Privacy Policy

PatternSpell (“we,” “us”) is a free spelling-list toolkit for K-3 teachers, operated by Donray Williams. If you have questions about this policy, contact donrayxwilliams@gmail.com.

PatternSpell is built for adult educators. You must be at least 18 years old to create an account. The service is not directed at children, and children may not create accounts.

Teachers use PatternSpell to prepare spelling lists and present them in the classroom. Students view the teacher’s screen during guided practice; they do not sign up, log in, or enter information into the service themselves.

We collect the minimum information needed to run the service:

• Account information. When you sign in with Google, we receive your name, email address, and profile image from Google. When you sign in with email and password, we store the email address you provide. You may optionally add a preferred name, grade level, subject, school name, and classroom size to your profile.
• Your content. The spelling lists you create: patterns, words, example sentences, and keyword images. This content belongs to you.
• Analytics. We count page views and unique visitors so we can understand usage. A visitor is identified by a one-way salted hash of their IP address and browser type; we never store raw IP addresses. The hash cannot be reversed to identify you, and it is used only for aggregate counting, never for advertising or tracking across sites.
• Error reports. When something breaks, our error-reporting service may record technical details (browser type, the page you were on) so we can fix the bug.

• We do not offer student accounts and do not solicit information from children.
• We do not collect student names, grades, or performance data.
• We do not sell your information to anyone.
• We do not show third-party advertising and do not use your data for ad targeting.
• We do not collect payment information; the service is free.

PatternSpell is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children. Because our analytics run on public pages, a classroom device displaying the site may be counted as a visitor; that count uses only the anonymous hash described above and is never linked to a child’s identity.

Our word-list fields are free text. Please do not enter student names or other personal information about children into your lists. If you are a teacher, you are responsible for what you type into the service.

If you believe a child’s personal information has been entered into the service, contact us at donrayxwilliams@gmail.com and we will delete it promptly. Parents may also contact us directly to review or request deletion of any such information.

We use the information we collect to:

• Provide the service: sign you in, save your lists, and display them back to you.
• Understand aggregate usage through analytics.
• Fix bugs and keep the service reliable.
• Send transactional emails you request, such as sign-in verification and password resets.

We do not use your information for marketing, and we do not share it with advertisers.

We use a small number of service providers to operate PatternSpell:

• Google: if you choose Google sign-in, Google handles authentication and shares your name, email, and profile image with us.
• Amazon Web Services: hosts the app (Amplify), stores your data (DynamoDB), and manages email/password sign-in (Cognito), all in the United States.
• Sentry: error reporting, so we can find and fix bugs.

These providers process data only to provide their service to us, under their own privacy policies and our agreements with them.

Your account data and lists are kept for as long as your account exists. If you delete your account, we delete your profile and lists. Analytics counts are kept indefinitely in aggregate form; because visitor identifiers are one-way hashes, they cannot be tied back to you.

You can at any time:

• View and edit your profile information in the app.
• Export or delete your word lists.
• Ask us to correct or delete your information by emailing donrayxwilliams@gmail.com.

We use industry-standard measures to protect your information, including encrypted connections (HTTPS) and authentication through established providers (Google, AWS Cognito). No method of transmission over the internet is completely secure, but we work to keep your data safe.

If we change this policy in a way that affects how we handle your information, we will post the updated policy here and update the effective date above. Continued use of the service after changes take effect means you accept the updated policy.

Questions about this policy or your information? Email donrayxwilliams@gmail.com.