Privacy Policy
Last updated: August 7, 2026
The short version
- We collect your name and email only when you choose to give them to us.
- We never sell, rent, or trade your details, and we do not run ads.
- Our mailing list runs on Brevo. Our petition runs on Google Forms. Our site runs on Cloudflare.
- We use Google Analytics to count visits. It is served through our own domain, so ad blockers do not stop it. You can opt out below.
- You can change what you receive, or ask us to delete everything, at any time.
Pencils Over Pixels is a group of Lower Merion School District parents asking the district to review the impact of 1:1 Chromebooks and iReady on children's health, development, and privacy. We are organised by community volunteers. We are not a registered nonprofit, and we are not affiliated with or endorsed by the Lower Merion School District.
We spend our time asking hard questions about how children's data is handled, so the same standard applies to us. This page says what we collect, why, who else sees it, and how to get it removed.
What we collect when you give it to us
Signing up for updates
When you use our sign-up page, we collect:
- Your first name, and last name if you give one
- Your email address
- Whether you told us you are in the Lower Merion School District
- Which categories of email you chose to receive
- Your mobile number, only if you opt in to text updates
This goes to Brevo, the email platform that runs our mailing list. We use it to send you the things you asked for and nothing else. Our website never sees or stores your details itself: the form passes them straight to Brevo through our own server, which exists so that the key to our Brevo account never has to be exposed to your browser.
Signing the petition
Our petition is a Google Form embedded on the homepage. When you fill it in, your responses go directly to Google and are stored in our Google account, not on this website. The same applies to the lawn sign request form. Google's handling of that data is covered by the Google Privacy Policy.
Text messages
Text updates have not launched yet. If you tick the SMS box we store your mobile number against your contact record in Brevo so we can reach you when they do. We will not text you before then. You can remove your number at any time on the preferences page.
What is collected automatically
Analytics
We use Google Analytics 4, loaded through Google Tag Manager, to understand how many people visit, which pages they read, and whether they reach the petition. We look at this in aggregate. We do not use it to identify individuals, and we have IP anonymisation switched on.
Our analytics runs on our own domain. It is served from the path /6lt2 using Cloudflare's Google tag gateway, which makes it a first-party proxy. Because the requests appear to come from pencilsoverpixels.org rather than from Google, ad blockers and tracker blockers generally do not block them. The reason is accurate visitor counts, not tracking you across other sites. The opt-out below works either way.
Hosting and security
This site is hosted on Cloudflare. Like any web host, Cloudflare processes your IP address and basic request information in order to serve pages and to block attacks. We also use Cloudflare Turnstile on the sign-up form to tell humans from bots. Turnstile is Cloudflare's alternative to a CAPTCHA and is designed not to profile users across sites.
Cookies and local storage
We do not show a cookie banner, because we do not use cookies for advertising and we do not share them with ad networks. Here is everything that gets stored:
| What | Set by | Purpose | Roughly how long |
|---|---|---|---|
| pop_signed_up | Us | Remembers that you completed the sign-up form in this browser, so we can stop asking. Stored as a cookie and in local storage. | 1 year |
| _ga, _ga_* | Google Analytics | Distinguishes one visitor from another so visits are not double-counted. | Up to 2 years |
| Turnstile state | Cloudflare | Runs the bot check on the sign-up form. | Session |
| Google Forms | Set inside the embedded petition form, by Google, when the form loads. | Varies, see Google | |
| YouTube | Set on our webinars page only when you play a video. | Varies, see Google |
Opting out of analytics
You can install Google's official opt-out add-on, turn on "Do Not Track" or your browser's tracking protection, or block cookies for this site. None of that will stop you reading the site or signing up.
Other services that load on this site
A handful of third parties supply pieces of the page. When your browser fetches them, it necessarily tells them your IP address and which page you were on.
- Adobe Fonts (Typekit) and Google Fonts, for typefaces
- Google Forms, for the embedded petition
- YouTube, on the webinars page, and only once you start a video
- Cloudflare Turnstile, on the sign-up page
Links out to news articles, social media, and our GoFundMe are ordinary links. Nothing is loaded from those sites until you click.
What we do not do
- We do not sell, rent, or trade your personal information. Ever.
- We do not run advertising, and we do not share data with ad networks.
- We do not build profiles of individual visitors or track you across other websites.
- We do not pass your mailing list details to the school district, the school board, or any political campaign.
Petitions work differently. A petition is a public act of advocacy: the point of signing one is that the signatures are counted and presented. If we submit the petition to the school board, the fact and scale of your support goes with it.
Who else can see your data
Your details are visible to the small group of volunteers who run our mailing list and our analytics, and to the companies that provide those tools, namely Brevo, Google, and Cloudflare. We may also disclose information where we are legally required to.
How long we keep it
We keep your contact details on our mailing list until you unsubscribe or ask us to delete them. Petition signatures are kept as a record of the campaign. Analytics data is retained under our Google Analytics account settings and is not tied to an identifiable person.
Your choices
- Change what you receive: use the preferences page, linked from the bottom of every email we send.
- Unsubscribe entirely: use the unsubscribe link in any email. It works immediately.
- See what we hold, correct it, or have it deleted: email us and we will sort it out.
- Remove your mobile number: untick SMS updates on the preferences page.
You do not need to give a reason for any of these, and asking will never affect anything else.
Children
This campaign is about children, but it is not aimed at them. Our sign-up form, our petition, and our mailing list are intended for adults. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children. If you believe a child has given us their details, email us and we will delete them.
Changes to this policy
If we change how we handle your data, we will update this page and change the date at the top. If the change is significant, we will say so in an email to the list rather than quietly editing the page.
Contact
Questions about any of this, or requests to see or delete your data, go to speakup@pencilsoverpixels.org.
Pencils Over Pixels