Privacy Policy

Last updated: March 25, 2026

1. What We Do

teachwithcolin is an AI-powered essay grading platform. Teachers upload student essays, and the app grades them against a rubric, producing individual feedback reports and a class gradebook.

2. Information We Collect

• Google account info: Name, email address, and profile picture via Google OAuth sign-in.
• Google Drive data: We access only files and folders you explicitly select through our folder picker. We use the drive.file scope, which limits access to files created by or opened with this app.
• Student essays: Essay files you upload or select from Google Drive for grading.
• Rubric files: Rubric documents you upload for AI parsing.

3. How We Use Your Data

• Essay grading: Student essays are sent to Anthropic's Claude AI for grading against your rubric. Anthropic does not use this data for model training. See Anthropic's Privacy Policy.
• Report generation: Grading results are used to generate .docx feedback reports and .xlsx gradebook files.
• Google Drive delivery: Output files are uploaded to your Google Drive in a folder you designate.

4. Google API Services — Limited Use Disclosure

Specifically:

• We only request the minimum scopes needed (drive.file, openid, email, profile).
• We do not sell, rent, or share Google user data with third parties.
• We do not use Google user data for advertising.
• Google OAuth tokens are encrypted at rest using Fernet encryption.
• You can revoke access at any time via your Google Account permissions or the in-app token revocation option.

5. AI Processing Disclosure

• Student essays are processed by Anthropic's Claude AI solely for the purpose of grading.
• Anthropic does not use API-submitted data for model training (per their Usage Policy).
• AI interactions are logged for audit purposes and retained for 90 days.
• We track token usage (input/output) per grading result for billing and cost monitoring only.

6. Student Data (FERPA Context)

If you are a teacher at a U.S. educational institution, student essays may contain personally identifiable information (PII) subject to FERPA. We implement the following safeguards:

• PII scrubbing is applied before AI processing where possible.
• Student identities are tokenized internally (StudentIdentityMap).
• A nightly purge process removes expired student data.
• Audit logs track all data access and processing events.

7. Data Retention

• Uploaded essay files are stored on our servers only during the grading process and are deleted after output delivery.
• Grading results and metadata are retained until the teacher deletes the associated assignment.
• AI audit logs are retained for 90 days, then permanently deleted.

8. Data Security

• All data in transit is encrypted via HTTPS/TLS.
• Google OAuth tokens are encrypted at rest using Fernet symmetric encryption.
• The database is hosted on Railway with managed security and backups.
• Application secrets are managed via environment variables, never committed to code.

9. Your Rights

You can:

• Revoke Google access at any time (via the app or Google Account settings).
• Delete your assignments and all associated data.
• Request a copy of your data by contacting us.
• Request account deletion by contacting us.

10. Contact

For privacy questions or data requests, please contact us at privacy@teachwithcolin.com.