How CodeQuest looks after your information
The short version
- We only keep what CodeQuest needs: your nickname, username, password and your learning work.
- We never ask for your email, birthday, address or photo.
- There are no adverts and nothing tracks you around the internet.
- Your teacher can see which lessons you started and finished, and can open the code you wrote in a lesson to help you. Each time they do, it is listed in My backpack. They cannot see your reflections or predictions.
- Your school admin can set up, pause or delete your login, or move you to another class, but cannot see your lessons, code or reflections.
- Your teacher can delete your account and everything in it whenever it is no longer needed.
Who is responsible
This copy of CodeQuest runs on a server chosen by your school or teacher. They create the accounts and are responsible for the information stored here. For questions or requests, speak to your teacher or school office.
What is stored
| Information | Why |
|---|---|
| Display name or nickname, username, whether it is a pupil, teacher or school admin account, which teacher manages a pupil, when it was created, and whether it is paused | To sign in and to show the teacher their own classroom |
| Password, stored only in a scrambled form (salted scrypt hash) that cannot be turned back into the password | To check the password at sign-in |
| Learning work: slides seen, activities and quizzes done, predictions, reflections, sandbox code, game best scores and when they were last saved | So work is saved and can be picked up on any computer using this server |
| When a teacher opened a pupil’s code: the teacher’s name, the lesson and the time | So pupils can see in My backpack each time their code was looked at. The latest 50 are kept |
| Sign-in sessions (kept as scrambled tokens) | To keep you signed in for up to 8 hours |
| Recent failed sign-in attempts, recorded under a scrambled username (and a scrambled network address when the school’s server is set up for it) | To stop people guessing passwords. Deleted after 15 minutes |
Who can see it
- Pupils see only their own work, and the name of their teacher.
- Teachers see their own pupils’ names, usernames, account status, missions completed, XP and last save date, and how far each pupil got in every lesson they started (slides seen, activity and quiz). A teacher can also open the sandbox code a pupil wrote for a lesson, to help with their work; the pupil sees a record of each time in My backpack. Teachers cannot see reflections or predictions, and cannot see any password.
- School admins see every teacher and pupil account: names, usernames, each pupil’s teacher, account status and when it was created, plus school-wide counts. They can create, rename, pause, reset, move and delete those accounts. They cannot see any pupil’s progress, code, reflections or predictions, and cannot see any password.
- The person who runs the server can access the stored database, as with any school system.
Nothing is sold or shared with advertisers. CodeQuest does not use analytics or tracking tools.
Cookies and connections
CodeQuest uses one cookie, which keeps you signed in. It is removed when you sign out or after 8 hours. Fonts and all other files come from this server, so your browser does not contact other companies while you use CodeQuest. Code you run in the sandbox cannot connect to the internet.
How long it is kept
Accounts and work are kept until a teacher or school admin deletes the account. Teacher accounts are removed by a school admin or the person who runs the server; their pupils are then moved to another teacher or deleted. Pausing an account signs the pupil out but keeps their work. Deleting it removes the login and all saved work permanently.
Your choices
- Download a copy of your work at any time from My backpack (Export progress).
- Ask your teacher to change the name shown for you, reset your password or delete your account.
- Parents and carers can ask the school about the information held and how to correct or delete it.