Privacy FAQ
Opal for Schools helps schools manage distraction, not monitor students. It is designed so that students can use Opal, the world’s leading screen time and focus tool, while protecting their privacy. During school hours, Opal for Schools blocks distracting apps. Outside of these hours, students have full access to the Opal app to manage their own screen time. Our business model relies on school-paid subscriptions. We do not sell student data or use it for advertising.
Please note that Opal’s general Privacy Policy, available online, applies only to the consumer Opal app and does not cover the school program. This page is intended to explain, in plain language, how Opal for Schools works and how student privacy is protected. It is not a legal document. The protections described here apply to students enrolled in Opal through their school, both during and outside school hours.
Opal cannot see the contents of a student’s phone or what they’re doing in other apps.
The school sees status, like whether blocking is on, never activity.
We do not sell student data or use it for advertising. Our business is subscriptions paid by schools.
Quick answers
The short version: Opal knows whether it is installed and blocking during the school day. It cannot see the contents of a student’s phone or what they’re doing in other apps.
Can Opal or my school see which apps I use or which websites I visit?
No.
On iPhone, Apple prevents Opal from seeing the names of your apps. Instead, Opal sees a coded placeholder, which allows it to block an app without knowing which app it is. Websites you visit, searches you make, and what you watch stay on your phone.
On Android, Opal reads which app or website is open so it can block it, but that information stays on your phone and is never sent to Opal or your school.
Can they see how long I spend on TikTok, YouTube, or any specific app?
No. Opal never receives screen time per app. Opal only collects overall screen time, or time across all apps it categorizes as distracting apps. Opal does not share individual students’ screen time totals with the school.
Can they read my messages or see my photos, contacts, or browsing history?
No. Opal has no access to the content on your phone. Messages, photos, files, contacts, search history, and what you post or watch are never collected.
How is Opal able to block adult websites if it doesn’t know I’m visiting them?
On iPhone, adult-website filtering happens entirely on your phone. Apple decides which sites count as adult content and blocks them automatically, so Opal never learns which sites were blocked or visited.
On Android, Opal checks website addresses against an adult-website blocklist stored on your phone and blocks matching sites locally. Opal and your school do not receive the addresses or learn which sites were blocked.
Does Opal track where I am?
Opal does not collect GPS or precise location. Blocking runs on your school’s bell schedule. It does not turn on or off based on your location.
So what does my school actually see?
The school can only see
- The student’s name, graduation year, and school email
- Whether the student’s Opal account is connected to the school
- Whether blocking was active during the school day
- Whether there was an attempt to turn off or bypass blocking
Your school cannot see
- Which apps you use
- Which websites you visit
- What you search for
- What you watch
- Your location
- Your individual screen time
What about after school, weekends, and holidays?
Opal never stores which apps or websites you use, at any time. It does keep a running total of time spent on the apps in your distracting-apps list, all day and every day, because that's what powers Opal's features. Your school never sees that total, but it's used to check that Opal is set up and working during school hours.
Can the school control my phone?
No. Your school cannot control your phone through Opal. Opal is not a device-management tool.
You give Opal permission to block distracting apps on your phone, and you can leave the program at any time. If you do, the school is notified that you disconnected, and you would have to follow the school’s alternative phone-policy options.
Does Opal sell my data or show me ads?
No. We do not sell student data and students in the school program are never shown ads.
Opal makes its money through paid subscriptions, not from student data.
What personal information does Opal have about me?
Your school gives us your name, graduation year, and school email address so we can invite you to the program and apply your school’s schedule.
Depending on how you create and use your Opal account, you may also provide information such as your age, email address, or phone number. Your school does not get access to additional personal information you provide to Opal unless it is needed to run the school program.
Do parents get reports?
No. Opal for Schools does not include a parent dashboard, and we do not send parents reports about an individual student’s phone or Opal usage.
Can I have my data deleted?
Yes. You or your school can ask us to delete your data at any time. Details are in Part 2.
How Opal for Schools works
This part is for anyone who wants to go deeper: how blocking works, exactly what information exists, where it goes, and how long we keep it.
Opal for Schools builds on the Opal experience used by millions of young people, with additional privacy protections and controls designed specifically for schools. Students install Opal and link it to their school using their school email. During school hours:
Opal blocks distracting apps such as:
- Social media
- Games
- Short-form video and streaming
- Gambling
- Shopping
- News
- Camera*
- AI apps*
* Camera and AI apps are optional categories that schools can choose to block or keep unblocked
Essential and productive apps are available:
- Phone and messages
- Email and school tools
- Music and reading
- Maps, transportation, and parent location apps
- Health apps
- Food ordering apps
Blocking follows the school’s bell schedule and calendar, without using location data. Schools set the active blocking hours and can unblock individual students early if needed, such as when a student leaves due to illness. Opal maintains the list of distracting apps for all schools. Schools cannot access student phone content or modify students’ Screen Time settings.
iPhone
Opal uses Apple’s Screen Time framework, which also powers Apple’s own Screen Time controls. This system allows Opal to block categories of apps without accessing individual app usage. Detailed app usage data remains on the device and cannot be shared with Opal or others. Only aggregate totals and status signals, such as whether blocking is active, can leave the device. For more information, refer to Apple’s Family Controls and Device Activity documentation.
Android
For school compliance, Opal sends combined time spent on its managed distracting-app list, linked to the student’s account and device, together with timestamps and rule references. Reporting can continue outside school hours. The compliance reports do not contain a per-app breakdown.
Optional features
Some Opal features ask for additional permissions, but these are entirely optional and are not required to participate in the school program.
- Apple Health access is off by default and is only used if a student chooses to turn it on for their own sleep and rest insights. That information is never shared with the school.
- The camera is only used if a student chooses to take a selfie when using an emergency pass. The photo is processed on the student’s phone and is never uploaded to Opal. The photo can be of nothing, and is not analyzed or verified.
- Choosing not to enable either permission does not affect the school program.
What information exists, and what does not
The whole program runs on a short list of information. Here is each item, where it comes from, and why it exists.
| Information | Where it comes from | What it is used for |
|---|---|---|
| Student name, graduation year, school email address | Provided by the school | Sending the invitation, matching the student to the right schedule, showing the school who is connected |
| School bell schedule and academic calendar | Provided by the school | Deciding when blocking is on |
| Whether Opal is installed and connected to the school | The Opal app | Showing the school who is connected |
| Whether blocking was running during the school day | The Opal app | Showing the school the policy is working |
| Attempts to disable or work around blocking, including deleting the app or using an emergency pass | The Opal app | Alerting the school to a policy violation |
| Time spent on distracting apps | The Opal app | Used for compliance. Individual student totals are not sent to the school. |
| Internal account identifier | Created by Opal | Running the account and the student’s subscription |
| Records of actions taken within the Opal app, such as opening Opal or starting a focus session | The Opal app | Product analytics, with no names, email addresses, IP addresses, or device identifiers attached |
| Device model, operating system version, install timestamp, and IP address at install | The Opal app, via our install-tracking service | Confirming that a school invitation led to an install |
What Opal for Schools never collects from a student’s phone
- Which apps a student uses, or how long they use any individual app
- Websites visited, searches, or what a student watches or posts
- Messages, photos, files, contacts, or call history
- GPS or precise location
- Which apps or websites a student uses outside school hours. (Opal keeps only a total of distracting-app time, which the school never sees.)
A note about IP addresses. Like many apps, Opal’s install-tracking service receives basic technical information when the app is installed, including an IP address. An IP address can indicate an approximate area, such as a city, but it does not provide a student’s precise location. Opal does not use it to locate students, and it is never shared with the school.
Who can see what
The school can only see information related to the school program during school hours, including the status signals described above.
What a student does with Opal outside of school hours — including their personal rules, sessions, and other Opal activity — stays private and is not shared with the school.
| The student | The school | Opal | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Name, graduation year, school email | Yes | YesThe school provided it | Yes |
| Connected to the school, and any disconnection | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Blocking active during the school day | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Attempts to disable or work around blocking during school hours | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Screen time | YesTheir own | PartlyOnly as a school-level figure, such as an average by grade | PartlyAs a total, never per app |
| Which apps or websites the student uses | YesOn their own phone | No | No |
| Personal focus sessions, limits, streaks, milestones, Sleep, Focus, and Rest scores | Yes | No | YesHeld to run the app for the student |
| Anything about phone use outside school hours | Yes | No | PartlyA total of distracting-app time (never which apps), plus the student's own settings and progress. |
| Messages, photos, contacts, browsing history, location | Yes | No | No |
Parents do not receive a dashboard or reports through Opal for Schools. If a parent wants to understand how Opal works, the simplest option is to look at the app together with their child.
Opal only accesses the student information needed to operate the school program and provide support. We do not sell, rent, or use student information for advertising, and we do not share it with third parties for their own commercial or advertising purposes.
The services we use
Like most apps, Opal relies on a small number of trusted service providers for things like hosting, email, and analytics. Below, we explain which services are used for Opal for Schools, why we use them, and what student information each one may receive.
Google (Cloud, Workspace, Firebase, Google Play)
What it does for Opal for Schools: Hosts Opal’s servers and databases, and powers our support chatbot. Additionally Google is the platform service for Android users.
What it receives about students: The roster: student names, graduation years, school email addresses, and the school’s schedule. If a student uses the in-app support chat, the conversation is processed by Google’s AI service with personal details removed first.
Android only: app events and crash reports with device model and operating system version, used to keep the app working. Standard Google Play services for notifications and subscriptions.
Resend
What it does for Opal for Schools: Sends the invitation and reminder emails.
What it receives about students: Student email addresses and first names only.
Adjust
What it does for Opal for Schools: Tells us whether a school invitation led to Opal being installed.
What it receives about students: A device identifier and basic technical details: device model, operating system version, install and session timestamps, and IP address. No names or email addresses. For students it runs under its children’s-privacy setting, so nothing is passed on to advertising partners
Amplitude
What it does for Opal for Schools: Product analytics, so we can see how the app is used.
What it receives about students: An internal account ID, the school name, an age range rather than an exact age, and records of actions taken within the Opal app. For students, IP address, device identifier, country, and language are removed before anything is sent. No names or email addresses
RevenueCat
What it does for Opal for Schools: Manages each student’s access to Opal’s full features.
What it receives about students: An internal account ID
MongoDB
What it does for Opal for Schools: Records which blocking rule was running and when.
What it receives about students: Blocking activity, so we can confirm blocking is working
Apple
What it does for Opal for Schools: The standard iPhone services for notifications and App Store subscriptions.
What it receives about students: Platform services that every iPhone app uses
How long we keep information, and how to delete it
Roster information (name, graduation year, school email) is kept while a student is in the school program, because it is what connects the student to the school’s schedule.
A student can leave the school program at any time from inside the app. Leaving disconnects the account from the school, and the school can see that the student disconnected. Leaving the school program does not delete the account, so the student keeps their own Opal settings and progress.
A student, parent, or school can ask us to delete a student’s data at any time by contacting us using the information below. Our team follows a deletion checklist to make sure the student’s information is removed from everywhere it is stored, including the service providers listed above.
We do not delete accounts automatically at graduation, because deleting a student’s data also erases what many students value most: their progress, milestones, personal blocking setup, and their Opal subscription. Many students choose to keep using Opal after they leave school, and the choice is theirs. Opal’s ultimate goal is to build the skill of digital self-regulation beyond graduation, and be a tool they choose to continue using into college and adulthood.
When a school’s program with Opal ends, we delete or de-identify the school’s student information within the period set in our agreement with that school.
Security
Account sign-in details and blocking history (stored under a random ID, no names) are in the United States; the school roster, status check-ins, and distracting-app totals are in the EU (europe-west1, Belgium). Connections between the Opal app and our servers are encrypted. Access to student information inside Opal is limited to the people who need it to run the program and support schools.
The best protection, though, is the one described throughout this page: Opal is designed to hold as little about students as possible. There is no browsing history, no per-app usage, no message content, no photo storage, and no location to expose in the first place.
Our commitment
Android specific details
Opal requires Accessibility access for reliable blocking on Android. It lets Opal detect when a blocked app or website opens and respond promptly. Android displays a broad warning because this permission supports many kinds of tools; Opal uses it specifically to operate its blocking features.
The permissions Opal asks for, and what Opal does with them
| Permission | What Android's warning says | What Opal actually uses it for |
|---|---|---|
| Accessibility | That the app can have "full control" of the device, view the screen, and perform actions | Noticing when a distracting app opens, so Opal can show the block screen during school hours. Opal does not read messages, emails, photos, passwords, keystrokes, or banking information, and does not record what's on the screen. |
| Usage access | That the app can see which apps you use and how often | Adding up time spent in apps on the distracting-apps list. The per-app details stay on the phone. Only a single total of distracting-app time is sent to Opal. |
| Display over other apps | That the app can appear on top of other apps | Showing the Opal block screen when a blocked app is opened. |
Questions
If you have further questions, please email us at schools@opal.so
Email schools@opal.so