COPPA Compliance & Student Privacy

Our Commitment to Children's Privacy

Argraide is fully committed to complying with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) and protecting the privacy of all students using our Platform. We have designed our system from the ground up to eliminate the collection of personal information from children.

Our approach goes beyond compliance: we believe that the best way to protect student data is to simply not collect it in the first place.

Zero Personal Identifiable Information (PII)

Our "Zero-PII Architecture" means we do NOT collect any Personal Identifiable Information from students:

• No Names on Accounts: Student accounts never ask for real names. (In optional live classroom sessions, a student may type a first name or nickname so the teacher can follow along; these are shown only to the teacher and automatically deleted after 30 days.)
• No Email Addresses: Students do not need or provide email addresses.
• No Phone Numbers: No phone numbers are collected.
• No Typed Passwords: Students sign in with a three-emoji code they choose, stored only as a one-way hash, instead of a traditional password.
• No Photos: We do not use cameras or collect images of students.
• No Location Data: We do not track or store student locations.

How Student Authentication Works

We use an innovative "Emoji Passport" system for student authentication:

• A student joins with the class code their teacher shares. No account is created by anyone else on their behalf.
• The Platform generates a random username, and the student picks a three-emoji code (e.g., 🚀🦁🍕) as their sign-in.
• Students sign in with that username and emoji code.
• Teachers may add a nickname to a student in their class roster so they know who is who. The nickname is encrypted in the teacher's browser with a key generated on that device; Argraide stores only the encrypted text and never receives the key.

Result: Emoji codes are stored only as one-way bcrypt hashes, never in plaintext. Even if our database were ever compromised, an attacker would find hashed credentials, anonymous progress records and encrypted nicknames they cannot read—no way to identify any individual student.

Data We Collect from Student Accounts

The only data associated with student accounts is:

• Activity Progress: Scores, completion status, per-question results (attempts, how close a wrong answer was), hints used, time spent, and XP earned.
• AI Helper Summaries: If the teacher has the optional in-activity helper turned on and the student uses it, a short AI-written summary of the help session is kept for the teacher. The conversation itself is not stored. Teachers can turn the helper off for any activity, and an organization-wide switch for schools is planned.
• Avatar Preferences: Cosmetic choices for their in-platform avatar, and a language preference.
• Class Membership: Which class code they belong to.

This data is used solely to provide the educational service and is viewable only by the student's authorized teacher.

Community Impact Grants & Students

Argraide donates 1% of annual platform profits to charitable causes aligned with UN Sustainable Development Goals. Teachers vote annually to determine which SDGs receive funding. Regarding this feature:

• Voting is open to teachers only. Students are not involved in charity selection.
• No student information is ever shared with charitable organizations.
• Students may learn about the chosen charitable causes as an educational component, controlled by the teacher.

What We Do NOT Do

• We do NOT sell student data to anyone, ever.
• We do NOT use student data for advertising or marketing.
• We do NOT share student data with third parties, other than the service providers that run the Platform (listed in our Privacy Policy) and as required by law.
• We do NOT create behavioral profiles of students.
• We do NOT use AI to make decisions about students. The optional in-activity helper answers a student's questions during an activity and writes a short summary for the teacher; it never grades, ranks or profiles anyone. Grading is done by the activity's own rules, not by an AI judging the student.
• We do NOT use student data to train AI models.

School Consent & Teacher Responsibility

Under COPPA, schools may consent to the collection of student information on behalf of parents when the information is used solely for educational purposes. Since Argraide does not collect personal information from students, this consent requirement is simplified:

• Schools authorize teachers to create anonymous student accounts.
• Teachers are responsible for maintaining their own records of student identity.
• Teachers control what activities students can access and when.

Schools should still notify parents about the use of Argraide as part of their standard educational technology communications.

Parental Rights

Under COPPA, parents have the right to:

• Review their child's personal information.
• Request deletion of their child's information.
• Refuse further collection.

Since Argraide does not collect personal information from students, there is typically no personal information to review. However, parents may request that their child's anonymous account and associated progress data be deleted by contacting us.

Data Retention & Deletion

• A student can delete their own account from their dashboard at any time; a teacher or school can ask us to delete any student or class.
• Live classroom session data (display names and typed responses) is automatically purged 30 days after the session.
• When an account is deleted, its progress records and any AI helper summaries are permanently removed.

Global Privacy Standards

Our Zero-PII Architecture is designed to meet or exceed privacy standards globally, including:

• COPPA and FERPA (United States), where we act as a service provider to the school
• State-level student privacy laws (e.g., California SOPIPA)
• PIPEDA, and Ontario's MFIPPA and Bill 194 (Canada)
• Privacy Act 2020 (New Zealand)
• GDPR (European Union)

By not collecting personal information, we simplify privacy compliance across jurisdictions.

Contact Us

If you have questions about our COPPA compliance, student privacy practices, or believe we may have inadvertently collected personal information from a child, please contact us immediately:

support@argraide.com

For general policies, see our Privacy Policy and Terms of Service.