Security & Compliance

Your data is safe with us

Paideon is built for schools. We take student data privacy seriously and design every feature with FERPA compliance in mind.

Compliance Framework

FERPA Compliant

Paideon operates as a “school official” under FERPA, processing student education records only at the direction of teachers and school administrators. We never use student data for non-educational purposes.

Data Processing Agreement

We sign Data Processing Agreements (DPAs) with school districts, compatible with the Student Data Privacy Consortium (SDPC) National Data Privacy Agreement framework.

No Student PII in AI

Student names, classmate names, email addresses, phone numbers, and street addresses are automatically stripped from text submissions before content is sent to our AI grading engine. For image and PDF submissions (e.g., handwritten work), the AI is instructed to ignore any visible PII such as names on headers. No student identifiers are included in AI requests.

Audit Logging

All access to student data is logged with timestamps, user identity, and action type. Audit logs are retained for 3 years per FERPA requirements and are available to school administrators on request.

Data Rights

Right to Access

Teachers and school admins can export a complete copy of any student's data at any time, including all grades, submissions, and enrollment records.

Right to Delete

Student records can be permanently deleted by the teacher or school admin. Deletion removes all associated submissions, grades, and enrollment records.

Data Minimization

We only collect data necessary for grading: student name, ID number, email (optional), and submission files. Uploaded files are automatically deleted after 7 days.

Infrastructure & Encryption

Hosting: Application hosted on Vercel (SOC 2 Type II certified). Database hosted on Supabase (SOC 2 Type II certified, AWS us-east-1).
Encryption in transit: All data transmitted over TLS 1.2+. HTTPS enforced on all endpoints.
Encryption at rest: Database encrypted with AES-256. File storage encrypted at rest via AWS S3 server-side encryption.
Access control: Row-level security (RLS) enforced at the database layer. Teachers can only access their own students' data. Org members see summary-only cross-class data — never individual assignment scores for another teacher's class.
Authentication: Email/password with bcrypt hashing, Google OAuth, session-based auth with secure HTTP-only cookies.

Subprocessors

The following third-party services process data on behalf of Paideon. All subprocessors maintain SOC 2 compliance and data processing agreements.

Service	Purpose	Data Processed	Location
Supabase	Database, Auth, File Storage	All application data, user accounts, submission files	US (AWS us-east-1)
Vercel	Application Hosting	HTTP requests, server-side rendering	US
Anthropic	AI Grading Engine	PII-stripped submission content only (names, phones, addresses removed; images/PDFs sent with AI instruction to ignore visible PII)	US
Stripe	Payment Processing	Teacher billing info only (no student data)	US

Student Data Lifecycle

Every submission follows this exact path — from upload to deletion.

1
Upload
Teacher uploads submission (essay, PDF, image). File encrypted in transit (TLS 1.2+) and at rest (AES-256). Stored in US-based data center.
2
Text Extraction
Text extracted server-side from PDF/DOCX/RTF. Original file retained for 7 days only, then automatically deleted.
3
PII Stripping
Before AI sees anything: student names → [STUDENT], emails → [EMAIL], IDs → [STUDENT_ID], phone numbers → [PHONE], addresses → [ADDRESS]. Images/PDFs: prompt-level instruction to ignore visible PII.
4
AI Grading
Anonymous content sent to Anthropic Claude API (US servers). No student name, class, or school identifier included. Anthropic does NOT train on API inputs.
5
Teacher Review
AI suggests scores per rubric criterion with written feedback. Marked “Needs Review” — never auto-finalized. Teacher adjusts, edits, or overrides entirely.
6
Export & Sync
Grades exportable as Canvas CSV. Pushable to Canvas via API with rubric assessments and feedback. Emailable to students. Student data exportable as JSON.
7
Data Retention
Uploaded files: auto-deleted after 7 days. Grades & feedback: retained until deleted by teacher/admin. Audit logs: 3 years per FERPA. Student records: permanently deletable on demand.

Questions?

For security inquiries, DPA requests, or compliance questions, contact us at security@paideon.app. We respond to all security-related inquiries within 2 business days.

Last updated: March 2026