Who we serve
My Smart Mentor is built for middle and high school students (typically ages 12–14) preparing for the SHSAT and related exams. Because many of our students are under 13, this policy is designed to meet the requirements of the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), and we describe our practices in plain language for both parents and students.
We do not knowingly collect personal information directly from a child under 13 without first completing verifiable parental consent, as described below. If we learn that we collected such information without consent, we will delete it promptly. Contact privacy@mysmartmentor.com if you believe this has happened.
What we collect
Account information
From the parent:
- Parent email address and password
- Consent/verification record (e.g., timestamp and method used)
About the student:
- Grade level (required) — this is the only information we collect about the student at signup
- Display name / pseudonym (optional) — parents may set a nickname or pseudonym for the student's profile. We do not require or ask for the student's real name, and recommend parents avoid using one.
A deliberate design choice
We do not collect the student's real name, target SHSAT score, school name, or any other identifying information as part of account setup. Because most of our students are under 13, we limit what we collect about the child specifically to what is functionally necessary to personalize their study plan.
Usage and practice data
- Practice answers, scores, and time-per-question
- Diagnostic results and estimated scaled scores
- Skill-level performance data used for adaptive practice (Bayesian Knowledge Tracing / IRT-based diagnostics)
- Shown work submitted for error classification, where applicable
- AI tutor conversation history during Socratic tutoring sessions
Automatically collected information
- Browser, device type, and operating system
- Pages visited, session duration, referral source
- IP address (anonymized before storage)
Payment information
Subscriptions are processed by a third-party payment processor. We do not store full card numbers on our servers. Payment data is governed by that processor's own privacy policy.
How we use information
- Provide and personalize the Service — adaptive study plans, diagnostics, and Socratic tutoring
- Improve the platform — aggregate, de-identified analytics to improve question quality and instructional design
- Communicate with you — account and billing emails, and, with consent, product updates
- Maintain safety and integrity — fraud and abuse prevention
- Meet legal obligations — COPPA, applicable student-privacy laws, and valid legal requests
We do not sell personal information. We do not use student data — including practice answers, shown work, or tutor conversations — to build advertising profiles or for ad targeting.
AI use disclosure
Student practice data and shown work are processed by our AI systems (including third-party AI model providers) to generate personalized study plans and tutoring responses. This data is not used by those providers to train their general-purpose models, under our service agreements.
Third-party services
We work with vendors who act on our behalf under contractual data protection terms. We do not sell data to any third party.
| Service | What it does |
|---|---|
| AI model providers | Process student practice responses and shown work to generate tutoring responses and error classifications; data submitted via APIs is not used to train third-party models |
| Authentication & database | Stores account credentials and practice data securely on the cloud |
| Payment processing | Handles billing via 3rd party payment processor; full card numbers are never stored on our servers |
| Analytics | Aggregated, de-identified usage data only, used to understand platform usage; no personally identifiable student data is shared |
| Cloud hosting | Servers and deployment infrastructure located in the United States |
Questions about a specific vendor or a request to exercise your data rights: privacy@mysmartmentor.com. We respond within 30 days.
COPPA & parental rights
If your child is under 13, you have the right to:
The personal information we hold about your child
Request deletion of your child's information
Further collection or use of your child's data, and revoke consent at any time
To exercise these rights, email privacy@mysmartmentor.com from the parent address associated with the account. We will verify the request comes from the account's parent before acting on it, and respond within 30 days.
If a parent does not complete consent verification during signup, no student data is retained beyond 30 days.
Data retention
We retain account and practice data while the account is active. After account deletion, we remove or de-identify personal information within 30 days, except where retention is required by law.
Security
We use encryption in transit and at rest, secure authentication, and role-based access controls limiting who can view student data internally. No online system is completely secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.
State privacy rights
New York: We follow applicable NY student data privacy laws and education data guidelines.
California: California residents have rights under the CCPA (know, delete, opt out of sale). We do not sell personal information.
Changes to this policy
We may update this policy and will notify registered users of material changes by email or in-app notice. Continued use of the Service after the effective date constitutes acceptance of the updated policy.
Contact us
- privacy@mysmartmentor.com
- Mailing address
- 110 Henderson Road, Fairfield, CT 06824
- Website
- mysmartmentor.com