Student data & privacy for classrooms

Syllables World's class codes are designed so there is almost nothing to protect: no student accounts, no student emails, no passwords, no photos, no last names. This page is written so a teacher can hand it to a school's IT or privacy officer.

What we store for a class

  • About the teacher: the name they typed, an optional class name and grade, and — only if they sign in with Google — their Google account email and profile picture.
  • About each student: a display name the teacher supplies (a first name, or "Maya B." when two Mayas share a class). Nothing else identifies the child.
  • Practice results: which game and level was played, which words were answered correctly, and when. These attach to the display name so the teacher can see who needs help with what.
  • A device id: a random number the browser keeps so that anonymous practice (no class code) can be counted. It is not linked to a name, and no IP address is stored with results.

What we never do

  • Collect personal information from children directly. Students type a class code and tap a name from the roster their teacher made.
  • Show advertising on pages a student reaches while joined to a class.
  • Share, sell or use student practice data for anything other than that class's dashboard. Data is visible only to the teacher who owns the class.
  • Build profiles across classes, schools or years.

Control and deletion

  • Teachers can rename, deactivate or delete any student themselves, and delete the whole class. Deleting a student anonymises their results (the name is removed; aggregate counts stay).
  • A deleted class can be restored for 30 days, then it is gone.
  • Classes with no activity for 24 months are anonymised after an email warning to the teacher.
  • Teachers can export everything their class produced as CSV at any time, free or paid.

Regulatory posture

COPPA (US): a teacher-mediated model — the school provides the roster, the platform collects no personal information from children beyond a session identifier. FERPA: results tied to roster names are treated as education records; we act as a school official and never make secondary use of them. GDPR/UK GDPR: data minimisation by design; deletion rights are the controls above. This posture is under counsel review before any paid tier launches; this page is updated when that review completes.

Questions

Contact the site via the address on our privacy policy. Teachers set up a class at /games/teacher/; students join at /join/.