SKOOLBETTER
Website: skoolbetter.com
Contact Email: legal@skoolbetter.com
Mailing Address: 25 Palmer Avenue, Swampscott, MA 01907
Privacy Highlights for Students and Parents
This summary is provided in plain language to help students, parents, and guardians quickly understand how SkoolBetter handles your data. The full details follow in the sections below. If there is any conflict between this summary and the full policy, the full policy controls.
What SkoolBetter does:
SkoolBetter syncs with your Google Classroom to create study schedules, break down assignments, track grades, and send reminders. It can also sync tasks with Google Tasks.
What we collect:
Your name, email, Google Classroom data (courses, assignments, grades), Google Tasks data, and study preferences. If you pay for a plan, Stripe handles your payment — we never see your card number.
What we never do:
We never sell your data. We never use student data for ads. We never share your data with advertisers.
Who controls your data:
If your school gave you SkoolBetter, your school controls your education records. If you signed up yourself, you control your data. Either way, you (or your school) can ask us to delete everything at any time.
Age requirement:
You must be 13 or older to sign up on your own. Students under 13 can only use SkoolBetter through a school account.
1. Introduction and Who We Are
Welcome to SkoolBetter. We are an AI-powered student productivity platform that helps students manage their schoolwork by syncing with Google Classroom to generate personalized study schedules, break down assignments, send reminders, and track grades.
SkoolBetter is operated from the United States ("SkoolBetter," "we," "us," or "our"). Throughout this policy, the terms "SkoolBetter," "the Service," and "the application" refer to the same product and are used interchangeably. When we say "you" or "your," we mean you — the student, parent, guardian, or school administrator using SkoolBetter.
We take your privacy seriously, especially because many of our users are students. This Privacy Policy explains what information we collect, why we collect it, how we use and protect it, and what rights you have. We have written this policy in plain language so that students and parents can understand it, while still meeting the legal requirements of federal and state privacy laws.
From the outset, we want to be perfectly clear about our core commitments:
We do not sell your personal data. Ever.
We do not use student data for advertising or marketing profiling.
We do not share data with third parties except as strictly necessary to operate SkoolBetter.
Schools retain full ownership of all student education records.
You or your school can request complete data deletion at any time.
Data is used solely to provide and improve SkoolBetter.
We do not use any analytics tracking tools beyond the operational and technical data described in this policy.
If you have any questions about this policy, please contact us at legal@skoolbetter.com.
2. Scope of This Policy
This policy applies to all users of SkoolBetter. However, SkoolBetter serves two distinct types of users, and the way we handle your data depends on how your account was created.
2.1 School/Institutional Accounts
When a school or school district provides SkoolBetter to its students, the school acts as the operator under federal privacy laws. This means:
Data Processing Agreement (DPA): The school has signed a DPA with SkoolBetter that governs how we handle student data.
Parental Consent: The school is responsible for obtaining any required parental consent, including consent required by COPPA for students under 13.
School Official Status: SkoolBetter processes student data on behalf of the school as a "school official with a legitimate educational interest" under FERPA (the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act), as documented in our DPA with each school. Schools must designate SkoolBetter as a school official with a legitimate educational interest in their annual FERPA notification to parents, as required by 34 CFR §99.31(a)(1)(i)(B).
Record Ownership: The school retains ownership and control of all student education records. SkoolBetter does not claim ownership of this data.
2.2 Individual Accounts
When a student signs up directly (not through a school), different rules apply:
Age Assurance: Individual accounts are available only to users age 13 and older. We use a neutral age-verification process (requesting a full Date of Birth) during signup.
Data Minimization: Information collected solely for age verification is used only to determine eligibility, is not repurposed for marketing, and is deleted immediately if the user is found to be under 13.
Under 13: If you are under 13, our system will block account creation. You may only use SkoolBetter if your school or district provides you with an account through a verified institutional agreement.
If you are not sure whether you have a school account or an individual account, ask your school or contact us at legal@skoolbetter.com.
3. Information We Collect
We only collect information that is necessary to provide and improve SkoolBetter. Here is a complete list of the data we collect, organized by category.
3.1 Account and Identity Information
When you sign up using Google OAuth (Google Sign-In), we receive and store:
Your full name
Your email address
Your Google account ID (a unique identifier)
Your profile picture URL
Your account creation date and last login timestamp
Why we collect this: To create and maintain your account, authenticate you when you log in, and communicate with you about SkoolBetter.
3.2 Google Classroom Data
If you connect your Google Classroom account (or your school does this on your behalf), we access the following data through the Google Classroom API:
Course names, course IDs, and your enrollment status
Assignment titles, descriptions, due dates, and point values
Your submission statuses and grades
Teacher names associated with your courses
Course materials and announcements
Why we collect this: This is the core data that powers SkoolBetter. We use it to generate your personalized study schedules, break down assignments, track your grades, and send you reminders. This information may constitute education records under FERPA when your school uses SkoolBetter; for school accounts, we handle this data only as a school official with a legitimate educational interest, under the school's direct control.
3.3 Google Tasks Data
SkoolBetter integrates with Google Tasks to help you manage your to-do items. We access:
Your task lists and task items
Task titles, notes, due dates, and completion status
SkoolBetter can create, edit, organize, and delete tasks on your behalf as part of the AI-powered study scheduling and assignment breakdown features.
Why we collect this: To sync your study tasks and AI-generated assignment breakdowns with Google Tasks, giving you a unified task management experience across SkoolBetter and Google's ecosystem.
3.4 Subscription and Billing Information
If you subscribe to a paid plan, we store:
Your Stripe customer ID
Your subscription tier (Free, Plus, or Pro)
Your subscription status and current billing period end date
Your Stripe price ID
Important: We never store your credit card number, bank account details, or any raw payment card data. All payment processing is handled entirely by Stripe, a PCI DSS Level 1 certified payment processor. We never have access to your full card information.
3.5 AI Assistant Usage Data
When you use the AI study assistant, we track:
Your daily and monthly message/request counts
Timestamps of your AI usage
Why we collect this: Solely to enforce fair-use limits on your subscription plan. We do not analyze the content of your AI conversations for marketing or profiling purposes.
3.6 Study and Productivity Preferences
To personalize your experience, we store:
Your study schedule preferences (preferred session times and lengths)
Your reminder settings and preferred reminder time
Your timezone
AI-generated study plans and task breakdowns
Why we collect this: To create a personalized study experience tailored to your habits and schedule.
3.7 Communication Data
Records of reminder emails sent to you
Your email opt-in/opt-out preferences
Push notification tokens and preferences, as described in Section 3.8.
Why we collect this: To send you study reminders you have requested and to respect your communication preferences. We do not send marketing emails to students based on their education records and do not share student emails with advertisers. All emails sent by SkoolBetter include our physical mailing address as required by the CAN-SPAM Act.
3.8 Push Notification Tokens
If you enable browser push notifications, we collect and store a device push subscription token — a unique identifier generated by your browser that allows us to send notifications to your device. We collect:
Your push notification subscription token
Your notification preference (enabled/disabled)
Why we collect this: Solely to deliver assignment reminders and study schedule alerts you have requested. We do not use push tokens for advertising, profiling, or any purpose other than sending notifications you have opted into. You can revoke push notification permission at any time through your browser settings, which will immediately stop all push notifications.
3.9 Technical and Session Data
To keep SkoolBetter running securely, we automatically collect:
Session tokens (managed by Supabase)
Your IP address
Your browser type and device type
Assignment sync timestamps and background job logs
Why we collect this: For security, troubleshooting, and ensuring SkoolBetter operates correctly. We do not use this data for tracking, advertising, or behavioral profiling.
4. How We Use Your Information
We use the information we collect for the following purposes and only these purposes:
Providing SkoolBetter: Syncing your Google Classroom data, generating study schedules, breaking down assignments, tracking grades, managing tasks in Google Tasks, and sending reminders.
Account Management: Creating and maintaining your account, authenticating your identity, and managing your subscription.
Personalization: Customizing study plans, reminders, and recommendations based on your preferences and academic data.
Communication: Sending you study reminders, service updates, and important account notifications.
Fair-Use Enforcement: Tracking AI usage counts to manage subscription plan limits.
Service Improvement: Analyzing aggregated, de-identified usage patterns to improve the overall product experience. We do not profile individual students.
Security and Compliance: Protecting against unauthorized access, detecting fraud, and complying with legal obligations.
5. Google API Services — Limited Use Disclosure
SkoolBetter's use and transfer of information received from Google APIs adheres to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements. Specifically:
We only use Google user data (including Classroom and Tasks data) to provide and improve SkoolBetter as described in this Privacy Policy.
We do not use Google user data for serving advertisements.
We do not allow humans to read Google user data unless: (a) we have your affirmative consent, (b) it is necessary for security purposes (such as investigating a bug or abuse), (c) it is necessary to comply with applicable law, or (d) the data has been aggregated and anonymized for internal operations.
We do not transfer Google user data to third parties except as necessary to provide SkoolBetter (as described in Section 9), as required by law, or as part of a merger, acquisition, or asset sale with adequate notice to users.
5.1 Google API Scopes Requested
SkoolBetter requests the following Google API permissions (scopes) during sign-in. We request only the scopes necessary to provide the features described in this policy:
Google Classroom — Announcements (read-only): View announcements in Google Classroom.
Google Classroom — Coursework (read-only): View coursework items including assignments, questions, and grades.
Google Classroom — Student Grades (read-only): View course work and grades for students in the Google Classroom classes you teach or administer.
Google Classroom — Courses (read-only): View your Google Classroom classes.
Google Tasks (full access): Create, edit, organize, and delete all your tasks. This is used to sync AI-generated study plans and assignment breakdowns with your Google Tasks.
We do not request broader scopes than necessary. If you wish to limit the permissions granted to SkoolBetter, you can manage app permissions in your Google Account settings. Note that revoking certain permissions may affect the functionality of SkoolBetter.
6. Student and Children's Privacy (COPPA and FERPA)
Because many of our users are students — including students under 18 — protecting student and children's privacy is central to everything we do.
6.1 COPPA (Children's Online Privacy Protection Act)
COPPA is a U.S. federal law that protects the privacy of children under 13 online. Here is how SkoolBetter complies with COPPA:
For Individual Accounts:
Individual signups require users to confirm they are 13 years of age or older through a neutral age gate during registration that requests a full date of birth.
If a user indicates they are under 13, we do not create an account and do not collect or retain any personal information from that user.
Users under 13 who wish to use SkoolBetter must do so through a school-provisioned account.
For School/Institutional Accounts:
When a school provides SkoolBetter to its students, the school acts as the COPPA operator and is responsible for obtaining verifiable parental consent where required by COPPA, as set forth in the Data Processing Agreement (DPA) between the school and SkoolBetter.
We rely on the school's authorization as consent for the collection of student data for educational purposes, consistent with COPPA's school consent exception (§312.5(c)(3)).
We do not condition a student's participation in educational activities on the collection of more personal information than is reasonably necessary to provide SkoolBetter.
General Children's Privacy Commitments:
We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13 through individual signups. If we discover that we have inadvertently collected personal information from a child under 13 without proper authorization, we will delete that information promptly.
Students under 13 may use SkoolBetter through a school account, where the school has assumed responsibility for COPPA compliance, including obtaining verifiable parental consent as required.
We do not use children's data for advertising, marketing, or profiling.
If you are a parent or guardian and believe your child under 13 has provided personal information to SkoolBetter without proper consent, please contact us at legal@skoolbetter.com and we will take steps to remove that information.
6.2 FERPA (Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act)
FERPA is a U.S. federal law that protects the privacy of student education records maintained by schools. Here is how SkoolBetter complies with FERPA:
Student education records accessed through SkoolBetter — including grades, assignments, course enrollments, and submission data — are protected under FERPA.
SkoolBetter accesses these records as a school official with a legitimate educational interest, as authorized under FERPA §99.31(a)(1) and documented in our DPA with each school.
Schools must designate SkoolBetter as a "school official with a legitimate educational interest" in their annual FERPA notification to parents, as required by 34 CFR §99.31(a)(1)(i)(B).
Schools retain ownership and control of all student education records. SkoolBetter does not claim ownership of this data.
We do not disclose student education records to any third party for non-educational purposes.
Third-party processors (listed in Section 9) that handle student education records do so strictly to provide SkoolBetter and are contractually prohibited from using that data for any other purpose, including advertising or profiling.
Schools and eligible students (students 18 or older, or attending post-secondary institutions) have the right to access, review, and request amendment of their education records. To exercise these rights, contact your school administrator or reach out to us at legal@skoolbetter.com.
Schools can request complete deletion of all student data at any time by contacting us.
7. Legal Basis for Processing (GDPR)
If you are located in the European Economic Area (EEA), the United Kingdom, or another jurisdiction that requires a legal basis for processing personal data, this section applies to you.
7.1 Data Controller
For individual accounts: SkoolBetter is the data controller for your personal data.
For school/institutional accounts: The school or school district is the data controller. SkoolBetter acts as a data processor on behalf of the school, as defined in our Data Processing Agreement.
7.2 Lawful Bases
We process your data based on the following lawful bases:
Contract Performance (Article 6(1)(b)): Processing necessary to provide you with SkoolBetter as described in our Terms of Service.
Legitimate Interest (Article 6(1)(f)): Processing necessary for our legitimate interests, including service security, fraud prevention, and aggregated analytics to improve SkoolBetter.
Legal Obligation (Article 6(1)(c)): Processing necessary to comply with laws such as tax and financial record-keeping requirements for billing data.
Contract with School (Article 6(1)(b) and Article 28): For school accounts, processing is governed by our Data Processing Agreement with the school.
7.3 Data Minimization
We only collect personal data that is necessary to provide SkoolBetter. We do not collect data speculatively or for purposes beyond those described in this policy.
7.4 Data Protection Impact Assessments
Given the sensitivity of educational data and our integration with Google APIs and AI processing, SkoolBetter conducts Data Protection Impact Assessments (DPIAs) periodically and whenever we introduce new processing activities that are likely to result in a high risk to individuals' rights and freedoms.
7.5 International Data Transfers
Your data is stored in the United States. If you are located outside the United States, including in the EEA or UK, your personal data will be transferred to and processed in the United States. We rely on Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs) approved by the European Commission as the legal mechanism for these transfers. The data protection laws of the United States may differ from those in your jurisdiction.
For privacy-related inquiries from users in the EEA or UK, please contact us at legal@skoolbetter.com.
8. How We Share Information
We share your information only in the following limited circumstances:
With Third-Party Service Providers: We share data with the third-party processors listed in Section 9, solely to operate SkoolBetter. Each processor receives only the minimum data necessary for its function.
With Your School (Institutional Accounts): If you use a school-provisioned account, your school may have access to usage data and reports as specified in the school's DPA with us.
To Comply with Law: We may disclose your information if required by law, subpoena, court order, or government request. Where legally permitted, we will notify you before making such a disclosure.
To Protect Rights and Safety: We may disclose information if we believe in good faith that it is necessary to protect the safety of our users, our rights, or the public.
In a Business Transfer: If SkoolBetter is acquired, merged, or sells substantially all of its assets, your data may be transferred as part of that transaction. We will notify you via email or prominent notice on our website before your data becomes subject to a different privacy policy. For school accounts, any transfer will comply with the terms of the applicable DPA.
We reiterate: we do not sell personal data. We do not share personal data with advertisers. We do not share student data for any non-educational commercial purpose.
9. Third-Party Services
We use the following third-party services to operate SkoolBetter. Each processes only the data necessary for its specific function:
Google (OAuth 2.0, Classroom API, Tasks API): Authenticates your identity, provides access to your Google Classroom data, and syncs tasks. Governed by Google's Privacy Policy and API Services User Data Policy.
Stripe: Processes subscription billing and payments. Stripe handles all credit card data directly — we never see or store your full card number. Stripe is PCI DSS Level 1 certified. Governed by Stripe's Privacy Policy.
Supabase: Provides our database hosting and authentication infrastructure. Your data is stored securely in Supabase with Row Level Security policies. Governed by Supabase's Privacy Policy.
Resend: Delivers transactional emails such as study reminders. Resend receives only your email address and message content. Governed by Resend's Privacy Policy.
OpenAI: Powers the AI study assistant and task breakdown features. When you use the AI assistant, relevant academic data (such as assignment details) is sent to OpenAI's API for processing. Per OpenAI's current API Data Usage Policy, data submitted via API is not used for training OpenAI's public models. Governed by OpenAI's API Data Usage Policy.
Vercel: Hosts the SkoolBetter application. As part of standard hosting operations, Vercel may collect server logs including IP addresses, request URLs, and request metadata. Governed by Vercel's Privacy Policy.
Google Cloud Scheduler: Manages background job scheduling for data sync and reminder delivery. Triggers scheduled tasks using internal job identifiers and does not directly store, process, or have access to personal user data.
Each of these services maintains its own privacy and security standards. We encourage you to review their respective privacy policies. We select processors that maintain appropriate security measures and, where applicable, we enter into data processing agreements with them.
Analytics disclosure: SkoolBetter does not use any third-party analytics or tracking tools (such as Google Analytics, PostHog, Plausible, or similar). The only usage data we collect is the operational and technical data described in Sections 3.5 and 3.9 of this policy.
Important note regarding OpenAI: If SkoolBetter changes its AI provider in the future, this policy will be updated accordingly and users/schools will be notified of any material change in how AI processing is handled.
10. Your Rights and Choices
Depending on where you live, you may have specific legal rights regarding your personal data.
10.1 Rights Available to All Users
Regardless of your location, all SkoolBetter users can:
Access your data: Request a copy of the personal data we hold about you.
Delete your data: Request deletion of your account and associated personal data. We will process deletion requests within 30 days.
Correct your data: Request correction of inaccurate or incomplete personal data.
Manage email preferences: Opt out of reminder emails at any time through your account settings or by contacting us.
Disconnect Google services: Revoke SkoolBetter's access to your Google Classroom and/or Google Tasks data at any time through your Google Account permissions (myaccount.google.com > Security > Third-party apps).
To exercise any of these rights, contact us at legal@skoolbetter.com.
10.2 California Residents (CCPA/CPRA)
If you are a California resident, the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), as amended by the California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA), provides you with the following additional rights:
Right to Know: You have the right to request that we disclose the categories and specific pieces of personal information we have collected about you, the categories of sources from which we collected it, our business purpose for collecting it, and the categories of third parties with whom we share it.
Right to Delete: You have the right to request that we delete the personal information we have collected from you, subject to certain legal exceptions.
Right to Correct: You have the right to request correction of inaccurate personal information.
Right to Opt Out of Sale or Sharing: We do not sell or share (as defined by the CCPA) your personal information. Therefore, there is no need to opt out — but we state this right for transparency.
Right to Non-Discrimination: We will not discriminate against you for exercising any of your CCPA rights.
Right to Limit Use of Sensitive Personal Information: We only use sensitive personal information as necessary to provide SkoolBetter.
To submit a CCPA request, contact us at legal@skoolbetter.com. We will verify your identity before processing any request. You may also designate an authorized agent to make a request on your behalf.
In the preceding 12 months, we have collected the categories of personal information described in Section 3. We have not sold personal information and have not shared personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising.
10.3 European Economic Area, UK, and GDPR Jurisdictions
If you are located in the EEA, UK, or another jurisdiction covered by GDPR, you have the following rights:
Right of Access (Article 15): Obtain a copy of your personal data and information about how we process it.
Right to Rectification (Article 16): Request correction of inaccurate or incomplete personal data.
Right to Erasure (Article 17): Request deletion of your personal data, subject to legal exceptions.
Right to Data Portability (Article 20): Receive your personal data in a structured, commonly used, machine-readable format and transmit it to another controller.
Right to Restriction of Processing (Article 18): Request that we restrict processing of your data in certain circumstances.
Right to Object (Article 21): Object to processing based on legitimate interest. We will stop processing unless we have compelling legitimate grounds that override your interests.
Right to Lodge a Complaint: You have the right to file a complaint with your local data protection authority (supervisory authority) if you believe your rights have been violated.
To exercise these rights, contact us at legal@skoolbetter.com. We will respond within 30 days (or within the timeframe required by applicable law).
10.4 School Accounts
If you use SkoolBetter through a school account, some rights related to student education records must be exercised through your school. Your school is the data controller for education records under FERPA, and you should contact your school to exercise rights related to those records. We will cooperate with your school to fulfill any such requests.
11. Data Retention
We retain your data only as long as necessary to provide SkoolBetter and comply with legal obligations:
Active accounts: Account data is retained for as long as your account remains active.
Account deletion: Upon account deletion, we delete your personal data from production systems within 30 days of receiving your request. Personal data in encrypted backups is purged within 90 days as backup rotation cycles complete. During this period, backup data is not actively used or accessible for any purpose other than disaster recovery.
Billing records: Billing and financial records may be retained for up to 7 years as required by tax and financial record-keeping laws, even after account deletion. These records include only payment metadata (dates, amounts, plan types), not your full personal profile.
Operational logs: Background sync logs and operational data are retained for a maximum of 90 days for troubleshooting purposes and then automatically purged.
School accounts: School account data is retained in accordance with the terms of the DPA with the school. Upon termination of the DPA or at the school's request, all student data is deleted from production systems within 30 days and from backups within 90 days.
Anonymized data: If we anonymize data, we remove personal identifiers so that the data can no longer be linked to an individual, and we may use anonymized data to improve SkoolBetter.
12. Security
We implement industry-standard security measures to protect your data:
Encryption in Transit: All data transmitted between your device and our servers is encrypted using HTTPS/TLS encryption.
Database Security: Your data is stored in Supabase with Row Level Security (RLS) policies enforced, meaning each user can only access their own data at the database level.
Access Controls: Access to production systems and databases is restricted to authorized personnel only.
Payment Security: All payment data is handled by Stripe, which is PCI DSS Level 1 certified — the highest level of payment security certification.
Third-Party Standards: Our third-party service providers (Supabase, Stripe, Google, Vercel, OpenAI, Resend) each maintain their own security certifications and compliance standards.
While we use commercially reasonable measures to protect your data, no method of electronic storage or transmission is 100% secure. If you become aware of a security vulnerability, please contact us immediately at legal@skoolbetter.com.
13. Breach Notification
In the event of a data breach that compromises the security, confidentiality, or integrity of your personal data, SkoolBetter will take the following steps:
Assessment: We will promptly investigate the scope and impact of the breach.
Notification to Authorities: Where required by law, we will notify relevant data protection authorities. For users in the EEA or UK, we will notify the appropriate supervisory authority within 72 hours of becoming aware of a breach, as required by GDPR Article 33. For breaches affecting Massachusetts residents, we will notify the Massachusetts Attorney General and the Office of Consumer Affairs and Business Regulation as required by Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 93H, §3.
Notification to Users: If a breach is likely to result in a high risk to your rights and freedoms, we will notify affected users without undue delay through email or prominent notice on our website.
Notification to Schools: For school accounts, we will notify the school's designated administrator in accordance with the DPA and applicable state breach notification laws.
State Law Compliance: We will comply with all applicable state breach notification laws, including California Civil Code §1798.82, Massachusetts General Laws chapter 93H, and any other state-specific requirements that apply based on where affected users reside.
We maintain internal incident response procedures to ensure timely detection, containment, and remediation of security incidents.
14. Changes to This Policy
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices, technology, legal requirements, or other factors. When we make changes:
We will update the "Effective Date" and "Last Updated" dates at the top of this policy.
For material changes (changes that significantly affect how we handle your data), we will notify you by email or through a prominent notice within the application at least 30 days before the changes take effect.
For school accounts, we will notify the school's designated administrator of material changes in accordance with our DPA.
Your continued use of SkoolBetter after the effective date of a revised policy constitutes your acceptance of the changes. If you do not agree with the revised policy, you should discontinue use of SkoolBetter and request deletion of your account.
15. Contact Us
If you have any questions, concerns, or requests related to this Privacy Policy or your personal data, please contact us:
SkoolBetter
Email: legal@skoolbetter.com
Website: skoolbetter.com
Mailing Address: 25 Palmer Avenue, Swampscott, MA 01907
We will respond to all legitimate inquiries within 30 days. If we need additional time, we will notify you of the extension and the reason for the delay.