Data Retention & Deletion

We keep student data only as long as it is needed to provide YDABlocks, and we destroy it on a defined schedule. This page describes how long we keep what, and how it is removed.

1. General principle

We do not retain student data beyond the time needed to support the school's educational purpose, unless a longer period is required by law or authorized by the school or a parent.

2. School and district data — end-of-year lifecycle

For school contracts, student data follows a defined end-of-school-year lifecycle:

• At the end of the school year, the relevant student data is compressed and cryptographically hashed.
• The compressed, hashed data is retained for three (3) years. This supports legitimate continuity, audit, and record-integrity needs while minimizing exposure.
• After the three-year period, the data is permanently destroyed.
• A school may request earlier deletion of its students' data at any time, and we will honor that request.

3. Deletion on contract termination

If a school's or district's contract ends, we cease using their student data and delete or return it within the window specified in our agreement (commonly 30 to 45 days), except for any compressed, hashed records already within the three-year retention window described above, which continue on that schedule unless earlier deletion is requested.

4. Consumer and family accounts

YDABlocks is a general-audience product. For direct consumer and family accounts, the account holder — a parent or guardian in the case of a child — is responsible for their own and their family's information, and controls it directly.

When an account holder deletes their account, we permanently delete the account's data within one week. Before deletion completes, the account holder can download and export their data, so nothing is lost that they wish to keep. After that one-week window, the data is gone.

5. Pilot and comped research participation

Accounts given free of charge — pilot cohorts, comped schools, comped individuals — are research participation, and are handled differently from paid accounts. Everything in this section applies only to them.

Participants do not create an account; we issue one. A pilot account is an account number, and all activity is recorded against that number. We do not ask for the names of the children or students taking part, and we do not hold them.

• The participation record — what was built, attempted, and answered — is de-identified and retained for ten (10) years, then permanently destroyed. Once archived it is keyed by a one-way hash, with the identifier stripped from the record itself.
• It cannot be deleted on request. This is a consequence of the design rather than a refusal: the record is not linked to a person, so there is no way to establish which record belongs to whom. It is stated in the participation terms before anyone agrees to take part.
• The contact details given at sign-up — a name and an email address, used to send the four programme emails and the one-time link that opens the account — are held separately from the participation record, and are the only identifying information we hold. These are deleted on request, and are deleted automatically if the account is deleted.
• Participation data is never sold, never shared, and is not used to train any model.

A comped account that is deleted is deleted immediately, rather than after the one-week window described in section 4. That window exists so a paying account holder can export what they paid for; a comped account has no paid period behind it.

6. Summary

7. Contact

Retention or deletion requests: privacy@ydablocks.com (or send it through the contact form, which needs no mail app)