Privacy Policy for Book of Drum Stars

1. Who we are

Book of Drum Stars (bookofdrumstars.app) is a drum-learning website for young learners, their parents and carers, and their drum teachers. It is run by Dean Haydn Jones and Anthony Capel, trading as Book of Drum Stars, who are jointly the data controller for the personal information described here. You can contact us at dean@glorifico.co.uk, and we'll give you a postal address for written notices if you ask for one.

This policy sits alongside our Terms & Conditions at bookofdrumstars.app/tos.

2. Children and their names

Children never give us their real names. A child's teacher creates their account with a made-up drummer name (for example “Rocket Rosie”), and that is the name the child logs in with and the only name other children ever see, including on the class leaderboard. Children give us no email address, no password and no date of birth.

We only hold a child's real first name and the first letter of their surname if a parent or carer types it in themselves, after setting up a subscription. They are asked to tick a box confirming they are the child's parent or carer and that they are happy for us to keep it. That parent or carer entering the name is their consent for us to store it. If no parent or carer enters it, we never have it.

The real name is only ever shown to the child's own teacher and to our site administrators, so the teacher knows who each drummer name belongs to. It is never shown to other children, other teachers or anyone else, and it is not sent to Stripe or any other company.

A parent or carer can withdraw that consent at any time by emailing us, and we will delete the real name. This doesn't affect the child's account or progress.

We never show advertising to children, never profile them, and never use their information to market anything to them.

3. What we collect

• Children (learners): The made-up drummer name; the real first name and surname initial only if a parent or carer enters it; their progress (Mission Tracker stickers, reading lessons, sightreading and anything their teacher sets); their avatar, the points they've earned and what they've bought with them; and when they last logged in.
• Parents and carers: When you subscribe, Stripe collects your name, email address, billing address and card details. We receive your email address, your subscription plan and its status, and the identifiers Stripe uses for your customer and subscription records. We never see or store your full card number. If you start a free trial on the Free plan, there's no Stripe checkout, so we keep the email address you give us on the sign-up page to send you a welcome email and reminders before the trial ends, and delete it when the trial ends.
• Teachers: Your name, email address and profile picture from Google (or your email address if you sign in with an email link); the invite code we issued you and any note we made with it; and the lessons, pages, exercises, sightreading sets, audio and images you create or upload.
• The teacher agreement: When a teacher signs it, we keep the version of the wording they agreed to, the date and time the server recorded, the printed name and date they typed in, and a small picture of the signature they drew — or, if they declined, the fact and date of that. It is the record that the agreement was signed, so we keep it for as long as it may be needed.
• Cookies: Small cookies that keep a teacher, learner or ebook reader signed in. We don't use advertising, analytics or tracking cookies, so we don't ask for cookie consent.

4. The cookies we set

• A learner's sign-in: Set when a learner logs in with their drummer name; holds only their account reference and a signature that stops it being edited to view anyone else. Lasts 30 days.
• An ebook unlock: Set when someone enters an ebook password; holds only which volume was unlocked, signed the same way. Lasts 30 days.
• A teacher's sign-in: Set by our sign-in system when a teacher signs in with Google or an email link, so they stay signed in.

All of these are strictly necessary to provide the service, are readable only by the server, and are sent only over a secure connection on the live site. Stripe sets its own cookies on its own payment pages, which are covered by Stripe's privacy policy.

5. Why we use it, and our legal basis

• To run the service: Letting learners log in, saving their progress, and showing teachers how their pupils are getting on. This is necessary to provide the service you or your child's teacher signed up for (contract).
• To take payments: Managing subscriptions, receipts and invoices through Stripe, and deciding which features a learner can use. This is necessary to fulfil the subscription contract, and to keep the financial records the law requires us to keep (legal obligation).
• Real names: Only so a teacher can recognise their pupil, and only on the basis of the parent or carer's consent.
• To contact you: Sign-in emails and messages about your account or subscription. We don't send marketing emails without asking first.
• To keep the service safe and working: Checking sign-ins, keeping server logs, investigating misuse of accounts or material, and protecting our material. This is in our legitimate interests in running a safe service for children, and we've weighed that against the privacy of the people involved.

6. We don't make automated decisions about you

Nothing about a learner, parent or teacher is decided by a computer on its own in a way that has a legal or similarly significant effect. What a learner can open follows directly from the plan their parent chose.

7. Who we share it with

We never sell personal information, and we never share it for anyone else's marketing. We only share it with the companies that run parts of the service for us, and only what each one needs:

• Stripe: Payments, subscriptions, receipts and invoices, and the portal where parents manage their subscription.
• MongoDB Atlas: The database where accounts, progress and uploaded images are stored.
• Vercel: Hosting for the website.
• Google: Teacher sign-in, if a teacher chooses Google.
• Resend: Sending sign-in and account emails.
• Cloudflare R2: Storing larger files that teachers upload, such as audio.

Each of them acts on our instructions under a contract, apart from Stripe and Google, who also decide some things for themselves as controllers of the information you give them directly.

We may also share information where the law requires it, or to protect a child from harm.

Some of these companies may process information outside the UK. Where they do, they are bound by safeguards (such as the UK's international data transfer agreement or addendum) that protect it to UK standards.

8. How we keep it safe

Card details never reach us: payment pages are Stripe's own. Sign-in cookies are signed by the server and can't be edited to reach another account, and a learner's session only ever gives read access to their own progress. Files teachers upload are held in a private store and served through short-lived links. Access to the database and to the administrator pages is limited to the people who run the service.

No system is perfect. If something happens to personal information that puts anyone at risk, we'll tell the Information Commissioner's Office and, where we're required to, the people affected.

9. How long we keep it

A learner's account, progress and any real name are kept for as long as the account exists — including after a subscription ends, so the learner can carry on where they left off if a parent subscribes again. When a teacher deletes a learner, all of it is deleted. A real name is also deleted as soon as a parent or carer asks us.

Teacher accounts are kept while they're in use, and deleted on request; the record of a signed teacher agreement, and anything they published to the shared library that other teachers are using, may be kept after that.

Payment and subscription records are kept by Stripe and by us for as long as the law requires for tax and accounting (normally six years).

10. Your rights

Under UK data protection law you can ask to see the information we hold about you or your child, have it corrected or deleted, restrict or object to how we use it, or receive a copy of it in a portable form. Where we rely on consent (the child's real name), you can withdraw it at any time without affecting what we did before. Email dean@glorifico.co.uk and we'll reply within one month. There's no charge.

A parent or carer can exercise these rights on behalf of their child, and we may ask for enough information to be sure who we're dealing with before we act.

If you're unhappy with how we've handled your information, you can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ico.org.uk, 0303 123 1113), though we'd appreciate the chance to put it right first.

11. Changes to this policy

If we change how we use personal information, we'll update this page and the date at the top. If a change affects parents who have given consent for a child's real name, we'll tell them before it takes effect.