1 The short answer
- Your pupils' names and your class data stay on your device. Names, seating plans, emoji, dots, notes you type, every logged contribution and, if you switch on recitation marking, your marks are saved in this browser, on this device, and nowhere else.
- Nothing about your pupils is uploaded. The app never sends a name, a class, a seat, a log or any text you type to a server, to the person who made the app, or to anyone else. There is no copy anywhere.
- There are no accounts. No sign-in, no email address, no password and no profile.
- The only thing the app sends is an anonymous tally, such as "one visit from a phone in Indonesia today". It holds no names, no class data and no stored IP address. You can switch it off.
- There are no cookies, no adverts, no tracking and no third parties. The page cannot contact any other website.
- You are in control. You can back up, export or erase everything yourself at any time. Clearing your browser's data also erases it.
- It works with no internet. After it has loaded once, you can switch on aeroplane mode and keep using it. That is a simple test that your pupils' data is not going anywhere.
2 Exactly what is saved, and where
Everything in this table is saved in your browser's own storage on the device you are using. It is never sent anywhere.
| What | Examples |
|---|---|
| Pupils | Names, where each seat is, locked seats, seat colours and shapes, the hot seat, emoji, dots, and the optional gender used only to choose person emoji. |
| Contributions | Each time you tapped a pupil: who, what kind (answer, question or idea) and when. |
| Your labels | The class name, colour names, the hot-seat label, and the labels of your dots. These are text you typed. |
| Recitation marks | Only if you have signed the marking agreement: for each recitation you name, its questions, which pupil was asked which question, when, and the mark from 1 to 5 you gave. Also the agreement itself: your typed name, the date and its version. |
| Groups and group work | The group each pupil is in (a colour and the name you gave it) and, for each piece of group work you named, which pupils took part. |
| Raffle and Pick memory | Who has been picked recently, so it can skip them, and how many times Pick or the raffle has drawn each pupil this lesson, for the Not yet called list and the 🎲 count on the desk. |
| Your settings | Colours and fonts, your Teacher marker, which view you use, whether anonymous counting is on, and that you accepted the terms of use (the version date and the time you ticked the box). |
Source: the app's storage code (src/index.html) and docs/PRIVACY.md. The browser's own storage (localStorage) is the only place the app writes pupil data.
3 Exactly what the app sends
The whole app makes one kind of network request after it has loaded. It is a tiny anonymous tally.
| Part | What it contains |
|---|---|
| What happened | One word from a fixed list of nine: a visit, a first open on a device, a device adding pupils for the first time, a contribution logged, Pick or Raffle used, the demo class loaded, a backup or CSV downloaded, installing to the home screen, finishing the offline download. It does not say who or which pupil. |
| Device type | Phone, tablet or computer. |
| How you arrived | A link, or one of the QR codes. |
| Home screen | Yes or no: was it opened from the home screen. |
| Added by the server | A two-letter country (from Cloudflare) and the date. The server adds 1 to a tally for that combination and stores nothing else. |
Source: track() in src/index.html, the only fetch call in the app; worker/index.mjs, which refuses anything outside this exact shape; and the tests that check both.
What is never in it: names, class data, logs, text you typed, IP addresses, browser or device identifiers, and cookies. Two people on the same kind of phone in the same country on the same day produce exactly the same tally.
Who is not counted: anyone with Do Not Track or Global Privacy Control switched on, anyone who turns off "Share anonymous usage counts" in About, anyone using the app from a developer's own computer, and automated software.
4 Who can see what
| Who | Can they see it? |
|---|---|
| You | Yes. It is your data, on your device. |
| Someone else using the same device and browser | Yes, if they open the app. On a shared computer, use Erase before you leave. |
| Other teachers | No. Each browser keeps its own. Nothing is shared unless you send someone a backup file yourself. |
| The person who made the app | No. There is no copy to see. Their stats page shows only the anonymous tallies above, and it is behind a sign-in. |
| The website host (Cloudflare) | Not your pupil data, which never reaches it. Like any website, the host's systems see that a device loaded the page, including its IP address, in order to deliver it. The app does not read or store that address, and the host's own logs are governed by the host's policies. |
| Your school's IT team | They may be able to see your device or your network's traffic, as they can for any website. That is a matter between you and your school. |
5 Check it yourself
- Aeroplane mode. Open Airtime Map once, then turn on aeroplane mode. Add pupils and tap contributions. Everything still works, because nothing needs a server.
- Watch the network. In a desktop browser, open the developer tools and look at the Network tab while you add pupils and log contributions. Apart from the app fetching its own files, you will see no request that carries a name. The only request that sends anything from the app is the small tally from section 3.
- Turn the tally off. Open About in the app and untick "Share anonymous usage counts". The app then sends nothing at all.
- Check what the page can contact. The security policy built into every page lets it talk only to its own address, so a request to anyone else is refused by the browser. Your browser's developer tools show every request the page makes.
6 What you can do with the data
- Back it up. "Back up everything" saves a file to a place you choose. Gender is left out unless you tick the box. The file is not encrypted, so keep it somewhere you would keep a class list.
- Export the log. A CSV of the contribution log holds each pupil's name, the date and time, and the type of contribution (answer, question or idea), and nothing else.
- Export group work. A CSV of group work has a row for each pupil in each activity you named: the activity, its date, the pupil's group, their name, and whether they took part. It holds nothing else, and no gender.
- Delete a class or choose Erase everything on this device (Data tab, under This device). Both are immediate and cannot be undone.
- Share the app. The Share window offers the web address and a QR code for Airtime Map itself, and nothing else. Your classes, names and logs are never part of it. The address goes only where you choose to send it, through your device's share menu, your email or by copying it.
- Print or save as PDF. The seating plan, with the names, colour groups and dots you choose, is laid out on your device and handed to your browser's print window. Nothing is sent to a server. A PDF or a printout is as safe as the place you keep it, so treat it like a class list.
- Clearing the browser's data also erases it. Safari can clear the data of a website you have not opened for a few weeks, but not an app installed on the home screen, so installing it protects your classes from that.
7 Using it sensibly with pupils
- Use first names, nicknames or initials.
- Keep dot labels neutral. They are text you write and they are included in backups.
- Press the 🙈 button to show initials only when the screen is projected. Dots and their key are hidden then too.
- The contribution log and group work are notes to guide your teaching. A tap is a quick note, and a count says nothing about how good a contribution was.
- Recitation marks are different. A mark from 1 to 5 is a record about a child, and it can be used like an assessment record. So marking is switched off until you sign an agreement on your device, taking responsibility for those marks. See section 9.
- Check your school's rules on recording information about pupils. The school's own policy decides what is allowed, and signing the agreement does not change that.
8 The honest limits
- Keeping data on your device protects it from the app and its host. It does not protect it from anyone who can use your device, or from a lost or unlocked device. Lock your device.
- A backup file or CSV, once saved, is as safe as the place you saved it.
- The data is gone if the browser's storage is cleared and you have no backup.
- This page describes what the app does. It is not legal advice and does not replace your school's policies.
9 Marking pupils: the agreement
Recitation lets you ask pupils questions and give each answer a mark from 1 to 5. Because those marks are records about children, the app asks you to take responsibility before it lets you use them. Until you do, marking is not available.
- You sign on your own device. You tick five points (your school's rules, keeping the device and any file safe, that the marks live only on this device, deleting what you no longer need, and fair use) and type your full name. The name, the date and the wording's version are saved on your device, and nowhere else.
- It lasts six months. After that, marking switches off until you sign again. The app also warns you in the last 30 days. If the wording ever changes, it asks again.
- You can withdraw it at any time in the Data tab. Marks you already made stay on the device until you choose Erase recitation marks.
- Marks are never sent. Nothing about a recitation goes to a server, to the person who made the app, or to anyone else. Exporting a spreadsheet is a file you save yourself, and it holds names, questions and marks, so keep it as safe as a mark book.
- The class does not see marks. The recitation screen shows only the question and the pupil, with initials if you have switched on the 🙈 button. Marks are given on a separate step and can be left until after the lesson.
- The agreement is yours, not the app's. Airtime Map cannot check your school's policy. By signing you say you have, and you are responsible for how the marks are used.
Still concerned? Ask the person who shared the link with you, and show your school's data protection lead this page. Every statement on it can be checked against the app, as section 5 shows.