Privacy Policy

Effective date: August 16, 2026. The short version: we built Informatist so there would be almost nothing to have a privacy policy about.

What we collect

• Classroom beta signup (voluntary). If a teacher signs up for the classroom beta, we store the email address and, optionally, the subject they teach. That's the entire record.
• Anonymous game sessions. Starting a game creates a random session key. It is not linked to a name, an email, an account, or anything else about you. The game decisions you submit (prices, production levels, and similar numbers) are processed under that key to run the simulation.
• Standard server logs. Like nearly every website, our web server records requests (IP address, time, and the page or endpoint requested) in routine operational logs. Logs rotate daily and are deleted after 14 days. We use them to keep the service running and to count things like "how many games were played" — never to profile people.

What we do not collect

• No student personal information. No student accounts, no student emails, no real names, no rosters.
• No tracking. No advertising, no analytics scripts, no tracking pixels, no third-party cookies. We use no cookies at all; your browser's local storage holds only your own game's session key (so you can resume) and, if you arrived from a link with a source tag, that tag — sent only if a teacher submits the beta signup form.
• No data sales, no data sharing. We do not sell, rent, or share data with anyone. There are no advertisers, no data brokers, and no "partners".

Students and children

Informatist is designed to be used by students without giving us any personal information, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children. Where the classroom version asks for a team name, we instruct that it should not be a student's real full name. If you believe a child has submitted personal information to us anyway, email us and we will delete it.

How long we keep things

• Single-player demo sessions expire and are deleted within 24 hours.
• Classroom game rooms expire and are deleted within 7 days.
• Server logs are deleted after 14 days.
• Beta signup entries are kept while the classroom beta and its communications are active, or until you ask us to remove yours — email admin@informatist.net and we will delete it, no questions asked.

Named regulations, in plain terms

• COPPA (children under 13). We do not ask any player for a name, email address, account, or any other personal information — so the product does not knowingly collect personal information from children. Team names are chosen in class, and the join form tells students not to use full real names.
• FERPA (education records). We never receive rosters, grades, or any school education records. There are no student identities in the system for a record to attach to.
• California SOPIPA (K-12 online services). We show no advertising of any kind, build no profiles of students, and sell or disclose no student information — there is no student information to sell.

These are statements of how the product actually works, written for teachers and IT staff — not legal certifications.

Subprocessors

Two outside services touch data, and neither ever sees personal information about a player:

• DeepSeek (AI text generation). Receives anonymous game numbers — prices, production, market statistics — plus the class's team display names, so AI rivals and the teacher debrief can refer to teams. It never receives names, emails, free-typed student text, or anything else: students have no free-text input in the game.
• Amazon Web Services (hosting and inbound email). The site and game run on AWS infrastructure; mail sent to admin@informatist.net is received via AWS SES.

This list will be updated here whenever it changes.

Changes and contact

If this policy changes, we will post the new version here with a new effective date. Questions, deletion requests, or a school district's security review: admin@informatist.net.

This is a plain-language policy written to be read by teachers, parents, and IT administrators — not to hide anything in clause 47(b). Informatist has run browser-based economic simulations since November 11, 2006.