Privacy Policy
1. Who we are
Luna – Learn Anything ("Luna") is a learning app for iPhone, iPad and the web, together with the heyluna.com website. Luna is provided by Pencil Learning Technologies, Inc. ("Pencil", "we", "us" or "our"), 45 Miguel St, San Francisco, California, USA. Pencil is responsible for the personal information described in this policy.
Luna's tutoring sessions run on Pencil Spaces, Pencil's live learning platform. This policy covers how Pencil Spaces is used inside Luna. If you also use Pencil Spaces directly, outside Luna, the Pencil Spaces Privacy Policy applies to that use.
2. Information we collect
When you sign in
Luna uses Google Sign-In. Google shares your name, verified email address, profile photo link and account identifier with us, and Firebase Authentication (a Google service) keeps your sign-in secure. We never see your Google password.
When you set up your account
- Everyone: whether you're a learner or a parent or guardian, the name you'd like Luna to use, your time zone (detected from your device), and the version and date of the Privacy Policy you agreed to.
- Learners: birth month and year. We never ask for a full date of birth. We use it to choose the right experience for your age.
- Parents and guardians: the email address of a learner you invite, the learner's first name and birth month and year that you confirm, and records of the consents you give (see section 4).
When you learn with Luna
- Courses and progress: the courses you start or leave, the units and learning goals you've completed, your progress on each question (attempts, hints used and whether an answer was correct), and when you were last active.
- Answers: the answers you type into practice questions.
- Sessions: when each tutoring session starts and ends, what it covered, and the recap Luna produces at the end: a summary, the goals you completed, key moments, what held you up, what to try next, and a score shown to you as stars.
- Diagnostic test: Luna's estimate of what you already know in a course, which it uses to suggest where to start.
- Streaks: worked out from the sessions you complete. We don't store them separately.
Tutoring sessions
During a session you can talk, type, draw on a whiteboard and, if you allow it, use your camera. On the web you can also choose to share your screen. This content goes to Pencil Spaces to run the session. Luna's own servers don't receive recordings or transcripts; they receive the end-of-session recap. Section 6 explains this in detail.
Homework photos
When you use Homework help, you choose a photo or take one with your camera. Luna crops and resizes the photo on your device, then sends it through our servers to Pencil Spaces so the tutor can see your question. Our servers don't keep the image. They keep a fingerprint of it (a one-way code that can't be turned back into the image) and a link to where it's stored in Pencil Spaces.
Reminders and email
- Reminder settings: the days and time you want a reminder, whether you'd like a nudge after an unfinished session, and whether you want reminders as notifications, email or both.
- Notifications: on iPhone and iPad, reminders are scheduled on your device by iOS. We don't collect a push token.
- Email records: for each email we send, the recipient's address, the type of email, its content and whether it was delivered.
Usage analytics
We use Google Analytics for Firebase to understand how Luna is used and where it needs improving. It records events such as signing in, starting a course or session, finishing a session, saving reminder settings and sending a family invitation, and the name of each screen you visit. Events can include course, goal and tutor identifiers. Analytics data is pseudonymous: it's linked to a random Luna account identifier, your role and your age group (13 and under, teen or adult). We never send your name or email address. Google Analytics also collects standard device and app information, such as device model, operating system, app version, language and an approximate location based on your IP address. Advertising features are turned off. On iPhone and iPad, Luna doesn't access your device's advertising identifier.
Device permissions
Luna asks for access to your camera, microphone or photos when you use a feature that needs them, and on iPhone and iPad asks to send notifications so it can deliver your reminders. You can change these at any time in your device or browser settings.
Technical information
Our hosting providers keep standard request logs, such as IP address, browser and the time of each request, for security and reliability. Our own error logs can include account and session identifiers and the names used to set up tutoring sessions.
The heyluna.com website
This website doesn't use cookies or analytics. Our hosting provider keeps standard request logs.
Payments
Luna is currently free and doesn't sell anything in the app. If we offer paid features in the future, a payment provider will handle your payment details and we'll update this policy first.
3. How we use information
We use information to:
- sign you in, keep your account secure and choose the right experience for your age;
- provide courses, diagnostic tests, tutoring sessions, homework help, recaps, progress, streaks and reminders;
- connect parent and learner accounts and show parents the information described in section 5;
- send emails you need or ask for: invitations and invitation codes, parental consent confirmations, a note to a parent when an invitation is declined, reminder emails if you choose them, and a weekly progress summary for parents who choose to receive it;
- answer support requests and privacy requests;
- understand how Luna is used, fix problems and improve Luna;
- prevent fraud and abuse, enforce our Terms of Use, and comply with the law.
We don't sell personal information, share it for cross-context behavioral advertising, show ads in Luna, or use personal information to target advertising. Luna's placement suggestions, such as where to start in a course, are educational guidance only and don't have legal or similarly significant effects.
If you're in the European Economic Area or the United Kingdom, we rely on these legal bases: performing our contract with you (providing Luna), our legitimate interests in running, securing and improving Luna (where they aren't outweighed by your rights), your consent where we ask for it (including parental consent), and our legal obligations.
4. Children and family accounts
Luna is for learners of many ages, including children. This section explains how we handle children's information under the US Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) and similar laws.
How a learner's age is used
Learners give their birth month and year. Because we don't ask for a day, Luna counts a learner as 13 and under until the month after their 13th birthday. Learners 13 and under can't create an account on their own or switch to a parent account. A linked learner's birth month and year are managed by their parent.
Getting parental consent
- A parent or guardian creates their own Luna account and invites the learner by email.
- The learner accepts by signing in with the invited Google account, or the parent enters a six-digit code we email to the learner. Codes expire after 30 minutes.
- The parent confirms the learner's first name and birth month and year and agrees to this Privacy Policy for the learner. For a learner 13 and under, the parent also gives parental consent, confirming they're the learner's parent or legal guardian, and we email them a confirmation.
Until the parent approves, we hold only what's needed to complete the invitation: the learner's email address, their sign-in identifier if they've signed in, the invitation itself, and unfinished setup details such as their time zone. We don't create the learner's Luna account or any learning record before approval. Invitations that aren't approved expire after seven days. After that, or if the parent cancels, we remove the held sign-in identity and any unfinished setup details.
What we collect from children
The same information as other learners, described in section 2. We don't ask children for more information than they need to use a feature. We use their information only to provide and improve Luna, never for advertising, and their analytics data is pseudonymous like everyone else's.
Parents' rights
A parent or guardian of a linked learner can:
- see the information in section 5 in the app, and ask us for a copy of the information we hold about their child;
- disconnect from the learner in Settings, which stops a learner under 18 from using Luna's learning features until they're linked again (it doesn't delete anything);
- delete the learner's account in Settings, which deletes the learner's account and learning data;
- withdraw consent, or ask us to stop collecting a child's information, by emailing support@heyluna.com or by calling or messaging us on WhatsApp at +1 (650) 223-5711.
Teens
Older learners can create their own account. A parent can link to a learner under 18 by invitation. Adult learners' accounts can't be linked to a parent.
5. What linked parents can see
While a parent and learner are linked, the parent can see:
- the learner's display name, email address, birth month and year, and when they last signed in;
- the courses they've joined, their progress, current learning goal, goals completed and when they were last active;
- how many sessions they started and completed in the last seven days;
- their completed sessions, including homework help and specialist tutor sessions, with each session's stars and Luna's recap: the summary, goals and how they went, key moments, what held the learner up and what to try next.
Parents can't see the answers a learner types, their homework photos, their streaks, or the audio, video, chat or whiteboard from their sessions, and they can't reopen a learner's session. If a parent chooses to receive the weekly summary email, it includes each learner's name, how many sessions they completed and the titles of recent sessions. Disconnecting the link ends the parent's access straight away.
6. Tutoring sessions and AI
Luna's tutor is an AI. When you start a session, we create a private space for you in Pencil Spaces and set up the tutor with the course material, the question and its worked solution, and instructions on how to teach. Pencil Spaces knows you only by your display name and a random Luna identifier. We never give it your email address, birth date or Google account details.
The session runs in Pencil Spaces inside the Luna app. What you say, type, write and draw in the session, and your camera or shared screen if you turn them on, are processed by Pencil Spaces and by the AI model providers it works with under contract. They use it only to produce the tutor's responses and the recap at the end. Neither Pencil Spaces nor its AI model providers use your session content to train AI models. The recap comes back to Luna and is saved with your session.
AI-generated responses and recaps can be wrong or incomplete. You can always ask the tutor to explain again, and you should check anything important with a teacher or another trusted source.
9. How long we keep information
- Your account and learning data are kept while your account exists, and deleted when you or your parent delete it.
- Unfinished setup details are deleted after 24 hours. Invitations that aren't approved expire after seven days, and any held sign-in identity is removed then.
- Invitation and email records are kept with the account they belong to, and deleted when that account is deleted.
- Deletion records: after deleting an account we keep a minimal record that the deletion happened. It holds a one-way coded identifier, the account's role and age group, and dates, so we can show we completed the request.
- Pencil Spaces: Pencil Spaces only knows you by a display name and a random identifier. Deleting your Luna account straight away deletes everything in Luna that links you to it, and a scheduled job then deletes the Pencil Spaces user we created for you, which can take longer. Session content and homework photos stored in Pencil Spaces are kept under Pencil Spaces' retention practices. You can ask us to delete them sooner by emailing support@heyluna.com.
- Analytics data is kept by Google Analytics for the limited period set in our account.
- Logs and backups are kept for a limited period and then deleted or overwritten.
10. Your choices and rights
In the app
- Update your details: change your display name and, if no parent manages it, your birth month and year in Settings.
- Reminders: change or turn off reminders, or switch between notifications and email, in Settings. You can also turn off notifications in your device settings.
- Family links: disconnect a parent or learner in Settings.
- Delete your account: go to Settings, then Privacy and account, then Delete account. Your account and learning history are deleted straight away. You'll need to disconnect any linked parent or learner accounts first; disconnecting doesn't delete the other person's account. Parents can also delete a linked learner's account.
Privacy rights
Depending on where you live, you may have the right to access your personal information, get a copy of it in a portable format, correct it, delete it, restrict or object to how we use it, and withdraw consent at any time. To make a request, email support@heyluna.com from the email address on your Luna account. We may ask you to sign in again or confirm your identity before we act. You can use an authorized agent, and we may ask them for proof that you authorized them. We won't treat you differently for using your rights. If we turn down your request, you can appeal by replying to our decision. You can also complain to your local data protection authority.
11. Security
We encrypt information in transit, limit who can access personal information, require a recent sign-in before an account is deleted, and only let a parent see a learner's information while they're linked. Invitation codes expire after 30 minutes and allow only a few attempts. No system is perfectly secure, so please keep your Google account and devices secure and tell us straight away if you think your account has been misused.
12. International processing
Pencil is based in the United States, and Luna's servers run in the United States. Our service providers may process information in other countries. Where the law requires it, we use recognized safeguards, such as the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses, for transfers from the EEA, the UK or Switzerland.
13. Notice for US state residents
California and other US state privacy laws ask us to describe our practices using set categories. In the last 12 months we have collected these categories of personal information, from you, from Google when you sign in, and from your device:
- identifiers (name, email address, account identifiers, IP address);
- personal characteristics (birth month and year, which shows age);
- internet or other electronic network activity (how you use Luna);
- approximate location (worked out from IP address);
- audio, electronic and visual information (tutoring session audio, video and whiteboard content, and homework photos);
- education information (courses, progress, answers and session recaps);
- inferences (estimates of what you already know in a course).
We use and disclose these categories for the purposes in section 3 and section 7, and keep them as described in section 9. We don't sell or share personal information as those laws define it, including that of anyone under 16, and we don't use or disclose sensitive personal information to infer characteristics about you. To use your rights, see section 10.
14. Changes to this policy
When we update this policy, we change its version and effective date at the top of this page. If a change is significant, we'll tell you in the app or by email before it takes effect, and we'll ask for consent again where the law requires it, including parental consent for learners 13 and under. We keep a record of which version each person agreed to.
15. Contact us
For privacy questions, requests or complaints, including questions about a child's information, email support@heyluna.com, call or message us on WhatsApp at +1 (650) 223-5711, or write to Pencil Learning Technologies, Inc., 45 Miguel St, San Francisco, CA, USA. Please don't include learning content or other sensitive details in your first message.