Privacy policy
BookBaton
The short version: students under 18 are known only by a Baton Card code. We never ask students for a name, photo, email, phone number or birthday. We don't sell information, show ads, or let students message each other. Children under 13 don't get accounts.
Students
Students at participating high schools and colleges sign in with a Baton Card from their school library: a card code and a 4-digit PIN they choose. We store the PIN only in scrambled (hashed) form, so nobody, including us, can read it.
To make give-aways work, we keep the student's activity under their card code: books they list and the condition they chose, books they ask for, Book Drops and their dates, classes joined with a teacher's class code, trust points (like on-time drop-offs), and messages from BookBaton
Other students only ever see a student's trust card (how long they've been a member, how reliable they've been, and badges), never their card code. If a school keeps its own list of which student received which card, that list belongs to the school and isn't stored in BookBaton
Children under 13 and middle schools
We don't offer accounts to children under 13. At middle schools, the librarian runs everything from the library desk: students never use an app, and we collect no information about them.
Parents and guardians
Parents and guardians who sign in give us their email address, which we use to send sign-in links and messages about their account. A parent or guardian can link to a student only with a one-time family code the student chooses to share, and the student can remove the link at any time. Linked adults see their own student's books, requests and Book Drops, never other students or families.
Librarians, teachers and school staff
School staff sign in with their work email and a password. We keep their email, role and school, and what they add, such as the school's books, the "Books we need" list, classes and class codes, and the school page settings. Staff see students only by card code.
Website visitors
Our own simple visit counter records which pages are viewed, the site a visitor came from, campaign tags in links, the type of device, and a few actions such as picking a school. It uses no cookies, doesn't store IP addresses, doesn't run in the student app or library desk, and skips browsers that send Do Not Track or Global Privacy Control signals.
When you fill in a form on our website (for example to join a waitlist or ask us to contact your school), we keep what you type so we can reply.
When you search on Find your school, your search words are sent to public school directories (the U.S. Department of Education's school data and OpenStreetMap) to find matching schools. School colors that visitors pick are saved for that school, with nothing about the visitor.
Services we use
We rely on a few trusted services to run BookBaton
What we never do
- Sell or rent anyone's information.
- Show ads or share information with advertisers.
- Use student information for marketing.
- Let students chat or message each other.
- Show students' card codes to other students.
Keeping and deleting information
We keep information only as long as it's needed to run BookBaton
Laws we design for
We designed BookBaton
Changes and questions
If we change this policy, we'll update the date at the top and, for important changes, let schools know first. Questions? Email hello@bookbaton.com.