Student privacy notice

Version 1.4, effective October 31, 2026.

This page has two parts. The first part is for students. The second part is for parents and guardians. Both parts are also shown inside Writeroom: on the assignment join page, the first time you open each assignment, and from the editor menu at any time.

Part 1: For students

What Writeroom is

Writeroom is where you write your school assignments. Your school chose it. Your teachers can see how your writing came together, not just the finished piece.

What Writeroom records when you write an assignment

When you write in an assignment, Writeroom keeps a record of how you wrote it. It records:

Every change you make, and when. Your teacher can replay your writing from the first word to the last.
The keys you press in the editor, and the timing. Only inside the Writeroom editor. Never in other apps or websites.
What you paste or drag in, and where it looks like it came from.
What you copy or cut inside your document.
Words you say with voice typing. Writeroom keeps the words, not your voice.
When you leave the document for another tab, window or app, and how long you were away.
The AI check. Writeroom looks at the finished text to guess if a computer wrote it. It also checks long pieces of text you copy. This only works for English writing. It is a guess, not proof.

Your teacher's assignment may also turn on:

Screen clips. Only if the assignment says "Supervised" and you start sharing your screen. Writeroom tells you first, in plain words. While you share, each time you leave the document Writeroom saves a five-second video and a few pictures of your whole screen, and reads the words in the pictures. Your whole screen means everything on it, so close anything private before you share. Clips are usually deleted after 30 days. Your school can change that time.
The Writeroom extension. Only if your school asked you to install it, and only while an assignment is open. It tells your teacher which websites you switched to (just the site name, not the page, except for AI tool sites), how many tabs you have open, and what you copy from AI tool sites. In a supervised assignment it also takes a picture of an AI tool page if you open one.
A clipboard check. Only while your school has it on (new schools start with it on). When you come back to your document, Writeroom looks at what is on your clipboard. It keeps only text that matches your assignment or an AI tool. It throws away anything that looks like a password or a code. If you say no when your browser asks, that is fine. Saying no is never counted against you.
AI helpers like translate or dictionary. Only while your school has them on (new schools start with them on). The words you translate or look up are sent to an AI company in the United States. Writeroom sends them in a way that does not let the company keep them or learn from them. Your name is not sent.

What Writeroom does not record

Your own documents. If you make a document that is not for an assignment, nothing about how you wrote it is recorded. Your teachers cannot see it unless you share it. If you share it, they see the words, not a record.
Your camera. Writeroom only uses it if you choose to take a photo to put in your document. The photo is just a picture in your document.
Your voice. Only the words from voice typing are kept.
Where you are.
What you type anywhere else.
Anything, when no assignment is open.

Who can see it

Your teachers for that assignment, and any co-teacher they add.
Your school's Writeroom administrators. Every time they look, it is written down.
Writeroom's own staff cannot look at your work unless your school's administrator lets them for a short time to fix a problem. That is written down too.
Not other students. Not advertisers. Not other companies, except the ones that store and run Writeroom for us.

What your teacher sees

Your teacher sees a replay of your writing and notes from Writeroom about moments worth a second look. For example: "a lot of text was pasted here" or "the student left the document for ten minutes here."

These notes are hints, not proof. Writeroom never decides anything. It never gives you a grade. It never says you cheated. Only your teacher decides, and your teacher should talk with you first. If your teacher records a decision about your work, your teacher has to write down why.

Writeroom also keeps an honesty score for you, a percentage that starts at 80. It goes up slowly when a teacher hands back finished work that looks typical. It goes down if a teacher decides there is an integrity concern, or a little if a teacher discussed something with you. Writeroom's notes and AI checks can never change it by themselves. It is an indicator, not a decision, and a person can always correct it.

You do not see these notes or the score in the app. If you want to know what Writeroom recorded about your work, ask your teacher or your school. They can show you everything. If you think something is wrong, or you disagree with a decision, you or your parent can ask your school to fix it or to look at it again. Writeroom helps your school get the full record.

What Writeroom never does with your work

Never sells it.
Never shows you ads.
Never uses your writing to teach an AI.
Never shares it with anyone outside your school, except the companies that store it safely for us.

Where it is kept, and for how long

Your writing and the record of how you wrote it are kept in Canada. The record of how you wrote is deleted 12 months after you last edited the document, unless your school picks a different time. Screen clips are deleted after 30 days, unless your school picks a different time. Your documents stay until your school deletes them. If your school stops using Writeroom, you and your school can download your work for 30 days. Writeroom then deletes it within 60 days after the school's agreement ends.

If you have questions

Ask your teacher. Or ask your school's Writeroom administrator. You can also send us a message with the contact form at writeroom.org/contact. We will pass your question to your school and help answer it.

Part 2: For parents and guardians

Why your child is using Writeroom

Your child's school has chosen Writeroom as the place where students write assignments. Writeroom shows teachers not only the finished writing but how it was written: when it was written, what was typed and what was pasted, and how the draft changed. The purpose is to let teachers recognise genuine effort, give better feedback on the writing process, and notice when a piece of writing may not be the student's own, at a time when AI tools can produce an essay in seconds.

Writeroom is provided only to schools. The school is the organization responsible for your child's information; it decides which features are on, who may see records, and how long they are kept. Writeroom processes the information only for the school, under a written agreement, and the school's own privacy policy and the privacy law that applies to the school govern. The school will give you any notice its law requires about Writeroom.

What is recorded

Always, in assignment documents only: every edit and its time; keys pressed inside the Writeroom editor with timing; text pasted or dropped in and where it appears to have come from; text copied or cut inside the document; words produced by voice typing (not audio); when the student left the document and for how long; the browser type and window size; and actions the assignment's rules blocked. From this record Writeroom computes indicators for teachers (section "What teachers see" below), including an AI-detector score for English writing of 300 words or more.

Only if the school or the teacher turns it on:

Screen supervision. For assignments set to "Supervised", the student is asked to share their whole screen after a plain-language notice. Each time the student leaves the document, a five-second recording of the whole screen and four still images are saved, and the text in the stills is read by software to name the site or app. Teachers can also watch the shared screen live; the live view is not recorded. Clips are deleted after 30 days by default.
The Chrome extension. While an assignment document is open, it reports the domain of websites the student visits (the full address only for listed AI tool sites), a count of open tabs and which are AI tool sites, and text copied on listed AI tool sites; in supervised assignments it saves screenshots of an AI tool tab. It records nothing when no assignment is open and never records keystrokes.
The outside-clipboard check. When the student returns to an assignment document, Writeroom looks at the clipboard, with the browser's permission. Only text of eight or more words that matches the document or an AI tool is kept; other items are kept only as a fingerprint and word count; anything that looks like a password or code is discarded. Declining the browser permission is never recorded as a flag.
External AI features. AI marking (suggested grades for the teacher to edit), translate, dictionary and a teacher assistant send text to OpenRouter and a model vendor in the United States. Writeroom sends every request with settings that allow only endpoints that do not retain or train on the text, sends no student identifiers, and does not send student names or email addresses. These features are on when a school starts, and a school administrator can turn them off.

Not recorded: documents your child creates on their own outside an assignment (not recorded, and not visible to teachers unless your child shares one, in which case only the text is visible); the camera (it is used only if your child chooses to take a photo to put in their document, and the photo is just a picture in that document); audio; location; typing outside the Writeroom editor; browsing when no assignment is open; date of birth, age, grade or your own details (the school holds those, not Writeroom).

Who sees it

Teachers of the assignment and co-teachers they add. Teachers do not see students outside their own assignments.
The school's Writeroom administrators, who can see everything in the school. Every such view is written to an audit log the school can review.
Writeroom staff have no default access. A school administrator can grant time-limited support access to fix a problem; every view during it is logged. Writeroom never signs in as a user.
Nobody else. Writeroom does not sell information, show ads, or share information with advertisers or data brokers. The only other companies that handle data are the ones that store and run the service for Writeroom (listed at writeroom.org/subprocessors), bound by contract.

What teachers see, and what Writeroom does not decide

Teachers see a replay of the writing and a set of indicators ("Integrity Signals"): flags such as a large paste or time away followed by new text, a per-document score, an AI-detector score for English text, and a summary built from that teacher's own recorded decisions on the student's assignments (other teachers' decisions are included only while the school has decision sharing on; new schools start with it on, and the school can turn it off).

Writeroom makes no decision about any student. It does not assign grades, does not make findings of academic dishonesty, and does not contact parents. Every signal is labelled in the app as a reason to look, not proof. A teacher who records an integrity decision chooses one of three outcomes ("No concern", "Discussed with student" or "Integrity concern confirmed by teacher"), must write their own note, and can change the decision later. The school's own academic-integrity and appeal processes apply to any decision a teacher makes. Writeroom documents known limits for teachers: the AI detector is not applied to writing in languages other than English, dictation and non-keyboard input are recorded as such and never treated as pasting, and ordinary behaviour can produce a signal.

Writeroom also keeps a long-term honesty score for each student, a percentage that starts at 80. It rises slowly when a teacher hands back finished work that looks typical. It falls by 20 to 30 points when a teacher records "Integrity concern confirmed by teacher" (more for repeats), and by a few points for "Discussed with student". Automated flags and AI scores alone never move it. Every change is recorded with its reason. It is an indicator, not a decision, and nothing happens to a student because of it. Teachers of the student and school administrators see it, and a school administrator can change or reset it with a written reason, so a person can always correct it.

Students do not see the signals or the honesty score in the app. You and your child can ask the school for the complete record, including any signals, the honesty score and its history, the evidence behind them, and any decisions and notes, and can ask the school to correct the record or to review a decision under its own process. The school can export the complete record from Writeroom, and Writeroom helps the school do so.

Where information is kept and for how long

Student writing, the writing-process record, screen clips and all files are stored in Google Cloud's Toronto, Canada region. Sign-in account records (name, email, sign-in times) are held by Google's Firebase Authentication in the United States, which also sends the only emails the Service sends (email verification, password reset and sign-in emails, containing the recipient's email address, a link and the Writeroom name); AI features, when a school turns them on, use OpenRouter and a model vendor in the United States.

By default, the writing-process record and the signals computed from it are deleted 12 months after the document was last edited; screen clips after 30 days; documents, comments and grades when the school deletes them or its agreement with Writeroom ends. The school can shorten or lengthen these periods. Backups are cleared within 35 days of a deletion. When a school's agreement ends, the school and its students can read and export their data for 30 days; Writeroom deletes all of the school's data within 60 days after the agreement ends, and backup copies age out within 35 days after that.

Your rights

Depending on your province, you may have the right to see your child's personal information, ask for corrections or deletion, ask for a decision to be reviewed, and complain. Because the school is responsible for the information, please contact the school first: your child's teacher or the school's Writeroom administrator. The school can show you or export the complete record, correct it, and delete it. If you contact Writeroom through the contact form at writeroom.org/contact (topic: Privacy), we will pass your request to the school within five business days and help the school respond. You may also contact the privacy commissioner for your province; the Writeroom privacy policy lists them.

More information

The full Writeroom privacy policy, the Security overview and the subprocessor list are at writeroom.org. Questions: the contact form at writeroom.org/contact (topic: Privacy). Writeroom is operated by the person who runs writeroom.org and app.writeroom.org and who signs each School's Order Form; the operator's legal name and mailing address are given in your school's Order Form and are provided on request through the contact form.

Questions about this document? Use the contact form. All legal documents