Beacon Privacy Policy

Beacon is the special education and autism support app operated by Spectrum Unlocked, used by families and by the professionals who support them. If you use Beacon for work, note that it never asks for a student's full name: the personal profile described below is the parent flow, and a professional account stores a work profile instead. This policy explains exactly what we collect, how we use it, who we share it with, and how you can control your data. It applies only to the Beacon app at beacon.spectrumunlocked.com. The main Spectrum Unlocked privacy policy covers the public website.

We've written this in plain English. If anything here is unclear, email us at beacon@spectrumunlocked.com and we'll get back to you.

From you

• Email address (for the sign-in code we send you each time, account recovery, receipts). Beacon has no passwords.
• Payment method details (card brand and last four digits only, full card numbers never touch our servers; Stripe handles them)
• Your subscription plan, status, and billing history (via Stripe)

About your child

• Name, age, diagnosis timeline, communication style
• Sensory profile (what they seek and avoid)
• What motivates and regulates them
• Behaviors you choose to track (name, emoji, timestamps)
• Structured data from IEP documents you upload (goals, services, accommodations, grade, school, not the file itself, not your child's name, DOB, or address, see IEP Translator below for details)

What you write in Beacon

• Chat messages with Beacon (full text of what you send and what the AI replies)
• Journal entries, check-ins, wins, notes attached to behaviors
• Schedules, sensory notes, caregiver handoff cards (“Pass the Baton”)
• “Memories” automatically extracted from your chat history, short facts Beacon uses later for context (e.g. “Jamie is sensitive to fluorescent lights”)

Automatically

• Page views and interaction events via Google Analytics 4. This one does set a first-party analytics cookie and uses your IP address to derive a coarse location, which Google Analytics does not retain. We never send it your name, email, or anything you write in Beacon.
• The same page views and events via PostHog, plus whether the actions you take in Beacon worked or failed (for example, that an import finished). After you sign in these are tied to a random account number, never your name or email, so we can see which features help and fix what breaks. PostHog never receives anything you write or upload: no messages, documents or student details. We do not record your screen. When you delete your account, your PostHog history is deleted too.
• If you try a Beacon tool before signing up, this browser keeps the result for 7 days so it can be saved to your account, then deletes it.
• JavaScript errors and performance traces via Sentry on production, so we can fix bugs you hit
• Logs of every AI call Beacon makes on your behalf, which model, how long it took, success or error, for internal reliability monitoring only (no access for Beacon staff except when on call)

Beacon is a small team. We don't sell, rent, or trade your data. We use the following third-party services (“subprocessors”) to run the app. We send them only what they need to do their job.

AI training: Under our API agreements with Anthropic, Google, and OpenAI, none of them use Beacon data to train their models. If any of these providers change their terms in a way that would permit training on your data, we'll update this policy and notify you before the change takes effect.

Chat

Each time you send a message, Beacon builds a system prompt that includes your child's profile, recent journal entries, recent check-ins, recent behavior patterns, and extracted memories, and sends it with your message to Claude (or Gemini as fallback). The entire exchange, your message, the AI's reply, and a topic category we assign later, is saved in your chat history so you can come back to it.

Voice input on chat

When you tap the microphone in the chat input, your voice is captured by your browser and sent to Deepgram for transcription. Our server passes a no-store flag on every Deepgram request, so your recording is transcribed in-flight and discarded, we don't store the audio, and neither does Deepgram. The transcript text returns to your chat input for you to review and edit before sending. Once you tap Send, the text is treated the same as any typed message (saved to your chat history, used for memory extraction, etc.).

Memories

Once a day, a background job reviews idle chat sessions and asks Claude to pull out short, useful facts (“Jamie prefers weighted blankets at bedtime”) to include in future chats. You can view and delete individual memories in Settings.

Behavior tracker + Foundation tools

Behaviors, sensory profile entries, journals, check-ins, wins, and schedules are stored in Beacon so you can track patterns over time. They're also read into the system prompt for chat so Beacon can answer in context. Nothing in Foundation is shared unless you explicitly create a share link (see below).

IEP Translator

When you upload an IEP (PDF, Word doc, or up to 50 photos):

• PDFs with a text layer (most district exports) are parsed locally. The file never leaves our servers for these.
• Scanned PDFs, Word docs, and photos are sent to Google Gemini for page-by-page transcription to plain text.
• The transcribed text is sent to Google Gemini (and Anthropic Claude as a fallback) to extract a structured plain-English breakdown of goals, services, and accommodations.
• The original uploaded file is read once in memory and then discarded. We don't save the PDF, Word doc, or any photos.
• The uploaded filename is also discarded, we replace it with a neutral placeholder because filenames like “JamieSmith_IEP_2026.pdf” commonly contain a child's name.
• The AI prompt is instructed not to extract your child's name, date of birth, address, phone number, student ID, or the names of teachers, therapists, or case managers. It redacts these before returning the breakdown.

What we keep: grade, school, meeting and effective dates, the extracted goals/services/accommodations, and our confidence rating. What we don't keep: the file itself, its filename, or any of the PII categories above.

We keep your breakdown for the life of your account. You can remove any breakdown at any time from the IEP Translator page. We don't keep the original document. We only store the structured plain-English summary.

On Plus, we may also detect and link related documents you upload (for example, a progress report that updates an existing IEP). This uses only neutral metadata: document type, school year, and the display name we computed for you. We never read the document body.

Caseload (teachers and therapists)

Caseload is only on professional accounts. Parents never see it. It holds your own working notes about the students you already work with. It is not your district's system, and we have no agreement with your district.

Before you can save your first student, you confirm that you work with these students and are authorized to keep your own notes about them. We store the date and time you confirmed it, and nothing else about that confirmation.

What a student record holds:

• The initials or nickname you choose. There is no field for a full name anywhere in Caseload, and Beacon tells you if one appears in something you type.
• A grade band, for example 3 to 5. Never a date of birth, address, student ID, or school name.
• The goals, services, minutes and measurements you enter or import, and which provider works each goal.

When you import from an IEP page, the document is handled exactly as the IEP Translator above: the file is read once in memory and discarded, the filename is discarded, and the AI is instructed not to return names, dates of birth, addresses, phone numbers, student IDs, or the names of teachers, therapists or case managers. We keep the structured result you approve in the review step, not the document.

What we keep: the alias, grade band, goals, services, minutes and measurements you saved. What we don't keep: the document, its filename, the student's name, or any of the identifiers above.

Correcting and removing it. You can edit anything you saved. Archiving a student takes them off your roster and keeps the record, and can be undone. Deleting a student removes that student and every goal, service and measurement attached to them, immediately and permanently. Deleting your account deletes all of it.

Student data is never shared with another Beacon user, and the AI training terms above apply to it in full.

Home Notes

Home Notes lets a teacher or therapist with a professional account send a short daily or weekly note about a student to that student's family by email, and lets the family reply. Families read and reply free.

Home Notes is the teacher's own note to the family. It is not your school's or district's system of record, and we have no agreement with your school or district.

Home Notes is not for emergencies; for anything urgent, call the school.

What Home Notes Keeps

• The student's first name or a nickname. Never a last name, date of birth, address or student ID.
• The teacher's display name, which is shown on every note and on every email a family gets.
• The notes the teacher writes, any corrections to them and the replies the family and the teacher send.
• The email addresses of the family members and co-teachers the teacher invites, and whether each invitation was accepted.
• When each family member opened a note, so the teacher can see it arrived.
• A record of each invitation, removal and send, holding ids and times only, never a name, an address or a note's words.
• Photos of a filled paper sheet that the teacher imports into Home Notes, kept with that student's notes; a photo never saved as a note is deleted after 30 days.

Who Can Read It

The teacher who added the student, the co‑teachers that teacher invited to the student and the family members who accepted an invitation for that student. A family member sees only the students they were invited to, and only what the teacher sent: staff-only sections, unshared concerns and drafts never reach a family. A teacher sees only their own students and the students they were invited to as a co-teacher. Home Notes data is never sold.

Email and Resend

Resend is the service that sends every Home Notes email (notes, corrections, weekly notes, replies and invitations) and receives the replies families send by email. Resend receives each recipient's address and the email itself, which carries first names and the note or reply.

Beacon keeps a copy of each Home Notes email for about a day so a retry sends exactly the same email, then deletes it.

Error Reports and Analytics

Error reports (Sentry) and product analytics (PostHog) have email addresses blanked before they are sent, and Home Notes sends them only counts, kinds and times, never the words of a note or reply.

The This Week Line

On Friday's note a teacher can tap Draft With Beacon for the This Week line. Beacon sends Anthropic (Claude) only what the family already received in that week's notes, never staff-only sections, unshared concerns, drafts or a note marked Sent in Error. The line is a suggestion the teacher can change or clear before Friday's note is sent. It reaches the family in Friday's weekly note: in Send Automatically once the teacher sends Friday's note, in Review First once the teacher sends the weekly note. Beacon drafts only when asked and writes nothing else.

How Long Home Notes Keeps It

• Notes and replies are kept for as long as the teacher's account exists, or until the teacher deletes the student.
• At the end of the school year the teacher can archive every student at once. Families keep reading the archived notes, and no new notes are sent.
• When a teacher deletes their account, every student they added and every note about those students is deleted. Families who get note emails are told once by email, and My Notes shows a short notice that the teacher's notes are no longer available. Each co-teacher on those students gets one email too.
• When a co-teacher deletes their account, the notes they sent stay with the student and show "A former co-teacher".
• When a family member deletes their Beacon account, their access ends and note emails to them stop. Replies they sent stay under the note as "A family member (account deleted)".
• When a teacher removes a family member, that person's access ends at once and their past replies stay under the note.

If you are a family member and want a student's notes deleted, ask the teacher: the teacher's school controls that record, and Beacon deletes the notes when the teacher confirms.

The Home Notes example pages show invented students and families only, never a real person.

Rewind + Playback

These features ask Claude to synthesize the last 30 days of your wins, behaviors, journal entries, and check-ins into a narrative summary (Playback) or an emotional-support letter (Rewind). The resulting summary is stored so you can revisit it. If you generate a share link, the summary becomes publicly viewable by anyone with the link until you revoke it.

Share links (Baton, sensory, schedule, rewind, playback)

When you tap Share on any of these surfaces, Beacon generates a random token and makes the content accessible to anyone who knows the link. There's no password. Revoke the link any time from the same surface; from that point the link returns a 404. Anyone with the active link can view the shared content.

Nudges + Workshop generators

Each week Beacon generates a proactive question for you (a nudge) grounded in your recent activity. When you use Workshop generators (Social Story, School Email, Activity, etc.) we send your child profile and relevant context to the AI and save the result.

We're going to be straight with you here.

• IEP breakdowns: kept for the life of your account. Remove any breakdown at any time from the IEP Translator page; it is deleted immediately.
• Caseload student records: kept until you remove them. Archive takes a student off your roster and keeps the record; delete removes the student and everything attached to them, and cannot be undone. Nothing expires on its own.
• Home Notes: notes and replies are kept for as long as the teacher's account exists, or until the teacher deletes the student, then deleted (see Home Notes above).
• Everything else, chat messages, memories, behavior logs, journal entries, check-ins, wins, schedules, playbacks, rewinds, nudges, baton cards, workshop outputs, is kept for the life of your account. We don't automatically expire it. You can delete any individual entry in the app, and you can delete your entire account at any time (see below).
• Your account itself: when you delete your account, we delete your Supabase data immediately. Your Stripe customer record is retained for tax and accounting purposes as required by law; no further charges occur. Sentry error logs auto- expire on Sentry's schedule (typically 30-90 days).

You have the right to:

• Access any data we have about you. Most of it is already visible in the app; for anything that isn't, email us.
• Correct inaccurate data (edit your child profile, behaviors, journal entries, etc. in the app).
• Delete individual entries in the app, or your entire account from Settings → Danger Zone → Delete My Account. Account deletion is immediate and cancels any active subscription. For an export of your data before deletion, email beacon@spectrumunlocked.com.
• Export a copy of your data. Email us and we'll send you a JSON export within 30 days.
• Opt out of AI processing on a per-feature basis by simply not using the feature. Chat, Rewind, Playback, Nudges, and the IEP Translator all require AI; Foundation tools (sensory profile, behavior tracker, journal, schedules) do not.

Beacon is designed for parents, not for children. Your child doesn't sign in, doesn't answer questions and doesn't directly interact with any Beacon surface. All data about your child is information you provide as their parent, and you control all of it.

If you're under 18 yourself, please don't use Beacon, it's designed for adult caregivers, and our Terms require account holders to be 18 or older.

We use TLS in transit and encryption at rest via Supabase. Access to production data is limited to engineers who need it for on-call debugging, and every access leaves an audit trail. We don't claim to be unbreakable, no service can, but we hold ourselves to the same standard as a healthcare-adjacent app.

If we change this policy in a way that affects what we collect, who we share it with, or how long we keep it, we'll tell you in the app and by email before the change takes effect. The “Last updated” date at the top of this page reflects the most recent change.

Questions, requests, or complaints: email beacon@spectrumunlocked.com. We aim to respond within 3 business days.