Waffoo AI
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Privacy Policy

Effective Date: June 18, 2026

Waffoo AI ("Waffoo," "we," "us," or "our") operates the Waffoo Search platform, available at waffooai.com and search.waffooai.com (the "Service"). This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, and protect your personal information when you use our Service. By using Waffoo Search, you agree to the practices described in this policy.

1. Information We Collect

We collect the following categories of information when you register for or use the Service:

Account Information:

  • Full name (or display name)
  • Email address
  • Institution or organization name (optional)
  • Professional role (e.g., student, researcher, healthcare professional) (optional)

Usage Data:

  • Search queries entered into Waffoo Search
  • Research items you click on, save, or interact with
  • Pages visited and features used within the platform
  • Session duration and frequency of visits
  • Device type, browser type, and operating system
  • IP address and general geographic location (country/region level)

2. How We Use Your Information

We use the information we collect for the following purposes:

  • To provide, operate, and improve the Waffoo Search platform
  • To personalize your experience and research recommendations
  • To analyze usage patterns and improve search result quality
  • To communicate with you about your account, updates, and new features
  • To respond to your support requests and feedback
  • To ensure the security and integrity of the platform
  • To comply with applicable legal obligations

We do not sell your personal information to third parties.

3. Third-Party APIs and Data Sources

Waffoo Search retrieves scientific research content by transmitting your search queries to third-party APIs and databases. By using the Service, you acknowledge that your search queries may be sent to these external services to retrieve results. The sources we draw on include, but are not limited to:

Scientific literature & citation databases

PubMed / NCBI and Europe PMC (U.S. National Library of Medicine / EMBL-EBI), OpenAlex (OurResearch), Semantic Scholar (Allen Institute for AI), Crossref, arXiv, bioRxiv and medRxiv, Springer Nature, and the Cochrane Library.

Clinical & public-health authorities

ClinicalTrials.gov and NIH RePORTER/iCite (U.S. National Institutes of Health), the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the World Health Organization (WHO), and the UK National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE).

Government, policy & open-data sources

Congress.gov, the U.S. Federal Register, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), the Library of Congress, Data.gov, and the OECD.

Books, archives & multimedia

Google Books and YouTube (Google LLC), Open Library and the Internet Archive, OAPEN, Vimeo, and Dailymotion.

We only transmit the minimum information necessary to retrieve relevant research results. We do not share your account information (name, email, institution) with these sources unless explicitly required to do so. Each provider operates under its own terms and privacy policy, which we encourage you to review; Waffoo AI is not responsible for the data practices of these external services. We reserve the right to add, remove, or replace data-source integrations at any time and will keep this policy current.

Attribution and endorsement. We credit the databases and providers we rely on, and we display source attributions within the Service. These organizations — including the U.S. National Library of Medicine, the NIH, the CDC, the WHO, and the other sources listed above — do not sponsor, endorse, or are affiliated with Waffoo AI, and their inclusion does not imply any such relationship. Content retrieved from these sources remains subject to each source's own terms, licenses, and use restrictions (which may include limits on redistribution or commercial reuse).

Representative third-party privacy policies:

4. AI Processing Services

To interpret, expand, and rank your search queries, Waffoo Search transmits your queries to the following AI and machine-learning providers:

These providers process your search queries to return relevant results. We do not send them your account information (name, email, institution). Each operates under its own terms and privacy policy.

Important — how AI providers use your queries

We currently use Google's Gemini API on its free service tier. On this tier, Google may use the content you submit (your search queries) to improve and develop its products and machine-learning models, and trained human reviewers may read it. Please do not enter confidential, proprietary, unpublished, or personally sensitive information into your search queries. We are working to migrate to Google's paid API tier, on which submitted content is not used to train Google's models. Hugging Face and Jina AI process queries to generate embeddings and rankings under their own terms.

5. Data Sharing and Disclosure

Beyond the third-party transmissions described in Sections 3 and 4, we do not sell or share your personal information except in the following limited circumstances:

  • Service providers: Trusted vendors who help us operate the platform (e.g., hosting, email delivery, and analytics) are contractually obligated to protect your data.
  • Legal compliance: We may disclose your information if required by law, court order, or government authority.
  • Business transfers: If Waffoo AI is acquired or merged with another company, your data may transfer as part of that transaction. We will notify you beforehand.
  • With your consent: We may share information for any other purpose with your explicit consent.

6. Data Retention

We retain your personal information for as long as your account is active or as needed to provide the Service. If you request deletion, we will delete your personal data within 30 days, except where required by law.

7. Your Rights and Choices

You have the following rights regarding your personal information:

  • Access: Request a copy of the personal data we hold about you
  • Correction: Request correction of inaccurate or incomplete information
  • Deletion: Request deletion of your personal data
  • Opt-out of communications: Unsubscribe from marketing emails at any time

To exercise any of these rights, contact us at privacy@waffooai.com.

8. Data Security

We implement industry-standard technical and organizational measures to protect your personal information. Waffoo Search uses passwordless sign-in — email magic links and Google sign-in — so there is no Waffoo password for you to manage or for us to store. Please keep access to your email account secure, as it controls access to your Waffoo account. No method of transmission over the internet is 100% secure.

9. Cookies and Tracking Technologies

Waffoo Search uses cookies and similar technologies to maintain your session, remember preferences, and collect usage analytics. To diagnose issues and improve the product, we may also use session replay technology to record how visitors interact with the interface (such as pages visited, clicks, and scrolling); text you type is masked before recording and is not collected as part of these replays. You may disable cookies in your browser settings; however, some features may not function properly without them.

10. Age Restriction

Waffoo Search is intended for users who are 18 years of age or older. We do not knowingly collect personal information from individuals under 18. If you believe we have inadvertently collected data from a minor, contact us at privacy@waffooai.com and we will promptly delete it.

11. Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. When we make material changes, we will notify you by email or by posting a prominent notice on the platform. Your continued use of the Service after changes constitutes your acceptance of the updated policy.

12. Contact Us

Waffoo AI

Email: privacy@waffooai.com

Website: waffooai.com

Washington, DC, United States