Your privacy on Georgia Homeroom

Who we are

Georgia Homeroom is a free, public-interest project operated by Georgia Civic Data. This policy covers our website at georgiahomeroom.org (including the Spanish pages under /es), the chatbot on that site, and the educator connector at mcp.georgiahomeroom.org/mcp.

Georgia Homeroom is an independent project. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or operated by the Georgia Department of Education or any school district. It uses Georgia's public standards; it is not a government service.

If you have any questions about this policy, you can reach us at shane@georgiacivicdata.org.

The short version

Here is the plain-language summary. The rest of this policy fills in the details.

• No accounts, no logins. You never have to create an account or tell us who you are to use the site.
• We do not sell your data. We do not sell or rent your information, we do not show ads, and we do not use your information to build a profile of you.
• Chats are temporary. Your conversation is held in memory to answer your questions during your visit, then automatically discarded. We do not keep a permanent record of your chats.
• Please leave out personal details. The tool only needs a grade and a topic to help. Please do not type a child's name or other identifying information into the chat.
• A few trusted providers help run the service. We use Anthropic to generate answers, and Vercel and Railway to host the site. They are listed below.

Information we collect through the chatbot

When you use the chatbot, we process the questions you type and the answers we generate for you during your conversation. To focus each answer, we also use the simple context you provide: the grade or high school course you select, the subject you are asking about, and, if you happen to mention it in your question, a child's age.

We do not ask for your name, email address, phone number, mailing address, or any payment information, and there is no account to create. The only personal information we receive is whatever you choose to type into your questions, so you stay in control of what you share.

Analytics and performance data

We use Vercel Web Analytics and Vercel Speed Insights to understand which pages people visit and how quickly the site loads, so we can keep it working well. These tools are privacy-friendly by design: they do not use cookies, they do not identify you personally, and they do not track you across other websites.

The analytics record aggregate information such as page views, referring links, the general type of device and browser, and an approximate, country-level location derived from your network connection. This data is used only for overall statistics. You can read how Vercel's analytics work in its analytics privacy overview.

Server logs

Like most online services, our servers keep short-term operational logs so we can run, secure, and debug the service. These logs can include the text of the questions typed into the chat, along with basic technical details such as the time of a request, error messages, and standard connection information (including an IP address, which our hosting provider uses to route and protect traffic).

We use these logs only to operate and improve the service. We do not use them to build advertising profiles, and we do not sell them. They are kept for a limited time and then rotated out (see How long we keep information below).

The educator connector (MCP)

The educator connector at mcp.georgiahomeroom.org/mcpis open to the public and needs no sign-in or account. It lets a teacher or administrator connect Georgia's standards to an AI assistant they already use, such as Claude, ChatGPT, or Gemini.

When a connected assistant asks the connector a question, it sends a search request: for example a topic, a grade, or a standard code. The connector answers only from Georgia's public standards data. It is read-only: it does not write, change, or store anything about you, and it does not collect names, emails, or accounts.

For reliability and debugging, the connector records operational logs of the requests it receives, which can include the search terms the assistant sends. As with our other logs, these are used only to operate the service and are kept for a limited time.

Cookies and local storage

We do not use advertising cookies or cross-site tracking cookies, and our analytics are cookieless (see above).

To make the chat work smoothly, your current conversation is saved in your browser's session storage, a temporary storage area on your own device. This copy stays on your device so your conversation survives a page reload, and your browser clears it when you close the tab. Separately, the questions you send are transmitted to our service to generate answers, as described above.

How we use information

We use the information described above to:

• Answer your questions. Your message, your recent conversation, and the relevant Georgia standards are sent to our AI provider (Anthropic) to generate a response.
• Keep your conversation coherent. We remember the grade and subject you set so follow-up questions make sense during your visit.
• Operate, secure, and debug the service. We use logs and error information to keep the site running and to fix problems.
• Understand overall usage. We use aggregate analytics to see what is helpful and improve the site.

We do not sell or rent your information, we do not use it for advertising, we do not use it to build a profile of you, and we do not use your questions to train any AI models of our own.

Service providers we share data with

We do not sell your data. To run the service, we rely on a small number of trusted providers that process data on our behalf:

• Anthropic (Claude). Generates the chatbot's answers. When you send a message, its text, your recent conversation, and the relevant Georgia standards are sent to Anthropic's API to produce a reply. Anthropic processes this as a service provider under its own privacy policy. Under Anthropic's commercial terms for its API, Anthropic does not use data sent through the API to train its AI models.
• Vercel. Hosts our website and provides the cookieless analytics described above. See Vercel's privacy notice.
• Railway. Hosts the chatbot's backend service and the educator connector, including their operational logs. See Railway's privacy policy.

We may also disclose information if we are required to by law, or where we believe in good faith it is necessary to protect the safety, rights, or security of our users, the public, or the service.

Our answers draw on Georgia's public standards published at case.georgiastandards.org. We read that public data to build our answers; we do not send your personal information to it.

Storage and security

Chat conversations are held in the server's memory only. They are not written to a database or long-term storage, and each conversation is identified by a random session code that is not linked to your identity.

We host the service with established providers (Vercel and Railway) that encrypt data in transit over HTTPS and maintain standard infrastructure security.

No method of transmitting or storing data is completely secure. We work to protect your information, but we cannot guarantee absolute security. Because this is a free service that does not require personal information, please avoid sending sensitive personal details through it (see Children's privacy below).

How long we keep information

• Chat conversations. Temporary. A conversation lives in memory only while it is active and is automatically discarded after a period of inactivity (about two hours after your last message) or when the server restarts. We do not keep a permanent record of your chats.
• Session storage in your browser. Cleared by your browser when you close the tab.
• Server and connector logs. Kept only for a limited time for debugging and security, then rotated out by our hosting provider.
• Analytics. Vercel's Web Analytics keeps only aggregate statistics and does not retain a reconstructable record of your visit (visitor session data is discarded within 24 hours).

Your choices and rights

You can use the entire site without giving any identifying information, and you control what you type, so please share only what you are comfortable having processed.

• Clear your local chat. Close the browser tab (or clear your browser's session storage) to remove the copy of your conversation stored on your device.
• Limit analytics. The site works fully without analytics. You can use your browser's privacy settings or a content blocker to opt out of non-essential analytics.
• Ask us. Depending on where you live, you may have rights to access, correct, or delete personal information, or to object to how it is processed. Because we do not maintain accounts and chats are temporary, we usually hold little or no personal information tied to you. If you have a request or a question, email us at shane@georgiacivicdata.org and we will do our best to help.

We do not sell personal information, and we do not use it for targeted advertising.

Children's privacy

Georgia Homeroom is made for parents, guardians, and educators. It is not directed to children, and it is not intended for use by children under 13.

We do not knowingly collect personal information from children. No personal information is required to use the site, and there are no accounts.

Because the tool is meant to help adults understand what a child is learning, it only needs a grade level and a topic to work. Please do not enter a child's full name, contact information, photo, school or student ID, or other identifying or sensitive personal information into the chat. The assistant does not need it and will not ask for it.

If you believe a child has provided us with personal information, please contact us at shane@georgiacivicdata.org. Because chats are held only briefly and then discarded, such information is typically removed automatically, and we will promptly delete anything brought to our attention.

Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time, for example if we add a feature or change a service provider. When we do, we will update the "Effective date" and "Last updated" shown near the top of this page and post the new version here, at georgiahomeroom.org/privacy (and /es/privacy in Spanish). If a change is significant, we will make it clear on the site. Using the service after an update takes effect means you accept the revised policy.

Contact us

If you have questions about this policy or how your information is handled, please email us at shane@georgiacivicdata.org. Georgia Homeroom is operated by Georgia Civic Data.