Privacy policy

Last updated October 29, 2026. Pen Blossom is in alpha (v0.1.0).

Your class lives in your browser. Pen Blossom runs the class on the teacher's own computer. Our servers never hold students' names or essays.
No student accounts. Students join with a class code and pick the name their teacher typed. No emails, no passwords.
Student writing is never sent to any AI system, never sold and never used for advertising.
Google Drive is optional. If a teacher saves to Drive, Pen Blossom can see only the files it creates there, and never the rest of the teacher's Drive.

1. Who we are

Pen Blossom is a writing tool for in-class essays, used by teachers at app.penblossom.com. This policy covers that app and this website, penblossom.com. "We" and "us" mean Pen Blossom. Questions about privacy go to [email protected].

2. Where a class's data lives

When a teacher opens a class, the teacher's browser acts as the class's server. Students' Chromebooks connect straight to it. Everything about the class is stored in that browser, on that computer, and nowhere else:

What	Where it is kept
Classes, the roster names the teacher types, optional PINs, assignments, accommodations and writing supports	The teacher's browser
Drafts, submitted essays and each essay's writing record	The teacher's browser
A student's writing not yet received by the teacher's browser	The student's browser tab, until the teacher's browser confirms it has it or the tab is closed
Copies the teacher makes	The teacher's downloads folder, or the teacher's Google Drive

We cannot see, open, copy or recover any of this. The school, through its teacher, controls it. That also means clearing the browser's data erases the class, so the app reminds teachers to keep a copy.

3. What passes through our service

Two browsers need help finding each other, so Pen Blossom runs a small introduction service, hosted on Cloudflare.

Introductions. When a student joins, the service passes connection details between the two browsers: the room code, technical descriptions of each connection, and a signed key. Never names or essays. These are deleted as soon as the teacher's browser picks them up, or within about a minute. A room's record goes a few minutes after its teacher leaves.
The relay. If a school network stops devices reaching each other, the service passes the class's traffic along. Both browsers encrypt it end to end with keys the relay never has, so it carries only scrambled data it cannot read. Relayed traffic is not stored or logged.
Internet addresses. Like any website, our service sees the IP addresses of the computers it talks to. We do not store them. Cloudflare counts requests per address to stop floods, under its own policy.
The browser check. Before a room opens, the teacher's browser (never a student's) passes Cloudflare Turnstile, a check that tells a real browser from a program. Cloudflare processes signals from the teacher's browser to do this.
Finding a direct path. Browsers ask Cloudflare's public STUN server for the address the internet sees, so they can connect directly across networks.

The app runs no analytics or advertising scripts, and Pen Blossom sets no cookies of its own.

4. Google Drive

A teacher can choose "Save to Google Drive" to keep a copy of a class's essays as a Google Doc. This is optional, and only a teacher can use it.

What we ask Google for

Only one permission: drive.file, described by Google as "See, edit, create, and delete only the specific Google Drive files you use with this app." Pen Blossom cannot see, read or change any other file in the teacher's Drive. Google asks the teacher for it the first time they click "Save to Google Drive", not before.

What we do with it

The teacher's browser creates one Google Doc with the essays, and updates that same Doc the next time the teacher saves the same class.
The Doc's ID is remembered in the teacher's browser so the next save updates it rather than making a second copy.
Google's access token stays in the open browser tab only. It is never stored, and never sent anywhere except to Google.
All of this happens between the teacher's browser and Google. None of the Doc's contents or the teacher's Google data passes through or is stored on Pen Blossom's servers.

What we never do with it

We do not use Google user data for advertising, sell it, transfer it to anyone, let people read it, or use it to train or improve any AI or machine-learning model. Pen Blossom's use and transfer to any other app of information received from Google APIs will adhere to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements.

Removing access

A teacher can remove Pen Blossom's access at any time on their Google Account's third-party connections page. The Docs already saved stay in their Drive until they delete them.

5. Students and children

Many of the students who write in Pen Blossom are under 13. Pen Blossom is designed so that we collect no personal information from them:

Students have no accounts. They type a class code and choose the name their teacher entered; that name goes only to the teacher's browser.
What a student writes goes to their teacher's browser, directly or through the encrypted relay, and nowhere else.
Student writing is never sent to any AI system, and Pen Blossom never labels an essay as cheating.
There are no ads, no tracking and no analytics on the app's pages.

Teachers use Pen Blossom on behalf of their school, and the class's records stay under the school's control in the teacher's browser. A parent with a question about their child's writing should ask the teacher or school, who hold it. We cannot see it.

6. This website

penblossom.com uses Cloudflare Web Analytics to count visits. It sets no cookies and does not follow visitors across other sites. Its fonts load from Google Fonts, so a visitor's browser asks Google for them, as with most websites. The app at app.penblossom.com runs neither analytics nor outside fonts.

If you email us, we have your email address and what you wrote, and use them only to answer you. A network check report you choose to email us holds technical details about your network, not student data.

We do not sell or rent anyone's information. Two companies are involved in running Pen Blossom:

Cloudflare hosts the website, the app and the introduction service and relay, runs the browser check and the STUN server, and counts website visits. Cloudflare's privacy policy.
Google is involved only when a teacher saves to Google Drive, and serves this website's fonts. Google's privacy policy.

We would disclose information only if the law required it, and we hold almost none to disclose.

8. How long things are kept

Connection details on our service: until picked up, at most about a minute. Relayed traffic: not kept.
In the teacher's browser: submitted essays are cleared 30 days after submission, while the teacher keeps opening Pen Blossom; each essay's fingerprint, word count and writing record stay as evidence. Everything else stays until the teacher clears the browser's data for the site.
Downloads and Google Docs: as long as the teacher keeps them.

9. Your choices

Delete a class: clear the browser's site data for app.penblossom.com on the teacher's computer. This cannot be undone, so keep a copy first.
Google Drive: delete the Docs in Drive, and remove Pen Blossom's access as described above.
A question or request: email [email protected].

10. Security

Both sites are served only over HTTPS. Traffic between students and the teacher is encrypted, and the relay cannot read it. Each essay's writing record is chained so a changed entry shows. Report a security problem to [email protected] (see security.txt).

11. Changes and contact

Pen Blossom is in alpha and will change. When this policy changes, we update the date at the top, and we will say on this site before anything here changes in a way that means holding more data. Questions: [email protected].