Privacy Policy

The short version

• We record how you write, not just what you submit. When you write in EduWrite, every keystroke, deletion, paste, formatting change, undo, and redo is saved with a timestamp, so your instructor can replay how your work developed.
• Your instructor sees it. Instructors of the classes you are enrolled in can replay your writing, read your documents, and see writing-process metrics. EduWrite LLC staff can access it to run and support the service.
• You agree to it in writing. Students give written consent to this recording when they create an account. You can withdraw it at any time.
• We use it for your class, and that’s it. We do not sell your information, share it for advertising, show ads, or build profiles about you for any non-educational purpose.
• We keep your work for 1 year after the end of the course, then delete it — sooner if you or your instructor ask.
• You have rights. You can ask to see, correct, or delete your information by emailing [email protected].

What we record while you write

EduWrite is a writing platform that captures the writing process. While you have a document open in the EduWrite editor, we record each change you make to it:

• each insertion and deletion of text (in practice, every keystroke), where in the document it happened, and the exact time (to the millisecond);
• pastes, including the pasted text;
• formatting changes, undo, and redo;
• writing sessions: when you started and stopped writing, how the session ended (for example, timeout or closing the tab), the browser and device type your browser reports (“user agent”), and your IP address.

We also save your documents themselves, version snapshots of them, and periodic “checkpoints” used to replay your writing quickly.

What we do not record: anything you type outside the EduWrite editor, other browser tabs or apps, your screen, camera, or microphone. We do not use the timing of your typing to identify you.

What your instructor sees

From the writing record, EduWrite calculates writing-process metrics for your instructor, such as writing pace, time spent writing, when and how much you revised, how your document’s structure developed, and how much text was pasted in from elsewhere and whether it was then edited.

These metrics describe your writing process; they are not judgments about you. EduWrite does not label, score, or flag students. EduWrite does not make decisions about you. It does not assign grades or determine academic-integrity outcomes; your instructor and your college make those decisions.

Instructors can also leave comments, annotations, notes, rubric scores, grades, and feedback on your work.

Your consent

We record your writing process because you agree to it. When you create a student account (or, if your account was created for you, for example through your college’s learning management system, the first time you sign in), we show you the consent below and ask you to check a box agreeing to it. Nothing you type is recorded until you agree. Consent is required to use a student account, because recording the writing process is what EduWrite does. This is the exact text you agree to:

I consent to EduWrite LLC recording my writing process in EduWrite: every keystroke, deletion, paste, and edit I make in the EduWrite editor, and the timing of each one. I understand that the professor of each class I am enrolled in, and EduWrite LLC administrators when needed for support, can replay and review my writing process, including automated writing metrics calculated from it. EduWrite LLC keeps this data until 1 year after my course ends, unless it is deleted sooner at my request or my professor's request. EduWrite LLC does not sell or share my information and does not use it for advertising. I am at least 13 years old. I can withdraw this consent at any time as described in the Privacy Policy.

What consenting means. You allow EduWrite LLC to record and keep your writing process as described in this policy, and to show it, with the metrics calculated from it, to the instructors of the classes you are enrolled in and to EduWrite LLC administrators when needed for support. It does not allow any use beyond what this policy describes, and we will ask again before any new use.

Withdrawing consent. You can withdraw your consent at any time by emailing [email protected] or by deleting your account from your profile page. When you withdraw, we stop collecting your writing process and delete your account and its data as described in How long we keep information. Withdrawing does not affect recording that happened before you withdrew. Because EduWrite cannot be used without the recording, talk with your professor about alternatives for completing the course.

Our record of your consent. We keep a record of which version of the consent text you agreed to, under which version of this policy, when, and the IP address and browser details you agreed from. We keep it for as long as your account exists, and it can remain in our backups for up to about 12 months after that.

Information we collect

This table lists every category of personal information we collect, where it comes from, why we use it, how long we keep it, and who it is disclosed to. In the last 12 months we have collected each of these categories. “Service providers” are the hosting, network, and email companies described under Who can see or receive your information.

Your writing record includes keystroke timing. Under California law, keystroke patterns count as “biometric information” when they are used to establish who someone is. We do not use them that way — not to identify you and not to tell people apart. Apart from the account credentials listed above, we do not collect sensitive personal information (such as government ID numbers, precise location, health, or financial information). We do not ask for your age; if we learn that a student is under 16, we treat that student’s information as sensitive and use it only for the purposes in this policy.

We collect only what we need to provide the service. We do not buy information about you from data brokers.

How we use information

We use personal information only to:

• provide the writing platform to you and your class, including writing replay, metrics, feedback, grading, and process reports;
• run your account, send account emails (such as password resets and email verification), and send in-app notifications about your classes;
• keep the service secure, prevent misuse, and fix errors;
• maintain and improve EduWrite for its educational purpose; and
• comply with the law and respond to lawful requests.

We do not:

• sell your personal information, or “share” it for cross-context behavioral advertising (as those terms are defined in California law);
• show advertising, or use your information to target ads to you on EduWrite or anywhere else;
• build a profile about you for any purpose other than your class;
• use your writing to train artificial-intelligence models; or
• use your information for any purpose that is incompatible with the purposes listed here without telling you first and, where the law requires, asking your consent.

These commitments follow the student-privacy practices that California applies to K–12 education services (the Student Online Personal Information Protection Act). That law is written for K–12 schools, but we apply the same practices to college students.

Who can see or receive your information

People

• Your instructors. An instructor can see your documents, writing replay, metrics, and submissions for as long as you are enrolled in one of their classes. This includes all documents in your EduWrite account, not only the ones written for that instructor’s class. When you are removed from a class, that instructor loses access.
• Classmates see the discussion posts you write in a shared class discussion. They do not see your documents or your writing record.
• EduWrite LLC staff (administrators) can access accounts and data when needed to operate, secure, and support the service, or to respond to a request from you or your instructor.
• People with a process report link. You or your instructor can create a shareable link to a writing-process report for a document. Anyone with the link can view that report until the link expires or is deleted, or, for a link your instructor created, until that instructor no longer teaches you. Share these links carefully.

Service providers

We use a small number of companies that process information on our behalf and only to provide their service to us:

• Hetzner — cloud server hosting in the United States, where the EduWrite application, database, search index, and logs run; and encrypted backup storage in Germany.
• Cloudflare — all traffic to EduWrite passes through Cloudflare’s network for encryption (HTTPS), performance, and protection against attacks. Cloudflare processes IP addresses and request data to do this.
• Our email delivery provider — to send account emails such as password resets and email verification. It receives your name and email address and the message content.

Our search index (used to search your documents) and our error, log, and performance monitoring run on our own server; no outside monitoring or analytics company receives your data.

Content loaded from other companies

To display fonts and icons, EduWrite pages load files from Google Fonts and from the unpkg content-delivery network. When your browser loads these files, those companies receive your IP address and browser information. Our homepage also embeds a YouTube video; YouTube (Google) receives your IP address and may set cookies when the page loads or you play the video. None of these companies receive your writing, your account information, or your writing record.

Legal reasons

We may disclose information if the law requires it (for example, a valid subpoena or court order), to protect the safety of any person, or to protect the security of the service. Where the law allows, we will notify you first. If EduWrite LLC is ever reorganized, merged, or sold, any successor must honor this policy for information collected under it.

Your professor and your college

EduWrite is currently being piloted in one course at Saddleback College in California. The professor of that course chose to use EduWrite, and sees your work as described in What your instructor sees.

EduWrite LLC does not have an agreement with Saddleback College or its district and does not act on the college’s behalf. We collect and use your information on the basis of your own written consent (see Your consent) and as described in this policy. Records the college keeps in its own systems, such as the final grades your professor reports to the college, are covered by the college’s policies, not this one.

How long we keep information

We keep your documents, writing-process records, and the metrics and feedback connected to them for 1 year after the end of the course, and then delete them. For the current pilot, the course ends on May 26, 2027, so we will delete that course’s student work by May 26, 2028. We delete it sooner if you or your instructor ask. Other retention periods are listed in the table above.

Backups. We back up our database every night so that work isn’t lost. Backups are kept on our server for up to about 3 months and, encrypted, in off-site storage in Germany for up to about 12 months. When we delete your information, it is removed from the live service right away, but copies can remain in these backups until the backups expire — up to about 12 months after deletion. We do not restore deleted information from backups except to recover from a system failure, and if we ever do, we will delete it again.

If you delete your account from your profile page, your account and the documents and writing records connected to it are deleted from the live service.

How we protect information

• All connections to EduWrite use encryption (HTTPS).
• Passwords are stored only as one-way hashes; two-factor authentication secrets are stored encrypted. Two-factor authentication is available for every account.
• Access is limited by role: students see their own work, instructors see the work of students enrolled in their classes, and only EduWrite LLC administrators have broader access.
• Off-site backups are encrypted before they leave our server.
• Sign-ins, failed sign-in attempts, and administrative actions are recorded in an audit log.

No system is perfectly secure. If a security breach affects your personal information, we will notify you as required by law.

Your choices

• Review and correct. You can see your documents and update your name, email, and password on your profile page. For anything else — including a copy of your writing record — email [email protected].
• Delete. You can delete your account from your profile page, or email us to delete specific information. Your instructor may also ask us to delete course data. Deleting coursework may affect your instructor’s ability to grade it, so you may want to talk with your instructor first.
• Withdraw consent. Writing-process recording is the core of EduWrite, so it cannot be turned off for work written in the editor. You can withdraw your consent, which ends your use of EduWrite — see Your consent. If you have concerns, talk with your professor about alternatives.

California privacy rights

If you are a California resident, the California Consumer Privacy Act, as amended by the California Privacy Rights Act (CCPA), gives you the rights below. We honor these rights for every EduWrite user, wherever you live.

Your rights

• Right to know and access. You can ask what personal information we have collected about you, the categories of sources, our purposes, the categories of people we disclose it to, and for a copy of the specific pieces of information, including your writing record, in a portable format.
• Right to delete. You can ask us to delete personal information we collected from you. We will also tell our service providers to delete it. The law allows some exceptions (for example, information we must keep to comply with a legal obligation or to secure the service); if one applies, we will tell you.
• Right to correct. You can ask us to correct inaccurate personal information. For grades or instructor feedback, we will coordinate with your instructor.
• Right to opt out of sale or sharing. We do not sell personal information or share it for cross-context behavioral advertising, and we have not done so in the past 12 months, including for anyone under 16. There is nothing to opt out of, so we do not offer an opt-out link.
• Right to limit use of sensitive personal information. The only sensitive personal information we collect is your account credentials (and the two-factor authentication secrets you choose to set up). We use them only to sign you in and secure your account — uses permitted by the CCPA regulations — and not to infer anything about you. Because we do not use sensitive personal information for any other purpose, we do not offer a separate “limit” link.
• Right to non-discrimination. We will not deny you service, change the quality of service, or treat you differently for exercising any of these rights. EduWrite is free for students.

How to make a request

Email [email protected] with “Privacy request” in the subject line and tell us which right you want to use. EduWrite LLC operates only online and has a direct relationship with its users, so email is our method for requests.

• Verification. To protect your account, we verify that the request comes from you. Usually that means replying from the email address on your EduWrite account or confirming your request while signed in. For a copy of specific information or a deletion request, we may ask you to confirm details that only you would know, such as the classes you are enrolled in. We use the information you give us for verification only to verify your request.
• Authorized agents. Someone else may make a request for you if you give them signed, written permission. We may ask the agent for that permission and ask you to verify your identity with us directly or confirm that you gave permission. A parent or guardian of a student under 18 may make a request on the student’s behalf.
• Timing. We will confirm that we received your request within 10 business days and respond within 45 calendar days. If we need more time (up to 45 more days), we will tell you why within the first 45 days.
• Cost. Requests are free.

Students under 18

Some college students, such as dual-enrollment high-school students, are under 18. They have every right described in this policy.

• Consent. Students under 18 give the same written consent at signup as other students, and can withdraw it at any time in the same way. A parent or guardian may contact us at [email protected] with questions or to make a request on the student’s behalf.
• Removing what you posted. If you are under 18 and a registered user, you can ask us to remove content or information you posted on EduWrite — for example, a document or a discussion post — by emailing [email protected], or delete documents and your account yourself. We will remove it from public and class view. California law has some limits on this right: for example, it does not require us to remove content that someone else posted or re-posted, or to erase every copy from our systems (such as backups, described above), and removal may not make the information invisible to someone who already copied it.
• No sale, no ads. We do not sell or share anyone’s information, and we never market or advertise to students.
• Children under 13. EduWrite is designed for college courses and is not intended for children under 13. If we learn that a child under 13 has created an account, we will delete it.

Cookies, Do Not Track, and Global Privacy Control

Cookies. EduWrite uses only cookies that are necessary for the service: a session cookie that keeps you signed in, a security token that protects forms against forgery, and, if you choose “Remember me,” a cookie that keeps you signed in longer. Your browser also stores your light/dark theme choice. We do not use advertising or analytics cookies. (The YouTube video on our homepage is the one exception described above.)

Do Not Track. Some browsers send a “Do Not Track” signal. There is no common standard for responding to it, so EduWrite does not change its behavior when it receives one. This makes no practical difference: we do not track you across other websites, and we do not allow third parties to collect information about your activity on EduWrite over time and across websites, except as described above for Google Fonts, unpkg, and the homepage YouTube video.

Global Privacy Control (GPC). GPC is an opt-out preference signal your browser can send to opt out of the sale or sharing of your personal information. Because we do not sell or share personal information, every visitor already receives what GPC asks for, whether or not their browser sends it, and the signal does not change how EduWrite works. If that ever changes, we will update this policy before it takes effect and treat GPC as a valid opt-out request.

Changes to this policy

When we change this policy, we will post the new version on this page and update the effective date at the top. If a change is significant — for example, a new use of your writing record or a new kind of recipient — we will tell you before it takes effect with a notice in EduWrite or by email, and tell your instructor. We will not use information we already collected in a materially different way without your consent where the law requires it.

Contact us

For privacy questions, requests, or concerns, email [email protected]. You can also contact your instructor.