Privacy policy
PebbleSense Academy is in private development. This policy describes how we handle data in that preview. If it changes materially, we will update this page and the date above.
Who we are
PebbleSense ("we", "us") operates PebbleSense Academy, a learning platform for computer science and information technology students. You can reach us at hello@pebblesense.com.
What this policy covers
This covers the PebbleSense Academy website and application at academy.pebblesense.com. It does not cover any third-party site we link to.
How you sign in, and what Google shares with us
You sign in with your existing Google account. We ask Google only for the basic sign-in scopes — your name, your email address, your profile picture where one is available, and the account identifier Google uses to tell us it is the same person next time.
We do not request access to Gmail, Google Drive, Calendar, Contacts, or any other Google service, and we cannot read them.
We never receive or store your password. Google handles that entirely. What we keep is the account identifier Google gives us, which is meaningless anywhere else.
Our use of information received from Google APIs adheres to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements.
What else we store
Everything here exists to run the product for you:
- Your learning activity — which lessons you have opened and finished, and roughly how long you spent. Time is estimated by your browser, so we treat it as approximate and it decides nothing.
- Work you write — code you type into the practice environment, answers to exercises, project files, and written reflections.
- Assessment results — your attempts at checks, and the record of which skills you have demonstrated.
- Preferences — display settings such as theme and text size, and anything you tell us about what you are studying.
What we use it for
- Showing you where you are and what comes next.
- Saving your work so it is there when you come back.
- Recording what you have demonstrated, so progress means something.
- Understanding which lessons work and which do not, so we can fix them.
What we do not do
- We do not sell your personal information.
- We do not share it with advertisers, or use it to target advertising.
- We do not use your data to train machine-learning models for anyone else.
- We do not post anything anywhere on your behalf.
Running your code
When you run code in the practice environment, it executes on our servers in an isolated sandbox that is discarded afterwards. The code you write is saved to your account so you do not lose it; the sandbox itself keeps nothing.
Cookies
We set one cookie, and only after you sign in: a session cookie that keeps you signed in. It cannot be read by scripts in your browser. We do not use advertising or tracking cookies. Signing out clears it.
Who else sees your data
Our hosting and infrastructure providers, to the extent that running a service on their machines requires it, and nobody else — except where the law requires us to disclose something. We do not share your work with other learners.
Where your data is held
On servers operated by our hosting providers. If you are outside the country where those servers sit, your data is transferred there in order to provide the service.
How long we keep it
For as long as your account exists. See below for what happens when you delete it.
Your choices
Download everything
You can export everything we hold about you, as a single file, from your account settings. No request, no waiting.
Correct it
Your profile is editable. If we ever record something about you that you disagree with, what you tell us wins.
Delete your account
You can delete your account from your settings, and it takes effect immediately. We think you should know exactly what that does:
- Deleted outright: your name, email, the Google account identifier, everything you wrote — code, projects, reflections, answers — and your enrolments and progress.
- Kept, but detached: anonymous records of which lessons and checks worked, repointed to a meaningless identifier that cannot be traced back to you. This is what lets us tell whether a lesson teaches well, without keeping a person.
We say this plainly because "we delete everything" would not be true, and a promise we cannot keep is worse than an accurate one.
Revoke our access to your Google account
Independently of us, you can remove PebbleSense Academy at myaccount.google.com/permissions at any time.
Children
PebbleSense Academy is built for students in higher education and is not directed at children under 13. We do not knowingly collect their data. If you believe a child has given us information, write to us and we will remove it.
Security
Connections are encrypted in transit. Access to production systems is limited to people who need it. No service can promise perfect security, and we will not pretend otherwise — but we will tell you if something happens that affects you.
Changes to this policy
If we change it, we update the date at the top. If a change materially affects how we handle your data, we will tell you rather than rely on you noticing.
Contact
Questions, requests, or complaints: hello@pebblesense.com.