Privacy Policy

School use and review status

Phab Physics is a teacher-operated project in its 2026–2027 pilot year. We are reviewing school data-privacy agreements and working toward the security documentation and accessibility improvements they require. That work is ongoing; this policy is not a completed school Data Security and Privacy Plan or a certification of compliance.

Before enrolling students, confirm your school or district’s approval and contact alex@phabphysics.com about any required agreement. Required agreements must be completed before enrollment. A teacher code or payment provides no district approval and does not establish that an agreement has been signed.

Teachers can review and download public handouts without student accounts. Guest mode keeps practice progress in the browser, but still uses online services and does not replace a school’s review. Existing school users can contact us to review their arrangements.

What we collect

• Account info: when you sign in with Google, we use your email address, display name, and account identifier. If Google supplies a profile image URL, Firebase may retain it in your sign-in profile. The practice site does not fetch or display that profile image.
• Classroom name: if you enter the name your teacher should see (when joining a class or in Settings), we store it with your practice records. Your teacher can correct how your name appears in their class; that correction applies only in that class, and you can see it. Both are removed with your practice records.
• Practice records: course and lesson information, active problems, attempts, completions and activity times support progress tracking and your teacher’s dashboard. Signed-in practice answers are sent to our server for checking.
• Usage and problem-quality records: for signed-in practice, we record totals for solved, skipped and unfinished problems, attempts and solve times. Coded daily student tokens count distinct students. These tokens are pseudonymous, not anonymous; keyed tokens can still be linked by an operator with the secret and account identifier. A scheduled cleanup combines each closed day’s tokens into a count and removes the tokens once at least two days have passed since that UTC day closed. Completion depends on successful cleanup runs; maintenance or failures can delay it. Existing outcome totals are preserved. Coded teacher identifiers remain linkable for teacher usage summaries. These records help us understand use and find problems that need improvement. The totals do not include names, email addresses, submitted answers or IP addresses.
• Class membership: if you join a teacher's class, we store that link so your teacher's dashboard includes you.
• Agreement acceptance (teachers): for teacher accounts, we record which versions of the Terms of Use and Account License Agreement were accepted, and when.
• Guest mode: no account needed. Guest progress is saved only in your own browser (localStorage), not in a teacher’s gradebook. Your browser still requests pages, simulations and generated problems from our servers and service providers.
• Operational information: hosting and security services may process request details such as IP address, browser information, requested URL, and errors to deliver the site, troubleshoot failures, and limit abuse. Routine application performance logs omit account and class identifiers. Historical logs, provider logs and error records may still contain identifying information; lesson and activity information remains in routine performance logs.
• Support emails: if you contact us, we receive your email address and the information you choose to send. The problem-report tool prepares a draft with lesson identifiers; it does not automatically include student names or submitted answers.

Advertising and data sales

• No advertising on the practice site.
• No selling, renting, or trading data — student or teacher — to anyone.
• We do not use advertising pixels or student information to target advertisements.

Who can see your information

• Your teacher (if you joined their class) sees your name, email, and practice progress — the same things a gradebook would show.
• The site operator (the teacher who runs Phab Physics) has administrative access for support and maintenance.
• Service providers process information needed for hosting, sign-in, security, storage, and support. This is separate from selling student information or using it for advertising.

Services that process information

Google Firebase provides sign-in, database storage, file storage, hosting, and server functions. Google’s reCAPTCHA service supports abuse protection on the practice page. Cloudflare provides the domain’s DNS service. Fonts and the math, graphics and spreadsheet libraries are served from phabphysics.com itself, so no outside font or code-library service receives your connection information when pages load. Spreadsheet files are generated in the teacher’s browser.

Service locations and retention practices vary. We are reviewing the services and settings needed to document storage locations and security practices for school agreements.

Following the Ko-fi support link takes you to Ko-fi, which has its own privacy policy.

Cookies and browser storage

Phab Physics does not use advertising, analytics or tracking cookies, and phabphysics.com itself sets no cookies. Your browser keeps only what the site needs to work:

• Staying signed in: when you sign in, Google Firebase keeps your sign-in session in your browser’s storage (IndexedDB). It also keeps a short-lived security token used for abuse protection, and a small record of which Firebase code libraries are in use, which Firebase includes with its own requests.
• Settings and progress on your device: light or dark theme, notices you dismissed, the dashboard’s name-sort choice and its sign-in state for the current tab, and, in guest mode and some practice tools, your progress. These are kept in your browser (localStorage or sessionStorage). Guest progress stays on your device; when you are signed in, your practice progress is also saved to your account as described above.
• Security check on the practice page: reCAPTCHA, a Google Cloud service we use, helps block automated abuse. To do that it reads device and browser information and may store its own cookies in your browser. Google processes this information for us as a service provider under Google Cloud’s terms and data processing addendum, and we use the results only to protect the site.

We use this storage only to keep you signed in, protect the site from abuse, and remember choices you make. None of it is used for advertising, analytics or tracking. To remove it, sign out and clear this site’s data in your browser settings. Clearing it also deletes guest progress saved on that device.

Do Not Track and Global Privacy Control

The site does not change its behavior in response to Do Not Track or Global Privacy Control signals. We do not track you across other websites, sell or share personal information, or use targeted advertising. Google processes connection information for us as described above.

Students under 13

Phab Physics is designed for high-school physics students. Accounts are intended for users 13 and older. Please contact us and your school before planning use with younger students. Guest mode is not a substitute for your school’s privacy review. If your school requires a data-privacy agreement, contact us before enrolling students so its requirements can be reviewed.

Access, correction and deletion

When signed in on the practice page, choose My data to download your sign-in profile, current class membership and saved progress as a JSON file. This is a limited self-service download: provider logs, support emails, archived rosters, usage summaries and temporary problem instances are not included. Use the request process below for a broader records request. Store downloaded files privately, especially on shared devices.

Account and saved progress records are not automatically deleted at the end of a term. Archiving a class is not the same as deleting a student’s account. Guest progress remains in the browser until its site data is cleared; clearing it does not delete a signed-in account.

For school-managed records, contact your school or district about access, correction, export or deletion. Authorized school representatives can email alex@phabphysics.com to coordinate the request. For an account used independently of a school, email us from that account’s address. We handle requests manually, verify authority, and confirm the actions completed and any remaining retention limits. The site owner has a separate tool to find and remove supported application records, including hidden counting tokens and archived roster entries. It requires a reviewed scope and explicit confirmation; it does not erase provider backups or support emails. Applicable law and any signed school agreement govern how school records are handled.

Removing an account and its saved practice records is separate from providers completing deletion in their own systems. Google’s Firebase retention documentation states that Authentication information is removed from live and backup systems within 180 days after customer-initiated deletion. Other services and logs have their own retention periods. This policy does not promise immediate erasure of every provider-held copy or override a school agreement’s deletion requirements.

Accessibility review

We are working to improve access to the practice site, simulations and teaching materials. A formal Accessibility Conformance Report (ACR/VPAT) is not currently available, and we have not established whole-site conformance with an accessibility standard. Interactive diagrams, simulations and PDFs need further evaluation for keyboard and assistive-technology use.

If a feature or document is difficult to use, email alex@phabphysics.com with the page or activity and the barrier you encountered so we can discuss available alternatives. You do not need to share a diagnosis or student education records to report an access issue.

Changes

If the site’s data practices change, we will update this page and its revision date. We will also provide notices required by applicable law or a signed school agreement.

Contact

Questions? Email alex@phabphysics.com.