Privacy

Tectonics is built for classrooms. It has no accounts and no ads, and it doesn’t track you. Here is exactly what it stores and sends.

• AccountsNone. Nobody signs in.
• TrackingNo analytics, no ads, no tracking cookies.
• Your workStays in your browser on your device.

What stays on your device

Tectonics saves your settings, the boundary you were viewing, which panels are open, your theme and language, and which video lessons you’ve watched in your browser’s local storage. This never leaves your device. Clearing your browser’s site data for this site removes it.

What gets sent, and where

• Worksheets and 3D files. Worksheets, PDFs, STL files, USDZ files and pictures are made entirely in your browser. Nothing you generate is uploaded. The first time you save a PDF, your browser loads the PDF-writing library from this site.
• Map and photos. Nothing loads until you open the Map or a real-place card. The satellite and shaded-relief tiles come from Esri, and each place’s photo and link come from Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons. Those services see your IP address and the area or article you asked for, not anything you type into Tectonics. Plate boundary lines are bundled with the site (Bird, 2003, CC BY).
• Video lessons. Nothing loads from YouTube until you press play. Videos play in YouTube’s privacy-enhanced mode (youtube-nocookie.com), and Google’s privacy policy applies once you play one.
• Share links. A shared view travels inside the link itself, after the #, which browsers never send to a server. Tectonics doesn’t store shared views.
• Feedback. The Feedback form sends your message, and your email address if you give one, to Mike by email so he can reply. Tectonics doesn’t store it. Please don’t include student names.
• Support. The Support button opens a donation card inside Tectonics. Card and wallet details are entered into Stripe’s secure fields and go only to Stripe; Tectonics never sees or stores them. Stripe’s script loads only when you open the card, never in embeds.

Hosting and logs

Tectonics runs on Cloudflare. Like any website, Cloudflare records basic request details, such as IP address, browser type and the page requested. These are used only to keep the site running and secure, and to limit abuse of the feedback form. They are kept for a short time and then deleted automatically.

Students and schools

Tectonics doesn’t ask for, collect or store students’ personal information, so there is nothing to share or sell. Students can use it without signing in or giving an email address. The worksheet’s name and date lines are printed blanks; nothing is typed into the page.

Changes

If this changes, this page will be updated and the date below will change.

Contact

Questions about privacy, or a school that needs more detail? Email sammartano@me.com.