Extra Credit Privacy Policy

Publisher

Extra Credit is published by Choordinator LLC for Android and iPhone/iPad. In the app stores it is called Extra Credit: Math Games. It holds the games The Long Winter, Pushback, Sumhaven and Bloom, with math practice for children. On the Extra Credit website at extracreditmath.org, parents and teachers see how a child is doing and choose what the child practices. This policy covers the game and the website.

What the game sends

From the first launch, without any account:

• A random id. Our server gives each install a random id and a secret key, used only to return the right save and settings to the right game. They are not the phone's advertising id or hardware id.
• A few facts about the install: the platform (Android or iPhone), the app version and the phone model (for example "Pixel 8"). We use them for support.
• The save. After each play session the game sends a copy of its save file. The save holds game progress, the math settings, the game's own record of which math facts were answered right or wrong, and total play time. In Sumhaven it also holds the names a student gives to creatures. Beside each save we keep short labels (such as "Long Winter chapter 3" or "4 creatures"), the minutes played, and the first and last day played. We do not record where in the world the save came from. We never use GPS or ask for location permission.
• The math level. The math level reached in each grade and the result of the first placement questions, so every device of the same player asks at the same level.
• What was played. Which levels were played, won or lost, how long they took, and which upgrades and power-ups were used, under the install's random id, so we can tune the games. It holds no name and no math problems.

Only after a parent or teacher agrees on the Extra Credit website at extracreditmath.org (see below):

• Each math answer: the problem (for example 7 + 8), the answer given, whether it was right, how many seconds it took, whether a help picture was shown, whether the question was read out loud, whether the answer was typed or chosen, the grade and number range in use, and the time on the device with its time zone offset, so "today" on the dashboard is the student's own day.
• Once, the game's record of right and wrong facts from before, so the dashboard starts with what the child already practiced.

Before anyone has agreed, our server stores no math answers. The game keeps them on the device instead. The game keeps up to 500 answers on the device from before a parent links it, and sends them once a parent or teacher has consented; nothing older than that is kept.

Only if a parent or teacher uses these screens (they sit behind the Parents and Teachers page, which opens only after a times-table question, a fact from 6 to 9):

• Join a class: the class code and the name the student picks from the teacher's list or types. That teacher is the only person who sees it.
• Get my saved game: a save code typed to get a saved game onto this device.

Only on a classroom tablet (a teacher sets it up with the class code, under the school's consent):

• Setting up the tablet. On the Classroom tablet screen, a teacher types the class code. The tablet sends that code, its platform (Android or iPhone/iPad), the app version and the device model. Our server gives the tablet a name such as "Tablet 1" and a random secret key. The teacher sees the tablet's name, platform and when it was last used on the class page, can rename it, and can remove it, which stops it working.
• What the tablet downloads. Only the class name, and the first names the teacher put on the roster, each with a picture of an animal. Nothing else about the class or its students.
• How a student signs in. On the Who is playing screen the student taps their name, then taps two secret pictures out of nine (sun, moon, star and so on), unless the teacher has turned picture sign-in off, in which case the name is enough. The two pictures are picked by our server, not by the student, and the teacher prints them on the student's card. They say nothing about the student. We keep only a scrambled form of them, and the tablet keeps a scrambled check so it can confirm them without the internet. After five wrong tries on one name, that name rests for a minute. The wrong tries are counted with a short record, against the student's roster entry and the tablet, not an internet address, that is deleted after about ten minutes. A tablet left alone for ten minutes goes back to the list of names.
• What the tablet sends for a student. After sign-in the student has their own record, named with the first name from the roster, and the tablet sends the same things a phone does: the save, the play time and, because the school has consented, each math answer. They are kept under that student's record, not under the tablet. The student's record also notes which tablet was used, with its platform, app version and device model.
• Nothing else. We collect no personal information from a classroom tablet beyond the first name the teacher typed. The student types nothing, and the game asks for no email, age or location.

The game has no ads, no advertising id, no third-party analytics, no crash reporting, no chat, no purchases and no links out of the app, except an update button on iPhone and iPad that opens the app's own App Store page, behind the parent gate. It contains no third-party software kits. It never sends the phone's hardware id. It keeps a scrambled form of it on the phone only, to notice when its files were copied to a new phone.

The Android app does not use Android Auto Backup. On iPhone and iPad, a device backup to iCloud may copy the app's files to your Apple account. Apple runs that backup under your account, and we cannot see it.

Information the website collects from parents and teachers

• Sign-in: your email address, and your name and picture if you sign in with Google or Apple. Apple lets you hide your email; we then get an address Apple forwards.
• What you enter: a nickname, grade and picture for each student you add, the math settings you choose, and whether you want the weekly email.
• Teachers: the class name, the school's name, the names on your roster, and, if you add one, a school email address we check with a link.
• Payment: if you buy the family plan, Stripe takes the payment. We keep only that the plan was paid and Stripe's reference numbers. We never see your card number.

Consent

Parents. A parent signs in to extracreditmath.org, types the save code shown on the Parents and Teachers page in the game, and ticks a box agreeing that the website keeps a backup of the child's saves and a record of the math problems they answer. That is the parent's consent. A second parent can join with the same code.

Teachers. A teacher makes a class and ticks a box saying they act for their school in allowing the website to keep a record of the math problems the children on their roster answer. Children join from the game, or sign in on a classroom tablet, and appear to the teacher only by the name on the roster. The teacher approves each one who joins from the game; a student who signs in on a classroom tablet is already on the roster the teacher typed, and their answers are kept under the same school consent. A teacher sees a child's progress only while the child is in one of their active classes, and never sees a parent's name or the family's data export.

A child's record keeps answers only while a parent's or a school's consent is in place. When a child leaves their last class and no parent has agreed, the game stops sending answers.

Use of information

Only to run the games and the website: to back up and restore saves, to show parents and teachers progress and let them change practice settings, to send sign-in links and the weekly progress email, and to help a family who writes to us find a lost save. We do not use it for advertising, we do not build profiles for anyone else, and we do not sell or share it.

Service providers

These companies run parts of the service for us. They may use the information only for that:

• Vercel hosts the Extra Credit website at extracreditmath.org and its server.
• Neon runs our database, in the United States (US East).
• Resend sends our emails to parents and teachers.
• Stripe takes payment for the family plan.
• Google and Apple handle sign-in if you choose them.

Everything travels over encrypted connections (HTTPS). We would disclose information only if the law requires it.

Retention

• Saves: the five newest copies of each game's save for a student, plus the current one. Older copies are deleted automatically. When two devices disagree and the game asks which save to keep, the one not chosen is kept for up to 30 days.
• Math answers: each answer is deleted 180 days after it arrives. The daily and per-fact totals made from them stay until the child's record is deleted.
• Answers of a student nobody has consented for: deleted 30 days after the last parent's or school's consent ends, or 30 days after they arrive if there never was a consent.
• Internet addresses, kept only to stop people guessing save codes and to limit how fast new installs register: kept for at most two hours, and cleared each time the service next checks a code or registers an install. Our host keeps short-lived server logs for running the service.
• A student's record (saves, answers, settings and devices) stays until we delete it at your request (a parent who removes the student from their account does not delete it). A child with no parent, no class and no activity from any of their devices for two years is deleted automatically.
• Parent and teacher accounts stay until you delete yours on your Account page on the Extra Credit website at extracreditmath.org, or ask us to.
• Support records: when we help someone, we keep a record of what we looked up or changed, which may include a student's save code. These records are kept so we can account for every support action.

Deleted data is removed from our database at once. Copies may remain in our database provider's recovery backups for a short time until they expire.

Students' privacy

The game is made for students. It does not ask a student for personal information. Before a parent links a child or a teacher is involved, the game sends only a random device id and the game's own save, so the save can be restored on a new phone. This is used for nothing else, which is the kind of internal operation children's privacy law allows without consent. Math answers are stored only with a parent's consent given on the website, or a teacher's consent given for their school. We do not show a student's information to other players, and students cannot talk to anyone through the game. We designed the game and the website to meet the U.S. Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) and Google Play's Families policy.

A parent can review, download or delete what we hold about their child at any time, and can write to us to stop us collecting more.

Your choices

• See and download: on the student's page on the website, Download a copy downloads everything we hold about the student as a file.
• Delete a child: on the student's page, Delete this student removes every save, every answer and every device for that student from the Extra Credit website at once. Nothing is changed on the phone or tablet itself. A teacher's roster keeps the name the teacher typed until the teacher removes it.
• Leave a class: a parent can take the child out of a class on the child's page, and the teacher can also remove them.
• Stop progress emails: use the link in any of them, or turn it off on your account page.
• Delete your account: on your Account page on the website, Delete my account removes your account and your link to every student. The children's games keep working and their saves stay; another parent who is linked keeps seeing them. You can also write to us from your sign-in email.
• Delete a child no parent has added: write to us with the student's save code, and we will delete it.
• In the game: uninstalling the app removes everything on the device. It does not delete the backup on our server. To delete that, use the Extra Credit website or write to us.

Changes to this policy

A changed policy is posted on this page with a new effective date. If we ever want to collect something new from children, we will update this page before that version of the game is released, and ask parents again where the law requires it.

Contact

Questions, requests or concerns about this policy, the game or the Extra Credit website at extracreditmath.org: support@choordinator.com
Choordinator LLC