Privacy Policy
Student Pickup · Last updated August 13, 2026
Student Pickup helps schools run dismissal. Parents show a rotating QR code, staff scan it, and the right children are called to the right pickup spot. This policy explains what the app stores, why, and how to get rid of it.
What the app collects
Information you provide
| Data | Why |
|---|---|
| Email address | Identifies your account, receives your sign-in verification code and password resets. |
| Password | Handled by Firebase Authentication. It is stored as a salted hash and is never visible to us or to your school. |
| Guest name or email | Only when you authorize someone else to collect your child. Deleted automatically at midnight. |
Information your school provides
| Data | Why |
|---|---|
| Student name, grade, and student ID | So staff can identify who to release and to whom. |
| Parent and guardian names and email addresses | Links each family to its children and determines your role in the app. |
| Staff names and email addresses | Determines who may scan codes and run dismissal. |
Information created as you use the app
| Data | Why |
|---|---|
| Pickup records: student name and ID, the collecting adult, and the date and time | The dismissal log. Schools generally need a record of who collected each child and when. |
| Pickup status and assigned spot | Drives the live staff board during dismissal. |
| Pickup handoffs between parents | Lets another parent collect your child. Deleted automatically at midnight. |
| Verification codes | Stored as a hash, expires after 15 minutes, then deleted. |
Camera
Staff devices use the camera to read pickup QR codes. Frames are decoded on the device and discarded immediately. The app does not take photographs, does not save images, and does not transmit anything from the camera. It never uses the microphone.
What the app does not do
- No advertising, and no advertising identifiers.
- No analytics or behavioral tracking SDKs.
- No selling or sharing of personal information with data brokers.
- No location collection. The app never asks for location permission.
- No contacts, photos, or microphone access.
- No profiling of children beyond the dismissal record described above.
Children's information
The app is for parents, guardians, and school staff. It is not directed to children and children do not create accounts. Information about students comes from the school, is used only to run dismissal, and is handled as a school record.
We process student information solely under the school's direction and for no other purpose. In the United States, where a school designates us as a school official with a legitimate educational interest under FERPA, we act in that capacity and handle student records accordingly. Schools should confirm that designation in writing before sharing roster information with us.
Who else touches the data
| Service | Role |
|---|---|
| Google Firebase (Google LLC) | Hosts the database, accounts, and server functions. Data is stored on Google Cloud infrastructure. |
| Resend | Delivers sign-in verification code emails. Receives the recipient address and the code. |
| Firebase Trigger Email extension | Delivers the notice sent to another parent when you ask them to collect your child. Receives their email address, your name, and the names of the students involved. |
| Firebase Hosting | Serves the browser version of the app and these policy pages. |
Data is stored and processed in Google Cloud data centers in the United States.
These providers act on our instructions and are not permitted to use the data for their own purposes.
How long data is kept
- Verification codes: 15 minutes, then deleted.
- Pickup handoffs and guest passes: cleared automatically every night at midnight.
- Your account: until you delete it.
- Roster and dismissal records: kept until your school asks us to remove them. The records belong to the school, but they are stored in systems we operate, so deletion is something the school requests and we carry out. There is currently no automatic expiry on the dismissal log.
Deleting your account
Open the app, tap Account in the header, then Delete my account and confirm with your password. This is immediate and permanent. It removes your sign-in, your role and verification status, any pickup handoffs you sent or received, and any guest pass you created.
It does not remove your school's own roster records or its dismissal log, because those belong to the school rather than to the app account. Ask your school office about those. The school can direct us to remove them, and we will.
Security
Traffic is encrypted in transit. Passwords are hashed by Firebase Authentication and are never stored in readable form. Signing in requires an email address that your school has placed on its roster, confirmed by a code sent to that address. Pickup QR codes rotate on a short timer, so a screenshot cannot be reused indefinitely.
Roles are enforced on the server rather than in the app, so a modified copy of the app cannot grant itself staff or administrator powers. Only staff and administrators can record a pickup or change a child's dismissal status, and only administrators can change the roster or read the dismissal log.
Access to student records is scoped to the people who need it. A family sees their own children, plus any child they have been specifically asked to collect that day, and that extra access ends automatically when the request expires at midnight. Staff and administrators can see the roster for the school they serve, because running dismissal requires it. These limits are enforced by the database itself, not by the app, so they hold even against a modified copy of the app.
Your rights
Depending on where you live, you may have the right to access, correct, export, or delete personal information, and to object to certain processing. Account deletion is available in the app. For anything concerning your child's school record, contact your school, which holds those records. For everything else, write to imsepics@gmail.com.
Changes
If this policy changes materially we will update the date at the top and, where the change affects how personal information is used, notify you in the app.
Contact
Purdue University EPICS
imsepics@gmail.com
610 Purdue Mall, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA