Privacy Policy

The short version

• We collect the minimum needed to teach math: a username (it does not need to be a real name), learning progress, and answers.
• Email is optional for students and used only for the emails you asked for. Every email has a working unsubscribe link.
• We never sell or share personal information for advertising. There are no ad trackers on this site - the only cookie is the one that keeps you signed in.
• Children's accounts are designed for parent control (COPPA section below).
• You can get a copy of your data or delete your account - completely - by asking.

What we collect

Account basics. A username and a password (stored only as a cryptographic hash - we cannot read it). Optionally: a grade level and a course choice, so placement starts in the right place. If you sign in with Google, we receive your Google account email and an identifier; we do not receive your Google password.

Email. Parent accounts must have an email on file - it is the channel for required notices about their children's accounts. Adult and teen learners may optionally add one for weekly progress summaries, product updates (opt-in), or a reply to feedback. Student accounts are never required to provide an email, and child logins cannot have one.

Learning activity. Questions served, answers given, right/wrong results, mastery state, rungs earned, streaks, mock-exam results, and per-question timing. This is the product working - it is how the engine decides what to teach next and what parents see in progress reports.

Technical logs. Like nearly every website, our servers record standard request logs - IP address, browser type, pages requested, and timestamps. We use them only for security, debugging, and abuse prevention (never for advertising or profiling), and they are purged on a rolling basis.

Feedback. Whatever you type in the feedback widget, an optional contact email, and an optional screenshot you attach. Please crop screenshots to the problem you're reporting - we don't need anything personal that happens to be on your screen.

How you found us. If you arrive from a campaign link or another site, we record the source tag or referring domain once, at signup, so we know which communities to thank.

Payments (when paid plans are active). Handled by Stripe. Card numbers never touch our servers; we store only the subscription status Stripe reports to us.

AI features

When a student uses the AI coach, live tutoring help, or Snap & Solve, the current problem (and for Snap & Solve, the photo of the math problem) is sent to our AI provider to generate the explanation, and usage is metered so we can pay the bill. We send what is needed to answer the math question - not the student's name or contact details - and under our agreement with the provider, that content is not used to train their models. We are honest in-product that this help comes from AI, not a person. Tip for Snap & Solve: crop the photo to just the math problem - no names, faces, or notebook margins needed.

Children's privacy (COPPA)

Math Ladder AI is built for K-12 learners, so we take the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act seriously. This section, together with the rest of this policy, is our direct notice to parents:

• Children under 13 use accounts created and managed by a parent or guardian through the Family portal. A child account can be created only from inside a signed-in parent account. When a parent signs up they must confirm they are the parent or legal guardian and consent to the limited data practices in this policy, and this Children's Privacy section is the direct notice they receive before any child account exists. Each time a parent creates a child login we record that consent (which parent, and when) so it is auditable, and the parent can withdraw it at any time by deleting the child login, which erases the child's data. Parent accounts are required to keep an email on file so we can reach you with required notices about your children's accounts; it is used for those notices and anything you separately opt into, nothing else.
• Child logins are username and password only - a child cannot add an email, connect a Google account, or enter contact information anywhere in the product. We encourage nicknames, not real names.
• For a child we collect only: the username, a password hash, grade/course, the learning activity described above, and the standard technical logs - the logs are used solely for security and the internal operation of the service, never to profile a child or target anything at them.
• No behavioral advertising, no selling of data, no third-party ad trackers - for anyone, and especially not for children.
• A parent can review everything their child's account holds (it is all visible in the parent portal and progress reports), correct it, refuse to permit further collection, or delete the account and all its data at any time - in the app or by emailing hello@mathladderai.com from the parent account's email. Deleting the child login ends all collection.
• We keep a child's information only as long as the account is active and only for the purpose it was collected - teaching math. It is never retained indefinitely, and it is deleted when the parent deletes the account.
• If we learn that a child under 13 created an unsupervised account with personal information, we will delete that information.
• Who operates this service, and how to reach us. Math Ladder AI is operated by Driftwood Labs LLC, a Massachusetts, USA company. For any question about your child's information, to review or delete it, or to withdraw consent, email privacy@mathladderai.com (or hello@mathladderai.com). Our mailing address for formal COPPA correspondence is Driftwood Labs LLC, Tupelo Way, Acton, MA 01720.

Who we share data with (and who we don't)

We use a small set of service providers to run the product, each receiving only what their job requires: hosting and database providers (running the app and storing the data described above), an email delivery service (sending the emails you asked for), payment processors (Stripe), and our AI provider (answering math questions as described above). We do not sell personal information, we do not share it with advertisers or data brokers, and we do not use third-party analytics or advertising trackers. We would disclose information if the law genuinely required it, and we would tell you unless legally forbidden.

If the company ever changes hands. If Driftwood Labs is merged, acquired, or sells the service, account data would transfer with it as part of that transaction. The successor would remain bound by this policy, and we would notify account holders before the transfer with a chance to delete their account first.

Security, retention, and your rights

Passwords are hashed, traffic is encrypted in transit, access to production data is limited to authorized personnel (during the beta, that means the founder), and the database is backed up so your progress isn't lost. If a security breach ever affects your personal information, we will notify you and the appropriate regulators as the law requires.

We keep account data while the account is active. Delete your account and we delete the account record and its learning data; backup copies are overwritten on a rolling basis and are used only for disaster recovery, never to restore data you asked us to delete.

You can request a copy of your data, correction, or deletion at any time: hello@mathladderai.com. We'll answer within 30 days, usually much faster - during the beta, the founder answers personally. These rights are for everyone: we don't maintain separate tiers by state, and we will never treat you worse for exercising them.

Where data lives. Our servers are in the United States and the service is intended for users in the US. If you use it from elsewhere, your information will be processed and stored in the US.

Do Not Track. We don't respond to "Do Not Track" or Global Privacy Control browser signals for a simple reason: the things those signals opt you out of - cross-site tracking, selling or sharing your data - do not happen here in the first place.

If we ever make a material change to this policy, we will post it here and email account holders who have an email on file before it takes effect.