Who we are

Spark Writing is run by Spark Prep at sparkprep.com.au, from Sydney, New South Wales. Questions about this policy go to hello@sparkprep.com.au.

Your child's writing

Drafts, finished pieces, marks and progress are stored in the browser on your device (local storage). They are not sent to us or saved on a server. Clearing the browser's site data removes them.
When a piece is marked, the text is sent to our server and on to the AI model that marks it (Anthropic's Claude, under terms that prohibit training on the content). The piece is processed to produce the report and is not stored by us afterwards.
Nothing your child writes is used to train AI, by us or by the model provider.
If a piece contains something that suggests a child may be at risk, the marker declines to score it and the screen points to a trusted adult and Kids Helpline. We do not read, store or act on it ourselves.

Parent email and reports

Marking is one piece a day per parent. To identify the parent, we use either the email address typed in when a piece is handed in, or the email of a signed-in account (below).
The report (the mark, the feedback and the piece) is emailed to that address through SendGrid, our email provider. We do not add the address to any mailing list or send anything other than reports.
The address is saved in the browser on your device so it does not need to be typed again. It is not stored on our server.
To keep marking to one piece a day, the server keeps a record that a given address or account has been marked today. That record expires within 36 hours.

Parents can sign in with a Google account. We ask Google only for your name, email address and profile picture, and we keep your email address and a provider account identifier in a signed session cookie. There is no password and no user database.
The session cookie lasts 90 days or until you log out. We do not post to or read anything else from your Google account.
Google's handling of your account is covered by Google's privacy policy.

Analytics and cookies

We use Vercel Web Analytics and Speed Insights, which are cookieless and do not identify individuals. They tell us how many people visit and how many pieces are marked. Event data includes things like word count and the mark, never the writing or an email address.
The only cookie we set is the sign-in session cookie described above. There are no advertising or tracking cookies.
Our server keeps short-lived, in-memory counts of requests per network address to prevent abuse. These are not written anywhere and disappear within a day.

Service providers

We rely on a small number of providers to run the site, each receiving only what is needed for its job:

Vercel: hosting and analytics.
Anthropic: the AI model that marks pieces.
SendGrid (Twilio): sending report emails.
Google: optional sign-in.

Children

Students using the site are usually 10 to 12 years old. The site does not ask a child for their name, email or any personal details; the only email address involved belongs to a parent or carer. A parent or carer should be the one to enter an email address or sign in.

Your choices

To stop reports going to an address, use a different one on the results page or simply do not enter one.
To delete everything stored on your device, clear this site's data in your browser.
To log out, use the account menu in the header. Logging out removes the session cookie.
To ask what we hold about you (in practice, little or nothing beyond email logs at our email provider), or to have it removed, email hello@sparkprep.com.au. We respond within 30 days.

The law that applies

We handle personal information in line with the Australian Privacy Principles under the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth). If you are not satisfied with how we have handled a concern, you can contact the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner.

Changes

If this policy changes, the date at the top changes with it. Material changes will be noted on the About page.