Privacy Policy

1. Who operates this app

Real-Life English Coach is an English practice tool provided by Highlands Community Charter & Technical Schools (HCCTS), powered by Highlands Brain. This policy explains the information handled by this app. For support, privacy questions, or help understanding this policy in another language, contact Brain@hccts.org.

2. Information used for practice

• School account: Google and Firebase provide an account identifier, school email, verified-email status and available display name. The app uses these to verify access and distinguish staff, students and authorized administrators. It does not receive your Google password.
• Practice activity: conversations you submit, coach replies, selected situations, practice level, interface language, timestamps, completion status, feedback and summaries are processed and stored to support your sessions and progress.
• Saved choices: phrases you save and settings such as your preferred voice are associated with your account.
• Service operation: usage counters and technical logs support limits, troubleshooting and security. Logs can include account and session identifiers, timestamps and error types. Hosting and sign-in providers may also process connection information, such as IP addresses and browser details.

3. Microphone, recordings and spoken audio

Pronunciation recordings: the “Record my voice” feature keeps the recording in the current browser page for replay. The app does not upload that recording. It is discarded when you delete it, change the practice phrase, close practice, leave the page or sign out. Saving a phrase saves its text, not its recording.

Conversation speech-to-text: the microphone used to dictate a conversation reply uses your browser's speech recognition service. Depending on the browser, audio may be sent to its provider for transcription. The recognized text appears for review before you send it to the coach. You can type instead and deny or revoke microphone access.

Listen and voice preview: spoken examples use device or browser text-to-speech voices. Some voices use online services and may send the text to the voice provider. Voice availability and processing depend on your device and selected voice.

4. AI and service providers

Conversation text, the practice situation, level and language are sent to Anthropic's AI service to generate coach replies and feedback. The app does not deliberately include your school email or display name in the AI prompt, but anything you type into a conversation may be included. Do not enter passwords, financial account details, medical records, immigration documents or other sensitive personal information. Use fictional details for practice.

Google/Firebase supports sign-in. Netlify hosts the app and stores practice data in the standard deployment; existing deployments may use Google Firestore instead. Google Fonts supplies the interface fonts. These services process information needed to provide their functions. Their retention and processing are governed by the school's applicable arrangements and the providers' terms; this app does not promise that every provider deletes information immediately.

5. Optional Coda reporting and access

If HCCTS enables Coda reporting, session reports include school email, role, situation, practice level, interface language, goal status, number of replies, strengths, improvement suggestions and session timestamps. The integration does not send the full conversation transcript or audio recordings to Coda. Feedback may still contain details from your conversation.

Other learners cannot view your practice through the app. Regular staff access does not grant access to another learner's transcript. Authorized administrators can view operational totals; authorized school personnel who manage the underlying services or a configured Coda report may access data for school operations, support and security. Information may also be disclosed when legally required. This app includes no advertising trackers or data-sale feature.

6. Retention and your choices

Practice sessions have a default expiration of 30 days from creation. HCCTS can configure a different period. Expired sessions are excluded from normal app reads, and scheduled storage cleanup removes expired records. Cleanup is not an immediate deletion guarantee. Saved phrases and preferences have no automatic expiration; you can remove saved phrases in the app.

Usage records, reporting queues, provider logs, backups and any reports already sent to Coda can have separate retention periods. Expiring a practice session does not automatically delete a Coda report or a PDF you downloaded. Contact Brain@hccts.org to request access, correction or deletion of account-related information. HCCTS will verify your identity and handle requests subject to applicable school recordkeeping obligations.

Language and display preferences are saved in browser storage, and Firebase maintains sign-in state for the browser session. Sign out when finished on a shared device. Clearing browser storage does not delete information already saved to your account.

7. Student records, updates and questions

This policy does not replace HCCTS's school privacy notices or limit any rights that apply to your education records. Ask HCCTS about access to or correction of school records. The app is intended for school-authorized learners and staff, not public registration.

HCCTS may update this policy when the service or its information practices change. The date above identifies this version. Questions or concerns can be sent to Brain@hccts.org.

8. Leadership usage reporting

The app records verified school sign-ins, practice sessions started and completed, replies submitted, goals completed, and phrases saved or removed. It also records which pages and features are used, including listening, local voice recording, dictation, summary printing, and language selections. Browser activity may not be recorded when offline or blocked.

Reporting markers contain a pseudonymous account identifier, staff or student role, activity type, date, and an allowed page, language, or practice-situation identifier. They do not contain names, email addresses, conversation text, or audio. Only explicitly authorized school administrators can view aggregate leadership reports or export them as CSV or printed reports. These exports may be retained separately. Markers are available for reporting for 90 days and are then excluded; scheduled cleanup removes expired stored markers. Cleanup is not immediate. Contact Brain@hccts.org with questions.