AhaLearning

Privacy Policy

Last updated [date you publish this]

Aha is an ACT tutoring service run by AhaLearning in Wisconsin. Students talk with Sam, an AI tutor, by voice, and practice on screen. This policy explains what information Aha collects, why, who it goes to, and the choices you have. It's written for students and their parents or guardians. If anything is unclear, email us at ahalearningsupport@gmail.com.

The short version

Aha is for students 13 and older. Students under 18 need a parent or guardian's permission to get an account.
We collect what Aha needs to teach: the student's name, goal score, test date, and learning progress.
Aha never records or stores students' voices. Speech is turned into text as it happens and then discarded.
To run Sam, we use three AI services: Deepgram (hears the student), Anthropic (Sam's brain), and Cartesia (Sam's voice). We've opted out of AI training wherever each service allows it.
We don't sell data, show ads, or use tracking or analytics tools.
You can ask us to see, correct, or delete a student's information at any time.

1. Who Aha is for

Aha is for students preparing for the ACT who are at least 13 years old. If a student is under 18, a parent or guardian must agree to this policy and our Terms of Use before we create the student's account. Aha is not meant for children under 13, and we don't knowingly collect information from them. If we learn that a child under 13 has an account, we'll delete it and its information.

2. What we collect

Information you give us

Account details: the student's name, goal ACT score, and test date. Contact details you give us when signing up, such as a parent's email address, stay in our email account, not in Aha.
Access code: each student signs in with a private code. We store only a scrambled (hashed) version of the code, not the code itself.

Information created while studying

Learning progress: skills mastered, the review schedule, placement check results, the answer chosen for each practice and practice test question with scores and time used, the types of questions missed and why (for example, a careless slip or a misread question), which test strategies Sam has taught, and a list of past sessions with their dates and skills.
Session notes: after each voice session, Sam writes two to four sentences of study notes, such as what the student got comfortable with and what was still tricky, so the next session can pick up where this one left off. The note-writer is instructed to include only study-related observations.
Scratch work: in math, students can work problems by hand on on-screen scratch paper. During a session, Sam sees a picture of it only when the student taps Show Sam, and Aha doesn't keep that picture. On timed math tests, the work for questions the student misses is saved as pictures so Sam can go over it with them; taking the test again replaces it.
Feedback: the 1 to 5 rating and any comment you choose to send after a session, which we use to improve Aha.
Usage records: the date, length, subject, and type of each session, and how much the AI services processed, which we use to apply monthly study-time limits and to understand our costs.

Voice and conversations

Voice: while a student talks with Sam, their microphone audio is sent live to Deepgram, which turns it into text. Aha does not record, save, or store any audio. Students can mute the microphone and type their answers instead.
Conversation text: during a session, the text of what the student says and what Sam replies is kept in our server's memory and sent to Anthropic so Sam can respond. At the end of the session, it's sent to Anthropic once more to write the session notes. After that, only the notes are saved; the full conversation is not kept.

Information on your device

One sign-in cookie that keeps the student signed in for up to 30 days. It holds the student's account ID and an expiry date, signed so it can't be forged. It's needed for Aha to work.
Your browser's own storage remembers which subject tab was last open and saves answers on a practice test in progress, so they aren't lost if the page reloads. This stays on your device.
Aha has no advertising, analytics, or tracking cookies and loads no third-party scripts. Even its fonts come from our own server.

Basic technical information and logs

Like any website, our server and hosting provider receive technical information needed to deliver pages and connect voice sessions, such as IP address, browser type, and the time of each request. Our server logs record events like sign-ins, the student's account ID, skills practiced, and scores, plus the IP address of failed sign-in attempts (to block code guessing). They don't record the conversation. Logs are deleted automatically after [30] days.

3. How we use it

To teach: choosing each day's skill, scheduling reviews, tracking progress, scoring practice, and letting Sam remember what the student worked on.
To run the service: signing students in, applying fair-use limits, keeping Aha secure, fixing problems, and understanding our costs.
To communicate with the student or parent about the account.

We do not sell or rent personal information, share it for advertising, or use it to build advertising profiles. We don't use students' information to train AI models.

4. Who we share it with

We share information only with the service providers that make Aha work, and only what each one needs:

Deepgram (speech to text): Receives the student's voice audio during a session and returns text. On every request, Aha uses Deepgram's setting that opts out of its model improvement program. Deepgram says data from opted-out requests is kept only as long as needed to process them.
Anthropic (Claude, the AI behind Sam): Receives the conversation text, any scratch work the student shares or saved from a missed test question, plus what Sam needs to teach well: the student's name, goal score, test date, progress, and session notes. Under Anthropic's commercial terms, it may not train its models on this data. Anthropic automatically deletes it within 30 days, except where it's flagged under Anthropic's usage policy (kept up to 2 years, with safety classification scores kept up to 7 years) or the law requires keeping it longer.
Cartesia (Sam's voice): Receives the text of what Sam says, which may include the student's name and short parts of the student's answers, and turns it into speech. Cartesia never receives the student's voice. [Before publishing: submit Cartesia's training opt-out form, then keep this sentence:] We have asked Cartesia not to use our content to train its models. Cartesia doesn't publish how long it keeps this data.
Hosting provider: Runs the servers where Aha and its stored information live, in the United States. [Name the hosting provider once chosen. If a voice relay (TURN) service is added, name it here too and add: "If a network blocks direct voice connections, the encrypted audio may pass through this relay, which can't listen to it."]
Payment processor: If you pay online, a payment processor handles your card details. We never see or store full card numbers. [Name the processor once chosen, or remove this item.]

We may also share information if the law requires it, to protect someone's safety, or to protect Aha against fraud or misuse. If AhaLearning is ever sold or merged, student information would transfer only under the protections of this policy, and we'd tell you first.

5. How long we keep it

We keep a student's account details, progress, notes, and test results while the account is active. Pausing an account doesn't delete its information. When an account is closed, or when you ask us to delete it, we erase that information within 30 days. We keep usage records for our accounting, with the student's name and ID removed. Server logs are deleted on their own schedule, described in section 2. The service providers above keep data for the periods described in section 4.

6. Your choices and rights

See, correct, or get a copy of a student's information.
Delete a student's account and information.
Stop using Aha at any time. During a session, students can mute the microphone and type instead of talking.

A parent or guardian of a student under 18, or a student who is 18 or older, can make these requests by emailing ahalearningsupport@gmail.com. We'll respond within 30 days and may need to confirm who you are first.

7. How we protect it

Access codes are stored only in scrambled form. Sign-in cookies are signed so they can't be forged. Pages and voice are sent over encrypted connections (HTTPS for pages; voice is always encrypted). Only AhaLearning has access to the stored information. No system is perfectly secure, but if a breach ever affects your information, we'll notify you as the law requires.

8. About Sam

Sam is an AI, not a person. Sam is designed to stay on ACT prep and not to ask for personal information beyond what helps with studying, so please don't share private details in sessions. If a student mentions something serious, like feeling unsafe, Sam encourages them to talk to a parent, school counselor, or another trusted adult and shares the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. Aha is not an emergency or counseling service and isn't monitored in real time. In an emergency, call 911.

9. Changes to this policy

If we change this policy, we'll post the new version here with a new date. If the change is significant, we'll also email the contact on file before it takes effect.

10. Contact

AhaLearning, Wisconsin
ahalearningsupport@gmail.com