Privacy Policy

1. Overview

This Privacy Policy explains what The Teachinator collects, stores, accesses, and creates when teachers use the app. In plain terms: the app uses Google access to do what you ask it to do, stores some teacher/class configuration and lesson-summary data in Firebase Firestore, stores live classroom state in your browser, and creates reports or posts in your own Google account.

2. Information We Access From Google

When you sign in and grant access, The Teachinator may access your Google account identity, Google Classroom course list, selected class rosters, student names, student email addresses, profile IDs, coursework, announcements, topics, and related Classroom information needed to display and operate the tools you choose to use.

The app may also use Google APIs to create Google Sheets reports, post homework announcements to Google Classroom, send report emails through Gmail when you request those actions, and use Drive access for export-related file actions.

3. Information Stored in Firestore

The Teachinator stores operational app data under your authenticated user account. This may include:

• Student point totals and selection counts.
• Class settings such as reward options, behaviour buttons, bell schedules, timetable settings, game settings, and homework due-date preferences.
• User-level app settings.
• Reward redemption updates that change student point balances.
• Student-submitted activity from the student portal, such as question, quiz, poll, and buzzer responses, exit ticket responses, "checking understanding" comprehension ratings, extension work requests, game participation and match results, and noise-responsibility suggestions (which may name other students in the class).
• Lesson trend summaries after an end-session email is sent, including course name, session date, attendance counts, absent or late student references, noise alert count, settling time, brain break count, wheel selection count, homework-check summary, point and demerit summaries, and recurring demerit reasons.

Firestore records are primarily machine-readable app state. They are not designed as a friendly dashboard, which is why they can look unusable when viewed directly in Firebase.

4. Student Portal Data

Students can join a class-specific student portal on their own device using a class code or link, signing in with their own email and password through Firebase Authentication. The student portal collects the student's name and email, their responses to questions, quizzes, polls, buzzer activities, exit tickets, and "checking understanding" comprehension check-ins, any extension work requests they submit, their classroom game participation and results, and any noise-responsibility suggestions they submit. Classroom game play is rendered on the teacher's screen; the student's device sends keyboard-style input and does not display other students' data. Some information is visible to other students in the same class as part of normal gameplay or activity flow, such as the classroom game leaderboard (names, wins/losses, and points for/against) and who buzzed in first on the Student Buzzer. Teachers review student submissions before they affect point totals.

5. Information Stored in Your Browser

The app also uses browser localStorage and sessionStorage for live classroom convenience. This may include Firebase session state, roll-call status, group settings and exclusions, brain break history, toilet-pass tracker history, exit-ticket and "checking understanding" question/timer settings, noise sensitivity and noise logs, homework-check state, seating chart layouts and exclusions, timetable rows, random challenge history, shared student selection history, and soundscape volume state. Student responses to exit tickets, checking-understanding check-ins, and other push modules are sent to and stored in Firestore (see Section 3), not just kept locally. Firebase sign-in state and the Google access token are stored in browser storage so a lesson can reopen in a new window without reauthenticating, and they are cleared on sign out. This data is stored on the device/browser being used unless sent in a report or saved through a server action.

6. Reports, Emails, and Google Sheets

When you export or end a session, The Teachinator creates a Google Sheet in the signed-in teacher's Google account and may send an email report to that teacher. Those reports can contain student names, emails, attendance status, points, selections, homework status, noise logs, lesson timeline information, reflections, and trend insights. These outputs are stored and governed by the teacher's Google account and school Google Workspace settings.

7. What We Do Not Intentionally Do

The Teachinator does not intentionally sell student data, use student data for advertising, or provide a public directory of classroom data. The app does not intentionally keep full audio recordings from the Noise Meter, whether activated on the teacher's device or a student's device; the Noise Meter uses the microphone locally to estimate noise level and records alert entries, not classroom audio files. Soundscape audio and classroom sound effects (such as buzzer and points sounds) are bundled local assets that play in the browser and are not uploaded to our servers.

8. Service Logs and Security

Hosting, Firebase, Google Cloud, and Google APIs may keep technical logs such as request times, IP-derived request metadata, errors, authentication events, browser information, App Check signals, and other security signals. These logs are used for security, debugging, reliability, and abuse prevention.

9. Access and Retention

As the app owner, TeachSmarts may be able to access Firestore records and service logs for support, debugging, security, and maintenance. Google-created reports remain in the teacher's Google account. Browser localStorage and sessionStorage remain on the user's device/browser. Firebase Authentication in this web app uses browser-local persistence so sign-in state can survive opening the lesson window in a new tab or window. Firestore data is retained until it is deleted, reset through app controls where available, or removed during maintenance or at a user's request where practicable.

10. Your Responsibilities

Teachers and schools are responsible for using The Teachinator consistently with school policy, privacy obligations, and student-data requirements, including for the student portal and any required parental or guardian consent. Do not enter information that you are not permitted to collect or process.

11. Contact

For privacy questions or deletion requests, contact andrew@teachsmarts.com.