Who we are
Element Fourteen (“we”, “us”) is a small, independent company that makes tools for teachers. This policy covers this website, elementfourteen.io, and our reading-group planner, PAWS Reader, at paws.elementfourteen.io.
Our tools are for teachers and other adults. They are not meant to be used by children.
No student data
PAWS Reader tracks reading groups, not students. Groups are named for colours (Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue and Purple), and PAWS never asks which student is in which group.
We don’t collect student names, ID numbers, grades, scores, quiz results or anything else about a child. Because PAWS holds no student records, it isn’t built to store the kind of student information that laws like FERPA and COPPA protect.
A few fields let you type your own words: book titles, shelf locations and notes on level changes. Please don’t put a student’s name or other student information in them. If we learn that an account holds student information, we’ll ask the teacher to remove it or delete it ourselves.
What PAWS Reader keeps
| What | Why |
|---|---|
| Your email address | It’s your account. We use it to send your sign-in links, and to answer you if you write to us. There are no passwords. |
| Your book list | Titles, reading levels, AR quiz numbers, shelf locations, and whether a book is hidden from suggestions. |
| Your groups | Each group’s reading level, suggestion range and past level changes, with any note you add. |
| Your plans | Which book each group reads, and on which day. This is how PAWS knows what a group has already read. |
| Sign-in records | When you ask for a sign-in link we store a scrambled (hashed) copy of the link, its expiry time and your IP address. Your signed-in session is also stored, the same way. This keeps your account secure. |
| Failed sign-in attempts | A wrong invite code or a dead sign-in link is logged with the IP address and the email address used, so we can slow down anyone guessing and spot abuse. |
Each teacher’s account is separate. Nobody else can see your books, groups or plans, and there’s no shared catalogue.
We use this information only to run PAWS Reader, keep it secure and help you when you ask. We don’t sell it, rent it, share it for advertising or use it to build profiles, and PAWS shows no ads.
This website
elementfourteen.io has no forms and no accounts, and it sets no cookies. We count visits with Cloudflare Web Analytics, which records things like which page was viewed, the referring site, and the browser and country. It doesn’t use cookies or local storage, and it doesn’t follow you across other websites.
If you email us, we get whatever you choose to send, and we use it only to reply.
What stays on your device
PAWS Reader uses one cookie, which keeps you signed in. It’s required for the app to work, and it isn’t used for tracking.
PAWS also keeps a copy of your plans in your browser’s local storage, along with any changes that haven’t reached us yet and your light or dark mode choice. That’s what lets it keep working when the Wi-Fi drops. When you sign out, PAWS erases that copy from the browser. If a change still hasn’t saved, it warns you first. Only your light or dark mode choice stays.
Who else handles it
We use a small number of service providers. Each one handles data only to provide its service to us.
- Cloudflare hosts the website and PAWS Reader, stores PAWS data in its database, provides website analytics, and protects both sites from attacks.
- Resend delivers the sign-in emails. It receives your email address and the email itself.
- Proton and SimpleLogin handle mail sent to our @elementfourteen.io addresses.
We may share information if the law requires it, or to protect our users or our services from harm.
How long we keep it
- Your account and PAWS data: until you delete your account.
- Signed-in sessions: they end after 7 days without use, after 30 days at most, or when you sign out.
- Sign-in links: they expire after 15 minutes, and old ones are cleaned up automatically.
- Failed sign-in attempts: 30 days.
- Backups: we keep backup copies of the PAWS database so we can recover from mistakes. Data you delete can stay in an older backup until that backup is replaced.
Your choices
- Get a copy. In PAWS Settings, “Download backup” saves everything in your account, and “Export reading log” saves your reading history as a spreadsheet.
- Change it. You can edit your books, groups and plans in the app at any time. To change the email address on your account, write to us.
- Delete it. The resets in Settings clear your history, or erase your books, groups and history. To close your account, use “Delete account” in Settings. It deletes your account and all of its data straight away and signs you out everywhere. You can also ask us to do it by emailing privacy@elementfourteen.io from the address you sign in with.
We give these same choices to everyone, wherever you live.
For schools and districts: if you need a data privacy agreement, write to privacy@elementfourteen.io.
Security
Both sites use HTTPS. Sign-in links are single-use and expire after 15 minutes, and we store only scrambled copies of links and sessions. Every request is checked so that one teacher can never read or change another teacher’s data. No system is perfectly secure, but if something goes wrong that affects your data, we’ll tell you.
Changes and contact
If we change this policy, we’ll post the new version here and update the date at the top. If a change affects how we use data you’ve already given us, we’ll tell you by email before it takes effect.
Questions, requests or concerns: privacy@elementfourteen.io.