Scholar3 Logo

Privacy Policy

Last updated: October 23, 2026

Our Educational & Funding Commitment: Scholar3 is an educational literacy platform committed to student privacy. Our platform is supported through commercial business subscriptions, institutional school licenses, and reader fees that vary based on available sponsorship and grant funding. Access may be offered completely free during promotional, pilot, or grant-funded periods. We never sell, rent, or trade your personal or student data to advertisers, and our platform is 100% free of third-party advertisements.

1. How Scholar3 Is Funded & Reader Access Models

To maintain sustainability while keeping student privacy our highest priority, Scholar3 operates under a flexible, mission-driven funding model:

  • Limited-Time Free Access: From time to time, Scholar3 offers full access to individual readers, schools, and communities completely free of charge during promotional launches, trial windows, pilot programs, or subsidized campaign periods.

  • Funding & Subsidy-Dependent Reader Pricing: When external grants, philanthropic subsidies, or commercial sponsorships are available, reader access is subsidized or made entirely free. In the absence of available funding or after promotional periods conclude, Scholar3 may charge subscription or pay-per-use fees directly to readers, families, or institutions to sustain server infrastructure, AI processing, and content creation.

  • School & Institutional Licensing: Schools, school districts, and tutoring centers pay institutional subscription or licensing fees to provide classroom management, curriculum tools, and literacy analytics for their students and teachers.

  • Commercial Business & Corporate Partnerships: Commercial enterprises, corporate partners, and learning organizations pay for organizational seats, custom literacy portals, and administrative tooling.

Regardless of whether access is free, grant-subsidized, or paid, our privacy standards never change: user and student data is strictly protected and is never monetized or sold.

2. Information We Collect

We collect information necessary to provide literacy instruction, evaluate reading fluency, deliver personalized recommendations, manage organizational and reader billing, and keep your account secure.

A. Account & Profile Information

When you register, we may collect your name, email address, password hash, date of birth, gender, avatar, physical address, city, and country. For classroom, institutional, or enterprise accounts, we also link your account to school, teacher, organization, or grade assignments.

B. Reading Telemetry & Educational Metrics

While you read on Scholar3, our platform logs educational telemetries to support learning outcomes, including:

  • Reading duration, timestamp of sessions, and completion percentages.

  • Reading speed measured in Words Per Minute (WPM) and calculated accuracy scores.

  • Saved vocabulary items, word bookmarking, reader highlights, and custom study notes.

  • Story ratings, comprehension quiz responses, reader reactions, and gamification rewards (points, streaks, and badges).

C. Speech & Audio Data (Reading Coach)

When you voluntarily use the interactive Reading Coach, the app requests microphone access to record audio while you read aloud. This audio is processed strictly to assess pronunciation, fluency, and reading accuracy. Voice recordings are processed ephemerally for scoring and are not sold or used for marketing purposes.

D. Diagnostic & AI Learner Models

To adapt reading materials to each student's Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD), Scholar3 generates automated diagnostic indicators, including estimated CEFR proficiency levels (A1–C2), Lexile scores, lists of challenging vocabulary words, and reading engagement metrics. These models exist solely to tailor educational content to the learner's needs.

E. Device, Network & Location Information

We collect your IP address, device operating system, hardware model, push notification tokens (Firebase Cloud Messaging), and coarse location (country and city) to provide localized content, curriculum alignment, and suspicious login protection. Exact GPS coordinates are never required for reading and can be disabled in your device settings.

F. Billing & Commercial Transaction Data

For school contracts, corporate subscriptions, and paid consumer accounts, payment transactions are processed securely by PCI-compliant payment gateways (such as Stripe). Scholar3 stores subscription status, billing contact details, and invoice history, but does not store credit card or bank account numbers on our servers.

G. Information from Third-Party Sign-In Providers

When you choose to authenticate via Google, Facebook, Microsoft, or TikTok, we receive basic profile info (such as your name, email address, and avatar) authorized by you on that platform. We do not store or access your third-party account passwords.

3. How We Use Your Information

  • To deliver, maintain, and personalize the Scholar3 reading experience.

  • To generate tailored story recommendations and vocabulary exercises matching reading ability.

  • To provide schools, teachers, and commercial administrators with progress analytics on reader development.

  • To process subscription billing, manage organizational licensing, and maintain service security.

4. Data Sharing & Third-Party Processors

We do not sell student or user data to data brokers or advertisers. We share data only with trusted service providers who adhere to strict data security standards:

  • Cloud & Hosting Infrastructure: To securely host our databases and application servers.

  • Payment Processors (e.g., Stripe): To securely handle subscriptions and institutional invoices.

  • AI Language Models: To generate reading comprehension quizzes and personalized reading exercises. Prompts sent to AI engines are stripped of sensitive identifiers.

  • Push Notifications (Firebase): To send reading streak reminders and assignment notifications.

5. Children's Privacy (COPPA & Student Data Protection)

Protecting young learners is paramount. For children under 13 years of age:

  • We require verifiable parental consent or authorized school/teacher authorization prior to creating accounts.

  • We never condition a child's participation on disclosing more personal information than is reasonably necessary to participate in the educational activity.

  • Parents and guardians have the right to review their child's personal information, request deletion, and refuse further collection at any time.

6. Your Rights and Data Choices (GDPR & CCPA)

Depending on your jurisdiction, you may have the following rights regarding your personal data:

  • Access & Portability: You can request a copy of all personal and educational data associated with your account.

  • Rectification: You can correct inaccurate profile details at any time in your Account Settings.

  • Erasure ("Right to be Forgotten"): You can permanently delete your account and associated history through our Data Deletion Request Page.

  • Revoke Permissions: You may disable microphone and location access at any time through your mobile device's operating system settings without losing access to reading stories.

7. Data Security & Retention

We employ industry-standard encryption protocols (HTTPS/TLS in transit, encrypted storage at rest, and bcrypt password hashing) to safeguard your data. We retain educational data as long as the account or organization license remains active, or until a school, parent, or student requests deletion.

8. Contact Us & Data Protection Officer

If you have questions, feedback, or wish to exercise your privacy rights, please contact our privacy team at [email protected].