Scaffold Ed | Security and Privacy Information

Is my student data safe?

Scaffold Ed is committed to ensuring that student, school, and parent data are secure and protected. We seek to continue to build trust with educators, students, and parents by putting privacy and security at the forefront of what we do.

We don't save any of your data, it stays in your Google Sheets (we temporarily access the files you give us direct permission to view)
All user accounts are managed through Google for Education (we don't collect any personal information from your account besides your email)
We're transparent about what permissions we require from your Google Account (and will ask you for them when you sign-up)
We are Google OAuth Verified and we do not access sensitive or restricted scopes (link to additional information below)
Privacy & Security provided by Google for Education (read more below)

If you have further questions or concerns about data security, please reach out to Scaffold Ed at support@scaffolded.io and we will be happy to discuss further.

Our full Privacy Policy

Google for Education's policies

Google OAuth API verification FAQs

Frequently Asked Questions

Why does Scaffold Ed need me to login with Google?

Scaffold Ed runs within Google Sheets, so to sign-up and sign-in we don’t require a separate login. When using Scaffold Ed for the first time, we ask for permission to access the specific files you select in your Google Drive while using Scaffold Ed, we don’t get access to everything in your Google Drive.
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A more specific, technical explanation:

Users authenticate with Scaffold Ed via Google OAuth. We attach the Google-issued OAuth token to each API request to our backend systems. Our API servers then validate this OAuth token by making a request to Google’s OAuth servers. This authentication scheme allows us to identify and authenticate a user without needing a separate Scaffold Ed username/password.

Is using Scaffold Ed a privacy risk?

We understand that student data privacy is especially important to protect, and that’s exactly why Scaffold Ed is built to be added to your Google Sheets! Scaffold Ed does not save any of the data contained within your Sheets, so as long as your admins allow you to use Google Sheets with your school Google Workspace account you don’t need to worry about Scaffold Ed putting you or your students at risk.

Please contact the appropriate person at your school if you have any concerns about using Google Sheets with Scaffold Ed to manage student data. We are happy to address any concerns you or your school may have — please reach out to contact@scaffolded.io with any questions.

How do I make sure my student data is secure?

Scaffold Ed sits on top of your existing systems (like Google Sheets), and we take great care to never record user data when syncing their Sheets. By maintaining safe practices with your Google account login and restricting your Google Sheets to be viewed only by yourself or colleagues, you can be sure that your data is secure.
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A more specific, technical explanation:

We never store copies of your data on our servers.

In our databases, we store only the necessary metadata about your Sheets that allows the Scaffold Ed application to sync your Google Sheets. When a user is configuring or running a data import, some data might be temporarily cached, but only for the duration required to complete the desired operation.

This is Default State example