Privacy policy
Last updated 6 September 2026
AffectLearn adapts a lesson to how you are getting on with it. Doing that means observing how you work, so this page sets out exactly what is observed, what is stored, and what is never stored. Where something is a promise we keep by hand rather than by code, it says so.
What we never store
Webcam video and images never leave your browser. If you turn the camera on, your device measures a small set of geometric quantities from each frame — where your gaze is directed, whether your mouth is open, how much you are moving — and sends only those numbers. That is roughly 600 bytes per 30-second cycle. No frame, crop or still image is transmitted, written to disk, or seen by a person, and the system that processes a cycle is deliberately built without the ability to save one.
We never capture what you type. Keystrokes are counted by category — a letter, a number, a backspace — and the characters themselves are discarded at the point of capture. Your answers to quizzes are stored, because they are your work; the raw keystrokes that produced them are not.
What we do store
- Your account: name, email address, and — if you gave them — an age range and degree programme.
- Your learning: courses you enrol in, sections you open and finish, how long you spend, quiz and assessment answers, and every attempt at them rather than only the first.
- Aggregate interaction signals: summary statistics over 30-second windows of mouse movement, scrolling and typing rhythm — speeds, counts, pauses, measures of how erratic the movement is. Not the paths, not the keys.
- Facial geometry readings, if the camera is on: the derived numbers described above, and the model's output for that cycle.
- Help you were offered: each hint or suggestion, what it said, whether you accepted or dismissed it, and how you answered next.
- Anything you tell us directly: your own reports of how a section felt, and questionnaire or survey answers.
You can turn the camera off
The camera is optional and can be switched off at any time from your profile, or refused at the start. The platform continues to work in behavioural-only mode, reading how you move through the material instead. A visible indicator tells you which mode you are in whenever detection is running.
How your data is used
To adapt lessons to you while you study, to show you your own progress, to show course designers where learners in aggregate struggle, and — for research participants — to answer the research questions described in Data & consent.
We do not sell your data, do not use it for advertising, and do not link it to advertising profiles.
Who can see it
Research records are keyed to an opaque identifier rather than your name or email. This is pseudonymisation, not anonymisation, and the distinction matters: an administrator with access to both the account table and the research records could join them. Identifying fields are never included in a research export. Course designers see aggregates across learners, never one learner's record.
How long it is kept, and how to have it deleted
You can delete your account and everything recorded about you yourself, from your profile. It takes effect immediately, it does not go through us, and you do not have to give a reason. You will be asked for your password and to type DELETE, because it cannot be undone. Deletion removes your account, your learning records, the interaction signals, and the research event log — you will be shown exactly how many rows were removed from each.
You can also download everything we hold about you before deciding. The export is deliberately complete rather than curated: it includes the interaction telemetry and the research records, not just the parts that are easy to read.
Research records are automatically deleted after 90 days. This runs as a scheduled job rather than as a promise someone remembers to keep. Your account and your own course progress are not covered by that limit — those are yours until you delete them.
If you would rather someone did it for you, or you have lost access to your account, email privacy@affectlearn.tech from the address on your account and we will act within 24 hours.
Security
Traffic between your browser and AffectLearn is encrypted in transit, and stored data is encrypted at rest by our hosting provider. Access to production data is limited to the project team.
Changes
If this policy changes in a way that affects what is collected or how long it is kept, we will say so on this page and date the change.
Contact
Questions about any of this go to privacy@affectlearn.tech.