Privacy

Last updated: 2026-10-21

Parent-friendly summary

  • ✅ All apps are free, forever. No subscriptions, no ads, no in-app purchases, no recurring fees.
  • ✅ In our apps and web games, your kid's data stays on their device. The few web features that talk to our servers are listed below, each with exactly what it sends.
  • ✅ No third-party SDKs in the apps. We use only Apple frameworks plus our own open-source ForgeKit.
  • ✅ We collect no personal information from children, in line with COPPA (updated by the 2026 FTC amendments). Opt-in consent default for anything that would require it.
  • ✅ Our website uses Plausible and Cloudflare Web Analytics (both privacy-first, no cookies) to count visits and measure how fast pages load. They also see how far down a page people scroll and how long they stay, the country or city, the browser and device type, and which site sent the visit. We count a few anonymous actions too: a story’s audio started or finished, and on our /method page, the demo tried, the main button tapped, or the page read halfway. We see which page or story, never who.
  • ✅ When you tap ♥ to save an app, game, or story, your list of favorites stays only on your own device. We count likes anonymously to recommend popular items — we never store who liked what.

Web features that use our servers

Almost everything runs in your browser. These are the only places the website sends something to a server, and what each one sends.

  • TutorForge study helper (/api/tutor). If you add notes, a PDF, or photos to make a study pack, they go through our server to Anthropic (the company that makes the Claude AI model), which writes the quiz, flashcards, and study guide. We don't store what you send. Anthropic's service keeps API requests for up to 30 days under its own retention policy. Only add material you're comfortable sharing that way, and leave out names, faces, and anything personal. Everything else in TutorForge works without uploading.
  • Play together (/api/room). A room code connects two or more devices. The game moves, preset emotes, and a generated nickname pass through our server while you play. Each browser tab also sends a random code made up for that one room, so a player who reloads or reconnects in the same tab gets their own seat back. It says nothing about who you are and is deleted with the room. There is no chat, and the room is deleted shortly after everyone leaves.
  • Likes (/api/feedback). Tapping ♥ adds one to an anonymous count for that item. No identifier is sent and we never store who liked what (see above).
  • Optional older-learner accounts (/api/account). Only if a 13–18 learner turns one on; what it stores is described in the section below.
  • Learning-evidence counts (/api/efficacy). Built but switched off. If we ever turn it on, it will send only anonymous, bucketed totals (never anything that identifies a learner), and this page will say so first.

Optional accounts (older learners, 13–18)

Everything below stays true by default — no account, and nothing that names you leaves your device. A few of our board, puzzle, logic, and cube apps for ages 13–18 offer one optional extra: a free, private account so your progress can follow you to your other devices. It is always opt-in, and every app works fully without it — the account never unlocks or gates any learning.

  • ✅ Pseudonymous — no personal information. Sign-in uses a device passkey; we ask for no name, email, or age. Your account is an opaque id, never a profile.
  • ✅ For ages 13–18 only. Younger apps (under 13) never offer accounts.
  • ✅ Only your progress syncs. Game/solve history and progress — no browsing, no behavioral tracking, no per-child activity log.
  • ✅ Delete anytime, one tap. Deleting erases the cloud copy immediately; the progress on your device is untouched.
  • ✅ No ads, no selling data, no profiling. Calm progress only — no leaderboards-to-chase, streaks-guilt, or engagement dark patterns.
  • ✅ Abuse protection only. Creating or recovering an account runs a privacy-preserving Cloudflare Turnstile check (not a tracker) on our main site.
  • ✅ Class & family accounts (optional). A teacher or parent may provision pseudonymous learner accounts and see each learner's own progress summary — a handle and progress only, never a name or a behavioral log. They can hand out a recovery code, reset a learner's codes, or remove a learner. Note: resetting a learner's recovery codes lets whoever holds a code set up that account on a new device — so it grants access to the account, intended for helping a locked-out learner. Class roster →

Links to our sister site (Fold Commons)

Our partners page and the protein-structure pathway link to foldcommons.org, a free sister project. When you tap to load its 3-D structure viewer, your browser loads the open-source Mol* viewer and protein structures from the AlphaFold Protein Structure Database (alphafold.ebi.ac.uk, run by EMBL-EBI) — a third party — directly, and only after your explicit tap. Our own pages are served by Cloudflare with no third-party trackers; nothing about you is sent to Fold Commons or EMBL-EBI beyond the ordinary web request your browser makes to open a page you chose. Fold Commons shares our posture: free, on-device, no accounts, nothing tracked.

Founding families (grown-ups only)

If a grown-up chooses to join our founding families, we keep their email address and our own short notes from a monthly call, in our email account only. We never ask for a child's name, photo, school or recording, we don't record calls, and we don't share or sell anything. The apps and the website collect nothing for this. Ask us at privacy@sparkanvil.org and we delete your email and notes.

Full privacy policy

This is a placeholder for the full legal privacy policy. Will be drafted by counsel before public launch, covering: data collected (no personal data from kids; anonymous, aggregate website analytics from every visitor, children included — the list is above), data retention (no kid data retained — there's nothing to retain), third-party services (Plausible and Cloudflare Web Analytics on the website; Anthropic for the TutorForge study helper, see above), parental consent flows, data deletion rights, contact information, and policy update procedures.

Until the full legal version ships, the parent-friendly summary above accurately describes our data practices. For questions: privacy@sparkanvil.org.