Draft for review by Forward Development and the schools that use the program. Not yet in effect.
Privacy Policy
Our House Points
Who we are
Our House Points is a house-points program used by schools and school districts. Forward Development builds and runs it. Each school decides what information goes into the program and who at the school can use it; we handle that information on the school's behalf and only for the school's purposes. A school that belongs to a school district is also open to that district's administrators, as described below.
Who uses it
Only school staff, district administrators and Forward Development support staff sign in, either with their Google account or with a one-time code emailed to their address. Students and families do not have accounts and never sign in. A hallway TV shows house standings using a device code, not a person's account.
Who can see a school's information
- The school's own staff see what their role allows. School admins can see and change everything the school has put into the program, except which email domains are claimed (only Forward Development sets that). Staff award points and see their own classes and the standings.
- District administrators are named by Forward Development for a school district. They can compare the schools in their district (the leading house, points this month, recent awards and active staff), and they can open any one of those schools to look at it exactly as a school admin sees it, including student names. They can change nothing: the program opens the school read-only. A district administrator can also download a school's student list; we record each download with the school, the person and the time. Their visits are logged and shown on the school's Support visits page, the same as Forward Development's. They cannot reach any school outside their district.
- Forward Development support staff can open any school to help the school, and every such visit is recorded and shown to the school (below). A visit starts read-only, in which nothing can be changed. Changing anything needs a separate edit session, which requires a second sign-in step and a written reason, and ends on its own after 30 minutes. Student lists downloaded during a visit are recorded the same way as a district administrator's.
Support visits are logged and visible to the school. A school's admins can open Support visits in their admin area to see each visit: who opened it, whether it was read-only or an edit session, when it started and ended, the reason given for an edit session, and every change made during one (what changed, from what, to what). Edits are listed permanently; the list of read-only visits shows the latest 100.
Beyond these visits, Forward Development keeps a directory of which districts and schools exist, who administers them, and which email domains each has claimed, together with a record of actions taken in the management console. The console shows each school's health as counts and dates only, such as the number of students and the date of the last award. It does not show student names, and we do not copy student information into the directory.
What we get from Google sign-in
When a staff member signs in with Google, we receive their name, email address and profile picture link. We use the email address to check that the school has given them access. We do not get access to their Gmail, Drive, Calendar, contacts or any other Google data.
What we get from email-code sign-in
When a staff member signs in with a code emailed to their school address, we receive only the email address they type, which we use the same way. We get no name or picture, so the program shows their email address in place of a name.
With either way of signing in, we also store the device's IP address and browser type with the sign-in session, for security.
Information we store
- Staff: name, email address, role (admin or staff), house, and the points each staff member awards; for each sign-in session, the device's IP address and browser type. A person who works at more than one school in a district has a separate role at each.
- Students, as entered by the school: first and last name, grade, homeroom, house, the student number the school uses, points and award comments, and, if a school admin uploads one, a photo.
- House and school settings: house names, colors, crests and artwork, point categories and competitions.
- TV displays: a name, the pairing code, and when the TV last checked in.
- Change history: a record of edits to points and settings, so the school can see who changed what, including any change made during a support edit session.
- District and support records: for each visit by a district administrator or support staff, who opened which school, when, in which mode, the reason given for any edit session, and a record of student list downloads made during one.
Student information comes from the school: from staff using the program, and from the school's own Google Sheet of House Hero Tickets. The program has read-only permission on that Sheet: it reads the Sheet but never changes it. District administrators and support staff get no access to the Sheet itself, only to what the school has already loaded into the program.
How we use it
Only to run the school's house-points program: recording awards, showing standings to staff and on the hallway TV, and keeping the roster in step with the school's Sheet. The hallway TV shows house places and points only; it does not show student names or photos.
We do not sell or rent any information, show advertising, or use it for marketing or profiling. We do not use advertising trackers, and the program itself uses no analytics, including the district and support pages. The program's only cookies are the ones that keep people signed in, remember which school they are looking at, hold an open district or support visit, remember that a Forward Development support admin has completed their authenticator check, and, for up to 30 minutes after someone scans a TV's QR code, hold that TV's pairing code. None of them tracks anyone.
Website analytics
Our public website (ourhousepoints.com, this page included) measures visits in two ways. Neither is used in the program staff sign in to.
- Vercel Web Analytics sets no cookies and does not identify visitors. It records which pages are viewed, the site a visitor came from, and their country, browser and type of device.
- Google Analytics runs only if you accept analytics cookies when the website asks. It then sets cookies that let it count return visits, and records the same kind of information about how the website is used. Google's advertising features are turned off.
When someone requests a demo, we record that a request was made and the role they chose, never their name, email address or school.
You can change your cookie choice at any time; declining removes the Google Analytics cookies.
Services we use
These companies process information for us, only to provide their service:
- Neon: database, staff sign-in and file storage (servers in the United States).
- Vercel: hosts the program and the website, and counts website visits (United States).
- Google: staff sign-in, reading the school's ticket Sheet, and, if you accept cookies on our public website, Google Analytics.
- Resend: sends staff invitation and program notification emails, and sign-in code emails once the program's own email sender is set up (until then, Neon sends them).
How we protect it
All connections are encrypted. Only signed-in people with a role at a school can see its information, apart from the district administrator and support access described above, which is read-only unless a logged edit session is opened. Each school's data is kept separate from every other school's, and student photos are never public: they are shown through short-lived private links.
Keeping, correcting and deleting information
The school can correct or remove student and staff information in the program at any time. We keep the information while the school uses the program, and delete the school's information when the school asks us to.
Parents and guardians who want to see, correct or remove their child's information should contact the school, which will direct us.
Changes
If this policy changes, we will update this page and the date at the top.
Contact
Questions about this policy: privacy@ourhousepoints.com. Questions about a child's information: your child's school office.