Privacy policy

Who we are

Lofty Grove SHSAT is an online self-study app for the New York City Specialized High Schools Admissions Test (SHSAT). Most of our students are in 7th, 8th, or 9th grade, so many are under 13. This policy explains what we collect, why, and the choices a parent or guardian has. It follows the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA).

The app is operated by Aaron Jung, [Mailing address]. Email: aaron@loftygrove.com.

Parent and guardian accounts

Students cannot create an account on their own. A parent or legal guardian creates the account with their own email address and agrees to this policy before we collect any study data. The student then signs in with that account.

When a parent agrees, we keep a record of the consent: the parent’s email address, the date and time, the policy version and wording agreed to, a scrambled (hashed) form of the internet address, and the browser type. We keep this record to show that a parent gave consent.

One to two days after the parent confirms their email address, we send a second email to that address. It says that an account was created and this policy was accepted, lists what we collect, and explains how to review, download, or delete the data. If you get this email and did not give consent, reply to it or write to aaron@loftygrove.com, and we will delete the account.

What we collect and why

Account information

• The parent’s email address and a password, so the account can sign in and receive account emails. Passwords are stored in scrambled (hashed) form by our sign-in provider.
• The student’s first name or a nickname and grade, so the app can greet the student and suggest the right material.

Study information

• The study profile: the test date, a target score or goal school, study days, weekly study time, a subject focus, and the time zone.
• Study work: answers, whether a hint was used, saved questions, completed lessons, and practice test answers and score estimates.
• Island choices: what the student plants or moves, and a pet’s name if the student picks one.

We use study information to save progress, build the study plan, schedule review, and show score estimates. We do not use it for advertising.

Nothing a student enters is shown to other users. There are no friends, chat, public profiles, or leaderboards. Only the account itself and the people who run the service can see the student’s name, island, and study work.

Question reports

• A student can report a problem with a question. We save the reason, the student’s note, and where the question appeared, so we can fix it. Please do not put personal information in a note.

Technical information

• The browser keeps a sign-in token so the student stays signed in. Sound, theme, and similar settings are saved only in the browser.
• Our hosting providers keep short-term server logs, such as internet address and browser type, to keep the service secure and working.
• We may count page visits with Vercel Web Analytics, which reports totals and does not use cookies or follow visitors across other sites.

What we do not collect

We do not ask for a home address, phone number, photos, audio, or precise location. We do not collect payment information: the app is free and takes no payments. We do not use advertising cookies or ad trackers.

We do not require a child to give more information than the app needs to work.

Who we share information with

We do not sell, rent, or trade personal information, and we do not share it for advertising. We share it only with service providers that help us run the app. They may use it only to provide their service to us:

• Supabase: our database and sign-in service. It stores account and study information.
• Vercel: hosts the website and runs the app’s servers.
• Resend: sends sign-in and account emails to the parent’s email address.

We may also disclose information if the law requires it, or to protect the safety of a child or the security of the service.

How long we keep information

We keep account and study information while the account is open, so the student can continue where they stopped. When a parent deletes the account, we delete the account, its study information, its question reports, and the consent record from our database. Copies in our providers’ backups are removed when those backups expire, within 30 days. We keep a count that an account was deleted, with no personal information.

A parent’s rights and choices

• Review: sign in and choose Settings, then Download my data, to get a copy of the profile, answers, saved questions, and lesson history.
• Correct: change the study profile in Settings at any time.
• Delete: delete the account in Settings. This also stops all further collection.
• Ask us: email aaron@loftygrove.com from the parent email on the account to review, correct, or delete a child’s information, or to withdraw consent. We may ask you to confirm that you are the parent or guardian.

How we protect information

The app uses encrypted connections (HTTPS). Each account can read only its own study history through the app, and answer keys for practice tests stay on our servers until a test is finished. Only people who run the service can reach the database. No system is perfectly secure, so we keep the information we collect small.

Changes to this policy

If we change this policy, we will post the new version here with a new effective date. If a change affects how we use a child’s information, we will email the parent first and ask for consent again when the law requires it.

Contact

Questions about privacy: aaron@loftygrove.com. You can also see the terms of service or the contact page.