Account & privacy
How Austi handles information when you read, study, teach and share with Austi Classics Pro. Last updated .
We respect your privacy. This page explains how Austi handles information in connection with its websites and, in particular, the account, reading, sharing, reading assignment and Google Classroom features of Austi Classics Pro. The information we process depends on the features you use. For privacy enquiries, contact books@austi.org.
You can read publicly available texts without signing in. If you sign in with Google, we receive account information such as your name, email address and account identifier. Google handles authentication; Austi does not receive your Google password.
When you use account-based features, we may store bookmarks, notes, reading progress, preferences, shared resources, class memberships and activity records associated with your account. We use this information to provide those features and synchronise your information across devices. If you contact us, we also receive the information you include in your enquiry.
Some information is stored in your browser. Signing out does not necessarily remove information already stored on that device.
Connecting Google Classroom is optional and requires your authorisation. You may connect a different Google account from the account you use to sign in to Austi.
The current integration accesses information about active classes you teach, including class identifiers, names, sections and rooms. We use this information to check teaching access and let you select a class. The class list is fetched when needed; Austi does not maintain a separate database of Classroom class lists.
At your request, Austi sends assignment details—including the title, instructions, reading link, due date and draft or published status—to Google Classroom. Published assignments are available to the relevant class through Google Classroom.
If a teacher lets students respond from Austi, a student can choose to connect their own Google Classroom account. Austi then accesses that student's own submission for the assignment, only to attach a link to their Austi response, turn it in when the student asks, and check whether it has been turned in.
The current integration does not retrieve Classroom student rosters, grades or other students' submissions. Google's permission descriptions may cover broader coursework capabilities than Austi currently uses. Austi's own class-sharing features are separate and may store membership and activity information when you use them.
The main assignment is stored in Google Classroom, but Austi also stores the following limited records in its own database on SQLite Cloud:
Assignment form drafts may also be kept temporarily in your browser so that you can resume editing them.
Google's retention and deletion arrangements govern the copy held in Google Classroom, together with any applicable school or organisation settings. They do not automatically delete the separate records held by Austi. Deleting an assignment in Classroom does not currently delete its Austi confirmation record.
We use Google account and Classroom information to provide the account and Classroom features described in this policy. Our use and transfer of information received from Google APIs adhere to the Google API Services User Data Policy and the applicable Google Workspace user-data policy, including their Limited Use requirements. We do not sell this data or use it for advertising or training general-purpose AI models.
You can disconnect Classroom from Austi's Classes page. Disconnecting removes the saved credentials from Austi's active connection storage and attempts to revoke Google's authorisation. If revocation is unsuccessful, Austi displays a message asking you to remove its access through your Google Account permissions. You can also revoke access directly through your Google Account.
Disconnecting does not delete assignments already created in Google Classroom, your other Austi account information, or Austi's assignment confirmation records. A record of your disconnected connection, including your Austi account identifier and an update timestamp, may remain without the connection credentials.
A teacher can create a reading assignment in Austi and choose whether to ask students to share reading activity, to write a response, or both. Students can read, respond and turn in work without sharing reading activity or turning on the camera.
Reading activity is shared only after a signed-in student chooses Start sharing activity, after a notice explaining what is sent. The student can pause sharing at any time. While sharing, Austi records:
Microphone audio, location, keystroke contents, note text, images and video are not collected.
If a student reads the assignment again after reporting that they finished, the new activity is recorded as a separate attempt. Earlier attempts are kept and shown to the teacher alongside the new one.
While sharing reading activity, a student can separately turn on a camera signal, and then separately turn on gaze observations. Both are off unless the student turns them on, and both can be turned off at any time. They stop when sharing is paused or finished, or when the student leaves the page, and do not restart on their own.
No camera images, video, face measurements, eye positions or face templates are uploaded or saved. Face and eye measurements are kept only in the browser's memory and are cleared when the feature is turned off or the page closes. These features do not recognise or identify anyone. When a student first turns on either feature, the detection model downloads from Google's servers, which receive standard technical request information such as the device's IP address.
These categories are approximate estimates. They do not show that a student read, paid attention to or understood the text.
If the assignment asks for a response, the student's draft and submitted answers are stored by Austi. Turning in attaches a link to the response to the student's Google Classroom submission, as described above. If the student chooses Unsubmit in Google Classroom, they can revise the response and turn it in again. Each turned-in version is kept, and the teacher can see every version.
The reading activity report can be viewed only by the Austi account of the teacher who created the assignment. A written response can be viewed only by the student who wrote it and that teacher. Co-teachers and other students do not automatically get access. The report shows each participating student's name, part of their account identifier, active reading time, how much of the assigned text was displayed (overall and passage by passage), bookmark actions, completion, and any camera and gaze categories, for each reading attempt, together with the student's turned-in response versions. Austi does not use reading activity, camera or gaze categories, or responses for advertising, and does not share them with advertisers.
Teachers should use these features in line with their school's policies. Students who are unsure whether to share reading activity, or to turn on the camera, can speak with their teacher or a parent or guardian. They can still read and respond without either.
A signed-in reader can choose to keep a Reading days record: a private record of the days they spend reading in Austi Classics Pro, shown only to them on the Days page. It is off unless the reader turns it on, and it is separate from teacher reading assignments.
When it is on, Austi saves only daily totals to the reader's account: minutes of active reading, minutes facing the screen (if face and gaze observation is used), and how many of the reader's own bookmarks and notes were made that day. It does not save which texts or passages were read, the contents of notes, or any camera data. Teachers and other users cannot see a Reading days record, and it is not used for advertising or shared with advertisers.
A reader with a Reading days record can also choose to offer face and gaze observation in the reader, and then turn it on while reading. It works like the gaze observations described above: camera frames, head angle and eye measurements are analysed on the reader's device to estimate whether the reader appears to be facing the screen with their eyes open. Only the resulting minutes are added to the reader's own daily totals; nothing is sent to a teacher or to Austi's reading activity records.
No camera images, video, face measurements, eye positions or face templates are uploaded or saved, and the feature does not recognise or identify anyone. It stops when the reader turns it off, switches tabs or apps, locks the device or closes the book, and does not restart on its own. When it is first turned on, the detection model downloads from Google's servers, which receive standard technical request information such as the device's IP address.
A reader can stop keeping the record at any time, which keeps the days already recorded, or delete the record from the Days page, which removes every recorded day.
Information you choose to share through class features, shared resources or public links becomes available to the relevant recipients. This may include the name associated with your account and the content you share. Public links may be forwarded to other people.
When you create a public bookmark link, Austi stores the shared passage, your accompanying note, book and passage references, a share identifier and your account identifier in SQLite Cloud. Your account identifier is used internally to manage ownership and is not included in the public bookmark response.
Assignments published to Google Classroom are accessible according to the class's Google Classroom permissions. Removing a link or resource from Austi cannot remove copies already made by other people. Please avoid including unnecessary personal or sensitive information in shared content.
We use service providers to operate Austi Classics Pro:
These providers process information needed to deliver their services. The provider terms and privacy arrangements relevant to the service also apply to their handling of that information.
Where an AI assistance or illustration-generation feature is available and you use it, your question or generation instructions, together with relevant book content, are sent to OpenAI to produce the requested response. Generated illustrations may be stored by Austi and displayed to other readers. The Classroom integration does not automatically send Classroom account data to these AI features.
The microphone is used only while you are recording a voice note, which the app shows with a red recording indicator. When you are signed in, the recording is sent to OpenAI to convert it into text, and the recording is stored in your account (Google/Firebase) so you can replay it on your devices. Recordings are also stored in your browser on the device you used. If you are not signed in, recordings stay on that device. On some computers, the words shown while you speak are produced by your browser's own speech-recognition service (for example, Google's in Chrome), under that browser provider's terms. You can delete a recording from the note at any time; deleting it removes it from the device and your account but leaves the text in your note.
When you write a note by hand and you are signed in, a picture of the handwriting (the pen strokes only, not your screen or camera) is sent to OpenAI to read it into text. The handwriting itself is saved with your note, on your device and, when you are signed in, in your account (Google/Firebase). You can delete a piece of handwriting from the note at any time; the text in your note stays.
Please do not include passwords, confidential student information or other unnecessary personal information in AI questions, generation instructions, voice notes or handwritten notes.
Austi uses browser storage and cookies for functions such as authentication, preferences, saved reading information, assignment drafts and connection security. The teacher landing page also uses advertising cookies or identifiers set by Reddit, as described under Advertising measurement.
The website also uses Google Analytics to understand website usage. Analytics and hosting services may process technical information such as browser and device details, pages visited, request information and network identifiers. Reading without signing in does not prevent this technical processing.
You can manage cookies and local website data through your browser settings. Blocking or clearing this information may affect sign-in, saved preferences and other features.
We advertise Austi Classics Pro on Reddit. Our teacher landing page, pro.austi.org/teachers, uses the Reddit advertising pixel, a small piece of code provided by Reddit. Other Austi pages do not currently use it.
When you open that page, the pixel loads from Reddit and tells Reddit that the page was visited. Reddit may receive technical information such as your IP address, browser and device details, the page address, information about the ad you clicked, and identifiers stored in cookies or browser storage. If you are signed in to Reddit in the same browser, or arrived from a Reddit ad, Reddit may link the visit to your Reddit account.
We use this to measure how many people who click our Reddit ads reach the page, and to show Austi ads on Reddit to people who have visited it, or to avoid showing them the same introductory ad again. Austi does not send Reddit your name, email address, phone number, Austi or Google account identifiers, reading activity, bookmarks, notes or Google Classroom information. Information received from Google APIs is never shared with Reddit.
Reddit handles the information it receives under its own Privacy Policy. If you have a Reddit account, you can manage how Reddit personalises ads in your Reddit privacy settings. You can also block third-party cookies or use a content blocker in your browser; Austi works normally without the pixel.
Saved account information and content can remain stored after you sign out or stop using the service. Signing out, disconnecting Classroom and requesting deletion of your Austi information are separate actions.
Classroom connection credentials remain in Austi's active storage while the connection is maintained, unless replaced or removed. Disconnecting removes those credentials from active connection storage. Temporary authorisation records expire after ten minutes; expired records are cleaned up when new connections are started.
There is currently no automatic age-based deletion schedule for Austi's Classroom assignment confirmation records. They remain until separately deleted. This is distinct from the retention of assignments in Google Classroom.
Reading activity records (including earlier reading attempts), camera and gaze categories, and written responses (including earlier turned-in versions) currently have no automatic expiry. They remain until deleted, including after an assignment's due date or after it is removed from Google Classroom. Pausing or stopping sharing prevents further activity from being sent but does not delete activity already shared. There is currently no in-app control to delete shared reading activity or a submitted response; contact us to request deletion.
A Reading days record remains in the reader's account until the reader deletes it from the Days page or asks us to delete it. Stopping the record keeps the days already recorded.
You can use available in-app controls to remove saved content or stop sharing it. Stopping public access to a shared resource is not necessarily the same as erasing the underlying stored record. Contact us if you want to request deletion of information beyond the available controls.
Technical logs and backup copies may have different retention periods under the relevant provider's arrangements and service configuration. Deletion from an active database should not be understood as immediate deletion from all backups or from services outside Austi's control.
Our service providers may process or store information outside Australia. Locations can differ between website hosting, authentication, databases, analytics, advertising measurement, AI services and backups, and depend on the provider and service configuration. The location of the main website host does not establish where all Austi Classics Pro information is processed. Contact books@austi.org for information about the arrangements relevant to your enquiry.
To request access to, correction of, or deletion of your personal information, contact books@austi.org. Please identify the Austi account and information concerned, but do not send your password or Google connection tokens. We may need to verify your identity before responding.
We will consider your request and explain the action taken or any information needed to process it. If information cannot be deleted, we will explain the reason and any available alternatives. Requests about an assignment or other information held in Google Classroom may also need to be directed to the relevant teacher, school or Google.
You can use the same email address for privacy questions or complaints. Please describe your concern and how you would like us to contact you. We will review the concern and respond. If you remain dissatisfied, you may seek advice from the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner about available complaint options.
This policy may change as Austi's features or data-handling arrangements change. The current published policy is available at https://austi.org/privacypolicy.html.