How Peerloom handles your data

1. Overview

Peerloom Technologies Limited ("Peerloom", "we", "us", or "our") provides an academic collaboration platform for students and lecturers, including course groups, chat, quizzes, shared resources, and an AI study assistant ("PeerPal AI"). This Privacy Policy explains what information we collect when you use Peerloom, why we collect it, how it's stored and protected, and the choices and rights you have.

This policy applies to everyone who uses Peerloom — students, lecturers, and administrators — across our web application and any associated mobile experiences. By creating a Peerloom account, you agree to the practices described here. If you don't agree, please don't use the platform.

2. Data we collect

We collect the minimum data needed to run a functioning academic platform. Broadly, this falls into four categories:

We do not collect payment information at this time, as Peerloom does not currently process payments directly on the platform.

3. Quiz integrity monitoring

When a lecturer publishes a quiz, Peerloom can record specific, limited signals during that quiz attempt to help lecturers assess whether a submission was completed independently. This monitoring is active only while a quiz is in progress — never at any other time, and never outside the quiz session itself.

The signals we currently record are:

• Tab switching — when the quiz tab is no longer the active, visible tab.
• Copy actions — when text is copied out of the quiz page.
• Paste actions — when text is pasted into a quiz answer field.

These events are visible to the lecturer who owns the quiz, as a timestamped log tied to that specific attempt. They're used to support academic integrity decisions and are not shared for any other purpose.

4. Cookies & local storage

Peerloom uses essential cookies and browser local storage to keep you signed in, remember your theme preference, and maintain your place in an active quiz session. We don't use third-party advertising cookies, and we don't run cross-site tracking scripts.

Because these cookies are essential to the platform functioning (staying logged in, keeping a quiz attempt in sync), there isn't a cookie preference toggle to disable them — disabling cookies in your browser entirely will prevent Peerloom from working correctly.

5. How we use your data

We use the data described above to:

• Operate core features — group chat, quizzes, resources, announcements, notifications, and results.
• Verify that quiz attempts belong to the right group and enrolled student, and enforce attempt limits and deadlines set by lecturers.
• Generate quiz results and performance reports for lecturers, including score distributions and question-level difficulty analysis.
• Power PeerPal AI responses to questions you ask it, using the context of the conversation you're having.
• Detect and prevent abuse, spam, and violations of our Terms of Service.
• Maintain and improve the reliability, performance, and security of the platform.

We do not sell your personal data, and we do not use your academic content (messages, quiz answers, resources) to train third-party advertising profiles.

6. Who we share data with

We share data only in the following limited circumstances:

• Within your group — messages, resources, and announcements you post are visible to other members of that group, as expected for a collaboration tool.
• With your lecturer — quiz answers, scores, submission timestamps, and integrity events for quizzes they've created are visible to that quiz's lecturer.
• Infrastructure providers — we use Supabase for authentication, database, and file storage, and standard email delivery infrastructure for account and notification emails. These providers process data on our behalf, under contractual terms limiting their use of it to providing the service to us, and don't use your data for their own purposes.
• Legal requirements — if required to comply with applicable law, regulation, legal process, or a valid governmental request.

We do not share your data with advertisers or data brokers.

7. Data retention

We retain account and academic data for as long as your account is active, so that groups, quiz history, and results remain available to you and your lecturers or students. If you delete your account, we remove your profile and personal identifiers within a reasonable period, though some records (such as a quiz score tied to a group's academic record) may be retained in de-identified or aggregate form for institutional record-keeping.

You can request earlier deletion of specific content at any time — see Section 8.

8. Security

We apply industry-standard safeguards to protect your data, including encrypted connections (HTTPS) for all traffic, hashed password storage, and row-level access controls so that a user can only read data they're authorized to see (for example, a student cannot read another student's private quiz attempt). No system is perfectly secure, and we continue to invest in strengthening these protections as the platform grows.

If we become aware of a security incident affecting your personal data, we will notify affected users and relevant authorities as required by applicable law.

9. Your rights and choices

Depending on your location, you may have the right to:

• Access the personal data we hold about you.
• Correct inaccurate profile information (most of this you can edit directly from your Profile settings).
• Request deletion of your account and associated personal data.
• Object to or restrict certain processing of your data.
• Export a copy of your data in a portable format.

To exercise any of these rights, contact us at peerloomonline@gmail.com. We'll respond within a reasonable timeframe and may need to verify your identity before acting on a request.

10. Regional privacy rights

If you're in the European Economic Area or UK

We process your data under one or more of the following legal bases: performance of a contract (running the platform you signed up for), legitimate interests (keeping the platform secure and improving it), and consent (where applicable). You have the rights described in Section 9, plus the right to lodge a complaint with your local data protection authority.

If you're a California resident

Under the CCPA/CPRA, you have the right to know what personal information we collect, request deletion, and opt out of "sale" or "sharing" of personal information. Peerloom does not sell or share personal information for cross-context behavioral advertising, so there's nothing to opt out of on that front — but you can still exercise your access and deletion rights at any time via Section 9.

If you're elsewhere

Regardless of where you're located, we apply the same core protections described throughout this policy — access, correction, and deletion rights are available to every Peerloom user, not just where legally mandated.

11. Age requirements

Peerloom is intended for users enrolled in or affiliated with a tertiary/higher-education institution and is not directed at children under 13. If we learn that we've collected personal data from a child under 13 without appropriate consent, we will delete it promptly.

12. International use

Peerloom may be used by students and lecturers across different countries and institutions. Your data may be processed and stored in locations outside your own country by our infrastructure providers. We take steps to ensure any such transfer is handled consistently with this Privacy Policy.

13. Changes to this policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time as Peerloom evolves. If we make material changes, we'll update the "Last updated" date above and, where appropriate, notify you directly (for example, via an in-app notification). Continued use of Peerloom after a change takes effect constitutes acceptance of the revised policy.

14. Contact us

Questions about this Privacy Policy or how your data is handled? Reach us at peerloomonline@gmail.com.