Helokn is committed to protecting the privacy of all users, with special attention to the rights of students under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), 20 U.S.C. § 1232g; 34 CFR Part 99.
Helokn acts as a School Official with a legitimate educational interest in accessing student education records, as defined under FERPA (34 CFR § 99.31(a)(1)). Student education records processed through Helokn are used exclusively to provide grading, feedback, and educational services on behalf of your institution.
Under FERPA, students have the following rights with respect to their education records:
We collect the following categories of information to operate the Helokn platform:
See our Data Inventory at /data-inventory for this same information in a structured, standalone format.
We use collected information solely to provide and improve the Helokn educational platform. Specifically:
Helokn may disclose education records without prior written consent only under the following FERPA-permitted circumstances:
See our full Subprocessors list at /subprocessors for every third-party service that processes data on our behalf and what each one does.
New York school districts: see our Education Law § 2-d Supplemental Information template at /ny-education-law-2d.
This section explains how Helokn complies with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act ("COPPA"), 15 U.S.C. §§ 6501–6506, for students who may be under 13.
Consent comes from your school, not from Helokn. Students never create their own account directly — a Learner account can only be created by an instructor or school official (a "Provider") using a class code, or added manually by that Provider. Under COPPA's school-consent exception (16 CFR § 312.5), the Provider consents on behalf of parents for the collection of a student's information, limited to the school-authorized educational purpose of using Helokn for grading and feedback. Helokn does not collect consent directly from individual parents, and does not verify a student's age or date of birth — we simply never ask for it.
What we collect from a Learner account: first and last name, a school email address, and the assignment submissions, drafts, and LISA tutoring interactions described above. We do not collect a home address, phone number, or any government-issued identifier from Learner accounts.
No behavioral advertising, no data sale. Student data is never sold, never used for advertising, and never used to train AI models. Learner accounts are also excluded from Helokn's third-party product analytics — no click, page-view, or identity data from a Learner session is sent to our analytics provider.
Parental rights. A parent who wants to review or delete their child's information should contact their child's school or instructor, who can submit or approve the request on the parent's behalf using the same data export and deletion tools described in the Student Rights section below. Parents may also contact Helokn directly at privacy@helokn.com and we will route the request to the student's school.
Helokn employs industry-standard and FERPA-appropriate safeguards to protect student education records:
Education records are retained for the period required by your institution or applicable law, and no longer than necessary for the stated educational purpose. Your institution's EnterpriseAdmin can configure retention periods per data category (student records, submissions, audit logs) from their compliance dashboard, and Helokn enforces those windows automatically.
Data destruction on contract termination. When your institution's contract with Helokn ends, all student data associated with your account is scheduled for deletion within 30 days, consistent with several state student-privacy laws' data-return-and-destruction requirements.
You may request deletion of your records at any time. Data deletion requests submitted through the platform are processed within 30 days in accordance with FERPA § 99.10(e) and applicable state law.
Students may exercise the following rights directly within the Helokn platform:
For users in the European Economic Area (EEA), Helokn processes personal data under the following lawful bases under GDPR Article 6: Contract, Legitimate Interest, and Legal Obligation.
EEA users have the right to access, rectify, erase, restrict, or port their personal data, and to object to processing. To exercise these rights, contact privacy@helokn.com.
For questions or concerns about this Privacy Policy or your FERPA rights, contact the Helokn Privacy Office at privacy@helokn.com. Students also have the right to file a complaint with the Family Policy Compliance Office (FPCO) at the U.S. Department of Education: Family Policy Compliance Office, U.S. Department of Education, 400 Maryland Avenue SW, Washington, DC 20202-8520.