Privacy policy

Last updated: 23 October 2026

This policy explains what information Doorslam collects about you and your child, why we collect it, who we share it with, how long we keep it, and the choices and rights you both have.

Doorslam is used by parents and by their children, who are under 18. We have written this policy for parents. There is a shorter version for young people below. Please read it with your child.

The short version

• You are in charge. A parent creates the account and sets up each child. Children cannot sign up on their own.
• We collect what we need to run your child's revision plan, and little else.
• Learning needs are sensitive. If you tell us about your child's learning needs (for example dyslexia, ADHD or anxiety), we use that only to adapt their revision, and only with your explicit consent, which you give by ticking a box when you add them. You can withdraw it at any time in Settings, and we delete the needs.
• We use AI to mark answers, answer questions in Study Buddy and adapt sessions. The AI companies we use process the data for us only, under data processing agreements, and may not use it to train their models. We never send them your child's name.
• No adverts. We never sell your data. We do not use your child's data for marketing.
• No league tables. Your child is never ranked against other children, and never sees a comparison. We are building optional, anonymous comparisons for parents; they are off unless you turn them on (section 5).
• Photos of handwritten answers are deleted as soon as they have been read for marking.
• If we are worried about a child's safety, we may tell a parent or the authorities (section 5).
• You can see, download or delete your family's data. Email us and we will do it within one month.
• Contact us: privacy@doorslam.io for anything about your data; support@doorslam.io for everything else.

For young people: the short version

This part is for you, the student using Doorslam.

• Your parent or carer set up your Doorslam account. They can see your revision plan, your progress, your marks and your rewards.
• Doorslam keeps your answers, how confident you felt, and how long sessions took. It uses this to choose what you revise next and to make questions easier or harder.
• When you chat with Study Buddy, an AI company works out the reply. Do not put private things in the chat, like your address or passwords.
• If you record a voice note, a computer turns it into text. Your recording and the text are kept so you can listen to your notes again, until your account is closed.
• If you take a photo of your written answer, we delete the photo as soon as it has been marked.
• If you made a Beats song, it may be played to other students who ask for a song on the same topic. Your name is never shown with it.
• Other students cannot see your work. There are no leaderboards. Your parent may choose to let your progress be counted, without your name, in anonymous averages that only parents see. You never see them.
• If you tell Study Buddy something that makes it sound as if you are not safe, it will stop the revision, tell you to talk to an adult you trust, and give you Childline's number. If we are worried about your safety, we may tell your parent or carer, or the people whose job is to keep children safe, even if you asked us not to. If the worry is about someone at home, we would not tell your parent; we would tell those people instead. Nobody at Doorslam looks at worries in the evenings, at night or at weekends, and we cannot always answer straight away, so if you need help now, call Childline free on 0800 1111, or 999 in an emergency.
• If something here worries you, talk to your parent or carer, or email us at privacy@doorslam.io. If you are worried about your safety, talk to an adult you trust, or call Childline free on 0800 1111.

1. Who we are

Doorslam is provided by Door Slam Ltd ("Doorslam", "we", "us"), a company registered in England and Wales, company number 17025928. Our registered office is Camburgh House, 27 New Dover Road, Canterbury, Kent, CT1 3DN, United Kingdom.

We are the controller of the personal data described here. We are registered with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), registration number ZC179211.

Our Data Protection Officer is Marco Ryan, registered with the ICO as our DPO. Email privacy@doorslam.io. For anything else, email support@doorslam.io.

2. Who this policy covers

• Parents and guardians who hold a Doorslam account.
• Children whose parent has set them up on Doorslam, whether or not they have their own login.
• People who join our beta waiting list on our website.

3. What we collect

About you (the parent)

• Account details: your name and email address, and a password (stored only in scrambled form).
• Optional details you can add in My Account: your country and a profile photo. We do not ask for your phone number or postal address.
• Billing details: your plan, the number of children on it, your payment status, and any tokens you buy for extra Beats songs. Our payment provider, Stripe, holds your card details. We never see or store your full card number.
• Settings: for example notification choices and whether you have switched on anonymised data sharing (off unless you turn it on).
• Your chats with the AI Tutor, if you use it. A chat you start while looking at one of your children may be linked to that child.

About your child

Information you give us when you set up your child:

• Name: first name (required), and optionally a last name and the name they like to be called.
• School year (Year 7 to Year 13) and country. We do not ask for a date of birth.
• Subjects, exam boards, tiers and exam dates.
• Current and target grades, and how sure you are about them.
• When your child can revise (the weekly time you set).
• Their email address, if you invite them to sign in with their own login.
• School name, town and the first part of the school postcode, only if you add them under anonymised data sharing.
• A profile picture, if you or your child add one.

Learning needs (special category data). You can tell us about your child's learning needs. You choose from a list: dyslexia, dyscalculia, dyspraxia, slow processing speed, autism, speech and language needs, visual impairment, hearing impairment, physical or motor needs, ADHD, exam anxiety, general anxiety, depression, memory and recall difficulties, difficulty applying knowledge, feeling overwhelmed, and low confidence. You can also say whether a need is formally diagnosed, and add exam access arrangements and notes. Some of these are information about your child's health. The law calls this special category data and gives it extra protection. We also keep a record of when you gave your consent and the wording you agreed to. See section 5.

Information created when your child uses Doorslam:

• Revision activity: sessions planned and completed, answers to practice questions, marks, how confident your child felt before and after each session, how long each step took, and focus-mode use.
• What Doorslam works out about your child's learning: for example topics they have mastered, topics where they seem more confident than their answers show, the pace that suits them, and short notes about what they find hard and which explanations help. See section 6.
• Study Buddy chats: the messages your child types or speaks, the replies, and short summaries of each conversation.
• Voice notes and written notes your child chooses to add at the end of a session, and the text version of each voice note, and which voice notes your child marks as favourites.
• Scan & Mark: the text read from a photo of a handwritten answer, the mark, and a check that the work looks like the child's own handwriting. The photo itself is deleted as soon as it has been read.
• Beats: the songs your child asks for (topic and music style), plays and favourites, how many songs they have made this month, and any request for an extra song with your answer to it.
• Rewards: points, streaks, achievements, reward requests and your approvals.

Technical information

• Information your browser keeps on your device so the app works (see section 12).
• Server logs kept by our hosting providers: IP address, browser type, the pages requested and error messages. We use these to keep the service running and secure.
• We do not use analytics, advertising or tracking tools. Before launch we are adding an error-alert service, so that we know when the app breaks. It will receive technical details of the error only, with no personal data, and will set no cookies; we will name it in section 7 before it is switched on. There are no analytics in your child's part of the app. If we ever add analytics to the parents' pages, we will update this policy first and ask for your consent where the law requires.

People on our beta waiting list

Your email address. The form on our app's home page also asks whether you are a parent, a student or a teacher. The list is for parents: if you are a student, please ask a parent to sign up instead.

4. Why we use it, and our lawful basis

The law says we must have a reason, called a lawful basis, for each use of personal data.

• To create and run your account and your child's revision plan, sessions, marking, Study Buddy, read-aloud, Beats, rewards and progress reports. Lawful basis: contract (we need it to provide the service you signed up for). For your child's data, which is about someone who is not party to the contract, we also rely on legitimate interests: giving your child the revision support you asked us to give them.
• To adapt sessions to your child's learning needs. Lawful basis: your explicit consent as your child's parent (UK GDPR Article 9(2)(a)), together with contract. This is optional. Without it, Doorslam still works, but sessions are not adapted to those needs. You give this consent by ticking a box on the learning-needs step; you can withdraw it at any time in Settings.
• To personalise sessions from how your child is doing (the learning profile in section 6). Lawful basis: contract, because adapting revision is the service.
• To take payment and keep financial records. Lawful basis: contract, and legal obligation (tax and accounting records).
• To send account and billing emails (sign-up codes, password resets, invites to your child, a confirmation when you start your trial or plan, and reminders before your first payment). Lawful basis: contract.
• To check that a scanned answer is the child's own handwritten work, keep the service secure and prevent misuse. Lawful basis: legitimate interests.
• To keep children safe (section 5). Lawful basis: legitimate interests, and vital interests where a child's life or safety may be at risk. Where this involves special category data (for example about a child's health), the condition for safeguarding of children and of individuals at risk in the Data Protection Act 2018 (Schedule 1, paragraph 18).
• To improve Doorslam, for example by fixing faults and checking the quality of AI answers. Lawful basis: legitimate interests. We use the minimum data needed and never use your child's data to train AI models.
• Anonymised comparisons (only if you turn on anonymised data sharing). Lawful basis: consent. Comparisons by learning need use special category data, so we will ask for your explicit consent for that use before any are made.
• Our beta waiting list. Lawful basis: consent. You can ask us to remove you at any time.

We will not use your or your child's data for advertising or marketing, and we will not sell it.

5. Your child's data

We follow the ICO's Children's Code. In practice that means:

• The parent controls the account. You create each child's profile, choose their subjects and plan, and decide whether they get their own login. You can change your setup answers in Settings and on the Subjects and Timetable pages. You can withdraw your consent for learning needs in Settings at any time, which deletes them; to change the needs you chose, email privacy@doorslam.io.
• High privacy by default. Anonymised data sharing is off unless you turn it on. Your child's work is visible only to your child, to you, and to our staff where needed to support you or to keep your child safe. We do not show your child's name or work to other families (Beats songs are the one exception, without the name; see below).
• Comparisons with other children: optional, anonymous and for parents only. There are no leaderboards, and your child never sees a comparison. We are building comparisons for parents who choose to share: if you turn on "Share anonymised data" in Settings, your child's progress, with no name, email, exact school or exact location, is combined with other children's in groups of at least 20, so that you can compare your child by learning need, area, exam board and subject. Only parents who share can see comparisons. Where a group has fewer than 20 children, you see that there are not enough families yet, not a number. Today the setting records your choice and, when it is on, lets you add your child's school name, town and the first part of the school postcode; no comparisons are made or shown yet. You can turn it off at any time, and your child's data is then no longer used for comparisons.
• No nudges to share more. We do not use design tricks to get your child to give more information, spend more time than they planned, or buy things. Nothing can be bought in the child's part of the app: if your child asks for an extra Beats song, the request comes to you to approve or decline.
• No location tracking. We do not collect your child's location. Apart from the optional school details for comparisons, country is the only place-related detail we ask for.
• Learning needs. We use learning needs only to adapt sessions: for example simpler wording, shorter chunks, read-aloud on by default, fewer long written questions, or gentler difficulty. The AI helpers receive instructions about how to explain things (for example "be literal and explicit"), not the name of the need. We ask for your explicit consent before any learning need is saved: you tick a box on the learning-needs step, and we record when you agreed. If you withdraw consent, we delete the needs and sessions are no longer adapted to them.
• What you see as a parent. You see your child's plan, progress, marks, confidence and rewards. You do not see your child's Study Buddy chats or voice notes in the app. If you ask us for a copy of your family's data (section 11), it includes them.
• Beats songs. A song made for one child can be played to other children who ask for the same topic and style. Songs are made only from the topic and the chosen music style, never from your child's name or details, and the creator's name is never shown.
• Keeping children safe. If your child types or says something to Study Buddy that suggests they may be hurt, in danger or might hurt themselves, Study Buddy stops the revision help, encourages them to talk to an adult they trust, and gives them Childline's number (0800 1111), or tells them to call 999 if they are in danger now. It does not counsel them, and it never promises to keep a secret. Before launch we are adding an automatic check on children's messages and voice notes. When it is live, a worrying message shows your child a fixed support card with places to get help, and sends a flag to our designated safeguarding lead, Marco Ryan. The safeguarding lead reads the flagged message and the messages just before it, and decides what to do. Concerns are reviewed during working hours, 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday. We will name a deputy safeguarding lead once we have more staff; until then, a concern raised when the safeguarding lead is away waits until they are back. Until the check is live, children's chats and voice notes are not screened, so we learn of a worry only if someone tells us. If we are worried about a child's safety, we may tell the parent or, where the law or the child's safety requires, the authorities (children's social care or the police), even if the child asked us not to. If the worry involves someone at home, we do not tell the parent; we tell the authorities instead. Doorslam is not monitored outside those working hours. For urgent help at any time, your child can call Childline free on 0800 1111, and in an emergency anyone should call 999.

6. AI, profiling and automated decisions

Doorslam uses AI and automatic rules to tailor revision. This is called profiling. It is a core part of the service, which is why it is on for every child.

What it does:

• Marking. AI marks typed answers and handwritten answers from photos, against the exam board's mark scheme.
• Choosing what comes next. Automatic rules use your child's answers, confidence ratings, time taken and learning needs to choose topics, set the difficulty and schedule extra practice. For example, if your child says they are very confident but gets several answers wrong, Doorslam gently plans that topic again.
• The learning profile. After each completed session, an AI model reads a summary of recent sessions (confidence, recall and accuracy), the subject, their current and target grade, and their recent end-of-session notes and voice-note text. It does not receive your child's name. It writes short notes on what your child finds hard and which explanations help. Study Buddy uses these notes to explain things in a way that suits your child.
• Study Buddy summaries. When a session with Study Buddy chats ends, AI writes a short summary of the conversation, including misunderstandings it noticed, and updates the learning notes.
• Advice for parents. When you open the Insights page, AI writes advice from your child's progress figures (not their name).
• Handwriting check. When your child scans an answer, AI checks the photo looks like handwritten work rather than printed or AI-written text. If it does not, the answer is not marked and your child is asked to try again.

None of this makes decisions with legal or similarly serious effects on your child. Marks and advice are a guide. If you think a mark or a decision is wrong, tell us and a person will look at it. You can ask us for a copy of the learning notes about your child, and ask us to correct them (section 11).

7. Who we share data with

We share data only with companies that help us run Doorslam (processors). They act on our instructions, under data processing agreements that protect your data. We send each one only what it needs: AI providers never receive your child's name or contact details, and we ask OpenAI, Anthropic and Mathpix to keep the data for the shortest time they offer (zero data retention, where they offer it).

• Supabase (database, sign-in, file storage and server functions): all the data in this policy. Our production data is stored in London, UK.
• OpenAI (AI): the AI Tutor's messages and replies; the text of a question to find matching revision material; voice recordings to turn into text (Study Buddy voice and voice notes); text to read aloud; photos of handwritten answers to read and check them; answers to mark. When a parent asks the AI Tutor about the dashboard, that card's progress figures (not the child's name).
• Anthropic (AI): Study Buddy's messages and replies, with the adaptation instructions described in section 5 and the learning-profile notes described in section 6; Study Buddy conversation transcripts for summaries; the learning profile inputs described in section 6; progress figures for parent advice; the topic and style of a Beats song to write its lyrics.
• Mathpix (reading maths and science handwriting): photos of handwritten answers, for subjects that use it.
• udioapi.pro (Beats music; it provides access to Suno's music model): the song lyrics, the music style, the topic as the song's title, and the singing voice (male or female) set for that style. No information about your child.
• Stripe (payments): your name, email address, the number of children on your plan, token purchases, and your card details, which you give to Stripe directly.
• Resend (sending the emails our sign-in system sends): your email address with sign-up codes and password resets; your child's email address with the invite, when you invite them.
• Vercel (website hosting): IP addresses and request logs.
• Google Fonts (the typeface the website uses, until we host it ourselves): your IP address and browser details when the page loads the font. No cookie is set.

We may also share data if the law requires it, to protect someone's safety (for example with children's social care or the police, see section 5), or if Doorslam is sold or reorganised (in which case this policy would continue to apply).

We do not share data with advertisers, data brokers or schools. If we work with your child's school in future, we will ask you first.

8. Data sent outside the UK

Some of our processors are based in, or use servers in, the United States and other countries (OpenAI, Anthropic, Mathpix, Stripe, Resend, Vercel, Google and Supabase; udioapi.pro too, but it receives no personal data). When personal data leaves the UK, we protect it with safeguards the law recognises: the UK Extension to the EU–US Data Privacy Framework (the "UK–US data bridge") for companies certified under it, and otherwise the UK International Data Transfer Agreement or the UK Addendum to the EU standard contractual clauses. You can ask us for a copy of these safeguards.

9. How long we keep data

• Photos of handwritten answers: deleted as soon as they have been read for marking. We are adding an automatic clean-up that deletes any photo still stored after 24 hours, for example one that was uploaded but never sent for marking. Until it is live, such a photo stays in private storage that only your child can open.
• Study Buddy voice input: the recording is turned into text and not stored. The text is kept as part of the chat.
• Voice notes: the recording and its text are kept while your account is open, so your child can listen to them again.
• Your child's revision history, chats, notes and learning profile: while your account is open, then deleted within 30 days of you closing your account (section 11).
• If your plan ends and you do not come back: we keep your account for 12 months so you can restart, then tell you by email that we are about to delete it, and delete it.
• Payment records: 6 years, because tax law requires it.
• Server logs: for our hosting providers' standard log period, then deleted automatically.
• Beta waiting list: until Doorslam launches publicly or you ask us to remove you, whichever is sooner.
• Beats songs: a song can stay in the shared library after a child's account is deleted, because it contains no personal data.

We are building the automatic jobs that apply these periods. Until they are live, data is not deleted automatically when a period ends: we delete it when you ask us (section 11), and photos of handwritten answers are deleted when they are marked.

10. Keeping data safe

• All data is encrypted when it is sent and when it is stored.
• Each family's data is kept separate: database rules check that a parent can see only their own children's data and a child only their own.
• Voice notes and profile photos are stored privately and can be opened only by the child and their parent. Photos of handwritten answers are stored privately and only the child can open them, until they are deleted.
• Only authorised Doorslam staff can access personal data, and only when they need to, for example to answer your request, fix a fault or keep a child safe.
• If there is a data breach that puts you or your child at risk, we will tell you and the ICO as the law requires.

11. Your rights, and your child's

You and your child have the right to:

• see the data we hold (a copy of it);
• correct anything that is wrong;
• delete data, or close the account;
• download your data in a common format to take elsewhere;
• object to or restrict how we use it;
• withdraw consent at any time, for example for learning needs or anonymised data sharing (this does not affect what we did before).

How to do this: email privacy@doorslam.io from the email address on your account (Settings shows the same address). To protect your family, we act only on requests from that address; if you write from another one, we will check with you at the account address first. We will reply within one month. If a request is complicated we may need up to two more months, and we will tell you within the first month if so. It is free. We plan to add "Download my data" and "Delete my account" buttons in Settings later.

Downloading your data: we send you your family's data as files in a common format (JSON), with your child's voice notes and pictures, through a secure link.

Deleting your account deletes your children's profiles and everything linked to them: revision history, chats, voice notes, learning needs, the learning profile and your children's logins. It also cancels your plan with Stripe. We do this within 30 days of your request. We keep only what the law requires or what holds no personal data: payment records (held by Stripe, for tax), a note that we dealt with your request, and Beats songs, which contain no personal data. Our database provider's backups hold deleted data for a short time, until they are replaced; we restore a backup only to recover from a serious fault, and if we ever do, we delete your data again.

Children's own rights. Your child's data belongs to your child. A child who is old enough to understand their rights (usually from about 12 or 13) can ask us themselves. We will usually involve you, unless that would not be in the child's best interests.

12. Cookies and information stored on your device

Doorslam does not use advertising or tracking cookies, analytics, or any other non-essential cookies. The app keeps a few items in your browser's storage that it needs to work, or that remember choices you made:

• Your sign-in (so you stay signed in), stored by Supabase.
• Light or dark mode, and whether the side menu is open or closed.
• Read-aloud settings (speed, and whether it reads automatically) and your child's read-aloud choice.
• Which child you are looking at.
• Short-term markers that last only until you close the tab: whether a session shows exam wording, a note that you went to the payment page during setup, and a guard that reloads the app once after an update.

Because these are needed for the service or remember a choice you made, we do not ask for cookie consent. The error-alert service we are adding sets no cookies. If we ever add anything that is not essential, we will ask first. Stripe uses its own cookies on its payment pages to prevent fraud; see Stripe's privacy policy.

13. Complaints

If you are unhappy with how we use your data, please contact us first at privacy@doorslam.io. You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO): ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint, phone 0303 123 1113.

14. Changes to this policy

We will update this policy when Doorslam changes. If a change affects how we use your or your child's data, we will tell you by email or in the app before it takes effect, and ask for consent again where the law requires.