DecodeDeskBefore publishing: replace the bracketed items and have an attorney familiar with FERPA, COPPA and your states' student-privacy laws review this page. Delete this notice once reviewed.
Trust Center
A plain-language summary for schools, districts and practices of how DecodeDesk protects the students you teach. For the full legal terms, see our Privacy Policy, Terms and Data Processing Agreement.
Our commitments
- Your data is yours. Educators and schools own the records they enter. We use them only to provide DecodeDesk to you.
- No selling, no advertising, no profiling. We never sell student data, never use it for advertising, and never build student profiles for any purpose other than the service.
- Minimal data. DecodeDesk asks for a display name (initials or a nickname are enough) and grade. It never asks for birthdates, ID numbers, addresses or diagnoses.
- No trackers. The app loads no third-party analytics, advertising or tracking scripts, and its security policy blocks outside scripts.
Security
| Area | What we do |
|---|---|
| Encryption in transit | All traffic uses HTTPS (TLS). Plain HTTP is redirected. |
| Encryption at rest | Every student-related record is encrypted with AES-256-GCM before it reaches the database. Backups are encrypted too. |
| Sign-in | Passwords are stored only as salted one-way hashes. Accounts lock after repeated failed attempts. Two-step sign-in (authenticator app plus backup codes) is available to everyone, and account owners can require it for their whole team. |
| Access control | Roles limit what each person sees: owners, tutors (only their assigned students) and office staff (scheduling and billing, with no lesson data). |
| Activity log | Sign-ins, failed sign-ins, security changes and every create, change and delete are logged (never the record contents). Account owners can review and export the log. |
| Application security | Strict Content Security Policy, protection against cross-site request forgery, rate limiting on sign-in and sensitive actions, and security headers on every page. |
| Backups | Encrypted backups are made nightly and test-restored regularly. The newest [14] are kept, with an optional encrypted copy in separate storage. |
| Monitoring | Server errors alert our team immediately, and site availability is monitored. |
FERPA
When a school or district uses DecodeDesk, we act as a school official with a legitimate educational interest, under the school's direct control with respect to the use and maintenance of education records. We use education records only to provide the service, don't re-disclose them except to the subprocessors listed below (who are bound by equivalent obligations), and return or delete them at the school's direction.
COPPA and families
Students don't create accounts or give us information directly. Teachers enter lesson data. Schools provide consent on parents' behalf where COPPA allows it for educational use; independent practices get consent from the family. The optional family home portal uses a private link the teacher creates and can turn off at any time. It shows that family only their own child's practice, progress and schedule.
Subprocessors
We share data only with the providers needed to run the features you use:
| Provider | Purpose | Data involved | When |
|---|---|---|---|
| [HOSTING PROVIDER] | Hosting, database, email delivery | All service data (encrypted at rest) | Always |
| Stripe, Inc. | Subscription billing; optional family card payments and autopay | Account billing contact; invoice number, amount and billing email for family payments; for autopay, the client's name and email. Card details go directly to Stripe. | When paying, or when a practice turns on card payments |
| Anthropic, PBC | Optional AI help | Only the text of that request, with student names replaced by a placeholder. Never sent: names, notes or IDs. | Only if the account owner turns AI help on |
| Twilio Inc. or Quo (OpenPhone Technologies) | Optional text messages | A family's phone number and the text (reminder: practice name, student display name, lesson time, video link; or a teacher's short note) | Only if a practice connects one, and only to families who agreed to texts |
| Google LLC, Microsoft Corporation, Clever Inc. | Optional sign-in | Only what the provider returns when a user chooses to sign in with it: name, email, account number and organization | Only for users who sign in with that provider |
| Intuit Inc. (QuickBooks Online) | Optional accounting sync | Billing clients' contact details, invoices (service lines with student display names) and payments | Only if a practice connects QuickBooks |
| Zoom Video Communications | Optional meeting creation | A meeting title ("Reading lesson" plus a display name) | Only if a practice connects Zoom |
| [VIDEO RELAY PROVIDER, e.g. Metered] | Optional relay for video calls on restrictive networks | Encrypted media it cannot view | Only if enabled and needed |
| [OFF-SITE BACKUP PROVIDER] | Optional encrypted backup copies | Encrypted backup files | If configured |
Data location, retention and deletion
- Data is stored in [HOSTING REGION, e.g. the United States].
- Educators can export all their data at any time (Settings → Export all data) and delete any student or their whole account.
- Deleted data is removed from the live database immediately and disappears from rolling backups within [14] days.
- When a school ends its agreement, we delete its data within [30] days of the request, or return it first if asked.
Incident response
If we learn of unauthorized access to customer data, we will investigate right away, contain it, and notify affected customers without undue delay, and in any case within [72 hours] of confirmation, with what happened, what data was involved, and what we're doing about it. We will cooperate with schools on any notifications they must make.
Accessibility
We aim to meet WCAG 2.1 Level AA. See our Accessibility statement.
Contact
Security or privacy questions, or to request a signed Data Processing Agreement: [PRIVACY EMAIL]. To report a security issue: [SECURITY EMAIL].
[LEGAL BUSINESS NAME] · [MAILING ADDRESS] · Last updated [DATE]