Privacy Policy

1. Overview

MendelSelect (this website, domain mendelsel.com) is operated by the Beijing Vegetable Research Center (BVRC), Beijing Academy of Agriculture and Forestry Sciences. This policy describes what information we collect and how we use and protect it.

This website offers optional account registration (email + password + email verification code). Anonymous features such as decision simulation remain available without an account; uploading genotyping sheets and AI chat require signing in.

2. Information We Collect

• Visit statistics: on page load we record the visit time, a one-way hash of your IP address (the raw IP is not stored), coarse country/region information, and a random session identifier. These are used for the global reach statistics shown in the footer.
• Account information: at registration we collect your email address and password (the password is stored only as a bcrypt hash; the plaintext is never stored).
• Data you upload: when used anonymously (not signed in), breeding data files are processed in server memory solely to compute and return your results, and are not saved to disk. For signed-in users, genotyping sheet files are temporarily retained on the server for 7 days for personal review and download, then deleted automatically; deletions by an administrator take effect immediately.
• AI assistant conversations: text you enter in the AI assistant is sent to the AI model service to generate a reply. For signed-in users, questions and answers are temporarily retained for 7 days for personal review, then deleted automatically.
• Local storage: your browser's localStorage keeps only interface preferences (such as language choice); sign-in sessions use an HttpOnly cookie (storing only a non-reversible token hash).

3. How Information Is Used

Visit statistics are used only for aggregate display (total visits and country distribution). They are not used to identify individuals and are never sold or shared with third parties.

Account information and the 7-day temporary records are used only to provide your history view and to prevent abuse (rate limiting). You may delete any uploaded file yourself at any time on the "My records" page.

4. Third-Party Services

• ip-api.com: resolves IP addresses to coarse country/region information.
• Cloud LLM providers: when the AI assistant is enabled, conversation content is sent to the configured model service. The offline desktop edition uses a local model and never sends data off your machine.

5. Data Security

This website enforces HTTPS encryption for all traffic to protect data in transit from interception or tampering.

6. Your Rights

If you have questions about the visit statistics, wish to request deletion of related records, or have any questions about this policy, please contact us using the contact details in the footer.

7. Policy Updates

We may update this policy from time to time. Updates will be published on this page with a revised effective date.