PodsCool ("we," "our," or "us") operates a two-sided marketplace infrastructure connecting independent educators ("Teachers") with families ("Parents") to facilitate local learning pods. This Privacy Policy outlines how we collect, use, and secure your information. By using our platform, you agree to the practices described below.
This policy covers both the PodsCool website and the PodsCool mobile app. They are the same service and the same account: the app talks to the same servers, stores the same records, and is governed by every section below. Section 1a describes the few things that exist only on a phone.
1. Information We Collect
We restrict data collection to the minimum required to operate a secure, compliant learning marketplace:
- Parents: Name, email address, phone number, billing address, and verified student account pairings. A Parent may add a profile photo; the Teachers of their children's pods can see it. Students cannot upload a profile photo.
- Teachers: Name, email address, phone number, professional teaching credentials, education background, verification status, an optional profile photo, and tax/banking details (collected securely via Stripe). Your name, photo, credential badge, education line, and reviews from families appear publicly on your marketplace profile and pod listings.
- Students: Name, grade level, and the parent account they belong to - created and managed exclusively by Parents. A student with their own parent-linked sign-in also has the Google account email their parent linked. We do not collect student biometric data or government IDs, and we show no advertising to anyone.
- Classroom records: For enrolled students we store the classwork itself - assignments turned in, quiz answers and scores, grades and teacher feedback, and basic engagement signals (when a student opens an assignment and roughly how long they spend). These records are visible only to that student, their parent, and their teacher - never to other families, and never used for advertising.
- Messages: Messaging on PodsCool is text-only between Parents and Teachers (students do not message). Messages are retained and may be reviewed by our safety team when a participant reports a conversation.
- Payment Data: We do not store credit cards or banking credentials on our servers. All financial data is processed directly by our payment processor (Stripe Connect), including card and US bank account payments; we keep transaction records (amounts, dates, receipts) for your billing history. If a Parent buys PodsCool credits, we keep their credit balance and a record of each purchase, each time credits are spent on a pod, and each refund. If a family code or a Teacher's discount code is used, we record which code was used on that enrollment.
- Background checks (Teachers): A Teacher's background check runs through Checkr. We send Checkr the Teacher's name, email address, PodsCool account identifier, and the state they teach in. The Teacher enters everything else, such as their Social Security number and date of birth, directly on Checkr's own form; PodsCool never sees or stores it. We keep the check's status and outcome (for example "clear"), not the report itself.
- Attendance: For each class session we record which enrolled students attended. We learn it two ways: when a student taps Join in PodsCool, and, for class video rooms PodsCool created, from Google Meet's record of who was in the room (the display names shown in the meeting, matched to the class list). A Teacher can also mark attendance by hand. A Teacher sees attendance for their whole pod; a Parent sees only their own child's.
- Whiteboards and desks: What a Teacher draws on a class whiteboard is stored with the pod, and we keep the board's last ten earlier versions so the Teacher can restore one; only that Teacher can see those versions. A student's desk is a private drawing space that only that student and their Teacher can see. A board's earlier versions are deleted with the board.
- Activity in PodsCool: When you are signed in to PodsCool, on the website or in the app, we record which pages, screens and tabs you open and which buttons and links you use, with the time of each, so our team can see how PodsCool is being used, help when something goes wrong, and improve it. We never record what you type or the contents of any field. Student accounts are never recorded. This record is our own: it is not shared, sold, or used for advertising. It is kept for 90 days and is visible only to PodsCool staff. It is separate from the advertising and measurement tags on our public website, which Section 1c describes.
1a. The Mobile App
The app collects nothing about you that the website doesn't, with one addition and three device permissions. All of it is listed here.
- Push notification token. If you allow notifications, Apple issues a token that identifies your installation of the app - not you, and not your device's identity. We store it against your account so we can send you a notification, along with the platform ("ios") and app version so a message reaches the right build. You can turn notifications off at any time in your device's Settings; the app keeps working, and the same notices still appear in the app's own bell. Signing out or deleting your account removes the token.
- Camera - used only when you choose to take a photo to upload, such as a profile picture, a pod cover image, or a document, or, for Teachers, when you choose to record an intro video (Section 1b). The app does not open the camera at any other time.
- Photo library - used only when you choose to attach an image you already have. We receive the file you pick and nothing else; the app cannot browse your library.
- Microphone - used if you join a session video call, and, for Teachers, while you record an intro video, whose sound is recorded with it (Section 1b). PodsCool records audio at no other time.
Each permission is requested at the moment you first use the feature that needs it, never at sign-up, and declining one only disables that feature.
What the app does not do. We say this explicitly because it is unusual enough to be worth stating: the app contains no third-party analytics or tracking SDK, no crash-reporting SDK, no advertising identifier (IDFA), and no third-party trackers. The only usage record is our own, described in Section 1 under Activity in PodsCool. It does not request your location, contacts, calendar, microphone-in-the-background, or any device identifier. The app does not track you across other apps or websites. (Our public website does carry advertising tags; Section 1c describes them.)
Payments in the app are processed by Stripe, exactly as on the website. Card details are entered into Stripe's own payment sheet and are never seen by, or stored on, PodsCool's servers or your device by us. Teacher packages and add-ons bought inside the iOS app are Apple in-app purchases: Apple processes that payment, and we never see your card details for it either. Apple returns a transaction identifier that we store so we can turn the package on for your account - we do not send Apple your enrollment or tuition details.
Deleting your account from the app does the same thing as deleting it from the website - Settings > Delete account - and is described in full in Sections 5 and 9. It is permanent, it removes your push tokens, and a closed account's email address cannot be used to sign up again.
1b. Teacher Intro Videos
A Teacher may record an intro video of up to 60 seconds, on the website or in the app, to show on their public profile. Recording is optional, and only possible after the Teacher agrees to the version of our Terms and this policy that describes it. Here is everything that happens to one.
- What we collect: the video and its sound, its length, and when it was recorded. Videos are recorded with the PodsCool camera only; nothing is uploaded from your device's library.
- The automated check: before a video is shown to anyone, a copy is processed by Google Cloud on our behalf (Video Intelligence, which checks the picture for explicit content and transcribes the speech, and Natural Language, which checks the transcript for abusive language), and by our own word list. Google processes the copy only to return those results, and we delete it as soon as they arrive; any copy left behind is deleted automatically within a day. We keep the transcript and the check's results with the video so our team can review a report.
- Who can see it: once it passes the check, the video plays on the Teacher's public profile and can be watched by anyone, signed in or not. It is stored privately by PodsCool, and each viewing uses a link that expires within hours. Our safety team can view it, including while it is hidden after a report.
- Reports: a signed-in member can report a video. We keep the report, who made it and why, and our decision, and we tell the reporter and the Teacher the outcome. The Teacher is not told who reported it.
- How long we keep it: a video stays until the Teacher deletes or replaces it, or our team removes it; its file is then deleted. A recording the automated check rejects is deleted at once, unless it appears to contain illegal content, in which case it is preserved as described below.
- Sharing with the authorities: we report apparent child sexual exploitation or abuse to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC), as United States law requires, and NCMEC may share those reports with law enforcement. We may also disclose a video, its transcript and related account information to law enforcement or other government authorities when we believe in good faith that the law requires it, or that it is necessary to protect a child or anyone else from harm. Material we are required to preserve is kept, restricted to authorized staff, for as long as the law requires, and is excluded from deletion until then.
- Not for advertising: we do not use intro videos, their sound or their transcripts in advertising, and we do not sell them.
1c. Advertising, Measurement and Session Recordings
- Advertising tags on our public website: Our public pages (for example the home page, Browse, pod and Teacher pages, Pricing, and the sign-up page) load Google's advertising tag (Google Ads) and Meta's pixel (Facebook and Instagram). These tags let Google and Meta see that a visit to PodsCool happened, so we can measure and improve our ads; they may use cookies and their own identifiers, under Google's and Meta's own privacy policies. They never load on the sign-in page, where students sign in, and they do not load on the dashboard or in the pod classroom (the dashboard reports only the adult conversions described next). They are not in the mobile app.
- Conversions we report to Meta: When a Parent or Teacher creates an account, a Parent posts a request for a teacher, or a Parent completes a card enrollment or buys PodsCool credits, our website tells Meta that the event happened, and for a purchase its amount in dollars and its kind (credits, a school year of credits, or a pod enrollment). We report this only for Parent and Teacher accounts, never for a student, and only from podscool.com. We do not send Meta your name, your email address, your child's name, or which pod or Teacher it was.
- Session recordings (Microsoft Clarity): When turned on, Microsoft Clarity records how adults use some of our pages (scrolling, clicks, and page layout) so we can see where the site is confusing. It runs only on public pages we have listed and, inside the dashboard, only for Parent and Teacher accounts. It never runs on sign-in or sign-up pages, in the pod classroom, or on any student's screen. Everything typed into a form field is masked and is not recorded.
- Featuring a Teacher's pods in our ads: A Teacher may choose to let PodsCool, Inc. feature their pods in PodsCool's own advertising, on Facebook, Instagram and elsewhere. With that permission we may use the Teacher's pod listings (title, description, photos, price and schedule) and their name and profile photo. It is optional, we record when and how it was given, and a Teacher can change their answer at any time in Settings. No student or Parent appears in this advertising.
- Reviews of PodsCool: We sometimes ask Parents and Teachers to rate PodsCool. Your rating and comment are stored by us. Only if you tick the box allowing it, we may publish your comment on our website with your name, profile photo and whether you are a Parent or Teacher. If we invite you to also review us on Google, the website copies your comment to your clipboard and opens Google's review page; you choose whether to post it, and PodsCool sends nothing to Google itself.
2. How We Use Your Information
We use the collected data solely to operate the marketplace and the classrooms inside it:
- Validating and displaying teaching credentials and verification badges to Parents.
- Facilitating communication, pod enrollment, and parent–student account linking.
- Running each pod's classroom: posting assignments and announcements, grading quizzes, recording grades, scheduling sessions with their Google Meet links, recording attendance, and notifying families of changes (for example a canceled session or an upcoming day off).
- Processing automated tuition billing and executing split-fee payouts via Stripe Connect, and showing both sides accurate receipts.
- Publishing teacher-facing reputation signals families rely on: public reviews, ratings, and each pod's record of teacher-canceled sessions.
- Complying with applicable legal and audit requirements, including state ESA audits where a Parent uses those funds.
3. Data Sharing and Marketplace Privacy
We do not sell, rent, or trade your data to third-party advertisers. Data is shared strictly to facilitate your transactions:
- Public marketplace listings: A Teacher's name, profile photo, credential badge, education line, verified status, ratings, and family-written reviews are public - that's how families choose. Pod listings show the pod's schedule, price, and days off. Nothing about any student or parent is ever public.
- Between Parents and Teachers: Once a student is enrolled in a pod, relevant data (Parent name, contact info, student name, and grade level) is visible to that pod's Teacher for classroom safety and coordination. The Teacher sees that student's classwork and grades; the Parent sees their own child's.
- Student work files: Work a student turns in is stored by PodsCool on our storage provider (Cloudflare R2). Each file is accessible only to the Teacher and the student who submitted it, and to a parent only where this policy says so - never to the rest of the session. Files are private by default: opening one requires signing in and passing the same checks as the rest of your account, and the links we generate expire.
- With Our Storage Provider: Files you upload are stored by Cloudflare (R2) in the United States on PodsCool's behalf. Cloudflare stores and serves the bytes; it does not use them for any purpose of its own.
- Class video rooms (Google): PodsCool creates each pod's Google Meet room, and a private Parent-Teacher room for each pod, using a Google Workspace account that PodsCool owns. To let the right people in, we give Google the email addresses of the pod's Teacher, its enrolled Parents, and enrolled students aged 13 or over who sign in with their own email. A child under 13 has no email address and none is shared: they join from PodsCool. Students never see or receive the Parent-Teacher room. After a class, PodsCool reads Google Meet's record of who was in the room to record attendance (Section 1).
- Background checks (Checkr): Checkr receives what Section 1 lists for a Teacher's background check and returns the result to us.
- Advertising partners: Google and Meta receive what Section 1c describes. Microsoft receives session recordings when Clarity is on (Section 1c).
- With Financial Partners: Payments are processed by Stripe Connect, which receives the data required to process them. If a Parent pays with state ESA funds, we share the transaction records required for state audit compliance.
4. Children's Privacy & Regulatory Compliance (COPPA, FERPA & Google API Data)
- Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) & Verifiable Consent: Children never create their own PodsCool accounts, enroll themselves, or make payments - every student profile is created and controlled by a Parent or legal guardian. When a Parent adds a child they are asked one question, whether the child is 13 or older, and their answer is recorded as the Parent's attestation.
A child under 13 signs in with a username and password that their Parent creates. We do not ask a child under 13 for an email address and none is stored for them; the username is turned into an address on a domain we own purely so that sign-in works, and it receives no mail. The Parent sets that password, can reset it at any time from their own account, and can delete the child's profile outright. A student aged 13 or over signs in with their own email address, Google account, or Apple ID.
A child's record holds their first name, their grade level, how they sign in, the Parent's age attestation, and the schoolwork their own Teacher creates for them - assignments, quiz results, grades, and teacher feedback for the pods that child is enrolled in. We do not ask children for a photograph, a phone number, a home address, or any information beyond what a class needs.
Marketplace browsing, enrollment, reviews and messaging are adult-only surfaces. Students cannot send or receive messages on PodsCool at all - the server returns no message threads for a student account - and students are never shown tuition or any pricing. The Parent's creation of a profile and execution of a tuition transaction via Stripe provides Verifiable Parental Consent for PodsCool to process this data. Parents retain the absolute right to review, edit, or request the immediate deletion of their child's information from their own account or by contacting support@podscool.com. - Educational records (FERPA): To the extent PodsCool handles education records in connection with state ESA programs, it operates under the "School Official" exception outlined in FERPA (34 CFR § 99.31(a)(1)). Classroom records on PodsCool (assignments, quiz results, grades, and teacher feedback) are created by the student's own Teacher, stored securely, and visible only to that student, their Parent, and that Teacher. When a pod ends, a summary of the student's grades is preserved in the family's account so their record isn't lost. These records are never sold, never used for advertising, and are deleted on a Parent's request.
- Google API Data Protection: Connecting Google is optional for Teachers. When a Teacher chooses to connect, PodsCool asks Google for one thing: the email address of their Google account (the
openidandemailscopes). We use it only to make the Teacher a co-host of their own pod's Google Meet room, so they can admit their students. We do not request access to the Teacher's Google Calendar, Google Drive, Google Classroom, or anything else in their Google account. Files uploaded through PodsCool - session files, syllabus, pod banner, profile photo, and student work - are stored by PodsCool with our storage provider, Cloudflare R2, in the United States. Files uploaded before August 19, 2026 were stored in the Teacher's own Google Drive; PodsCool has copied them into its own storage using the access the Teacher had granted at the time, and the originals remain in the Teacher's Drive under their control. Where a Teacher had already disconnected Google, those files could not be copied and remain only in their Drive. You can disconnect Google from your dashboard at any time, or revoke PodsCool's access from your Google Account permissions page. - Google API Services - Limited Use disclosure: PodsCool's use and transfer to any other app of information received from Google APIs will adhere to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements. Specifically, data obtained through Google APIs (your Google account's email address, and, once, files you had uploaded through PodsCool to your Google Drive before August 19, 2026) is used only to provide PodsCool's user-facing features - making you co-host of your pod's Meet room, and copying those earlier files into PodsCool's own storage so your classes can keep using them. It is never used for advertising, never sold, and never transferred to third parties except as necessary to provide those features, to comply with applicable law, or as part of a merger or acquisition with prior notice to you. Humans do not read this data unless you give explicit permission, it is necessary for security or legal compliance, or it has been aggregated and anonymized.
5. Security & Data Retention
We implement security measures designed to protect your information from unauthorized access. Access to data is role-gated server-side: students, parents, and teachers can each read only what this policy says they can see, and sensitive records (like Google credentials and payment identifiers) are never readable from the browser at all. Your account is protected by your password (or Google sign-in), inactive sessions are automatically signed out, and we urge you to keep your credentials private and log out on shared devices. We further protect your information with encryption in transit and other technological safeguards. However, no measures guarantee that information will never be accessed, disclosed, altered, or destroyed by a breach. By using our Service, you acknowledge that you understand and agree to assume these risks.
Retention: we keep your account data while your account is active. Transaction records are retained as required for financial and tax compliance. Messages are retained for safety review. When a pod ends, its grade summary is preserved in the family's account (see Section 4); classroom files are retained by PodsCool for as long as the pod's records are, and are deleted when the account that owns them is deleted. Files created in a Teacher's own Google Drive remain there under the Teacher's control. You may delete your account yourself at any time, or request deletion from us (Section 6 and Section 9).
What deleting your account does, and what it does not do. When you delete your account we erase the information that identifies you - your name, email address, profile photo, phone number, and biography - and we permanently disable your sign-in. Your account cannot be recovered.
We do not delete the session records connected to your account, and we want to be direct about why. Those records belong to the other people in them as much as they do to you. A family is entitled to keep their child's grades and their own tuition receipts after a Teacher leaves the platform, and a Teacher is entitled to their payment history after a family leaves. We are also required to keep transaction records for financial and tax compliance, and safety reports for as long as they may be needed. So enrollments, receipts, grades, payout records, safety reports, and past messages remain - attached to an internal account identifier rather than to you. After deletion these records no longer display your name; they show only that the account was closed.
If a Teacher deletes their account, their public listings are removed from the marketplace immediately. If a Parent deletes their account, the managed profiles they created for their children are erased on the same terms.
You cannot delete your account while you have a session in progress: a Teacher with students currently enrolled, a Parent with an active enrollment, or a Teacher we still owe a payout. This is deliberate - it prevents a session from being abandoned mid-course and prevents money from being stranded. Finish or cancel the pod, unenroll, or wait for the payout to land, and the option becomes available. If you need to leave sooner than that allows, contact us at support@podscool.com.
6. Your Rights Regarding the Use of Your Personal Information
Downloading your data. You can export your information at any time from Settings > Security > Download your data. The file contains your profile and the session content you took part in - your enrollments, grades, work you turned in, quizzes you attempted, pods you created, payout history, and the conversations you were a participant in - as a single machine-readable JSON file. It does not contain records belonging to other families, and it does not contain another person's messages unless you were part of that conversation. Very large accounts may be exported in part; if a section is truncated, the file says so, and you can request the remainder from us.
Deleting your account. You can delete your account at any time from Settings > Security > Delete your account. Section 5 explains exactly what is erased and what is retained, and the limited circumstances in which deletion has to wait. Parents retain the right to review, correct, or request deletion of their child's information at any time by contacting us.
Blocking. Parents and Teachers can block one another from Settings > Security. Blocking stops messages in both directions and prevents any new enrollment between you. It does not alter a session that has already been paid for - to leave a pod, unenroll so the refund policy applies. Blocks are recorded, and a block placed by a Teacher on a Parent is flagged for review by our team, so that ending a conversation can never be used to quietly suppress a complaint.
Marketing. You have the right at any time to prevent us from contacting you for marketing purposes. When we send a promotional communication to a user, the user can opt out of further promotional communications by following the unsubscribe instructions provided in each promotional email. You can also indicate that you do not wish to receive marketing communications from us in the settings section of your account dashboard of the Site. Please note that notwithstanding the promotional preferences you indicate by either unsubscribing or opting out in the settings section of your account dashboard of the Site, we may continue to send you administrative emails including, for example, periodic updates to our Privacy Policy.
7. Links to Other Websites
As part of the Service, we may provide links to or compatibility with other websites or applications. However, we are not responsible for the privacy practices employed by those websites or the information or content they contain. This Privacy Policy applies solely to information collected by us through the Site and the Service. Therefore, this Privacy Policy does not apply to your use of a third party website accessed by selecting a link on our Site via our Service. To the extent that you access or use the Service through or on another website or application, then the privacy policy of that other website or application will apply to your access or use of that site or application. We encourage our users to read the privacy statements of other websites before proceeding to use them.
8. Changes to Our Privacy Policy
The Company reserves the right to change this policy and our Terms of Service at any time. We will notify you of significant changes to our Privacy Policy by sending a notice to the primary email address specified in your account or by placing a prominent notice on our site. Significant changes will go into effect 30 days following such notification. Non-material changes or clarifications will take effect immediately. You should periodically check the Site and this privacy page for updates.
9. Contact & Deletion Requests
If you have any questions regarding this Privacy Policy or the practices of this Site, please contact us by email at support@podscool.com. For privacy inquiries or to submit a data deletion request, contact our administration team at support@podscool.com.
You do not need to email us to delete your account or to download your data - both are available directly in Settings > Security (see Section 6). Email us if deletion is blocked by an in-progress session and you need to leave sooner, if you are a Parent acting on your child's behalf, or if you want the parts of a very large export that did not fit in the downloaded file.