Privacy and cookies
Last updated: 25 October 2026
Sooner is a pilot: four teaching apps and this home website. This page says what Sooner keeps about you, why, for how long, and who else handles it.
During the pilot, use made-up student names and answers only. Do not put real students' work or personal details into Sooner yet.
Who runs Sooner
Sooner is a pilot run by Mubarak Mohamud. On this page, "we" means the Sooner pilot. To ask about your data, use the ways in Your rights below.
If you are a member of staff
- What we keep: your name, your email address, your password (only as a scrambled code that cannot be turned back into the password), your modules and your role in each, when you last logged in, and a log of changes you make (for example "added a teacher").
- For two-step log-in (every member of staff uses it): a secret code for your phone's authenticator app, and a few one-time backup codes (stored scrambled).
- Feedback notes you send with the Feedback button, with the page you sent them from.
- Why: to let you log in, to show you your modules and to keep the website safe.
- How long: while you have an account. The change log and feedback notes are deleted after 12 months.
If you asked about Sooner
- What we keep: the name, email address, university or college and question you sent with "Interested in Sooner?". If you were given access to the Why Sooner page, also your visitor log-in.
- Why: to reply to you and, if agreed, to let you see the Why Sooner page.
- How long: enquiries are deleted after 12 months. A visitor log-in is deleted 90 days after its access ends.
If you are a student
When students use Sooner:
- No sign-up and no email address. You join a class with a code and a name. In the Self-Paced Classroom you also choose a four-digit PIN, so you can come back on another device.
- What we keep: the name you type, your answers, drawings and files, and photos if your module leader has switched photos on. In the Virtual Lecturer: the questions you ask and the answers given.
- Who sees it: your teachers and your module leader. The Module Manager and Evaluator shows answers as "Student 1", "Student 2", with no names.
- How long: student work is deleted 90 days after the module's teaching ends.
- Wellbeing and safety: if a question to the Virtual Lecturer mentions wellbeing or safety, you get the details of support services. That question is not sent to the AI, and its text is not kept.
The AI
- Some features use AI from Anthropic (a US company): Virtual Lecturer answers, AI feedback where the teacher switches it on, task ideas for teachers, and the Evaluator, which reads class answers to show progress against each learning outcome.
- Before an answer goes to the AI, the names of students on the class list are taken out.
- The AI feedback students see gives no marks. People make every decision about students.
Other companies that handle the data
- Fly.io runs the website and stores its data, on computers in London.
- Anthropic provides the AI (see above).
- Resend sends Sooner's emails (set-password links and enquiries), from its Ireland region.
- Google keeps the evening backup copies in Google Drive. Backups are deleted after 14 days.
Sooner does not sell data, does not show adverts and does not use tracking or analytics.
Cookies
Sooner uses only the cookies it needs to work, so there is no cookie banner.
- Log-in cookies keep you logged in, for up to 12 hours for staff. Students in the Self-Paced Classroom stay logged in on their device for up to 60 days, or until they log out.
- One small cookie on the log-in page remembers that you have logged in before on this device (1 year). It holds no personal details.
- Your browser's own storage keeps a few things on your device only: unsent answers (so a lost connection does not lose your work), and simple choices such as a hidden guide.
Your rights
You can ask for a copy of the data Sooner holds about you, ask for it to be corrected or deleted, or object to how it is used. To ask:
- Staff: use the Feedback button on any page after you log in.
- Visitors: reply to the email that gave you access, or send a new "Interested in Sooner?" message.
- Students: ask your teacher or module leader, who can pass it on.
We reply within one month, as the law requires. If you are not happy with the answer, you can complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) at ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint.