Privacy Policy

Information we collect

• Parent/guardian account: your email address, a password (stored in hashed form, never in plain text), and your subscription status.
• Your child's learning profile: the first name or nickname you enter, grade level, curriculum or region, and learning preferences (teaching style, strengths, and focus areas).
• Learning activity: as your child works with the tutor we record what they practiced — the topic, whether answers were correct, problems attempted, progress and accuracy, session times, and your weekly check-in choices. Messages and any photos of schoolwork are sent to our AI provider to generate replies (see “How AI is used”), but we do not store full chat transcripts.
• Payment information: handled securely by our payment processor (Stripe). We never see or store full card numbers — only a customer reference and your subscription status.
• Technical information: your IP address (used to keep the service secure and limit abuse), essential cookies that keep you signed in, and basic server logs.

How we use information

• Provide and personalize your child's tutoring sessions.
• Show parents progress and insights on the dashboard.
• Manage your account and subscription.
• Keep the service secure and prevent abuse.
• Send you account-related emails (such as a welcome message or a password reset). If you turn it on, we also send an optional weekly progress email — you can switch it off anytime from your account menu or the link in the email. If you cancel a paid plan, we may send a single, optional feedback request.
• Understand how the service is used so we can improve it.

Keeping your child's data to a minimum

We only ask for a first name (a nickname is perfectly fine) and the details needed to tailor lessons. Please do not enter your child's full name, home address, school, or other identifying details — the tutor does not need them, and we would rather not hold them.

Voice mode (microphone and read-aloud)

Voice mode is optional and off by default — your child turns it on with the headphone button in the tutor, and can turn it off at any time. Read-aloud (the tutor speaking its replies) may be on by default for our youngest learners so that a child who is still learning to read can use Sparkpip; it can be switched off in the same place.

When your child speaks to the tutor, the recording is handled by your web browser's built-in speech service, not by Sparkpip. On Google Chrome and Chromium-based browsers this means the audio is sent to Google for conversion into text. Sparkpip receives only the resulting text, which is treated exactly like a typed message; we never receive, record, or store the audio itself.

Reading replies aloud uses a natural voice from OpenAI, our text-to-speech provider. The text of Pip's reply — which can include your child's first name and, when Pip repeats it, what they wrote — is sent to OpenAI and comes back as audio that plays on your device; Sparkpip does not keep the audio, and your child's own voice is never sent to OpenAI. Under OpenAI's API data policy this text is not used to train its models. If that service is unavailable, your browser's own built-in voice reads the reply instead, entirely on your device.

If you would prefer that your child's voice is never sent to a browser speech service, simply leave voice mode off and use Sparkpip by typing — every feature works without it.

How AI is used

To generate tutoring responses, the messages and any images your child submits are sent to our AI provider (Anthropic) for processing. Under Anthropic's commercial API terms, this content is used only to return a response to your child — it is not used to train their AI models.

Service providers we share with

We share information only with the providers that help us run Sparkpip:

• Anthropic — generates the AI tutoring responses.
• OpenAI — turns the text of Pip's replies into spoken audio when read-aloud is on (see “Voice mode”).
• Stripe — processes subscription payments.
• Resend — sends account emails.
• Google — if you choose “Continue with Google” to sign in, and, when voice mode is on in a Chrome or Chromium-based browser, your browser sends the spoken audio to Google's speech service to turn it into text (see “Voice mode”).
• Railway — provides secure hosting and data storage.
• Sentry — receives technical error reports when something on the site breaks (the error, the page it happened on, and the browser type), so we can fix it. We do not send it children's messages or photos.
• Cloudflare — provides our domain/network security and stores encrypted off-site database backups.

Where your information is stored

Some of our providers store and process information in the United States and other countries, which means your information may be transferred outside Canada. When that happens, your information may be subject to the laws of those countries, and we take steps to ensure it stays protected.

How long we keep it

We keep your information while your account is active. You can delete a child's profile at any time from your dashboard — this permanently removes that child's sessions, progress, and check-ins. You can also delete your whole account yourself from your account menu, or by emailing privacy@sparkpip.com — either way, your data is removed within 30 days.

Some records are kept longer where the law requires it: basic billing records are retained for about six years for tax purposes, and short-lived security logs (such as sign-up attempts) are automatically deleted after about a week.

Cookies

We use only essential cookies: one that keeps you signed in, one that remembers which child's dashboard you're viewing, and (while the site is in private access) one for the access gate. We do not use advertising, analytics, or cross-site tracking cookies — so there is nothing non-essential to opt out of.

Your privacy rights

Under PIPEDA, you can access the personal information we hold about you, ask us to correct it, ask us to delete it, and withdraw your consent. To make a request, email privacy@sparkpip.com. If you are not satisfied with our response, you can contact the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada.

Children's privacy

Sparkpip is designed to be set up and managed by a parent or guardian, who provides consent for their child's use. We collect as little about a child as possible, we never show third-party behavioral advertising, and we never sell children's information. Parents can review or delete their child's data at any time from the dashboard or by contacting us.

United States families (COPPA)

If you are in the United States, the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) gives you specific rights over information collected from children under 13. The short version is below; our full COPPA Policy at /coppa has the complete detail, including how long we keep each kind of data and exactly who it is shared with.

Sparkpip accounts are created and controlled by a parent or guardian — never by a child. We do not collect personal information directly from children: a parent enters the child's first name or nickname (a nickname is fine), grade, and learning preferences. A child never gives us an email address, a phone number, an address, or a photo of themselves, and we do not ask for one.

What we collect about a child while they learn is their work with the tutor: the topics practiced, whether answers were correct, and progress over time. Messages and any photo of schoolwork are sent to our AI provider to produce a reply and are not used to train AI models. We do not store full chat transcripts, we never show behavioral advertising to children, and we never sell or rent children's information.

As a parent you can review what we hold about your child, correct it, delete your child's profile and all of its learning data at any time from the dashboard, and withdraw consent by closing the account. If you would like us to act on any of these for you, email hello@sparkpip.com and we will confirm your request.

We keep a child's learning data only while the account is active. Deleting a child's profile removes that child's data, and closing your account removes the rest.

Security

We protect your information with industry-standard measures, including encrypted connections (HTTPS) and hashed passwords. No online service can be perfectly secure, but we work hard to keep your data safe.

Changes to this policy

We may update this policy from time to time. If we make significant changes, we will update the date at the top and, where appropriate, let you know.

Contact us

Questions or requests about your privacy? Email us at privacy@sparkpip.com.

You can also write to us at Sparkpip Learning Inc., 3601 Highway 7 East, Suite 1005, Markham, Ontario L3R 0M3, Canada.