Spirit-Bridge Privacy Policy

Effective date: October 12, 2026  ·  Version: 2026-10-12

Provider: Spirit-Bridge Education, a program of Derech Technologies LLC

Contact: derechtechnologies@gmail.com  ·  88 Marchakitus Rd, Hunlock Creek, PA 18621

1. Who this is for, and our promise

Spirit-Bridge is a learning program for children, installed on your own computer. Because we serve kids, we hold ourselves to a higher standard than the law requires. Our promise is simple: we collect as little as possible, we never sell your child's information, and parents stay in control. This policy says exactly what the software does, in plain words. If the software ever does something this policy does not describe, the policy is wrong and we will fix one or the other.

2. The short version

• Your child's profile, assessment, lessons and homeschool records are stored on your computer, encrypted with a key protected by your Windows login. We do not have a copy.
• One thing leaves your computer: when your child talks with the AI companion, their first name, age, grade, learning personality and the words they type or say are sent to our AI provider, Anthropic, through Derech's key server, so the companion can reply. (Section 4.)
• Parent report emails go through our email provider only when you ask for them. (Section 4.)
• Anonymous learning insights are off unless you turn them on. (Section 5.)
• For a child under 13, the AI companion is activated only after we receive a signed Parental Consent Form. (Section 6.)
• You can review, export and delete everything from Settings → Privacy & Safety at any time, and an installation unused for 24 months is wiped automatically. (Sections 8 and 9.)

3. What we collect, and where it lives

Stored on your computer only

To set up and personalize your child's learning, the app stores on your own device:

• Parent/guardian name, email address and phone number (for consent, reports and alerts).
• The child's first name, preferred name, age, grade and sex, as you enter them at setup. We never ask for a birth date; the age alone is enough for the lessons and the under-13 consent check. A last name is optional; if you choose to enter one for your own records it stays on your computer and is never sent anywhere.
• Learning-assessment answers and results, learning preferences, strengths, challenges, and any IEP/504, diagnosis or accommodation information you choose to enter.
• Lesson progress, mastery, companion selection, character-growth notes and learning-session activity.
• Homeschool records: attendance, hours, portfolio items, test results, evaluations.
• Any report-card, IEP or 504 file you upload (kept as a copy in the app's student-documents folder).
• Your consent record: which version of this policy and the Terms you agreed to, when, and how consent was verified. It holds a one-way hash of your email, not the address itself.

This data is encrypted at rest with AES-256. The encryption key is created on your computer and protected by Windows (DPAPI), tied to your Windows login. The database, its daily backups and the app's profile store are all encrypted. Files you upload yourself are kept as plain copies inside your Windows user profile, which other Windows accounts on the machine cannot open. On the rare device where Windows cannot protect a key, the app says so in Settings and stores data unencrypted inside your user profile rather than inventing a weaker key.

Held on Derech's key server

So that no family has to hold an AI key, Derech runs a small server that stands between the app and the AI provider. For each family it stores:

• Your activation code, the family name and the parent email you gave us when the code was issued, the issue and expiry dates, and the date we received your signed consent form.
• A monthly usage count (how much the AI companion was used), so we can apply fair-use limits.

The key server does not store your child's name, the conversations, the companion's replies or the content of report emails. It passes them through and forgets them. Its error log records only that an error happened, never what was said.

What we never collect for any outside use

• A child's last name, home address, phone number or precise location.
• Photos of the child, or the child's own contact information.
• Uploaded documents, assessment answers, IEP/504 or diagnosis details, or homeschool records.
• School names, teacher names or friends' names.

None of these is ever sent to the AI provider or to Derech. Anything in this list that a child happens to type into a conversation with the companion is covered by Section 4.

4. What leaves your computer, and who receives it

4.1 The AI companion (Anthropic)

The companion's replies are generated by Claude, an AI model made by Anthropic, PBC (San Francisco, USA). Each time your child sends a message to the companion, the app sends to Anthropic, through Derech's key server:

• The child's first name or preferred name, age, grade and learning-personality type.
• The companion's character description and teaching instructions.
• The current lesson content, and the words your child typed or spoke in that conversation, including earlier turns of the same conversation.

Anthropic is a service provider to us. Under its commercial terms it may not use what it receives to train its models, and it deletes API inputs and outputs from its systems within 30 days except where its own policy enforcement or the law requires longer. Its current terms and retention statements are at anthropic.com/legal/commercial-terms and privacy.claude.com. We do not control those documents and will update this section if they change in a way that affects your child.

You can stop this at any time with the "Pause the AI companion" switch in Settings → Privacy & Safety, or by removing the activation code in Settings → Security. Either way the companion falls back to built-in, offline responses and nothing is sent anywhere. The companion is an AI, not a person. It can be wrong, and the app tells children so when they ask.

4.2 Parent report emails (our email provider)

When you ask the app to email you a progress report, the email (your address, the child's first name and the report text) is sent through Derech's key server to our email provider, Twilio SendGrid, which delivers it. SendGrid keeps ordinary delivery records (recipient, subject, delivery status) for a limited time under its own policy. Reports are never sent to anyone but the parent address on file.

4.3 Speech

If your child speaks to the companion, speech is turned into text on your computer by an offline recognizer. Audio never leaves the device; only the resulting text is handled as in 4.1.

4.4 Nobody else

We do not use advertising networks, analytics services or trackers in the app. We do not sell or rent personal information, and we do not share it with anyone except the two providers named above, or when the law requires it.

5. Anonymous learning insights (off unless you allow it)

With your separate, explicit permission in Settings, Spirit-Bridge may share anonymous learning patterns, such as which teaching methods help which learning styles, to improve the program for all children. This is off by default. If you turn it on, it carries only de-identified patterns (age band, grade, learning style, lesson outcomes) and never a name, a conversation, or any item from the "never collect" list. You can turn it off at any time, and the switch is a true switch: nothing is sent while it is off.

6. Verifiable parental consent

For any child under 13, we obtain verifiable parental consent before the AI companion can send anything off your computer. It works like this:

1. You read this policy and the Parental Consent Form, which states in one page what is collected, who receives it and your rights.
2. You print, sign and return the form to Derech (scan or photo by email to derechtechnologies@gmail.com, or by post).
3. Only after we receive the signed form do we issue your activation code. The code is what unlocks the AI companion, so nothing about your child reaches the AI provider before you have consented in writing.
4. At setup, you confirm the same consent in the app, and the app records which version of this policy you agreed to and when.

A separate, explicit permission is required before the anonymous insights in Section 5 are turned on. You may withdraw consent at any time (Section 8); withdrawing it ends the AI companion's use for that child and, if you ask, deletes their data.

For a child aged 13 or older, consent is given by the parent in the app at setup. We still never collect more than Section 3 describes.

7. Keeping your child safe

Spirit-Bridge watches for signs that a child may be in danger: language suggesting self-harm, abuse or crisis. When detected, the app flags it for the parent and the companion is instructed to respond with care rather than carry on with the lesson. This safety monitoring runs on your computer and exists solely to protect your child. Conversations are also subject to Anthropic's own safety systems while being processed (Section 4.1).

8. Your rights as a parent

You are always in control. At any time, from Settings → Privacy & Safety, you may:

• Review and export everything held about your child as one readable file.
• Delete one child's data, or everything on the computer, permanently. Deleting removes the profile, assessment, lessons, records, uploaded documents and the app's backups.
• Withdraw consent for the AI companion by removing the activation code (Settings → Security).
• Opt out of the optional anonymous insights.
• See what the app has recorded: progress and activity in the Parent Dashboard, homeschool records in the Admin Center, and every stored item in the export.
• Pause the AI companion with one switch. While paused, nothing is sent to the AI provider.

To have the key server's record of your family removed (activation code, name, email, usage counts), or to ask Anthropic to be instructed to delete anything still within its retention window, email derechtechnologies@gmail.com. We respond to parent privacy requests within 30 days and will verify that the request comes from the parent on file before acting on it.

9. How long we keep data

Where	What	How long
Your computer	Everything in Section 3	Until you delete it. If the app is not used for 24 months, it deletes all of its data automatically on the next launch and leaves a dated note of what it did.
Derech key server	Activation record and usage counts	While the code is active, then 24 months after its last use or expiry, whichever is later, after which it is purged. Sooner on request.
Anthropic	Companion messages and replies	Deleted within 30 days under Anthropic's policy (longer only for its safety enforcement or legal holds).
SendGrid	Delivery records of report emails	Per SendGrid's retention policy; the email body is not kept by Derech.

We keep personal information only as long as needed for the purpose it was collected for, and this table is our written retention policy.

10. How we protect it

• Encryption at rest on your computer (AES-256-GCM, key protected by Windows DPAPI).
• Encryption in transit: every connection between the app, the key server and the AI provider uses HTTPS.
• No AI key or email key ever ships inside the app; they live only on the key server.
• The key server accepts requests only from the app, rate-limits them, and stores no conversation content.
• Least collection: the "never collect" list in Section 3 is enforced by what the app sends, not just by this policy.

11. Schools (FERPA)

When a school uses Spirit-Bridge, we act as a "school official" with a legitimate educational interest under FERPA. We use student data only to provide the service to the school, do not re-disclose it, and delete it at the school's request, as set out in our school agreement.

12. Changes to this policy

If we make material changes to what is collected, who receives it or how it is used, we will notify parents by email and, where the law requires, obtain renewed consent before the change applies to information already collected. The version date at the top changes with every edit, and the app records which version you agreed to.

13. Contact us

Questions about your child's privacy? Contact us at derechtechnologies@gmail.com or 88 Marchakitus Rd, Hunlock Creek, PA 18621.