Privacy Policy
Core Privacy Commitment
EmbeddedLab OS is an educational virtual laboratory designed for engineering students and educators. We practice strict data minimization: we do not sell student data, we do not run third-party advertising, we do not deploy cross-site tracking cookies, and we never send personal student identities to third-party artificial intelligence services.
1. Information We Collect
We collect only the minimum data strictly necessary to deliver the educational simulation and verify challenge milestones:
When you voluntarily register a student account, we collect your email address, full name, and a cryptographically hashed password. In offline demo mode, no account registration is required.
When you test lab challenges, we store completion status, scores earned, attempt counts, and timestamp records. This data enables your progress dashboard and score tracking.
Peripheral settings (GPIO pin levels, PWM frequencies, ADC voltages, UART frame buffers) are calculated and processed client-side in your browser memory and synchronized locally via localStorage.
The workstation maintains a rolling in-memory diagnostic log (up to 200 events) of simulated hardware events (e.g. edge detections, framing errors) visible in your lab console.
2. How We Use Your Information
- Delivering Virtual Labs: Simulating microcontroller peripherals (STM32-style GPIO, PWM timers, ADC channels, and UART transceivers).
- Objective Verification: Evaluating whether your hardware configuration satisfies challenge criteria and computing your lab scores.
- Session Continuity: Allowing you to resume experiments across browser restarts without losing progress.
- AI Engineering Guidance: Providing conceptual hints and bug diagnoses when you click the AI Assistant buttons in a lab.
3. AI Tutoring & Strict Data Sanitization
EmbeddedLab OS integrates Google Gemini AI through a secure, server-side proxy (/api/ai) to assist with concept explanations, challenge hints, and framing debugging.
🛡️ Data Minimization Guarantee for AI Queries:
Our sanitization layer (lib/ai/sanitizer.ts) strips all student identifiers before sending context to the AI model. Gemini receives only sanitized technical peripheral values (e.g. voltage: 2.5V, baud: 9600, dutyCycle: 50%), recent simulator console errors, and the user's technical concept query where applicable. Your name, email, IP address, and student ID are never transmitted to Google AI.
4. Third-Party Service Providers
We only engage service providers necessary to operate the platform infrastructure:
Supabase Inc.
User authentication and optional cloud progress database persistence.
Data: Email, user ID, hashed password (never plaintext), challenge completion scores.
Google Gemini AI (Google Cloud)
Contextual embedded-systems tutoring assistance (Explain, Hint, Debug).
Data: Technical hardware state parameters only (pin voltage, frequency, duty cycle, UART baud rate, error logs) and the student's technical concept query where applicable. No personal names, emails, or user IDs are transmitted.
Next.js Google Fonts
Typography (Inter, JetBrains Mono).
Data: None. Fonts are downloaded at application build time and self-hosted locally from the application origin. No client requests are sent to Google Font servers.
5. Student & Minor Data Protection
EmbeddedLab OS is primarily used by secondary and university engineering students. We take youth and student privacy seriously:
- We do not condition participation on disclosing more personal data than necessary.
- We do not serve targeted advertisements or build behavioral advertising profiles.
- We do not sell, rent, or trade student records under any circumstances.
- Students can use the platform entirely anonymously via Local Offline Demo Mode without registering an account or providing an email.
- Parents, educators, and eligible students may inspect or request the deletion of student learning records at any time.
6. Data Deletion & Student Rights
You retain complete control over your data. EmbeddedLab OS provides immediate self-service and documented deletion flows:
In the Settings page, clicking "Wipe Local Simulation Data" instantly purges all challenge attempts, hardware memory, and local score caches from your device.
Registered students can request complete erasure of their Supabase profile, authentication credentials, and challenge history by emailing ronaldrexch@gmail.com or using the deletion modal in Settings. Erasure is processed within 30 days.
7. Contact & Transparency Information
If you have questions, privacy requests, or security inquiries regarding EmbeddedLab OS, please contact the project maintainer: