FERPA & Learner Data Privacy

1. Our commitments to you

Information that serves your learning. We use learner information for the educational services and supporting operations described here. We do not sell or rent identifiable learner information, use it for targeted advertising, or build profiles for unrelated commercial purposes.

Meaningful choices. Keeping personal learning records and sharing them are separate decisions. We help you understand your options for access, export, correction, and deletion.

Clear limits on AI. Our AI providers may not train their own models on learner content. Confer may improve its educational tools using properly de-identified information, as explained in Section 8.

2. A learning record you can carry forward

We believe a course ending should not mean losing the work and feedback that help you grow. Where personal-record features are offered, you can separately choose to keep selected submissions, results, feedback, and learning progress for continued study or a portfolio.

Once a personal learning record has been lawfully established at your direction, a school's request to delete its course records does not, by itself, require deletion of that independently retained personal record. This personal relationship can continue after your enrollment or the school's relationship with Confer ends.

Before school-provided records are retained for personal use, we establish the necessary consent and permissions and confirm that continued retention is consistent with applicable law and binding agreements. Creating an account or accepting this statement alone does not authorize that change. Any required FERPA consent identifies the records, purpose, and recipient and meets the applicable signature and authentication requirements. [1, 2]

Personal records are private by default. Keeping them is optional, and you choose separately whether to share them. You may request an export or deletion through available account tools or by contacting us. These choices respect other people's privacy and any restrictions on course materials.

3. Working with schools

We work with schools so learners can benefit from Confer while their education records receive the protections FERPA requires. When serving a school under FERPA's school official exception, we perform the agreed educational functions, remain under the school's direct control over the use and maintenance of education records, and follow the applicable limits on use and further disclosure. [2, 3]

Our aim is to support both institutional responsibilities and learners' continued access to their learning. We establish the distinction between school-service records and separately authorized personal records in the relevant arrangements and consent process. School-service records follow applicable return and deletion requirements. Personal records established under Section 2 follow the terms of that continuing relationship. We honor the legal duties and binding commitments that apply to each.

4. Choices for learners and families

We involve parents or guardians where the law gives them authority to act. FERPA rights generally transfer to a learner at age 18 or upon attending a postsecondary institution at any age. [4]

Before collecting personal information from children under 13 where COPPA applies, we establish the required notices, consent, and appropriate protections. A school's permission covers only the educational uses it can lawfully authorize. Optional personal services require their own appropriate permissions. This statement does not replace any additional notices or consents required for children. [5]

5. Information that supports the service

Depending on the features used, we may process account and contact details; school, course, and role information; assignments, rubrics, and answer keys; handwritten or typed work and other uploads; grades, feedback, and corrections; learning progress; and technical, support, and security records.

We use information reasonably needed for assessment, feedback, personalized learning, progress tracking, chosen recordkeeping, and operating, troubleshooting, and securing these services. The same protections follow identifiable information into document crops, extracted text, saved AI inputs and outputs, and learner-specific notes or insights.

6. Who can access your information

Access is limited to people with an authorized role and legitimate need, such as the learner, relevant instructors and graders, authorized school personnel, and service personnel supporting the task. Sharing with classmates, communities, or employers follows your choice or a clearly disclosed, lawfully authorized educational activity.

Providers supporting hosting, authentication, storage, AI, and related operations receive only information reasonably needed for their role. We require appropriate confidentiality, purpose limits, and safeguards. Information about providers handling learner content and their retention practices is available on request.

For legally compelled disclosure, we review the authority and scope of the request and seek to limit excessive demands. We coordinate with the relevant school where appropriate and provide notice to the school or affected person when legally permitted and reasonably practicable.

7. AI with clear limits

AI can help educators provide feedback and help learners understand their progress. Processing may include relevant learner work, document images, rubrics, and instructional context. Handwritten work can be processed as part of the educational service.

No provider training on learner content. We use third-party AI services under terms and settings that prohibit providers from using learner content, including inputs and generated responses, to train their own models. We do not opt that content into provider training programs. This commitment covers AI routing services and downstream model providers handling the content.

Retention is a separate question. Confer does not currently guarantee zero data retention by AI providers. Providers may retain content or permit limited authorized review for service delivery, security, abuse prevention, or legal compliance, only under arrangements consistent with our commitments and applicable obligations. Retention depends on the provider and feature. We review these practices and select providers and configurations accordingly.

Educators remain responsible for academic decisions. AI-generated assessments and feedback can contain errors; Confer's grading workflow supports educator review and correction before results are approved for learners.

8. Improving learning while protecting identity

Learning patterns can help us make feedback more useful, assessment more reliable, and practice more effective. Confer may create and use properly de-identified information for educational research, analytics, product development, and training, testing, and improving Confer's educational AI systems. Product-wide model training uses de-identified data.

Examples may include solution approaches, common errors, grading corrections, usage patterns, and excerpts or images of learner work. Handwritten and typed material can both support these improvements when they meet the same de-identification standard.

We remove or transform personally identifiable information and make a reasonable determination that learners cannot be identified, considering other reasonably available information and the combination of multiple releases. Methods may include redaction, cropping, transformation, or aggregation, selected for the material and intended use. Replacing a name with a code alone does not establish that information is de-identified. We document the determination and reassess it when circumstances materially change. Material that remains identifiable keeps the protections for learner information. [3]

We do not attempt to re-identify learners from de-identified improvement data or permit recipients to do so. Providers helping develop Confer's systems act on our instructions; they may not use the data to train their own models. These uses must remain consistent with applicable law and binding commitments, including restrictions on creating or using de-identified data.

Qualifying de-identified information may be kept without a fixed expiration for these educational purposes, including after the original records are deleted. Once contributions can no longer be linked to you, we may be unable to isolate and remove them from de-identified datasets or resulting models in response to an individual deletion request.

9. Safeguards and accountability

We commit to reasonable administrative, technical, and organizational safeguards appropriate to learner information, including restricted access, protection of stored and transmitted information, and procedures for privacy requests and security incidents.

We investigate security incidents, work to contain and remedy them, and notify affected schools or individuals as required by law and our agreements. We cooperate with the response and share relevant updates. No system eliminates every security risk.

10. Keeping records and respecting deletion

Personal learning records may continue for as long as you choose to maintain the personal-record service described in Section 2. School-service records are returned or deleted under the relevant arrangement and lawful instructions. We keep other identifiable information only as reasonably needed for the disclosed services, support, security, or legal obligations.

We act on verified deletion requests without undue delay and within applicable legal and contractual deadlines. Deletion covers associated identifiable material, including derived records. Backups and provider-held copies may remain until their applicable retention periods expire; access and use remain restricted to the purposes that justify retention. We work with providers to carry out required deletions and explain material limitations.

Specific records may need to be preserved for a legal obligation, including an outstanding request to inspect education records. Such preservation is limited to the necessary records and duration. Deleting a personal account does not change official grades or erase records a school is legally entitled or required to maintain. [6]

If we discontinue the personal-record service, we provide reasonable notice and an opportunity to request an export where practicable. De-identified improvement data is addressed in Section 8.

11. Access, corrections, and getting help

You may request access, an export, correction, or deletion through available account tools or by contacting Confer. We verify identity and authority before disclosing private records or taking sensitive actions.

For school-maintained education records, we work with the school to support applicable FERPA rights and deadlines. Requests to amend official records or challenge academic decisions follow the school's procedures. We explain when a request involves a record we cannot independently change and help identify the appropriate next step. [6]

12. Changes and contact

We post the current statement and update date here. We give appropriate notice of material changes and obtain any required consent before applying a new use to previously collected information. Updating this statement does not override existing legal duties or binding agreements.

For privacy questions, record requests, or concerns, use the contact form on conferlearning.com and identify your message as a privacy or learner-data request. Include a way to reach you. Please leave sensitive learner records out of the public form; we will arrange an appropriate way to handle them.

Legal references

1. 34 CFR § 99.30 — Consent and electronic signatures
2. 34 CFR § 99.33 — Purpose and further-disclosure limits
3. 34 CFR § 99.31 — School officials and de-identification
4. U.S. Department of Education — What is FERPA?
5. Federal Trade Commission — COPPA guidance, including schools
6. 34 CFR Part 99, Subparts B–C — Access, preservation, and amendment

Contact Confer

For privacy or learner-data requests, email dpalea@ucsc.edu. Please don’t include sensitive learner records.