ch1 Club Data and privacy
Student data, kept small and never sold.
For a Head of IT, a principal or a parent: what ch1 Club stores about students and staff, where it lives, who can see it, and how to have it deleted. Plain and short, and true to how ch1 is built.
Last updated 29 October 2026 · Read with the main privacy policy
- Stored in the EUThe database and backend run on Google Cloud in Belgium and the Netherlands. Analytics and opt-in AI ideas may be processed in the US.
- Never sold. No ads.Used only to run ch1 for your club.
- Quiet for studentsNo offers, no marketing email, no prompts unless you allow them.
- Deleted on requestEmail info@chordhouse.app. I reply within 30 days.
What ch1 Club stores
For each student, teacher and club admin:
| Email address | To sign in and to hold the seat. A school email works best. |
|---|---|
| Name | The name the person gives in ch1. A first name is enough. |
| Club, group and role | Which group they joined with its code, and whether they are a student, a teacher or a club admin. |
| ch1 Learn progress | Lessons done, stars, streaks, minutes, the last 60 days and the last 30 lessons. Also the short profile ch1 Learn asks for: instrument, level, age band (child, teen or adult), a goal, favourite songs and a weekly target. |
| Session minutes | Minutes and sessions played per day, device type (phone, tablet or desktop), country from the device's time zone, and which features and chords were used. |
| Dates | When they joined and when they were last seen in ch1. |
For the club itself: its name and kind, seat numbers, status (pilot, active or ended), the end date, allowed email domains, group names and join codes, and the invoice reference.
Like any ch1 account, a seat also keeps the person's saved setup (sounds and settings) so it follows them to other devices, and recordings only if they choose to save one.
Never stored: phone numbers, home addresses, dates of birth, photos or payment details. The camera and microphone are only used when a student switches them on, and what they capture stays on the device.
Where it is stored
- Database: Google Cloud Firestore, EU multi-region (eur3: Belgium and the Netherlands).
- Backend: Google Cloud Functions in europe-west1 (Belgium).
- Live classroom push (the lesson a teacher sends to every screen): Firebase Realtime Database in Belgium.
- My working copy: usage numbers and some account lists are also mirrored to a private Google Sheet that only I can open. Google Workspace is not pinned to one region.
Processed outside the EU: Google Analytics, Microsoft Clarity and Anthropic (only if your club turns on AI chord ideas) are run from the United States and may process data there. What each one receives is in the table below.
Who can see it
- Your club admin and teachers: the names, emails, groups, Learn progress, minutes played and last-seen dates of the people in your club, and the progress CSV export. Only for your club.
- A student: their own progress and the lesson pushed to their group. Never another student's details.
- Me, as the operator: to run ch1, answer support questions and fix problems.
- No one else. Not other clubs, not advertisers, not data brokers.
What students never see
- Offers, founding or member deals, or anything to buy.
- Ads of any kind. ch1 has none.
- Marketing email. Students get no newsletters from ch1.
- Feedback and share prompts, and AI chord ideas, stay off unless your club admin turns them on.
No selling, no sharing
I never sell student or staff data, never share it for marketing, and never show ads. The data is used for one thing: running ch1 and ch1 Club for your students and teachers.
How long it is kept, and deletion
- While the club is active: the data is kept so progress carries on from lesson to lesson.
- Removing a seat: the club admin or a teacher removes a student in the portal. The seat is freed straight away and the account returns to Free (or to the person's own paid plan). The club's record of that seat is marked removed and stays until deletion is asked for.
- Ending a club: seats stop giving Ultra and nothing more can be pushed. The data stays until the club asks me to delete it.
- Deletion: the club admin, a parent or the person can email info@chordhouse.app. I delete the club records, Learn progress, usage records and the account, and confirm by email within 30 days. A club that ends can ask for all of its data to be deleted in one email.
- ch1 Learn also keeps a copy of progress in the browser on the student's device. Signing out and clearing the site's data removes it.
Children
Students under 13 join through their school, academy or church, which acts for the parent and agrees to ch1 Club on their behalf. The data is the minimum to run a class: an email, a first name and progress. Your club can limit joining to its own email domains, so only school accounts get in. Students never pay for anything and never see offers.
Security
- Sign-in: Google sign-in, or an email with a password or a 6-digit code sent to that email. Joining a group needs a verified email. Passwords are held by Google Firebase; I never see them.
- App Check: requests to the club backend carry a Google reCAPTCHA Enterprise token that shows they come from chordhouse.app, not a script.
- Per-club access rules: the database denies everything by default. Members read only their own club, students cannot read the member list, and only the server writes club data. The classroom push is scoped to each group.
- Encryption: everything travels over HTTPS, and Google Cloud encrypts the data at rest.
- Limits: join codes are random, requests are rate limited, and the export guards against spreadsheet formula tricks.
Who helps run ch1
The sub-processors, and what each one gets:
| Google Cloud and Firebase | Accounts, database, backend, the live classroom push, and App Check (reCAPTCHA Enterprise). EU regions as above. |
|---|---|
| Google Analytics 4 | Visit and feature statistics. A signed-in player is counted by an account ID, never their email. Advertising features are off. United States. |
| Microsoft Clarity | On the ch1 page: records how the page is used (clicks, taps, scrolling) so I can find what goes wrong. It runs for club seats too. United States. |
| Google Apps Script and Sheets | A page-view count from every page (a random device ID and the page, no cookies) and my private working copy described above. |
| Hostinger | Hosts the website and sends ch1's emails (staff invites and sign-in codes) from info@chordhouse.app. |
| Paddle | Payments for paid personal plans only. Club seats are invoiced to the club, so Paddle receives nothing about club students. |
| Anthropic (Claude) | Only if your club turns on AI chord ideas for students. It receives the chord names played, a style and a level. Nothing about the student. United States. |
| YouTube, Pixabay and Pexels | Only if a student opens a song in Song (YouTube's privacy-enhanced player) or searches for clips in Make a video (the search words; the clips load from those sites). |
Questions
Email me at info@chordhouse.app. I am happy to fill in a school's data protection questionnaire or join a call with your IT team.
Jenson Cherian (JC)
Founder, chordhouse.app