EARLY PREVIEW

Privacy

Learner accounts

Learners can’t sign themselves up. Each account is made by CODEMEKA’s admin for a class, once the learner’s parent or guardian has agreed through the learning programme.

What an account keeps

A username, a display name (a first name or nickname), the learner’s class, and their password stored only as a scrambled hash (never the password itself). It also keeps the learner’s lesson work: which step they reached, their block programs and their workbench wiring. We don’t ask for or keep email addresses, birthdays, phone numbers, photos or locations.

Signing in leaves a random sign-in key in the browser for up to 12 hours. It is used only to know who is signed in.

While a learner is signed in, the browser also keeps a copy of their lesson work, so lessons open quickly. It is removed when they sign out, or the next time CODEMEKA opens in that browser after their sign-in has ended. CODEMEKA Studio projects are kept only in the browser, even when signed in.

To stop people guessing passwords, CODEMEKA notes the internet address a wrong password comes from, with the username. It forgets them about an hour after the last wrong try. After a successful sign-in it remembers that address with the username for two weeks, so wrong guesses made somewhere else can’t lock the learner out at their usual place. These notes are kept only in the server’s memory. Once their time is up, they are cleared at a later sign-in attempt (the server tidies them at most once a minute), or when the server restarts. The web server’s logs also record the addresses of visits.

Who can see it

The learner, the instructor of their class, and CODEMEKA’s admin. It isn’t shared, sold, or used for advertising, and there are no trackers.

The instructor and the admin can watch learners’ lesson work as it changes, at any time (the step they are on, their blocks and their workbench wiring). They can also see whether a learner has a lesson open, which one, and how long ago they last had one open. That is kept only in the server’s memory while the server runs; it isn’t stored.

While the instructor or the admin has a learner’s work open, they also see the learner’s workbench parts move as the learner moves them. Those moves are passed straight on and never stored. While no one is watching, each drag sends only its first move, to ask whether anyone is; it goes no further.

Keeping and deleting

Account information is kept while the learner is in the programme. A parent or guardian can ask, through the programme, for an account and all its saved work to be deleted; the admin deletes both together.

Who can open the lessons

For now, the lessons and “Set up my board” open only for signed-in accounts. Visitors who aren’t signed in can use the home page, CODEMEKA Studio, the Game Development page, the terms, the sign-in page, the page about getting an account (accounts are made only by CODEMEKA’s admin) and this page. CODEMEKA Studio keeps projects only in the browser, so nothing a visitor makes there reaches CODEMEKA. A Studio project stays in that browser after signing out, so on a shared computer the next person can see it unless it is saved to a file and a new one started.

Hardware access

Arduino access is requested by the browser only after the learner selects Connect Arduino. The board communicates directly with the browser.