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BuzzGage Privacy Policy

Protecting Your Data at BuzzGage

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At BuzzGage, we are committed to protecting the privacy and security of student voice data, educator data, and school account information. We design the platform for educational environments and apply privacy-by-design practices to reduce risk and prevent identification of individual students.

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This policy explains how BuzzGage collects, uses, stores, and protects data when providing the BuzzGage service to schools and school organizations. Where applicable, our practices are aligned with relevant privacy and education data protection requirements, including GDPR, UK GDPR, KVKK, and other local privacy laws.

 

1. Roles and Responsibilities
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Customer Roles (Schools, Networks, Ministries, and Other Education Bodies)

BuzzGage is provided to schools and, in some cases, to institutional customers (for example school networks, districts, ministries of education, international education bodies, or authorized operators) overseeing multiple participating schools. In these deployments:

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  • The contracting entity (school, school network, ministry, district, international education body, or authorized operator) is the Data Controller for the scope of its deployment.

  • BuzzGage is the Data Processor.

  • If multiple entities are involved (for example ministry + schools), controller responsibilities are defined in the agreement and governance model.

 

Schools and institutional customers are responsible for their internal governance and for providing any required notices and permissions to students and families under applicable local law.​

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2. Data We Collect
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A) Student Voice (Anonymous Participation)

BuzzGage collects student voice feedback for the purpose of generating aggregated insights for school improvement.

 

What we collect:

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  • Anonymous survey responses submitted by students

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What we do not collect:

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  • Student names, emails, student IDs, or direct personal identifiers

  • Grade, class/section, gender, age/year band, language, or free-text comments

  • IP addresses or device identifiers for student voice submissions

 

BuzzGage does not design the service to identify students, profile individual students, or provide student-level reporting.

 

B) School and Administrator Account Data

To operate the service, BuzzGage collects limited account and profile information from schools and administrators.

 

School profile data may include:

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  • School name

  • Location

  • School size and type

  • Curriculum

  • Technology usage

  • Annual priorities

  • Academic level (for example K12)

 

Administrator data may include:

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  • Name

  • Email address

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3. How We Use Data

 

BuzzGage uses collected data to:

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  • Deliver the platform and manage school and administrator accounts

  • Generate anonymized, aggregated insights from student voice data

  • Provide system-level reporting over time across engagement cycles for the same school or school group

  • Maintain platform security and operational integrity

 

BuzzGage does not sell personal data and does not use student voice data for advertising.​

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4. System-Level Reporting and Safeguards

 

Minimum Group Size

To reduce re-identification risk, BuzzGage applies reporting safeguards and will not display results unless the underlying group meets a minimum cohort size threshold.

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  • Minimum cohort size for reporting: 100 students

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Trend Over Time

BuzzGage supports trend analysis across engagement cycles to help schools understand change over time. These trends remain aggregated and are subject to the same minimum cohort-size safeguards.

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No Cross-School Benchmarking

BuzzGage does not provide benchmarking across unrelated schools. Reporting is limited to the school or school group scope defined in the customer relationship.

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Section 5. Institutional Customers and System-Level Access
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BuzzGage may be deployed by institutional customers such as school networks, districts, ministries of education, international education bodies, or other authorized education organizations that oversee multiple participating schools.

In these deployments:

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  • System-level aggregated insights only: Institutional users may access aggregated, anonymized insights at the system level (for example across all participating schools within the agreed scope).

  • No student-level data: BuzzGage does not provide institutional users with any student-level data or individual student profiles.

  • No school-level breakdowns by default: Institutional users do not receive school-level results, comparisons, or identifiable school breakdowns unless this is explicitly defined in the contractual and governance arrangement with the Controller.

  • Reporting safeguards apply: Minimum cohort-size thresholds and reporting safeguards continue to apply in institutional reporting to reduce re-identification risk.

  • Defined scope and authority: System-level reporting is limited to the set of schools and institutions included within the scope of the agreement. The institutional customer confirms it has the authority to include participating schools and define the reporting scope under applicable law and institutional governance requirements.

  • Deletion and requests: Where an institutional customer is the contracting Controller, data deletion requests and other data-related requests are handled through the Controller’s designated contact, unless applicable law requires a different approach.

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This section applies in addition to the student voice protections and account-data practices described elsewhere in this policy.​

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6. Legal Basis for Processing
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BuzzGage processes data primarily on the basis of:

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  • Contractual necessity, to deliver the service to the contracting school or school group

  • Legitimate interests, limited to securing and improving the service (for example preventing abuse, ensuring stability, and maintaining reliability), where permitted by applicable law

 

Where local laws require additional permissions, schools or school groups remain responsible for obtaining and managing those permissions.​

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7. Data Retention and Deletion

 

Retention:

  • BuzzGage retains school and student voice data for up to 2 years, unless a deletion request is made earlier.

 

Deletion:

  • The Controller (school or school group) may request deletion at any time.

  • Deletion requests are processed immediately within operational constraints (for example queued deletion processes required to complete removal across systems).​

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8. Security
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BuzzGage applies technical and organizational safeguards designed to protect data from unauthorized access, alteration, or loss.

Security measures include:

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  • Encryption in transit

  • Access controls for administrator accounts​

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9. Infrastructure, Hosting, and Service Providers
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BuzzGage is hosted and processed on Google Cloud using a multi-region infrastructure to support reliability and availability.

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BuzzGage does not use external analytics, advertising, or tracking vendors to process student voice data or generate insights.

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Where needed to operate and secure the service, BuzzGage may rely on essential infrastructure-level service providers (for example cloud hosting and related security services) under appropriate contractual safeguards and confidentiality obligations.

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10. Incident Response and Breach Notification

If a personal data breach affecting customer account data occurs, BuzzGage will notify the Controller without undue delay and within 60 days of confirmation, consistent with contractual commitments and applicable legal requirements.​

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11. Data Rights and Requests

Because BuzzGage processes data on behalf of schools and school groups:

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  • Student-related requests should be handled through the school or school group, which acts as Controller.

  • Administrator users may contact BuzzGage regarding their account data.

 

Requests can be submitted to: mc@buzzgage.org​

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12. Policy Updates

BuzzGage may update this policy from time to time. If changes are material, we will communicate updates through appropriate channels.

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