Privacy Policy

Math Empowered · Digital Math Empowered Suite and the Build Lab, Game Lab, Sort Lab, Warm-Up Lab, Access Lab, Calendar Lab and Test Prep Lab apps

Effective date: October 14, 2026 Last updated: October 14, 2026

1. Who we are and what this covers

Math Empowered (Wurster Consulting, LLC, doing business as Math Empowered, "we," "us") provides the Digital Math Empowered Suite, a set of web-based mathematics teaching tools at play.mathempowered.com. The Suite includes the Build Lab, the Game Lab, the Practice Lab, the Sort Lab, the Warm-Up Lab, the Calendar Lab, the Coherence Hub, the Pacing Guide Planner, the Math Empowered Kit, and Math Talk Coach.

We also publish the Build Lab, Game Lab, Sort Lab, Warm-Up Lab, Access Lab, Calendar Lab and Test Prep Lab as apps for iPhone, iPad and Android, through the Apple App Store and Google Play. The apps are for teachers and other adults, use the same Math Empowered account as the web, and are covered in section 8.

Four tools can be opened by a student on their own device, by entering a code their teacher shares: the Build Lab, the Sort Lab, the Warm-Up Lab and the Calendar Lab. Section 4 describes exactly what each one collects. The Practice Lab and the Game Lab are used by students but currently run on the teacher's signed-in device; section 4.3 explains what that means. The remaining tools are used by teachers only, behind the teacher sign-in.

This policy explains what information the Suite and the apps collect, why, how long we keep it, and who else touches it. It applies to teachers who hold an account with us and to students who use the Suite through their school.

Our public website is separate. This policy covers the Suite at play.mathempowered.com and the Build Lab, Game Lab, Sort Lab, Warm-Up Lab, Access Lab, Calendar Lab and Test Prep Lab apps. Our marketing site at mathempowered.com is a different site with different behavior. It is hosted by Squarespace, which receives anything entered in the site's forms. Squarespace may set its own cookies on that site under its own privacy policy. Nothing entered on mathempowered.com is added to the Suite.

If you are a parent or guardian with a question about your child's information, please contact your child's school first. The school directs what we collect and is best placed to answer quickly. We will support the school in responding.

2. Our role, and the school's role

For student data, the school or district is the data controller and we act as a service provider on the school's behalf and under its direction. The school decides which features are used, whether any student names are collected at all (see section 4), and how long records are kept.

We process student data only to provide the Suite to the school. We do not use it for our own purposes.

For teacher account data, we are the controller, because a teacher's relationship with us is a direct one.

Under FERPA, we operate as a "school official" with a legitimate educational interest, performing a service the school would otherwise perform itself, and we act under the school's direct control with respect to student education records.

3. Teacher information

When a teacher creates an account (or a school or district sets up seats for them) we collect:

• name and email address
• a password, which is stored only in encrypted (hashed) form
• school or organization, where provided
• subscription and billing status, plan, seats and purchase history
• the teaching content a teacher creates and saves, such as custom games, sorts, warm-up banks, pacing schedules and saved resources
• sign-in records and basic technical logs

We use this to operate accounts, provide support, and process subscriptions. Payment card details are handled by our payment processor, Stripe, and are never stored on our systems.

Math Talk Coach, a teacher practice tool, stores the teacher's own practice sessions and coaching feedback so a teacher can see their growth over time. Where a teacher allows microphone access, this includes voice recordings and transcripts of their practice talks, and the AI feedback and scores generated from them (see section 6). No student data is involved in Math Talk Coach.

4. Student information

Students do not create accounts. Students do not enter an email address. Students do not sign in or set a password. A student joins an activity by entering a code their teacher shares.

4.1 The four tools a student can open on their own device

Build Lab. This is what a teacher-hosted Build Lab session collects.

• A nickname. The student chooses one, and the Suite offers a generated nickname so they never have to invent one. Nicknames that resemble a real full name are rejected, as are inappropriate nicknames.
• The student's work. An image of the mathematical model they built, any written explanation of their reasoning, their answer, and the Proof Power level the work earned. This is the only place in the Suite where an image of student work is stored.
• Session records. Which activity they joined, when they joined, when they submitted, and how many attempts they made.
• Basic technical data. IP address and browser information recorded in ordinary server logs for security and reliability.

A randomly generated identifier is stored in the student's own browser so that refreshing the page keeps them in the same activity. It is not linked to a person and is not shared.

Sort Lab assignments. A student joins a teacher's Sort Lab assignment with a code, plays the card sort on their own device and, from grade 3 up, writes a short exit ticket. We store the student's nickname (using the same generator and checks as the Build Lab), their result, their exit-ticket text, and join and submit times. The sessions use the same expiring-code machinery as the Build Lab. A teacher may instead set an assignment to ask students for their name, so the teacher can tell whose work is whose. In that case the student types their name in place of a nickname; we ask teachers to have students use a first name and last initial. The name appears only in that teacher's results and is not shown to other students.

Warm-Up Lab. Students join a teacher's warm-up session as a team. We store the team name the students choose, the team size, their answers and any written reasoning, and a random member token kept on each device so a refresh keeps them in their team. No individual names are asked for.

Calendar Lab. A student can answer the class calendar question on their own device by entering a code and their first name. We store the first name and the answer for that day's question. The teacher's board shows the class how many students chose each answer; names are hidden unless the teacher chooses to show them.

4.2 The optional name setting

A teacher may switch on a per-session setting called "Ask students for their name." It is off by default. When a teacher switches it on, the student enters a first name and last initial so the teacher can tell whose work is whose.

When this setting is on:

• the name appears only in that teacher's own report
• it is never displayed on the class view, on a projector, or to any other student
• it is not used for anything other than identifying the work to the teacher

The school decides whether this setting is used. With it off, the Suite holds no identifier that points to a particular child.

4.3 The Practice Lab and the Game Lab

These two run on the teacher's own signed-in device, and there is no way for a student to reach them over the network. In practice a teacher projects them, or hands a student the device.

• Practice Lab. A teacher opens a worksheet and the class builds proofs on it. Turn-in produces a PDF file created on that device, which the student submits through the school's own classroom platform. Nothing is uploaded to us.
• Game Lab. Thinking-based games built on the Build Lab's own board. A student can join one at the teacher's machine, and that "class join" runs entirely inside the browser using local storage, with no network traffic at all. Nothing about a Game Lab player reaches us.

We are building student join for both, so that a student will be able to open them on their own device the way they already open a Build Lab session. We will not describe that as available before it is, and we will tell subscribing schools before switching either of them on. When each ships it will meet the standard in section 4.4.

The Game Lab's design is already settled, and it is the Build Lab's. A Game Lab session will be teacher-hosted: the teacher opens the session and shares its code, and that code works only while the session is open. It stops the moment the teacher clicks End, and closes automatically after twelve hours if they forget, so no Game Lab code is ever left standing. Where a game is set as an assignment the code closes at the deadline the teacher sets instead. The teacher can delete an entire session, and everything stored with it, in one action from their own screen. This is the same session machinery the Build Lab already uses, deliberately, so a district has one model to review rather than two.

4.4 The standard any new student surface must meet

Rather than describe each tool as it arrives, we publish the rule, so a school can hold us to it instead of taking our word. We will not ship a student surface that fails it:

1. No accounts, no email addresses, no usernames, and no passwords for students, ever.
2. Joining is by a teacher-issued code, in a teacher-hosted session that expires: on End, automatically after twelve hours, or at the assignment deadline the teacher set. A teacher can delete the whole session in one action.
3. No full names. A nickname, a team name, or at most a first name (with a last initial where needed to tell students apart). Where a tool asks for a name, it is used only so the teacher can see whose work is whose, and it is not shown to other students unless the teacher chooses to display it.
4. We store the mathematics, not the child. Answers, written reasoning, scores, timestamps, and where a picture of the work is genuinely needed, the board and nothing else. No photographs of people, no audio, no location, no contacts, no device fingerprinting.
5. Nothing a student does sends data to a third party we do not have a contract with. No student audio ever leaves the device.
6. Where a score is calculated, it is calculated by the published Proof Power rule. If an AI is ever introduced into a student path, it may lower or hold back a score and ask a student to try again; it may not raise one, a teacher may always override it, and we will name it in section 6 and tell schools first.
7. Nothing one student types is shown to another student.
8. Whatever is stored can be deleted by the teacher in one action, and falls under the retention schedule in section 9.

4.5 What we never do

We do not sell student data. We do not share it with anyone for marketing. We do not serve advertising in the Suite or the apps. We do not use behavioral or targeted advertising. We do not build commercial profiles of students. We do not use student data to train artificial intelligence models, and we require the same of our providers (see section 6).

5. How student work is stored and protected

Student work is stored in our database, hosted by Supabase. The Build Lab is the only tool that stores an image of student work. Those images are held in private storage, are not publicly accessible, and can be viewed only by the teacher who created the session. Sort Lab, Warm-Up Lab and Calendar Lab entries are text only.

Access controls are enforced at the database level: a teacher can reach only the sessions they created, and an unauthenticated visitor cannot read session records at all. Students reach their own session only through narrowly scoped server functions, never by reading the tables directly. Data is encrypted in transit and at rest.

Join codes expire. This is a rule for the whole Suite, not a feature of one tool. A live session code stops working the moment the teacher ends the session, and automatically after twelve hours if they do not. An assignment code stops working at the deadline the teacher sets. No code remains usable indefinitely.

A teacher can delete a whole session. One action on their own screen removes the session and everything stored with it, including every image. This too is Suite-wide.

6. Artificial intelligence

We want to be specific here rather than general, because "no AI" is the kind of claim a technology director will check.

No tool a student uses on their own device calls an AI model. A student joins a session, works, and turns work in. The Proof Power level they see is calculated in their own browser by the published rule in section 4, not by a model. Their answers, their written reasoning and, in the Build Lab, their board image go to our database and nowhere else.

One tool calls a model when a teacher runs it. When a teacher runs a card sort with a gate question on their own signed-in device, the typed answer and the images of the cards being matched are sent to an AI model to judge whether the answer is right. The typed answer may be a student's words, so we say so. This call works only for a signed-in teacher; Sort Lab assignments that students open on their own devices do not use it.

Math Talk Coach is a teacher practice tool. It sends the teacher's practice recording or its transcript to an AI model to produce a transcript, coaching feedback and scores, and uses AI to simulate student responses so a teacher can rehearse leading a discussion. It may also turn written feedback into speech. The models are Google's Gemini and OpenAI's models, reached through the Lovable AI Gateway, and ElevenLabs for speech. This involves teacher input only. No student data is used. We use these providers only under terms that do not allow them to use this content to train their models.

Some teacher-only planning tools (for example the Pacing Guide Planner and the Math Empowered Kit's teacher-guide drafting) use the same AI gateway to read documents a teacher uploads or to draft text. These involve teacher input only.

No voice, anywhere a student can reach. The Suite has a dictation button that turns speech into text. It runs on the browser's own speech recognition, which in most browsers means the audio is sent to the browser vendor. Because that is a transmission we cannot put under contract, the button is not shown on any student screen. Students type. Dictation remains available to teachers in their own tools.

If this changes, we will say so first. The Suite contains code for an AI that judges written mathematical reasoning. It is not active in any tool a student uses. If we ever switch it on in a student path, we will update this section, name the provider, and notify subscribing schools before it takes effect. It would be bound by the limits in section 4.4: it may lower or hold back a score and ask a student to try again, it may never raise one, and a teacher may always override it.

We do not permit student data to be used to train or develop AI models. Under the amended COPPA Rule, disclosing a child's information for AI training is treated as not integral to the service, and would require separate verifiable parental consent. We do not do it, so that consent is not needed. We hold our AI providers to the same obligation.

We do not use AI to make any decision about a student that has a legal or similarly significant effect.

7. Service providers

We use a small number of providers who process data on our behalf under contract:

The Feedback button. The Suite includes a Feedback button that sends a comment, and optionally a picture of the board on screen, to us. It posts to a Google Apps Script that writes into a Math Empowered Google Sheet and Drive folder, which is why Google Workspace appears in the table above. It is available only to signed-in teachers. It is not shown to students, and it is not shown in an assignment or a joined session. No action a student can take in the Suite sends their work anywhere except to their own teacher's report. A teacher who chooses to attach a board picture is responsible for what is on that board.

We maintain a current list of providers and will notify subscribing schools before adding a new one that processes student data. We may also disclose information where the law requires it, to protect someone's safety, or as part of a merger or sale of the company, in which case this policy continues to apply to it.

8. The Build Lab, Game Lab, Sort Lab, Warm-Up Lab, Access Lab, Calendar Lab and Test Prep Lab apps for iPhone, iPad and Android

The apps are for teachers and other adults, such as a parent playing Game Lab with their child. They use the same Math Empowered account as the web Suite; there is no separate sign-up, and the apps do not sell subscriptions or create accounts.

• Sign-in. The teacher's email and password go to our sign-in service (Supabase) to check their access. Each app keeps the teacher signed in on that device until they sign out.
• Boards stay on the device. Boards built in the Build Lab app are saved on the device only. They are not uploaded to us, and deleting the app deletes them.
• Images only when the teacher chooses. A board image is saved or shared only when the teacher chooses to, using the device's own share sheet or photo library.
• Games and sorts. Game Lab games are built into the app and keep no record of who played. The Sort Lab app loads sorts from our servers; if a teacher starts a live session from it, students join in a web browser as described in section 4.
• No tracking. The apps have no ads, no advertising identifier, and no third-party analytics, and they do not track anyone across other apps or websites.
• Permissions. The apps need internet access to sign in. The Build Lab app asks for access to the photo library only if the teacher chooses to save a board image there, and then only to add images.
• No student accounts. Students do not create accounts or sign in to the apps.

An app can be deleted at any time from the device. To delete the account itself, see section 10.

9. How long we keep information

This is our written retention policy, published here as the amended COPPA Rule requires. We keep each category of information only as long as it is needed for the purpose it was collected for, and we do not keep children's information indefinitely.

We apply this schedule on a regular cycle, not when someone happens to remember.

A teacher can delete an entire session, including every stored image of student work, at any time from their report screen.

A school may request deletion of its students' data at any time by contacting us at karolyn@mathempowered.com. We will complete the deletion within 30 days and confirm in writing. On termination of a subscription, we delete school data within 90 days unless the school asks us to do so sooner.

10. Rights and requests

Requests to access, correct, or delete student data should come through the school, which holds the relationship with the family. We will assist the school promptly and at no charge.

Teachers may access, correct, export, or delete their own account information by contacting us at karolyn@mathempowered.com.

Deleting your account. A teacher can ask us to delete their account at any time, from the web or from one of the apps, using the form at https://play.mathempowered.com/delete-account, or by emailing us from their account email with the subject "Delete my account." We confirm the request within 7 days and complete the deletion within 30 days. Deletion removes the profile, saved Suite content and Math Talk Coach recordings. Payment records we are required by law to keep are retained for that period only. If the account belongs to a school or district, we may check with the school first.

Depending on where you live (for example California, or the EU or UK), you may have further rights. We honor them through the same contact.

11. Security incidents

If we become aware of a breach affecting student data, we will notify the affected school without undue delay and in any event within 72 hours of confirming it, describe what happened and what data was involved, and cooperate with the school's own notification obligations under state law. If a breach affects a teacher's own account information, we will notify that teacher as the law requires.

12. Children

The Suite is used by children, including in Kindergarten. That is why it is built so that a student can take part without an account, without an email address, and by default without giving their name. The apps are for teachers and other adults and are not directed to children.

Where a school uses a tool or setting that collects a student's name, as described in section 4, the school provides any consent required under the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) on behalf of parents, as COPPA permits in an educational context. We collect that information only for the school's educational purpose and we delete it on request.

13. New Hampshire and other state requirements

We comply with applicable student privacy law, including the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, the Protection of Pupil Rights Amendment, the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act, and the New Hampshire student data privacy statutes at RSA 189:1-e and RSA 189:65 through 189:69.

Math Empowered will execute the standard New Hampshire Student Data Privacy Agreement with any New Hampshire district that requests one. The authorized signatory is Karolyn Wurster.

We are prepared to enter into a data privacy agreement with any other district that requires one. Contact karolyn@mathempowered.com.

Note for district software inventories: RSA 189:66 asks a district to record both a privacy statement and terms of use for each digital tool, so our Terms of Use page is the companion to this one.

14. Changes to this policy

If we change this policy in a way that materially affects student data, we will notify subscribing schools by email before the change takes effect and update the date at the top of this page. For other changes we will post the new version here with a new date, and email account holders before any change that affects how we use their information.

15. Contact

Wurster Consulting, LLC, doing business as Math Empowered, 2 Betty Lane, Bow, NH 03304, 603-731-8787

Privacy questions, account deletion and data privacy agreements: karolyn@mathempowered.com