Privacy policy

Effective date: [date]

Who we are and who this policy covers

SpeedGrade AI is a grading assistant for teachers, operated by [Company legal name], [address] ("SpeedGrade", "we"). It helps teachers grade student work from Google Classroom and from paper tests scanned with a phone, using automated scoring and artificial intelligence (AI). A teacher reviews and approves every grade before it is released.

This policy covers:

• Teachers and school staff who create a SpeedGrade account.
• Schools and districts that use SpeedGrade under an agreement with us.
• Students whose work a teacher grades with SpeedGrade. Students do not use SpeedGrade or create accounts. We process their work only on behalf of their teacher and school.

When we process student information, we act as a service provider to the school, under the school's direction and our agreement with it. The school controls that information.

Information we collect

Category	What	Where it comes from
Teacher account	Name, email address, Google account id, school, role	Google Sign-In and the teacher
Google Classroom data	Classes the teacher connects, assignments, point values, student submissions and their attachments (documents, PDFs, photos), class rosters	Google Classroom and Google Drive, with the teacher's permission
Scanned paper tests	Photos of answer sheets the teacher scans in the app	The teacher's device camera
Answer keys and rubrics	Correct answers, reference answers, grading criteria	The teacher
Grading results	Scores, transcriptions of handwritten answers, feedback, review notes, approval history	Generated by SpeedGrade and edited by the teacher
Payment information	Purchase history and credit balance. Card details are handled by our payment processor, Stripe; we never see or store full card numbers	The teacher or school
Technical data	Device type, app version, IP address, error logs, usage counts	The app and our servers

Student information we keep to a minimum. We store a pseudonymous student identifier instead of a student's name or email. Student names are fetched from Classroom only to show on the teacher's screen and are not stored. The exception: if a teacher adds a student by hand for one assignment because the student isn't on the Classroom class list, we store the name the teacher types, encrypted, with that assignment, so it can be shown with the grade and in the teacher's download. Printed SpeedGrade answer sheets carry a QR code with that pseudonymous identifier only, and their name area is never sent to our AI provider. When a teacher scans a student's own test paper without choosing the student, we find the name line on our own servers and send only an image of that name area to our AI provider to read the handwritten name or student ID; we match it to the class list and do not store it. Before any page is sent to our AI provider to read answers, the name line is blanked out wherever we can find it.

We do not collect information directly from students, and we do not use cookies or tracking for advertising.

How we use information

We use information only to provide SpeedGrade to the teacher and school:

• Import the classes, assignments, and submissions the teacher chooses.
• Read typed, photographed, and scanned student answers, including handwriting.
• Score multiple-choice answers automatically and suggest scores and feedback for written answers using AI.
• Show suggested grades to the teacher for review, and send grades to Google Classroom only after the teacher approves them.
• Track grading credits, process purchases, and show usage history.
• Keep the service secure, fix errors, and keep records required by law.

How AI is used. Written and handwritten answers are processed by our AI provider, Anthropic, acting as our service provider. It receives the answer text or the image of the answers (with the name line blanked out), plus the question, the teacher's answer key, and the rubric. To match a scanned paper to the right student, it may also receive an image of the paper's name area, from which it reads the handwritten name or student ID. It does not receive student email addresses, and it is not sent names from the class list. Our agreement with the provider [states that it does not use this data to train its models and limits how long it keeps it; confirm terms before publishing]. AI suggestions can be wrong, which is why a teacher approves every grade.

What we never do

• We never sell personal information or student information.
• We never use it for advertising, including targeted or interest-based ads.
• We never build profiles of students for any purpose other than the teacher's grading.
• We never use student work, or any data received from Google, to train or improve AI models.
• We never release a grade to Classroom that the teacher has not approved.

Google user data

SpeedGrade's use and transfer of information received from Google APIs, including Google Classroom and Google Drive, adheres to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including its Limited Use requirements, and the Google Workspace user data and developer policy.

In particular:

• We use Google user data only to provide the grading features the teacher sees and uses in SpeedGrade.
• We transfer it only to service providers who help us provide those features (listed below), for security, to comply with law, or as part of a merger or acquisition with the user's prior consent.
• We do not use Google user data to create, train, or improve AI or machine-learning models.
• SpeedGrade staff do not read student work or other Google user data, except when a teacher asks us to help with specific work, for security purposes, or to comply with the law.

Google data we access and why

Google permission	Why we need it
View your Classroom classes	To let you choose which classes to connect
View coursework and student submissions	To import assignments and the answers to grade
Manage coursework grades	To send grades you approve back to Classroom as draft grades
View class rosters	To show student names on your screen and match scanned papers to students
View Google Drive files	To read the documents, PDFs, and photos students attach to their submissions

Students, parents, and schools

FERPA. Student work and grades are education records. We receive them from schools as a "school official" with a legitimate educational interest, under the school's direct control, and we use them only for the purposes the school has authorized. We do not re-disclose them except as this policy and our school agreement allow.

Children under 13 (COPPA). Some students whose work is graded may be under 13. SpeedGrade is used only for school purposes, and we rely on the school's authorization to process students' work on parents' behalf, as the FTC's COPPA guidance allows for educational services. We collect only what grading requires, we do not use it for any commercial purpose, and we keep a written information security program and the retention schedule below, as the amended COPPA Rule requires.

Teachers using SpeedGrade on their own. If a teacher signs up without a school agreement, the teacher confirms they are allowed by their school to use SpeedGrade with student work.

Parents and students. Parents and eligible students can review, correct, or ask to delete a student's information through the school. If a parent contacts us directly, we will direct the request to the school and help the school fulfil it.

State student-privacy laws. We comply with applicable state laws, such as California's Student Online Personal Information Protection Act (SOPIPA).

Sharing

We share information only with service providers that help us run SpeedGrade, under contracts that limit their use to providing services to us:

Provider	Purpose	Data involved
[Cloud host]	Hosting, database, file storage	All service data, encrypted
Anthropic	Reading handwriting, suggesting scores and feedback	Answer text or answer-area images, questions, answer keys, rubrics
Stripe	Processing purchases	Purchaser name, email, payment details

We may also disclose information when required by law, to protect the safety of students or others, or as part of a merger or acquisition, where the successor must honour this policy and our school agreements.

Retention and deletion

Information	Kept for
Student work, images, transcriptions, and suggested grades	Until the school's chosen period ends (default: 1 year after the class ends), then deleted
Approved grades and audit history	Same as above, unless the school asks us to keep them longer
Teacher account	While the account is active; deleted within 30 days of closing it
Google access tokens	Until the teacher disconnects Google or closes the account; then revoked and deleted
Payment and billing records	As long as tax and accounting law requires, [e.g. 7 years]
Backups	Overwritten within [35] days

Teachers can delete a class's data at any time in the app. Schools can ask us to delete all of their data; we confirm in writing when it is done.

Security

We encrypt data in transit and at rest, keep each school's data separated, protect Google access tokens with a dedicated key-management service, limit and log staff access, and test our safeguards regularly under a written information security program. If a breach affects student information, we will notify the affected schools without undue delay and support their notification duties.

Your choices and rights

Teachers can view, export, correct, or delete their data in the app, and disconnect Google at any time from SpeedGrade or from their Google Account's permission settings. Depending on where you live, you may have further rights, such as to know, correct, or delete personal information; contact us to use them. We will not discriminate against anyone for exercising their rights.

Changes

We will tell teachers and schools about material changes at least 30 days in advance and will not use student information in a materially different way without the school's consent.

Contact

[Company legal name], [address]. Email [email protected].