Effective date: 18 October 2026
Cookie Policy
1. Introduction
This Cookie Policy explains how TeachForge.ai uses cookies and similar technologies on https://www.teachforge.ai and the Service. Read it with our Privacy Policy.
We follow the EU ePrivacy Directive (2002/58/EC as amended) as implemented in Estonia by the Electronic Communications Act, the GDPR, and — for visitors in the United Kingdom — the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003 (PECR), as well as other applicable cookie rules worldwide.
2. What cookies are
Cookies are small text files stored on your device. Similar technologies include local storage, session storage, and pixels. They help the Service work, remember choices, and — where allowed — understand usage.
3. Why we use cookies
- Authentication and security — keep you signed in and protect accounts
- Preferences — language, locale, and teaching UI preferences
- Service operation — session state and real-time collaboration
- Bot protection — reCAPTCHA and related abuse controls on public forms
4. Types of cookies
4.1 Strictly necessary
Required for the Service to function (for example authentication). These do not require consent under these rules.
| Cookie / storage | Purpose | Duration |
|---|---|---|
apiToken | Keeps you signed in. | Until you sign out, and at most 30 days |
userRole | Which part of the site to open for you once you are signed in, for example the teacher area or the admin area. It holds your role, not who you are. | Until you sign out, and at most 30 days |
qlStudent | Learner session after they open a personal access link. In a lesson embedded on a school’s site, the session stays on that page. | Until the access link expires |
NEXT_LOCALE, NEXT_LOCALE_ADMIN | The language you chose for the site and for the admin area, so the next page opens in it. | 1 year |
tf_device_id | Recognises this browser when you sign in, so that the list of devices signed in to your account is right and a sign-in from a new device stands out. It holds a random identifier and basic browser details (the browser, its language, screen size and time zone), and no name. | 1 year |
lti1p3-… | Carries a sign-in from your school’s learning platform through to TeachForge. Set only when you open TeachForge from that platform. | Up to 1 hour |
cf_clearance | Set by our network provider only if your browser is asked to show that it is not a bot, so that you are not asked again straight away. | 30 minutes |
4.2 Functional
Remember teaching preferences (for example accessibility text size on a surface). Where the law requires consent for non-essential functional cookies, we will request it.
One such cookie today: wbCaptureBlur remembers the blur level you choose for whiteboard screenshots. It is set only when you change that level, and lasts 1 year.
4.3 Analytics
Analytics that store or read anything on your device require consent in the EU and the UK, and we would ask for it before setting one. Our own measurement of how pages are used stores nothing on your device and reads nothing from it, so it sets no cookie at all; it is described in the Privacy Policy under “Anonymous site measurement”.
4.4 Third-party
| Provider | Purpose | Consent needed |
|---|---|---|
| Google reCAPTCHA | Bot and abuse protection on sign-in and sign-up, and on the forms anyone can send us: contact, report content, data requests, bug reports and page feedback. Its script loads only on those pages, and in the bug-report and page-feedback dialogs while they are open | No — strictly necessary to keep those forms usable |
| Paddle | Payments and fraud prevention at checkout | No — strictly necessary to complete a purchase you asked for |
| A recording tool we run ourselves | Session recording you may attach to a bug report | Yes |
The recording stays on your device unless you attach it to a bug report. We do not use Google Analytics or any advertising or cross-site tracking technology, and we do not sell personal data.
5. Consent
Strictly necessary cookies do not need consent and we do not ask for it. For everything else we ask first, and nothing non-essential is set until you choose. Closing or ignoring the banner is not consent — if you have not chosen, we treat the answer as no.
Today there is exactly one optional category: bug diagnostics. If you allow it, your browser keeps a short recording of your own session in local storage on your device. It is never sent to us unless you report a problem and tick the box to attach it. Recordings carry no name or email address, values you type into form fields are obscured rather than captured, and anything you send is deleted after 30 days. When your report is resolved, we remove our link to it at once. Learner pages are never recorded, whatever you choose.
You can change your mind at any time with the Change your cookie choices button in section 6 below. This Cookie Policy is linked at the foot of every page. Withdrawing consent stops the recording and clears the local buffer.
Your choice is stored in your browser only, under the name tf_cookie_consent; we keep no
record of it on our servers.
6. Change your choice
You can change what you allow at any time, right here:
Withdrawing consent stops the bug-diagnostics recording and clears the local buffer.
7. Managing cookies in your browser
Browser controls:
Blocking authentication cookies will prevent you from staying signed in.
8. Learners and embeds
Learners join by a personal link, not by typing a memorable code. No marketing cookies are set. The qlStudent cookie is strictly necessary for that lesson session. Third-party embeds (for example video hosts) follow those providers' policies.
9. Changes
We may update this Cookie Policy and will revise the effective date on this page.
10. Contact
Data protection: privacy@teachforge.ai
General enquiries: hello@teachforge.ai
Our registered company name, number and registered office are on our
company details page.
The authority that supervises cookies and similar technologies in Estonia is the Estonian Data Protection Inspectorate (Andmekaitse Inspektsioon, AKI). Visitors in the United Kingdom may also contact the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO).
This policy is written in English. Translations are provided for convenience; if a translation and the English version differ, the English version prevails.