal dashboard. This lets you track progress over time.
You can delete any essay from your history whenever you want.
Shareable Links
If you create a shareable link (to show a teacher or parent), the essay and feedback are stored for 30 days.
After that, they're permanently deleted. You can also delete them early using the delete link we provide.
Opt-In Only
Both features are opt-in. If you don't use them, nothing is stored.
Why We Use Google Gemini
I chose Google Gemini as the AI provider because it delivers high-quality analysis at a sustainable cost, keeping EssayHero free.
Cost-Effectiveness Without Compromise
Of the AI models that work well for essay analysis, Google Gemini has the best ratio of quality to cost.
This matters because running AI costs money. Every essay you submit costs me something. If I used a more expensive model, I'd either have to charge users or limit usage.
I don't want to do either.
What Happens Behind the Scenes
Behind each request, your essay text is actually a tiny portion. The rest is complex instructions, criteria definitions, and formatting guidance.
The AI is doing real work, but the cost is manageable because the model is efficient.
Where Your Data Goes
We believe you should know exactly where your data is processed:
| Service | Provider | Location |
|---|---|---|
| Website | Vercel | Hong Kong (HKG1) |
| Essay Analysis | Google Gemini API | United States (Google Cloud) |
| OCR (Handwriting) | Mistral API | Europe |
| Database | Vercel Postgres | Hong Kong (HKG1) |
Your essays are processed in real-time and not stored by EssayHero unless you use one of the opt-in features.
What the AI providers do with their inputs is governed by their own policies.
Handwriting Scanner: Automatic PII Filtering
When you use the "Scan Handwriting" feature for individual essays, our AI doesn't just extract text — it intelligently filters out non-essay content.
What Gets Filtered Out
Printed headers, student names, school names, candidate numbers, line numbers, and other identifying information on the page are automatically excluded.
Only the handwritten essay text is extracted and submitted for analysis.
Built-In Privacy Protection
Even if your exam paper has your name and school printed on it, that information is stripped out before it reaches the essay analysis stage. It's one more layer of privacy protection built into the scanning process.
Batch Essay Marking: What Teachers Should Know
Batch Essay Marking works differently. When a teacher uploads a class PDF, student names, class information, and candidate numbers are intentionally extracted from the scanned pages.
This is how the system matches reports to the correct student.
Teacher-Controlled Data
This data is teacher-controlled:
- Only the uploading teacher can view, export, or share results
- All batch data is auto-deleted after 30 days
- You can delete individual reports at any time
Teachers Are Data Controllers
If you're a teacher using batch marking, you're the data controller for the student information in your PDF. We recommend informing your students that their essays will be processed by AI, and obtaining consent from parents or guardians for students under 18.
What About the AI Provider?
One important note: while EssayHero doesn't store your essays, the AI provider (Google Gemini) may process your input according to their privacy policy.
They may use inputs to improve their models.
Best Practice Recommendations
For this reason, I recommend:
- Don't include real names in your essays
- Don't include school names or other identifying information
- Treat it like any online tool — don't share sensitive personal details
General AI Safety
This isn't specific to EssayHero. It's sensible practice for any AI tool.
PDPO Compliant
EssayHero follows Hong Kong's Personal Data (Privacy) Ordinance.
Our Commitments
- We don't collect personal data unnecessarily
- We don't share data with third parties for marketing
- We don't track students or build profiles
- We provide clear ways to delete your data
No Ads, No Tracking, No Upselling
EssayHero has:
- No advertisements
- No premium tier
- No data sharing with advertisers
- No hidden costs
This is a volunteer project. Your data is never monetised.
Questions?
If you have concerns about how your data is handled, or if you want to delete something, email hello@essayhero.app.