Privacy Policy

1. Introduction

Genius Learning, Inc., doing business as Elective Genius ("we," "us," or "our"), operates the electivegenius.com website and the Elective Genius learning platform (the "Service"). This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, disclose, and safeguard information when you or your student uses our Service.

We are committed to protecting student privacy and complying with applicable laws including the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), and applicable state student privacy laws.

2. Information We Collect

2.1 Account Information

• Students: Name, email address, grade level, and parent/guardian contact information
• Parents/Guardians: Name, email address, and payment information (processed by Stripe; we do not store credit card numbers)
• School Administrators: Name, email address, school name, and role

2.2 Educational Records

• Course enrollment and completion data
• Lesson progress and completion status
• Quiz and assessment scores
• Assignment submissions and project work
• Learning journal entries and reflections
• AI tutor conversation transcripts (used solely to improve the learning experience)
• Portfolio content created by the student

2.3 Technical Information

• Device type and browser information
• IP address (used for security and fraud prevention only)
• Usage patterns (pages visited, time spent, features used)

2.4 Information We Do NOT Collect

• Social Security numbers or government IDs
• Biometric data
• Geolocation data beyond country/state level
• Social media profiles or contacts
• Data from other apps or services on the student's device

3. How We Use Information

We use collected information exclusively for the following educational purposes:

• Delivering instruction: Personalizing lessons, generating AI tutor responses, adapting content difficulty
• Tracking progress: Recording completion, scores, and generating transcripts and certificates
• Parent/guardian oversight: Providing progress reports and dashboards to authorized parents/guardians
• School administration: Providing aggregate and individual progress reports to authorized school officials
• Improving the Service: Analyzing usage patterns to improve course content and platform features (using aggregated, de-identified data only)
• Communication: Sending account-related notifications, progress updates, and (with consent) educational content

4. FERPA Compliance

When Elective Genius is used by a school or school district, we function as a "school official" with a "legitimate educational interest" under FERPA (34 CFR § 99.31(a)(1)). This means:

• We use student education records only for the purposes for which we were authorized by the school
• We are under the direct control of the school with respect to the use and maintenance of education records
• We comply with FERPA's requirements regarding the use and re-disclosure of personally identifiable information from education records
• Schools maintain ownership and control of all student education records

Parents and eligible students retain all rights under FERPA, including the right to inspect, review, and request amendment of education records.

5. COPPA Compliance (Children Under 13)

Elective Genius is committed to protecting the privacy of children under 13 in accordance with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) and the FTC's amended COPPA Rule.

What we collect from a child under 13. Only what the educational service requires: the child's first name, and the work they do in lessons — their answers, quiz responses, and their text conversations with our AI tutor, Meri.

What we do NOT do. We do not retain any audio. We do not build or keep a persistent profile of a child under 13 (our tutor's memory feature is turned off for these accounts). We do not show advertising, and we do not sell or share children's personal information. Information is shared only with the service providers that operate Elective Genius on our behalf and use it solely to run the service (our hosting, authentication, database, and AI-tutor providers) — which is not a disclosure to third parties under COPPA.

How we obtain verifiable parental consent. Before we create an account for a child 13 or under, we give the parent or guardian direct notice of the practices above and obtain verifiable parental consent. For families, consent is provided by an authenticated, paying account holder in connection with a monetary transaction (the family-plan payment, which notifies the account holder) together with the parent's affirmative confirmation that they are the child's parent or guardian and consent to the collection described — a method recognized under the COPPA Rule. When the service is used through a school, the school may provide consent on behalf of parents under COPPA's school-authorization guidance, provided the school holds parental consent and the data is used solely for the school-authorized educational purpose.

Your rights as a parent. At any time you may review the personal information we have collected from your child, direct us to delete it, and refuse to permit further collection — from your Parent Dashboard or by contacting us. Deleting the child's account removes their personal information from active systems.

Data retention. We retain a child's personal information only as long as reasonably necessary to provide the educational service, and we do not retain it indefinitely. When an account is deleted, or the information is no longer needed for its purpose, we delete it.

6. AI Tutor (Meri) Data Practices

Our AI tutor, Meri, is powered by Anthropic's Claude API. When students interact with Meri:

• Conversation content is sent to Anthropic for processing and is subject to Anthropic's Privacy Policy
• Anthropic does not use customer inputs or outputs to train their models
• Conversations are used solely to generate educational responses
• Conversation transcripts are stored in the student's learning journal for review by the student and their parent/guardian
• We do not send any personally identifiable information beyond the student's first name to the AI service

7. Data Security

We implement industry-standard security measures including:

• Encryption of data in transit (TLS 1.2+) and at rest
• Secure password hashing (bcrypt)
• Role-based access controls
• Regular security assessments
• Secure hosting infrastructure with automated backups

8. Data Retention and Deletion

• Active accounts: Data is retained as long as the account is active
• Account deletion: Upon request, we will delete all personal information and educational records within 30 days. Aggregated, de-identified data may be retained for service improvement.
• School contracts: Upon termination of a school agreement, all student data will be exported to the school (if requested) and deleted within 60 days
• Inactive accounts: Accounts inactive for 24 months will receive a notification before data is archived or deleted

To request data deletion, contact us at support@electivegenius.com or use the "Delete My Data" option in Account Settings.

9. Third-Party Services

We use the following third-party services to operate the platform:

• Anthropic (Claude API): AI tutor functionality
• Stripe: Payment processing
• Vercel: Application hosting
• Clerk: Authentication services

Each third-party provider is contractually obligated to protect the data they process on our behalf. We do not share student data with any third party for marketing or non-educational purposes.

10. Your Rights

Parents, guardians, eligible students, and school administrators have the right to:

• Access: View all data we hold about the student
• Correct: Request correction of inaccurate information
• Delete: Request deletion of all personal data and educational records
• Export: Download a copy of all student data in a standard format
• Restrict: Limit how we use the student's data
• Withdraw consent: Revoke consent for data collection at any time
• Opt out: Opt out of non-essential communications

11. State-Specific Provisions

We comply with all applicable state student privacy laws. Residents of states with additional privacy protections (including but not limited to California, Colorado, Connecticut, New York, and Illinois) may have additional rights. Contact us for state-specific information.

12. Changes to This Policy

We will notify all users via email and in-app notification at least 30 days before any material changes to this Privacy Policy take effect. Continued use of the Service after changes constitute acceptance.

13. Contact Us

For questions about this Privacy Policy or to exercise your rights:

• Email: support@electivegenius.com
• Website: electivegenius.com/legal/privacy