Privacy policy
What this platform is
CafeClass is a tool that helps instructors keep track of their classes: announcements, course material, assignments with deadlines and a record of meetings. It is not any institution's academic system and does not replace any of its official records.
Two consequences follow, because they tend to cause confusion:
- Attendance recorded here is not a roll call. It is the instructor's note about the meetings, made by exception: only those who were absent, late or excused get a record. It does not count as presence or absence in an academic system, it is not a class register, and treating the two as equivalent is not recommended. Official attendance is still entered by the instructor in the institution's system, by another route.
- Scores and reputation are not grades. They are supporting metrics, so that students and instructors can see how the class is going. The official grade is entered by the instructor in the institution's system and does not come from here.
There is no institutional enrollment, approval, failure, academic transcript or integration with any institution's system here. A person's identifier on this platform is their e-mail address.
What data is stored
The instructor can publish text material for public access. That publication contains only the material and the attachments the instructor chose; it never includes student data.
- Identification: name, username and e-mail address.
- Access: the password is stored only as a cryptographic hash (never in readable text), and the system records failed login attempts to block brute-force attacks.
- Academic activity: submitted assignments, written answers, grades given, automatic evaluations, comments sent to the instructor and the history of attempts.
- Meetings: the attendance notes described above, with the date of the meeting and an optional note from the instructor.
- Score and reputation: the statement of events the platform generates from submissions and meetings.
- Preferences: theme, font size, and e-mail notification choices.
Automatic grading by artificial intelligence
Essay questions receive an automatic evaluation from a third-party language model, which the instructor reviews. Students must accept the AI terms of use before submitting an assignment that contains essay questions, and can ask for human review of any evaluation they disagree with.
What is sent to the model is only the question statement, the answer key, the instructor's notes and the text of the answer. No student or class identifier is sent — the model receives no name, e-mail, enrollment or any data that links the answer to a person.
The raw output of the model is stored for auditing, so that a strange evaluation can be checked later. That output is deleted when the student's account is anonymized.
Signing in with a Google Account
When Google sign-in is available, the platform receives from Google only the verified e-mail address and the account name, and only to create or recognize the access. No Google password reaches this platform, and the platform does not read e-mails, files, calendar or any other data in the account.
E-mails
The platform may send e-mail notices about a published assignment, a new announcement, new material and a graded assignment. E-mail is sent only to an address the student has confirmed, respects the student's preferences, and every e-mail carries an unsubscribe link that works without signing in to the platform.
Cookies
Only the cookies needed for operation are used: the session cookie, which keeps you signed in, and the one that protects against request forgery. There are no advertising, tracking or third-party analytics cookies.
Who the data is shared with
With the class instructor, who operates the platform; and with the artificial intelligence service used for grading, within the limits described above. Beyond that, the data is not sold, assigned or shared with third parties.
Copy on the instructor's computer
The instructor can install the CafeClass app on their computer to teach without internet. The app keeps a copy of their classes: students with an active enrollment, with first and last name (no e-mail), the sign-up date, the cryptographic hash of the PIN each one set and the acceptance of the AI terms of use, with version and date; the assignments, including drafts, and the deadline and attempt exceptions given to each student (without the reason); the attempts and answers with score, grading comment, score origin, flag of disagreement between assessments and human review request; the joint activities, with the questions launched and each student's answer linked to the question it was given in; the material, the bulletin board and the attendance records (without the instructor's notes). It does not carry the reputation score, notifications, invitations, comments sent to the instructor or the processing logs of automatic grading.
- Where it is kept: in a folder of the computer user, in an encrypted database whose key is kept in the system's password vault. The attachments the app shows are not encrypted. The file of a change waiting to be sent also has an encrypted copy, deleted when the platform receives it. The encryption protects a copied or stolen disk, not someone who has the instructor's session open.
- During class: students join through the classroom network, with the PIN each one set. Answers stay only on the instructor's computer until the internet is back, when the app sends them to the platform.
- When it is deleted: the whole copy is deleted when the instructor disconnects the computer or when the app's access is refused by the platform. If there is class data waiting to be sent, the copy waits for the upload. To disconnect, the instructor first closes the open class and resolves the pending changes. When the instructor loses access to a class, that class's student data leaves the computer immediately, including class data the platform refused for that reason. Only the instructor's changes that the platform has not yet received or has refused stay, until the instructor resolves them; a change that contains student data also leaves, and the app tells the instructor what left. If the app's access is refused and only those changes remain, the student data of all classes leaves in the same way. An internet outage never deletes anything.
- Refused changes: a change the instructor made in the app and the platform refused is kept on the platform, with both versions, so the instructor can resolve it on the pending items screen. It goes away when the instructor resolves it.
CafeCalc app for Android
The CafeCalc app, from Google Play, only opens the site's calculator in full screen. It has no sign-up or account of its own and does not collect data by itself: the calculator runs on the device and your calculations are not sent anywhere.
The app uses the device's Chrome browser, so the login is the same as in Chrome: anyone signed in there gets in with the same account and has the Python tab. The same cookies and the same policy described on this page apply.
How long data is kept
While the class exists on the platform, and afterwards for as long as the instructor keeps the record for reference. There is no fixed automatic deletion period. Database backups are made periodically and kept for a limited time — deleted data may survive in those backups until they are discarded by rotation.
Student rights
On request, and without needing to give a reason, the student can obtain:
- a copy of everything the platform keeps about them, as a file;
- removal of their identity — name, e-mail and the raw output of the AI model are deleted. Submissions, grades and meeting records remain, but detached from any person, because they are the class history.
It is also possible to correct wrong data, such as the contact e-mail. Just ask through the contact below.
Security
Access always happens over an encrypted connection (HTTPS). Passwords are stored only as a cryptographic hash, repeated wrong login attempts temporarily block access, and each student sees only what is linked to their own enrollments.
Responsible person and contact
Jefferson Wilhelm Meyer Soares, instructor responsible for the classes and for operating this platform.
Contact: cafeclass@meyer.dev.br
Changes to this policy
If this policy changes in a relevant way, the effective date at the top changes with it and a notice appears on the bulletin board of active classes.