Crux Privacy Notice
Version 1.0, effective September 16, 2026. Crux is operated by Jonathan Cooper, an individual, from Kentucky, USA, while a company is being formed. Contact for anything in this notice: jon@cruxcall.com.
This notice is written for the people who use Crux: students who take an oral interview about their own coursework, and professors who set up and review those interviews. It says what Crux collects, why, who else touches it, how long it is kept, and how to ask for it to be corrected or deleted.
What Crux is
Crux runs a spoken interview about work a student has already done. An AI interviewer asks questions and follows up; Crux records the student's spoken answers, transcribes them word for word, checks the numbers the student states, and maps the answers to the professor's rubric. Crux does not assign grades. The professor reads the evidence and decides.
What we collect
From students
- The name you type in the lobby, as it appears on your class roster.
- Your spoken answers: an audio clip for each answer, and a verbatim transcript of it.
- Your typed answers and anything you type in the "show your work" box, if you use them.
- The written work you upload for the assignment (a PDF), including a text version of it. If the PDF is a scan or handwriting, Crux transcribes the pages with the AI model.
- The interviewer's questions, its private notes to the professor, its evidence map, its suggested band, and its written feedback to you.
- Your consent to be recorded: the version of the notice you accepted, the time, and your network address.
- Technical information every website receives: your network (IP) address, browser type, and the time of each request. Crux measures your response time (how long after a question you begin speaking) and stores it with the interview.
- Accommodation choices you make in the lobby (extended time, text-only questions, typed answers).
From professors
- Your name and the passcode you were issued.
- The assignments you create: case text, exhibits, PDFs, rubrics, interview questions, answer keys, settings, interviewer personas, and defaults.
- The grades, points and comments you enter.
What we do not collect
- No accounts or passwords for students. No payment information from anyone.
- No advertising or third-party analytics. No cookies. Crux stores a few preferences in your browser only (which guided tours you have seen, a professor's passcode so you stay signed in).
- No biometric identifiers. Crux does not create voiceprints or face templates and does not use your voice to identify you.
- No video in the current version. If video is added, it will be a separate consent.
Why we collect it
- To run the interview and produce the transcript, evidence and feedback for your professor and for you.
- To let your professor grade, review, replay and export interviews for their course.
- To check the numbers you state against the case and the professor's answer key.
- To keep the service working and safe: logs, backups, rate limits, and investigating problems.
- To answer your requests.
We do not use your data for advertising, for profiling outside the course, or to sell to anyone. We do not use your data to train AI models, and our AI vendors are not permitted to either.
Who else touches your data (sub-processors)
Crux uses these services. Each receives only what it needs.
| Service | What it receives | Why | Where |
|---|---|---|---|
| Anthropic (Claude API) | The case, rubric, your uploaded work, transcripts and typed text | Runs the interviewer and the evaluator | USA. Anthropic's commercial API terms do not permit training on this data. |
| ElevenLabs | The text of each question (speech synthesis); each audio clip you record (transcription) | The interviewer's voice; verbatim transcripts | USA |
| Google Cloud | Everything stored by Crux | Hosting (a virtual machine in us-central1, Iowa) | USA |
| Cloudflare | Domain, DNS and email routing for jon@cruxcall.com | Infrastructure | USA/global |
Backups are copied nightly to an encrypted disk controlled by the operator in Kentucky and kept for 14 days.
We will post changes to this list here and, for active pilots, tell the professor by email at least 30 days before adding a new sub-processor.
How long we keep it
| Data | Kept until |
|---|---|
| Interview records (audio, transcripts, evaluation, uploaded work, grades) | The professor deletes them, or the end of the academic term after the one in which the interview took place, whichever comes first |
| Consent records | Same as the interview they belong to |
| Assignments (cases, rubrics, keys) | Until the professor deletes them |
| Server logs | 30 days |
| Backups | 14 days, rolling |
| Aggregate usage counts (no personal data) | Indefinitely |
Deletion removes the data from the live system; backups age out within 14 days.
Your rights
Whoever you are, you can ask to see the data Crux holds about you, to correct it, or to have it deleted. Students can always see their own feedback on the result page; the full record (transcript, audio, evaluation) is available on request. Write to jon@cruxcall.com with the interview date and the name you used. We acknowledge within five business days and respond in full within 30 days. Deletion of a graded interview may be coordinated with your professor, who may need to keep the grade itself.
If you are in the European Economic Area or the United Kingdom, you also have the rights to restrict or object to processing and to data portability, and you can complain to your data protection authority. Our legal basis is performing the educational task your institution or professor has asked Crux to support, and our legitimate interest in keeping the service secure. Data is processed in the United States.
If you are in California, you have the right to know, delete, and not be discriminated against for exercising your rights. Crux does not sell personal information.
Students under 18
Crux is not directed at children under 13 and does not knowingly collect their data. Current pilots are with adult graduate students. If Crux is used with students under 18 in the future, the school will be responsible for parental notice and consent, and this notice will be updated first.
Students' education records
Interview recordings, transcripts, evaluations and grades are part of your education record with your institution. Crux holds them on the professor's or institution's behalf, uses them only for the course, does not share them with anyone else, and lets you inspect them. The professor or institution can direct Crux to delete them at any time.
Security
All connections use HTTPS. Data is encrypted at rest by the hosting provider. Professors see only their own assignments and interviews. Access to the server is limited to the operator with key-based login. A fuller description is in the Security Overview. If we learn of a breach affecting your data, we will notify the affected professor or institution without undue delay and within 72 hours of confirming it, and students through them.
Changes
We will post the new version here with a new date, and tell professors with active assignments by email at least 14 days before a significant change takes effect.