Privacy Policy

In short

• Grown-ups create accounts. Children do not create accounts, and we do not collect a child’s email address.
• A child’s record is a first name, optional last name, optional PIN, assigned word lists, and how practice is going.
• Passwords and PINs are stored only as one-way hashes. We cannot read the original secret.
• We use information to run the academy, send the emails you asked for, and fix problems you report.
• We do not advertise on the practice screens. We do not sell or rent personal information.
• If a grown-up asks us to close an account, we delete the hive that belongs to it.

What we keep

Household grown-ups

When a family is invited, or asks to join the waitlist, we keep the grown-up’s name, email address, and a hashed password. We also keep the settings that person chooses: stay signed in on this device, voice and speaking speed, and who may manage the household.

Children

A parent or teacher adds a child. We keep the name they type (first name, and a last name only if they choose to give one), an optional PIN hash, which word list the child is using, a Know These By date if one is set, and practice history: sessions, time spent, which words are solid, and which words still need work. We do not ask children for an email address, phone number, or location.

Teachers and schools

A teacher account uses a school email. We keep the teacher’s name, hashed password, school, class names, class codes, assigned lists, and which children have joined each class. A school record may include the school’s name and code so class codes stay unique.

Waitlist

If you request a household, we keep the name and email you typed until an administrator invites you or you withdraw the request. We use a human check (Cloudflare Turnstile) so the form is not filled by bots.

How we use it

We use this information to sign people in, keep each child’s hive separate, assign spelling lists, show progress to the grown-ups who already have access, and send invitation, password, and waitlist emails from support@professorpollen.com.

We may look at an account when you ask for help. We may use counts that cannot identify a person — for example, how many households practice spelling — to understand whether the academy is working.

We share personal information only when you ask us to (a class code linking a child to a teacher), when a processor must see it to provide the service described below, or when the law requires it.

Who hears the words

Listen and Spell needs a voice. Depending on the household or school setting, the academy sends the word, sentence, or hint — not the child’s account — to Google Cloud Text-to-Speech or Microsoft Azure Speech so the child can hear it. Those companies process that text to return audio. We do not send a child’s name to the voice service unless a grown-up put that name on the spelling list.

The site loads fonts from Google Fonts. A waitlist request may use Cloudflare Turnstile. The academy is hosted in the United States. Mail is sent from our academy address. We do not use advertising networks or third-party analytics pixels on the practice screens.

On your device

Signing in sets a session cookie so the academy knows you are still you. If you choose “keep this household signed in,” we also remember that choice in the browser’s local storage. On a shared computer you can skip that option; then the visit lives only in session storage and ends when the browser closes.

The device may also remember that you have seen How It Works, and local practice settings such as voice. You can clear this with the browser’s site data controls, or by signing out.

Children

Professor Pollen is for families and classrooms. A child uses the academy only after a parent or teacher creates that child’s hive. We collect a child’s information to provide spelling practice, not to market to the child.

We design the practice screens without ads. We do not condition a child’s use of the academy on supplying more than a grown-up needs to run the hive. A parent or teacher may review, change, or delete a child’s hive from Family Hub or Teacher Desk, or by emailing us.

Schools and teachers

When a teacher adds a child to a class, that school remains responsible for the roster it chose to share. We use class names and progress only to run that class’s spelling practice and to show the teacher — and the family already linked to that child — how practice is going.

How long we keep it

We keep an account while it is in use. If a grown-up asks us to delete a household, teacher, or child hive, we remove that record and the practice history that belongs to it. Waitlist rows go away when they are invited, dismissed, or withdrawn. We may keep a short, de-identified note that an account existed if we need it to keep the service honest (for example, that an email was already invited).

Your choices

You can update names, lists, and settings in the academy. You can turn off “stay signed in.” You can unlink a child from a class. You can ask us to send a copy of what we have, or to delete it. If you are in a place with additional privacy rights, email us and we will honor the request the law requires.

How to reach us

Questions, access requests, and deletion requests: support@professorpollen.com.

We may update this policy when the academy changes. The date at the top is the day this version took effect.