1. Service Description

EssayHero is a free, AI-powered essay feedback tool designed to help students preparing for HKDSE English Paper 2, IELTS Writing Task 1, and IELTS Writing Task 2 examinations. The service provides:

• Estimated scores based on official marking criteria
• Paragraph-by-paragraph feedback on Content, Language, and Organisation
• Writing metrics analysis (vocabulary, readability, sentence variety)
• Optional handwriting scan (OCR) for handwritten essays
• Progress tracking for signed-in users
• Batch Essay Marking for teachers (see Section 1A below)

1A. Batch Essay Marking

Batch Essay Marking is a teacher-facing feature that allows you to upload a class PDF containing multiple student essays, receive individual AI feedback reports for each student, and export or share results.

What data is extracted

When you upload a class PDF, the system uses optical character recognition (OCR) to extract text from each page. As part of this process, student names, class information, and candidate numbers may be extracted from your scanned pages to identify which report belongs to which student. This information is used solely for report delivery — matching feedback to the correct student in CSV exports, share links, and the results view.

How data is stored and retained

• Batch results (including extracted student names and scores) are stored for 30 days — the same retention period as shared reports
• After 30 days, all batch data is automatically and permanently deleted via our scheduled cleanup process
• You can delete individual student reports or an entire batch at any time before the 30-day expiry
• No batch data is used for research, advertising, model training, or any purpose other than report delivery

Teacher responsibility

As the teacher uploading student work, you act as the data controller for the student information contained in your class PDF. EssayHero acts as a data processor, handling the information only as needed to deliver reports back to you. This means:

• You are responsible for obtaining appropriate consent from students (and their parents or guardians, where students are under 18) before uploading their work
• You should inform students that their essays will be processed by an AI system
• Students who wish to have their data deleted should contact you, and you can delete their reports from the batch results at any time

Protections in place

• Batch marking requires authentication — anonymous users cannot access this feature
• Only the teacher who uploaded a batch can view, export, or share its results
• The same 30-day auto-deletion and PDPO compliance that apply to shared reports also apply to batch data

2. User Accounts

You can use EssayHero without creating an account. If you choose to sign in with Google:

• You must provide accurate information
• You are responsible for maintaining the security of your account
• You can delete your account at any time, which will remove all associated data

3. Acceptable Use

When using EssayHero, you agree to:

• Use the service for legitimate educational purposes only
• Submit only content you have the right to use (your own work or work you have permission to share)
• Not submit content that is illegal, harmful, threatening, abusive, or violates others' rights
• Not attempt to circumvent rate limits or abuse the service
• Not use automated tools to submit bulk essays or scrape content
• Not reverse engineer, decompile, or attempt to extract the source code

4. AI Disclaimers

By using EssayHero, you acknowledge these limitations and agree that you will not rely solely on AI feedback for important academic decisions.

5. Intellectual Property

Your Content

• You retain full ownership of all essays and content you submit to EssayHero
• We do not claim any intellectual property rights over your submissions
• By submitting content, you grant us a limited, non-exclusive license to process and display your content solely for the purpose of providing the service

Our Content

• The EssayHero website, branding, and original content are protected by copyright
• AI-generated feedback is provided for your personal educational use

6. Privacy

Your privacy is important to us. Please review our Privacy Policy to understand how we collect, use, and protect your information. Key points:

• Essays are sent to third-party AI services (Google Gemini) for processing
• For individual use: anonymous users' essays are processed and immediately discarded. Signed-in users' essays are saved to their dashboard and can be deleted at any time
• For Batch Essay Marking: student names and scores extracted from your scanned pages are stored for 30 days for report delivery, then auto-deleted (see Section 1A)
• Signed-in users can delete their data at any time

7. Limitation of Liability

EssayHero is provided "as is" and "as available" without warranties of any kind, either express or implied.

To the fullest extent permitted by law:

• We do not warrant that the service will be uninterrupted, error-free, or secure
• We do not warrant the accuracy, reliability, or completeness of AI-generated feedback
• We are not liable for any academic outcomes, exam results, or decisions made based on our service
• Our total liability for any claims arising from your use of EssayHero is limited to the amount you paid us (which is zero, as the service is free)

8. Indemnification

You agree to indemnify and hold harmless EssayHero, its creators, and affiliates from any claims, damages, or expenses arising from your use of the service or violation of these terms.

9. Termination

We reserve the right to suspend or terminate your access to EssayHero at any time, for any reason, including violation of these terms. You may stop using the service at any time.

10. Changes to Terms

We may update these Terms of Service from time to time. We will notify you of significant changes by posting a notice on the website. Your continued use of EssayHero after changes constitutes acceptance of the updated terms.

11. Governing Law

These Terms of Service are governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. Any disputes arising from these terms shall be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of Hong Kong.

12. Contact Us

If you have questions about these Terms of Service:

13. Severability

If any provision of these terms is found to be unenforceable, the remaining provisions will continue in full force and effect.

14. Exam Board Disclaimer

HKDSE is administered by the Hong Kong Examinations and Assessment Authority (HKEAA). IELTS is jointly owned by the British Council, IDP IELTS, and Cambridge University Press & Assessment. Cambridge IGCSE and Edexcel IGCSE are registered trademarks of their respective examination authorities. EssayHero is an independent educational tool and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or officially connected to any of these organisations. Our assessment framework is informed by publicly available marking criteria but represents our own interpretation and operationalisation of these standards.