Privacy Policy

Overview

This is the privacy policy of Elementari, LLC ("we," "us," "our"). It explains what information we collect through elementari.com (the "Site"), how we use and share it, how we keep it safe, and your rights. It applies to everyone who uses Elementari — students, teachers, parents, and guardians. If you're under 13, please read it with a parent, guardian, or teacher.

We've taken the Student Privacy Pledge and built our practices around the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), California's SOPIPA, and the EU's GDPR.

What we collect

Information you give us

• Account. A username and password. We ask for an email for adult accounts (or a parent/guardian's email for under-18s). Student accounts need only a username — no email required.
• Profile. Optional display name, country, bio, avatar, and links. Student profiles are limited to a country and a chosen avatar — no custom uploads, bio, or external links.
• Classrooms. Teachers provide a class name and grade, and may add a student's first name and last initial.
• Your work. The projects you create — stories, games, apps, and more — including text and audio.
• Payments. Subscriptions are processed by Stripe; we never store card details on our servers.
• Messages. Anything you send us when you get in touch.

Cookies & analytics

We use two kinds of cookies:

• Essential cookies keep you signed in and remember your preferences. The Site can't work without these.
• Analytics cookies help us and our analytics providers understand how the Site is used — pages visited, device and browser details, approximate location from your IP — so we can improve it. We also keep short-lived server logs to run the Site securely and prevent fraud.

You can decline cookies in your browser settings, though some features may work less smoothly. We never use cookies to advertise to students. See our third-party services for who we work with.

Children & students

In short: for students under 13 we rely on the school (or a parent) for consent, collect as little as possible, and let teachers and parents review or delete that information anytime. We never target ads to students, build advertising profiles, or sell student data.

Prefer a plain-language summary written for families? See our Children's Privacy Notice.

COPPA

We don't collect personal information from children under 13 without consent. In schools, the teacher or school provides that consent on behalf of parents; at home, we email a parent or guardian to confirm before activating the account. We never require more information than is reasonably needed to use Elementari, and teachers and parents can review, correct, or delete a student's information through Account Settings or by emailing support@elementari.com.

FERPA

We handle student education data on behalf of schools, governed by this policy, any agreement with the educational agency, and applicable state law. Signed Data Processing Agreements are available for schools and districts — request a DPA.

SOPIPA

For students, we do not target ads, build advertising profiles, or sell student information. We use sound security, delete student data when a school requests it, and only ever use de-identified, aggregated data to improve the service. Student projects must be approved by a teacher before they can be seen publicly.

Student comments are private to the classroom

Comments on student projects are private to the student's classroom. Students can only comment on projects within their own classroom, and they cannot comment on projects outside it. People outside the classroom cannot comment on, or even view comments on, projects created by students.

For a plain-language version of this section written for families and schools, see our Children's Privacy Notice.

How we use it

We use your information only to run and improve Elementari:

• to operate the Site and save and display your work;
• to analyze usage so we can make Elementari better;
• to send service messages and, if you opt in, occasional newsletters;
• to keep the Site safe, enforce our Terms, and meet our legal obligations.

For users in the EEA, we rely on a valid legal basis — your consent, performing our contract with you, a legal obligation, or a legitimate interest that doesn't override your rights.

How we share it

We never sell or rent your information. We share it only:

• with service providers who help us run Elementari — limited to the minimum needed, and contractually bound to protect it (see our third-party services);
• publicly, for content you choose to publish — published projects and actions like likes and comments can be seen by anyone and indexed by search engines (this does not apply to students, whose work and comments stay within their classroom unless a teacher approves a project for publishing);
• as aggregated, non-identifying data with partners such as schools and researchers;
• when required by law, or to protect the rights and safety of Elementari, our users, or others;
• in a business transfer, with notice and the same protections — you may end your account first if you object.

Data is stored on Amazon Web Services in the USA. For EEA users, we follow GDPR's privacy-by-design principles, and any cross-border transfer of your data uses appropriate safeguards.

Your rights & choices

In short: update your email, password, and profile (non-student accounts) anytime, opt out of marketing, and delete your account — which permanently removes your data — from Account Settings or by emailing support@elementari.com.

• Access & update. Change your password, email, and profile from Account Settings. Usernames can't be changed.
• Delete. Delete your account anytime; this permanently removes your personal data, projects, and activity.
• Marketing. Unsubscribe from any marketing email (you'll still get essential service messages).
• EEA rights. You may request access, correction, restriction, objection, erasure, or portability of your data, withdraw consent at any time, and lodge a complaint with your supervisory authority.

Security & retention

In short: your data is encrypted in transit (SSL) and stored on AWS; payments run through Stripe with no cards on our servers; access is limited to authorized staff. No system is perfectly secure, so please report anything suspicious.

We keep your information only as long as your account is active or as needed to provide the service and meet legal obligations. Server logs are kept no more than 30 days. Deleting your account removes all associated data from our servers. We may keep de-identified, aggregated data that can't be traced back to you.

Please don't add personal contact details (full name, address, phone, email) into projects, comments, or profiles — use the "Report" link if you see any — and keep your password private. Tell us right away about any suspected breach or unauthorized use of your account.

Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time. We'll never reduce your rights or weaken your data's security without your consent, and we'll notify you of material changes through the Site or by email. The "Last updated" date above shows the latest revision.