Introduction

Thank you for using the GitHub Copilot Stack Overflow Extension (the “Extension”). Your privacy is important to us, and Stack Overflow (“Stack”, “we”) is committed to safeguarding your personal information. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, disclose, and protect your information when you use the Extension. Please read this policy carefully to understand our practices.

1. Information We Collect

When you use the Extension, we may collect the following types of information:

1. Personal Information: The Extension does not require direct personal information such as your name or email address. However, in certain cases, your GitHub username or account ID will be stored to check if you’ve completed the suggested authentication flow and have been allowlisted by us.

2. Credentials and Authentication: We do not store any user credentials for Stack Overflow or GitHub. When you sign in to your Stack Overflow Teams account, the process utilizes a standard OAuth flow. This means:

   • You will sign in using your own credentials directly with Stack Overflow.
   • We will request your permission to grant “read” access to the Extension.
   • An access token is created during this process, but we do not store this token at any point. We also don’t store your IP address during the authentication flow or at any other time.

3. Usage Data: We may collect data related to your use of the Extension, such as:

   • The queries or prompts you enter into GitHub Copilot.
   • Stack Overflow answers or snippets provided by the Extension.
   • Logs of interactions between GitHub and Stack Overflow APIs.
   • Error logs generated during use. We do not collect or log performance data at launch but may implement performance monitoring in the future.
4. Technical Data: Details such as browser type, operating system, and session tokens may be temporarily accessed to enable secure interaction between GitHub and Stack Overflow APIs but are not stored.

2. How We Use Your Information

We use the collected data for the following purposes:

• Providing Functionality: To enable GitHub Copilot to generate responses to your queries based on Stack Overflow content.
• User Verification: To check whether your GitHub username or account ID is on our allowlist for access to the Extension.
• Error Logging: We log errors at launch to troubleshoot and improve the Extension. Performance monitoring may be introduced in the future, and we will update this policy accordingly.
• Security and Integrity: Ensuring the secure operation of the Extension and compliance with any access permissions granted by the user.

3. Data Sharing and Disclosure

We do not sell, rent, or trade your personal information. However, we may disclose your information if required to do so by law or in response to valid requests by public authorities.

4. Data Retention

We retain the information we collect for as long as necessary to provide the functionality of the Extension and fulfill the purposes outlined in this Privacy Policy, unless a longer retention period is required or permitted by law.

5. Your Rights

Depending on your location, you may have the right to:

• Access the personal information we hold about you.
• Correct any inaccurate or incomplete information.
• Delete your data under certain circumstances.
• Restrict or object to our use of your data.
• Data portability, allowing you to request a copy of your data in a machine-readable format.

To exercise any of these rights, please contact us at [email protected].

6. Security

We take the security of your data seriously and implement industry-standard measures to protect it. We have appropriate security measures to prevent personal information from being accidentally lost, or used or accessed unlawfully. We limit access to your personal information to those who have a genuine business need to access it and only as necessary to perform our legitimate business interests. We also have procedures in place to deal with any suspected data security breach. We will notify you and any applicable regulator of a suspected data security breach where we are legally required to do so.

7. Children’s Privacy

The Extension is not intended for use by individuals under the age of 13. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If you believe we may have collected such information, please contact us immediately at [email protected].

8. Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. When we make changes, we will notify you by updating the “Effective Date” at the top of this policy. We encourage you to review this Privacy Policy periodically for any updates.

9. Contact Us

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or our data practices, please contact us at [email protected].