Academic Trust & Transparency

Privacy Policy

Effective Date: October 16, 2026 • Version 1.2

1. Foundational Commitment: Zero GPS Tracking

ProxyProof was engineered from the ground up to respect student bodily autonomy and personal privacy. ProxyProof does not track, request, log, or store global positioning coordinates (GPS) or location history.

        Our Guarantee: At no point does the ProxyProof app access the device's GPS hardware or monitor where students travel before or after a university lecture. Presence verification is strictly confined to local short-range Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) radio physics inside the classroom.
      

2. Data We Collect & Process

To verify attendance and prevent proxy fraud without invading privacy, we collect only the minimum required operational parameters:

Account Identifiers: University-issued student identification number, institutional email address, name, and enrolled courses.
Hardware Binding Fingerprint: A cryptographic hash derived from the student's hardware ID to ensure 1:1 terminal ownership and stop multiple logins on single devices.
Ephemeral BLE Session Metadata: Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI) samples collected during the check-in event, timestamp of submission, and the active session identifier.

3. How Verification Works

When you tap "Check In", your phone listens for short-range Bluetooth advertisement packets emitted by the instructor’s device. The application extracts the time-synced 5-second HMAC token, measures local signal strength (to confirm you are inside the classroom), and transmits a cryptographically signed payload to the university server.

Once the backend confirms the token freshness and writes your attendance record to the institutional PostgreSQL database, all Bluetooth scanning halts immediately.

4. Data Retention & Security Standards

All attendance logs are stored within secure institutional databases with role-based access control. Records are maintained in compliance with university academic retention schedules (typically 3 to 7 years depending on degree jurisdiction) and are permanently purged thereafter.

5. Compliance with FERPA & Global Privacy Laws

ProxyProof complies with the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) and aligns with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Educational attendance records are protected under educational privacy standards and are never sold, rented, or monetized for commercial advertising.

6. Contact & Governance

If you have questions regarding your data privacy or wish to request an audit of your attendance logs, please contact your university’s Academic Registrar or write to the author directly at aayush@aayushsrivastava.com or visit our Contact Page.