Children's Privacy Policy
Effective Date: 2026-07-16 Last Updated: 2026-07-17 2026-07-13: editorial correction of the operator's legal name (Scout Learning Labs → Scout Learning Lab LLC); no substantive change. 2026-07-17: product name updated from Nova to Lantern throughout (branding alignment; the same product, practices unchanged), and transcript retention simplified to the operating mechanism (deleted on your deletion request); no substantive change.
What this is
This is the Children's Privacy Policy for Lantern. It describes what we collect from kids, what we do with it, and what choices parents have. It is required by US federal law (COPPA — the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act).
The "full" version of this policy (with definitions, dispute resolution, state-specific notices, etc.) is in our main Privacy Policy. The short-form "direct notice" we show before collecting consent is at direct-notice-coppa.md. This document is the long-form version that lives at a stable URL for COPPA Rule compliance, app store listings, and Safe Harbor program registration.
1. About Lantern
Lantern is an AI tutor made by Scout Learning Lab LLC. It sits on a desk and helps kids practice reading, writing, and math. Most kids who use Lantern are under 13. This policy is written assuming most of our users are children.
2. What we collect from kids
We collect:
- Your child's first name, age, and grade
- Voice during sessions (streamed to OpenAI for the spoken conversation and to Deepgram for reading transcription; not stored in our cloud — see §4)
- Camera frames of pages and worksheets your child shows Lantern
- Text transcripts of what Lantern hears
- Your child's reading progress, words learned, and books read
- A unique device ID so the app works
- AI-generated summaries of how each session went, and a weekly progress summary written for you
We do not collect:
- Your child's last name
- Your child's home address
- Your child's phone number
- Your child's school name (unless you mention it in optional context notes)
- Your child's social media accounts (they shouldn't have any if under 13)
- Your child's location beyond country/state level (derived from IP only)
- Your child's biometric data — we never make a voiceprint, fingerprint, or face scan of your child
3. How we use what we collect
- To run Lantern so your child can practice reading and learning
- To personalize lessons to your child's level
- To send you (the parent) summaries of how sessions went
- To improve Lantern's safety and reliability (using only aggregated, de-identified data)
- To comply with legal obligations (COPPA recordkeeping)
We do not use children's data:
- To train AI models
- For advertising or marketing
- To build profiles for any purpose beyond Lantern's core function
- For any purpose we haven't told you about
4. Who we share with
We work with five core service providers, all bound by terms that restrict how they may use children's data:
| Provider | What they do | What they receive |
|---|---|---|
| OpenAI | Real-time conversation AI (spoken voice) | Voice audio |
| Deepgram | Speech-to-text for reading assessment | Voice audio |
| Text recognition (OCR) from images; standby conversation AI (Gemini Live) | Camera frames + handwritten work images; voice audio only if the standby provider is active | |
| Anthropic (Claude) | Session analysis + weekly progress summaries | Transcripts, metrics |
| Supabase | Cloud database | Account info, summaries |
Plus operational services (Resend for email, Railway for hosting our consent service and our weekly-summary generation job, Apple for delivering the optional weekly notification, Stripe for payments, and Kids Web Services — a dormant integration; parent verification today uses the typed-name e-signature). All listed in subprocessors.md.
We do not share children's information with any other third party, including advertisers, brokers, or analytics aggregators.
5. How long we keep data — our written retention policy
This section is our written data retention policy under 16 CFR §312.10: for each category of children's personal information we collect, the purpose it was collected for, the business need for retaining it, and the timeframe for deleting it. We never retain children's personal information indefinitely, and we keep it only as long as reasonably necessary for the specific purpose it was collected for.
| What | Purpose collected | Business need for retaining | Deleted |
|---|---|---|---|
| Voice audio | Real-time spoken conversation (OpenAI) and reading transcription (Deepgram) | OpenAI's abuse-monitoring window; Deepgram has none beyond transcription | Not stored in our cloud; OpenAI deletes within 30 days, Deepgram after transcription |
| Reading-practice recording (on the family device) | Short-window quality checks on Lantern's reading help | Same-day retry/QA only | Automatically, within a day or two |
| Reading audio (research cohort opt-in only) | Improving Lantern's reading help | Research-cohort analysis, on the local device only | When you withdraw or leave the cohort (completed within 30 days), or when the cohort ends |
| Camera frames (on device) | Letting Lantern see the page your child shows it | Short-window session continuity | ≤ 7 days |
| Handwriting images (on device; each image read transiently by our text-recognition provider, never stored in our cloud) | Letting Lantern read your child's handwritten work | Short-window session continuity | On your deletion request (completed within 30 days); an automatic cleanup is planned |
| Session transcripts (on device) | Session continuity and progress tracking | Tutoring context across sessions | On your deletion request (completed within 30 days) |
| Cloud session summaries + weekly progress summaries, reading scores, words learned, books read | Parent progress reports and lesson personalization | Showing your child's progress over time | ≤ 730 days from the session (target — automatic age-out planned; deleted sooner on your request, within 30 days) |
| Child profile (first name, age, grade) | Operating Lantern for your child | Active service provision | When you delete it — our team completes deletion within 30 days of your request |
| Consent and deletion records (consent records, audit log, deletion requests, device-pairing records) | Legal proof that consent was obtained and honored | COPPA recordkeeping | 7 years |
When you ask us to delete sooner, we do: deletion requests filed in the consent dashboard are completed by our team within thirty (30) days, with email confirmation. The category-by-category schedule is in the table above.
6. Parent rights
As your child's parent or legal guardian, you have the right to:
- See any personal information we have collected about your child
- Get a copy (we provide a JSON + CSV export)
- Correct anything that's wrong
- Delete any or all of it
- Stop us from collecting more information
- Withdraw consent at any time
Exercise any of these rights by signing into the consent dashboard at https://consent.lanternlearning.io, or by emailing privacy@lanternlearning.io. We respond within seven (7) days for COPPA-related requests. Deletion works like this: your request is recorded immediately and your child's profile is deactivated in the dashboard; our team then permanently deletes the remaining data in our cloud systems within thirty (30) days and confirms by email. Data on the Lantern device itself is erased as part of that same process, or when the device is returned and re-flashed — if you are keeping the device offline, the confirmation email includes reset instructions. The legal record of consent and deletion (see §5) is retained as the law requires.
7. How we got your consent
Before any of the data collection above started, we asked you to provide verifiable parental consent under 16 CFR §312.5(b)(2):
- Today (our friends-and-family pilot): a typed-name e-signature consent form completed in the consent dashboard under §312.5(b)(2)(i). We record the exact text you signed against (as a cryptographic hash), the time, your IP address, and a record that you signed — we do not retain the typed name itself (data minimization).
- Planned for wider availability: Kids Web Services (KWS) by Epic Games, an in-app identity verification flow (face match to government ID, credit-card verification, or knowledge-based authentication). KWS is independently certified for COPPA compliance; we will update this policy before KWS becomes the active method.
The VPC method does not affect what you consented to; the substantive consent is identical across methods. The optional research-cohort opt-in described in §8 is independent of which VPC method we used to verify you.
8. Research cohort
A small group of families participate in a research cohort that helps us improve Lantern's reading coaching. For these families:
- A copy of the child's reading-session audio is kept on the local device only
- Never sent to our cloud
- Never used to train AI without separate, explicit consent
- You can withdraw at any time from the consent dashboard; withdrawing files a deletion request that our team completes within thirty (30) days, with email confirmation
Full terms: research-cohort-addendum.md.
9. Safety
Lantern is designed with safety guardrails. Lantern will not discuss inappropriate topics with your child and will redirect to "talk to a trusted adult" when the topic warrants it. Full safety details: safety.md.
10. Security
We use industry-standard security practices to protect children's data. Full details: security.md.
11. Safe Harbor
Scout is not currently a member of an FTC-approved COPPA Safe Harbor program. Privacy complaints may be directed to privacy@lanternlearning.io, the Federal Trade Commission at https://reportfraud.ftc.gov, or your state attorney general.
12. Changes to this policy
If we make material changes to how we handle children's data — collecting new categories, new uses, or new sharing — we will:
- Update this document and the date at the top
- Email you at the address on file at least 30 days before the change
- Ask you to re-consent before applying the new terms to data collected after the effective date
For corrections and clarifications that do not change what we collect, how we use it, or who we share it with (including making our descriptions of existing practices more accurate), we update this document, email you, and show you the changes for re-acknowledgment the next time you sign in — without the 30-day delay.
13. Contact
For questions or to exercise any of the parent rights described above:
privacy@lanternlearning.io Scout Learning Lab LLC 65 Mission Trail Rd, Woodside, CA 94062 (310) 962-0091
To file a complaint with the FTC: https://reportfraud.ftc.gov
Questions? Email privacy@lanternlearning.io. To file a complaint, contact the FTC at reportfraud.ftc.gov or your state attorney general.