This Privacy Policy explains how Agora collects, uses, shares, and protects information about students who use Agora, including agorastudent.com and voice study sessions with Glo (the "Service"), and the choices you have. It is part of our Terms of Service. Our Voice Sessions and AI Notice gives more detail about voice sessions. By agreeing to this policy, you agree to Agora collecting, using, and sharing your information as it describes.
- Your transcripts stay private to you. No one in your course, including your instructor, can open your sessions. Your instructor sees class-wide results, your participation, some feedback reports (names removed), and in Class Prep courses, your preparation record.
- We don't sell your personal information, and we don't use it for advertising.
- The companies that provide our AI models aren't allowed to use your sessions to train their models.
- You can ask for a copy of your information, ask us to correct it, or ask us to delete your account at any time.
1. Who we are
Agora is an education technology project in its pilot stage and has not yet been incorporated. "Agora," "we," "us," and "our" mean the people who operate the Agora pilot and, once it is formed, the company that operates Agora. To reach us about privacy, write to info@learnwithagora.com.
2. Information we collect
Information you or your instructor provide
- Account information. Your name and email address. If you sign in with Google, Google also shares your profile photo with our sign-in service.
- Course roster. Your instructor adds your email address to a course. When you open Agora, we connect your account to that course and add your name to its roster.
- Session content. Your voice during a session, the transcript of the session, and anything you write during a session, such as an equation.
- Notes you save in Agora, such as notes for a class meeting.
- Messages to us, such as questions, requests, and feedback, and your answers if you choose to respond to a pilot feedback survey or interview.
Information Agora creates about your learning
- Feedback reports: a summary, a score, how you did on each concept (with short quotes or paraphrases of your answers as evidence), a strength, something to work on, a next step, and practice questions.
- Progress over time: where you stand on each concept across your sessions.
- Participation: whether and when you completed each review, and in Class Prep courses, your preparation status, attempts, and scores for each class meeting.
- Usage: when your sessions start, pause, and end, the attempts you've used, and how much voice time you've used.
- Agreement records: which versions of our terms you agreed to, and when.
Information collected automatically
- Technical and log information: your IP address, browser and device type, the pages and features you use, timestamps, and errors. Our systems also keep technical logs that can include content processed by our AI features, such as transcripts and reports, which we use for troubleshooting and security.
- Security checks: to protect the Service from abuse, we use Google reCAPTCHA, which collects information about your device, your browser, and how you use the page. Google's Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply to reCAPTCHA.
- Browser storage: we store small pieces of information in your browser to keep you signed in, remember things like whether you've seen a tour or agreed to these terms, and let you resume a session. We don't use advertising cookies or trackers, and we don't currently use analytics tools.
- Content from other services: some parts of the Service load content directly from other services, which receive your IP address and browser information. For example, previews of readings your instructor links may load images and small site icons from other websites and services, and our PDF viewer loads a component from a content delivery network.
3. How we use information
We use information to:
- provide the Service: sign you in, connect you to your courses, run voice sessions, create your feedback and progress, and give your instructor the class information described in section 5;
- keep the Service working, fair, and safe: apply usage limits, fix problems, protect accounts, and prevent misuse;
- communicate with you: send sign-in links and messages about the Service, the pilot, and changes to our terms, ask for your feedback about the pilot (answering is always up to you), and reply to your requests;
- evaluate and improve Agora: understand how the pilot is going, check the quality of Glo's questions and feedback, and develop new features, including evaluating and training the AI that powers Glo. When we use sessions this way, we use de-identified information where we reasonably can;
- learn about learning: analyze de-identified or combined information and share what we learn, for example in reports or academic papers. We won't publish anything that identifies you without your permission, and if a study needs your separate consent under research ethics rules, we'll ask you for it;
- follow the law and protect people: comply with legal obligations, enforce our Terms, and protect the rights, safety, and property of students, instructors, Agora, and others; and
- do anything else we tell you about when we collect the information, or that you agree to.
4. How we use AI
AI models from our service providers run Glo's live conversations, clean up transcripts, search your course materials, and write feedback reports, class summaries, and answers to instructors' questions about their class. Agora doesn't make decisions with legal or similarly significant effects on you on its own.
5. Who can see your information
Your instructor
The instructors of your course, including anyone they add as an instructor, can see:
- your name and email address, and whether you've joined the course;
- whether and when you completed each weekly review;
- class-wide summaries built from everyone's results, such as how many students covered each concept, a typical (median) score, common strengths and struggles, and paraphrased examples;
- some feedback reports, which may include yours. Before showing one, we remove details that obviously identify the student, but a report can include short quotes or paraphrases of their answers;
- occasionally, a note from Glo that names a student and gives a specific reason, such as strong work that is ready for a challenge or signs that the student could use a hand;
- how much voice time you've used; and
- in Class Prep courses, your preparation record for each class meeting (whether you were prepared, late, or missed it, your attempts, and your check scores), any notes you save for that meeting, and class briefs that include students' questions, confusions, and positions in their own words, without names.
In a very small class, your instructor might be able to guess whose report or example it is, or what someone's results were when only a few students took a review.
Other students
Other students can't see your information in Agora.
The Agora team
People who work on Agora access your information only when they need to, for example to run and fix the Service, respond to your requests, check the quality of Glo's feedback, or keep the Service secure.
Service providers
We use service providers to run the Service. They may use your information only to provide their services to us, except where their own privacy policy applies, as with reCAPTCHA. Today they are:
- cloud infrastructure providers, for hosting, databases, file storage, sign-in and sign-in emails, server processing, and logs;
- AI model providers, for the AI behind Glo, as described in section 4; and
- security providers, such as Google reCAPTCHA, for security checks.
We may change service providers, and we'll update this list if we start using a new kind of provider.
Your school
We share your information with your school only if you ask us to, or if your school has a written agreement with Agora that requires it, for example so your school can respond to a request you make about your education records.
Legal requirements, safety, and changes to Agora
We may share information:
- if we believe in good faith that the law, a court order, or another legal process requires it;
- if we believe in good faith that it's necessary to protect someone's safety, to prevent fraud, abuse, or security problems, or to protect the rights and property of Agora or others;
- with the company formed to operate Agora, or with another organization as part of a merger, acquisition, financing, or sale of assets, which must continue to protect your information as this policy describes; and
- with your consent or at your direction.
We may also share information that has been de-identified or combined so that it can't reasonably identify you.
6. Your education records
Information in Agora may be part of your education records under the U.S. Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). When your school has a written agreement with Agora, we act under your school's direction, we protect your records as FERPA and that agreement require, and you can also make requests about your records through your school.
7. How long we keep information
- Account, session, and learning information: while your account is active, and afterward for as long as we need it for the purposes in this policy (for example, so you can come back to your past reports), unless you ask us to delete it sooner.
- Voice audio: Agora doesn't save it.
- Technical logs: for a limited time.
- When we no longer need information, we delete it or de-identify it. Copies can remain in backups for a limited time. A written agreement with your school may set different retention periods.
8. Your choices and rights
To ask for a copy of your information, a correction, or deletion, write to info@learnwithagora.com from the email address on your account. We may need to confirm your identity first. We'll respond as soon as we reasonably can, and within the time the law requires. If we delete your information, class summaries your instructor already received may not change, and we may keep information when the law requires it or to resolve disputes. We won't treat you differently for using your privacy rights, although some features, like voice sessions, can't work without the information they need.
Sign-in links, important messages about the Service, and requests for feedback about the pilot are part of using Agora. If we ever send you promotional emails, you can unsubscribe from them.
Depending on where you live, you may have other rights under state or other laws, such as the right to know what information we process, to receive it in a portable format, or to appeal a decision we make about your request. You can use them the same way. To appeal, reply to our response and tell us why.
9. Security
We use reasonable administrative, technical, and physical safeguards to protect your information, including encryption in transit and at rest, security rules that keep other users out of your sessions, and limits on who at Agora can access information. No system is perfectly secure, so we can't guarantee security. If a security breach affects your personal information, we'll notify you as the law requires.
10. Age requirement
Agora is only for people 18 and older. We don't knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 18, and if we learn that we have, we'll delete it.
11. Where information is processed
Agora is operated from the United States. Your information is stored and processed in the United States, and our service providers may also process it in other countries where they operate. If you use Agora from outside the United States, your information will be transferred to the United States, where privacy laws may differ from the laws where you live.
12. Do Not Track
Because we don't track you across other websites, we don't respond differently to Do Not Track signals.
13. Changes to this policy
We may update this Privacy Policy as Agora changes. If we make a material change, we'll tell you in Agora or by email before it takes effect, and we'll ask for your consent where the law requires it. For other changes, we'll update the date at the top.