Effective Date: Thursday, October 1st, 2026

My WINK is a free, AI-powered academic support platform for college students, currently in Beta from October 1, 2026 through December 31, 2026. WINK is its AI academic coach. This page explains what information is collected, how it is used and shared, and how it is protected.

My WINK Is Independently Developed and Operated

My WINK is independently designed, built, and administered by Dr. Laura L. Trevino. It is not a service of any university.

As administrator, Dr. Trevino can view information you enter into or generate through WINK, including uploaded documents, questions, AI responses, deadlines, practice activity, and grade-calculator information, for any account. WINK is not an anonymous or private communication channel.

If You Are One of Dr. Trevino's Students

Using My WINK is optional. Using it, not using it, or deleting your account has no effect on your grades or your standing in any course.

Information We Collect

• Account information: name, email address, and password (stored only as a secure hash, never in plain text).
• Academic profile: university, classification, major, first-generation status, and preferred reply language.
• Uploaded documents: course materials you upload, such as syllabi, calendars, and assignments.
• Your activity: questions and messages you send, WINK's responses, deadlines, practice and grade-calculator entries, and ratings you give answers.
• Usage data: pages visited, time spent, features used, and similar activity.

Beta Data Collection

Because My WINK is in Beta, the information above is collected and used to:

• Provide WINK to you: answer your questions, read your course materials, track deadlines, and show your progress.
• Find and fix problems and improve WINK's accuracy, features, and ease of use.
• Demonstrate how WINK is used, for example in presentations to universities, funders, or partners.

Anything shared outside WINK is combined or de-identified so that no individual student can be identified. Your individual conversations are never shared in a way that identifies you without your written permission.

How We Use Email

We send only account and academic-support email: account verification, password reset, upcoming-deadline reminders, and a weekly summary of what is due. We do not send marketing email, and we never sell, rent, or share your email address.

Uploaded Information

Upload only materials you are authorized to share. Do not upload passwords, Social Security numbers, financial account information, medical records, or other highly sensitive information that WINK does not need.

Data Sharing

We do not sell your personal information or use it for advertising. WINK relies on a small number of providers, used only to operate the service: Render hosts the application and its database; Anthropic processes your questions and relevant course material to generate AI responses (under commercial terms that prohibit using WINK data to train its models); Voyage AI processes excerpts of your uploaded course documents to help WINK find the most relevant material; and Amazon Web Services delivers WINK's email.

Data Security

WINK uses reasonable technical and organizational safeguards, including hashed passwords, encrypted connections, strict browser security controls, protection against forged requests, and limits on repeated sign-in attempts. No internet service can guarantee absolute security.

Data Retention and Deletion

Your data is kept while your account is active. You can delete your account at any time from your Dashboard: your name and email are removed immediately, your password stops working, and you are signed out. Your past activity is kept only in de-identified form, as Beta usage data. Conversations you delete are permanently removed after 3 months.

Accuracy of AI Responses

AI can make mistakes. Verify important academic information using official course materials, instructors, advisors, or university systems.

Age

My WINK is designed for college students and is not intended for anyone under 18.

Changes to This Policy

This policy may be updated as My WINK develops. If it changes in an important way, you will be asked to review and accept the new version the next time you sign in. The current version is always available on this page.

Contact

Questions about this policy or your data, and requests to delete your data, can be sent to lhall@elp.rr.com.