Your students' data is safe here.
And we'll show you exactly how.
What we promise you
Straight answers about your students' data.
Only the essential data reaches the AI
When Gradefully drafts a comment, it sends the AI only the marks and notes it needs, and your students' names are replaced with codes to reduce the risk of exposing personally identifying information.
See how → See a sample AI request →Your gradebook stays in Canada
Marks, notes, and backups are stored and encrypted on Azure servers in Canada, the same cloud hospitals and banks run on.
Never sold. Never used to train AI.
Your students' information is not a product, and it never trains an AI model.
You're in control
Download or delete all your data anytime, and you approve every comment before it goes on a report card.
Privacy or security question? privacy@gradefully.com
What happens to a grade you enter
The whole journey, start to finish, with the privacy step built right into the middle.
You enter it
A mark, a note, an observation: typed into your gradebook.
Stored in Canada
Encrypted in transit and at rest on Azure servers in Canada.
You ask for comments
Gradefully builds an AI prompt with minimal student data: the marks and notes a comment needs.
Names swapped for codes
Your student's name becomes PRENOM42. Other names, emails, and phone numbers are stripped out.
Sent to our AI provider
The prompt goes to our vetted third-party AI provider, which drafts the comment.
Back to you
The name is restored on your screen. You read, edit, and approve.
Aiden has shown strong growth in lab work this term and is ready for more independent inquiry.
PRENOM42 has shown strong growth in lab work this term and is ready for more independent inquiry.
The code is swapped back to the real name on your screen, so you never see PRENOM42. The AI receives the code.
What the code swap does not catch. The safety net is built from your own class lists: before anything reaches the AI, we swap your student's name for a code and strip out other students' names, email addresses, and phone numbers, including common misspellings. A sibling, a parent, a colleague, or anyone who is not one of your students will not be caught. Please keep personal information out of the notes that feed the AI. That part is on you, and it is the single best thing you can do to protect your students.
Curious exactly what leaves our servers? Download a sample AI request: the real structure, coded names, system prompt removed (that part is our product).
For your school board's IT team
What we collect, where it lives, what reaches the AI, and how it's protected.
See the full technical detail
What we collect · data map · what we send the AI · access & encryption · retention · subprocessors · frameworks · contact
What we collect, and why
It is more than a name and a mark: a gradebook needs real information to be useful. Here is the whole list, and why each part is there.
- Your account: your name, email, and settings, plus the date you accepted the terms. This is what signs you in.
- Your classes and students: course details and, for each student, their name, grade level, and gender (it changes how a comment is worded). School number, student email, and parent contact are optional. Add them only if you want them.
- Your marks and notes: assignments, categories, weights, marks, your private teacher notes, the notes you share on reports, trackers, and your teacher journal. This is the gradebook itself.
- Your report comments: the drafts, your edits, and a record of each AI request, which we use to meter usage and improve the writing. The text in that record is erased after 90 days.
- Billing: your plan, renewal date, and Stripe customer number. Card numbers go straight to Stripe and never touch our servers.
Where your data lives
| Data | Where it's stored | Region |
|---|---|---|
| Gradebook: marks, notes, observations, rosters | Azure SQL Database (encrypted at rest) | Canada |
| Encrypted backups | Azure geo-redundant backup (Canadian region pair) | Canada |
| Teacher sign-in identity | Auth0 (name, email, role) | US |
| AI comment drafting | OpenAI API: name removed first; 30-day abuse log (see below) | US |
| Anonymous usage analytics | PostHog: cookieless, no student data | US |
What we send the AI, and what we don't
To draft a comment, the model receives:
- Course and grade level, category and overall averages, per-assignment grades, and missing-work count
- The teacher's notes, strengths and next steps, and learning-skills ratings
- The student's name, replaced with a code before the request leaves our servers and restored only on your screen
A real example: download a sample AI request, exactly as it leaves our servers. The system prompt is removed; that part is our product.
Never sent:
- The private anecdotal log: dated behaviour and incident notes stay in Canada and never reach the AI
- Any data used to train or improve AI models (OpenAI's API does not train on submitted data)
What happens to the request after it arrives:
- OpenAI writes it to the abuse-monitoring logs it runs for every API customer and keeps it up to 30 days, then deletes it unless longer retention is required by law (OpenAI API data retention policy)
- That copy sits on OpenAI's servers in the US. It is not the same thing as our own record, which stays in Canada and is covered under Keeping & deleting below
- We are pursuing zero data retention, which would keep teacher requests out of those logs altogether.
- Longer term, we are working toward full Canadian data residency, including finding a Canadian AI provider we would trust with your students' work.
Access & encryption
- Encrypted in transit (HTTPS/TLS) and at rest (Azure SQL transparent data encryption)
- The database accepts no passwords at all: connections require a Microsoft Entra identity (infrastructure access, separate from teacher sign-in), so there's no database password to steal or leak
- Exactly one person can reach the production database
- Every record is tied to the teacher who owns it
- Teacher sign-in is handled by Auth0 at auth.gradefully.com. Signing in with your Microsoft or Google account keeps your own organization's multi-factor and security rules in effect
Keeping & deleting your data
- Export a full copy of your data at any time: a single spreadsheet, from Settings → Privacy in the app
- Delete your data at any time: deletion is permanent, and it works from the same screen even if your subscription has lapsed
- Your data stays only as long as your account does
- Our own record of each AI request is erased after 90 days; only counts, timings and the model name are kept. OpenAI's separate copy is described above and lasts up to 30 days
If something ever goes wrong
If a breach ever put student data at real risk of harm, we would notify affected teachers as quickly as possible and report to Canada's Office of the Privacy Commissioner, in line with PIPEDA. We keep a record of security incidents.
Frameworks we design around
- Ontario's MFIPPA and Canada's PIPEDA: Gradefully is designed around their principles
- Quebec's Law 25: for teachers in Quebec, including a designated privacy contact
- Designed around these frameworks; not formally certified (for example, SOC 2)
Who we work with (subprocessors)
| Provider | What they do | Region |
|---|---|---|
| Microsoft Azure | Hosting and database | Canada |
| Auth0 | Teacher sign-in and authentication | US |
| OpenAI | AI comment drafting (name removed first) | US |
| Stripe | Subscription billing; card numbers go straight to Stripe and never touch our servers | US |
| PostHog | Anonymous, cookieless usage analytics | US |
| Visitor statistics on this marketing site, only if you accept | US | |
| Brevo | Mailing-list signup (marketing site only) | EU |
| Termageddon | Hosts the legal documents shown further down this page. It receives the address of the page you are reading and nothing else. | Vendor cloud |
Documents & contact
A data processing agreement (DPA) and a one-page data-elements summary for your privacy review are available on request.
Last reviewed August 2026
The legal documents, in plain English
Four documents govern Gradefully. Here is what each one says, in plain words. The full texts are in the next section, and they are the ones that apply.
Last updated July 18, 2026 · read the full policy
- Who is behind it: Gradefully Inc., an Ontario corporation. Fabien Dupont-Mattar is the founder and privacy officer: info@gradefully.com.
- What it covers: the information you give us (account, billing, what you enter on the site), what our systems record (pages visited, app usage, device identifiers), and the student information in your gradebook.
- Profiling and automated decisions: grades, enrollment, and teacher notes are combined per student to draft AI feedback through OpenAI. Only that student's teachers see it, every draft is reviewed by the teacher, and it is never used for advertising.
- Not sold: we do not sell your personal information. We do use what we collect to market our own services to you, and you can opt out.
- Tracking: analytics run through Google Analytics and PostHog, as governed by the Cookie Policy. Do Not Track browser signals are not supported.
- How long we keep it: until you close your account or ask for deletion. Billing records are kept 7 years, required by Canadian tax law.
- Where it lives: Canada and the United States.
- Your rights: see what we hold, get a copy, correct it, delete it, take it elsewhere, withdraw consent, and opt out of marketing and profiling. Email info@gradefully.com; most requests are answered within 30 days.
Last updated May 7, 2026 · read the full terms
- The deal: using Gradefully means you accept these terms.
- Money: prices are on the pricing page, taxes extra. Stripe handles payment; card numbers never touch our servers.
- Subscriptions: monthly or yearly, renewing automatically until you cancel. Cancel from your account, at least 3 days before the renewal date.
- Refunds: ask within 30 days of purchase, for any reason, and you get your money back.
- Your account: you must be 18 or older, keep your details accurate, and guard your password. What happens under your login is your responsibility.
- Fair use: no impersonating, spamming, scraping, hacking, or overloading the service.
- The legal shield: the service is provided "as is", and our liability is capped at what you actually paid us.
- Disputes and changes: Ontario law, Ontario courts, in English. We give 30 days notice before the terms change.
Last updated May 7, 2026 · read the full disclaimer
- Testimonials are real people describing their real experience, lightly edited for grammar and length. Their results are not a promise of yours, and some may have received a discount or free product.
- User comments on the site are their authors' opinions, not ours.
Last updated August 16, 2026 · read the full policy
This site puts three kinds of things in your browser, and you decide about two of them, separately. You can change your mind anytime with "Privacy settings" in the footer.
- Your choice (always on): one cookie,
gf_consent, remembering what you said yes or no to. It lasts 12 months. Without it we would have to ask you again on every page. - Google Analytics (off until you say yes): tells us how teachers find this site and which pages they actually use, which is how we decide what to fix next. It stores a random ID so repeat visits can be told apart. That ID is not your name, but it is not anonymous either: it identifies your browser. We never sell it.
- Marketing (off until you say yes): cookies from Meta and LinkedIn that let us show Gradefully ads, on their platforms, to people who visited this site. They exist only on this website, never in the Gradefully app.
Two other things happen that are not cookies. Fonts load from Google, so Google sees your IP address. The newsletter box on the home page is embedded from Brevo, and Brevo sets its own cookies inside that box to run the form and keep bots out.
The full legal documents
The summaries above on this page are here to help you understand quickly. They are not a replacement for the policies: the full documents below are the ones that apply.
Cookie Policy
Effective August 16, 2026
This policy covers www.gradefully.com, the website you are reading. The Gradefully app at app.gradefully.com is a separate service with its own cookie policy, because it handles teacher accounts and student information and this site does not.
We write this one ourselves rather than generating it, so that it can name exactly what loads here. We keep it short because there is not much to describe.
What we store in your browser
| Name | Set by | What it does | Expires |
|---|---|---|---|
gf_consent | Gradefully | Remembers what you accepted or declined (analytics, marketing, or neither), and when. Without it we would have to ask you again on every page. | 12 months |
_ga | Google Analytics | A randomly generated ID for your browser, so a repeat visit is not counted as a new person. Only set if you accept analytics. | 2 years |
_ga_FEYNQB9SVZ | Google Analytics | Keeps track of the current visit for the same purpose. Only set if you accept analytics. | 2 years |
_fbp | Meta | An ID that lets Meta recognize your browser, so we can show Gradefully ads on Meta's platforms to people who visited this site. Only set if you accept marketing. | 3 months |
_fbc | Meta | Remembers that you arrived here by clicking a Meta ad, so we can tell whether the ad worked. Only set if you accept marketing and came from an ad. | 3 months |
li_fat_id | The same job as _fbp, for ads on LinkedIn. Only set if you accept marketing. | 30 days | |
ln_or | Records whether LinkedIn's measurement is allowed to run on this site. Only set if you accept marketing. | 1 day |
That is the whole list. Analytics and marketing are separate choices: only the rows you said yes to can ever be set. If you decline both, only gf_consent is stored, recording that you said no.
What the marketing cookies do
If you accept marketing, Meta and LinkedIn each set a cookie that recognizes your browser. That lets us show Gradefully ads on their platforms to people who have visited this site, and see whether those ads bring anyone back. This is usually called retargeting, and it does mean those two companies learn that your browser visited www.gradefully.com.
Three limits we hold to. It happens only on this website, never in the Gradefully app, so it never comes near teacher accounts or student information. It is off until you say yes: decline, or simply never answer, and Meta and LinkedIn are not contacted at all. And if you change your mind later, we delete their cookies from your browser immediately.
Is the analytics data anonymous?
No, and we would rather say so than use a word that sounds better than it is. The ID in the _ga cookie is random and is not your name, your email, or anything you typed. But it is stable, so it identifies your browser across visits. The correct word is pseudonymous, not anonymous, and under Quebec's Law 25 and the GDPR it counts as personal information.
What we do with it: look at which pages teachers arrive on, which ones they leave from, and which of the free resources actually get used. That is the entire purpose. We never sell it, and analytics stays separate from advertising: unless you also say yes to marketing, Google's ad-related storage is switched off in code, not just in settings.
Two things that are not cookies
- Fonts. The typefaces load from Google Fonts, which means Google receives your IP address when a page loads. No cookie is set. This happens whether or not you accept analytics, because the site would be unreadable without it.
- The newsletter box on the home page is a form embedded from Brevo, our mailing-list provider. Brevo sets its own cookies inside that box to run the form and to keep bots out. Those are Brevo's cookies under Brevo's policy, and they are only set on the page that carries the form.
What this site does not do
- No selling of anything collected here.
- No browser fingerprinting.
- No advertising or marketing cookie of any kind before you say yes to it.
- No ad or marketing cookies in the Gradefully app, ever. Retargeting is for this public website only.
Changing your mind
Use Privacy settings, in the footer of every page. Your choice takes effect immediately. You can also delete cookies for this site in your browser at any time, which clears your stored choice and means we will ask again on your next visit.
Questions about any of this go to info@gradefully.com.