🔒 The short version: We don't collect your child's personal details. Your child's name and progress stay on your device. The AI features are off until someone turns them on. A parent enables them once, on the home screen, after reading what each one sends. We cannot check who taps that button and we do not try — verifying it would mean collecting more about your family than the AI features themselves do. It records that the choice was made on this device, and it can be turned off again in the same place.
Two things leave your device, and only when you ask for them. Writing you submit for AI feedback is sent to our hosting provider (Netlify) and our AI provider (Anthropic) to generate that feedback. If you tap “Generate Report” on the progress page, your child’s practice scores and topic names are sent the same way so Claude can write the summary — their writing is not included in that report, only the date, title, genre, word count and level of each piece. We no longer use analytics anywhere on this site. We don't use advertising or cross-site tracking cookies, sell data, or show ads.
Who We Are
Brightstar (brightstarprep.com) is a free educational platform for Australian primary students, built by an independent parent developer. We are not a company — we're a solo project created to help kids practise Maths, English, and prepare for NAPLAN.
What Data We Collect
We keep this to a minimum. Brightstar has no learner accounts or logins. Practice progress, mistakes and writing-history metadata stay in your child's own browser. Some data is nonetheless processed off the device: anything typed into an AI feature, optional forms you choose to submit, and a small counter that enforces the daily AI limit. Each is described below.
What stays on your device
To make the app work — remembering where your child got up to, their streak, and which questions to review — the following is saved in your browser's own storage. It is not sent anywhere automatically — nothing here is uploaded in the background, and we never see it unless you ask for something that needs it:
- Your child's name and avatar selection (chosen in the app, visible only on that device)
- Practice progress, scores, and streak data (scores and topic names are sent if you tap “Generate Report”)
- Mistake review queue
- Writing submission history — date, prompt, word count, proficiency level (these five details, never the writing itself, are sent if you tap “Generate Report”)
- Per-topic performance data, for Smart Practice (sent if you tap “Generate Report”)
- AI writing daily usage count
Think of it like a saved game on your own console. It lives on your device and clearing your browser data deletes it permanently. We have no access to it unless you choose to send some of it — which only happens when you ask for AI writing feedback or a progress report. Using Brightstar on a different device starts fresh, because there is nothing stored centrally to sync.
What we store on our servers
No learner accounts, no logins, and no database of children or their work. We do store one thing on our provider: a privacy-minimised daily AI counter, so the free AI features cannot be drained. It holds a one-way hashed identifier derived from your network address plus the Sydney date, and a count — no name, no raw IP address and none of your child's writing. These records are deleted within 48 hours of the end of the Sydney day they belong to. We do not store email addresses, passwords or names on our servers unless you deliberately submit them through a form.
The two narrow exceptions below involve information passing through a service to deliver a feature — never being stored by us.
When your child asks for AI writing feedback
This is the one time text leaves the device — and only to be marked, never to be kept. When your child clicks "Get Feedback from Claude":
- The essay text is sent to a secure Netlify serverless function (our hosting provider)
- The function forwards the essay to Anthropic's API (Claude) to generate feedback. The progress report works the same way but sends only statistics: percentage scores by subject, per-topic attempt counts, up to five strong and five weak topic names, an overall readiness figure, and for up to five pieces of writing the date, prompt title, genre, word count and level. The server strips anything else before it sends, and neither request carries a name, an email or an account, because we do not have one for you
- The feedback is returned to your child's browser
- Brightstar does not save the essay text on any Brightstar server or database
- Netlify and Anthropic process the request on our behalf and may retain it briefly in their own systems, for example in operational logs or for abuse monitoring, under their own policies
Under Anthropic's commercial API terms, content submitted through the API is not used to train AI models. Brightstar does not have a zero-data-retention arrangement with Anthropic, so we do not claim the content is never retained anywhere. Anthropic's published policy for standard commercial API use is that inputs and outputs are retained for up to 30 days, with longer retention in specific cases such as a trust and safety investigation; Netlify keeps its own operational logs under its policy. We do not control either period.
The request contains the writing itself, the prompt title and the year level. It does not include your child's name or any account details, because we don't have them. However, anything your child types can be sent — so we ask, on the writing screen itself, that children do not put a real name, school, address, suburb, phone number or email into their writing. Our server also blocks submissions where it detects an email address, phone number or web link. That check looks for patterns, not names, so please treat it as a safety net rather than a guarantee.
Daily AI limit
To keep the free AI features running, we limit how many AI requests each visitor can make per day. To count them, our server stores a short-lived, one-way hashed value derived from your network address plus the date, together with a counter. We do not store your raw IP address for this, the hash changes every day so it cannot be linked across days, and the record is only kept for the daily window.
If you choose to give us your email
This is entirely optional and never required to use Brightstar. If you enter your email in the updates form, or send a message through our feedback form, it is submitted via Netlify Forms and goes only to us. We use it to send occasional updates or to reply to you. We never share, sell, or transfer email addresses to third parties, and you can unsubscribe at any time by contacting us.
If you tick the box offering to let us share your feedback publicly, we would only ever publish your first name and suburb alongside your comment — never your email address, and never your child's name. Leaving that box unticked keeps your feedback completely private.
Analytics
None. Google Analytics ran on our information pages until August 2026 and has been removed. No page on this site sets an analytics cookie or loads a third-party tracking script, so there is nothing here to opt out of.
Children's Privacy
Brightstar is designed for use by children under the supervision of a parent or guardian. We take children's privacy seriously:
- We do not require or collect any personal information from children
- The child's name entered during onboarding is stored only in the browser's localStorage on the device — it is never sent to any server
- AI writing feedback processes essay text only — no names, ages, or identifying information is transmitted
- We do not use behavioural advertising or targeted ads of any kind
- We do not have social features, chat, or any way for children to interact with other users
Third-Party Services
- Netlify — Hosts our website and serverless functions. Netlify Privacy Policy
- Anthropic — Provides AI writing feedback via their Claude API. Anthropic Privacy Policy. API usage data is not used for model training.
- Netlify Forms — Processes optional email signups. Data stored on Netlify's servers.
Data Security
All connections to brightstarprep.com use HTTPS encryption. The Anthropic API key used for AI writing feedback is stored as a server-side environment variable and is never exposed in browser code. Essay text is transmitted over HTTPS and processed in memory — it is not written to disk or logged.
Your Rights
- Delete your data: Clear your browser's localStorage for brightstarprep.com to remove all locally stored data instantly
- Unsubscribe from emails: Contact us at hello@brightstarprep.com
- Ask questions: Contact us at any time — we're happy to explain how anything works
Terms of Use
Free to use
Brightstar is provided free of charge. There are no subscriptions, premium tiers, or hidden costs.
Educational purpose only
Brightstar is designed as a supplementary practice tool. It is not a replacement for classroom teaching. AI writing feedback is generated by artificial intelligence and should be treated as practice guidance, not an official NAPLAN assessment.
Content accuracy
We make every effort to ensure questions and content are accurate, age-appropriate and useful for Australian primary students. However, we are not affiliated with ACARA or any education authority. NAPLAN is administered by ACARA — Brightstar is an independent practice tool.
AI-generated feedback disclaimer
Writing feedback is generated by Claude (Anthropic) and may not perfectly match the scoring of a trained human marker. It is intended as a learning aid for practice purposes only. Scores and proficiency levels are estimates, not official NAPLAN results.
Availability
We aim to keep Brightstar available at all times, but we cannot guarantee uninterrupted service. The AI writing feature depends on third-party services (Anthropic, Netlify) and may occasionally be unavailable.
No warranty
Brightstar is provided "as is" without warranties of any kind. We are not liable for any loss or damage arising from use of the platform.
For a plain-English account of how our AI features work and where they fall short, see How Our AI Works — And What It Can't Do.
Relationship with ACARA and NAPLAN
Brightstar is an independent resource. We are not affiliated with, endorsed by, sponsored by, or approved by the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA), and nothing on this site should be taken to imply otherwise.
NAPLAN is administered by ACARA. "NAPLAN" and related names are used here only to describe the assessment that our free practice material is designed to help families prepare for.
Our practice questions, worksheets and AI writing feedback are informed by ACARA's publicly published curriculum content and writing marking criteria — the criterion names and score ranges, which are factual information about how the assessment works. We do not reproduce ACARA's copyright marking rubrics, sample scripts, or actual test prompts. All practice prompts and questions on Brightstar are original works.
Feedback is practice guidance, not an assessment. Scores and proficiency levels produced by our AI writing tool are estimates intended to help a child improve. They are not official NAPLAN results, carry no official standing, and may differ from how a trained NAPLAN marker would score the same piece.
Contact
If you have any questions about this privacy policy or how Brightstar handles data, please contact us:
Changes to This Policy
We may update this policy from time to time. The "last updated" date at the top of this page will reflect any changes. Continued use of Brightstar after changes constitutes acceptance of the updated policy.