COPPA Compliance

Welcome to the Synthiam Platform and Community

You have joined a powerful robot software platform backed by a friendly, supportive community. Synthiam provides tools and services for hobbyists, educators, and businesses, and is designed to be a reliable resource for home, classroom, and commercial use.

Please use the Synthiam Community and Cloud Services in accordance with our Terms of Use and all applicable laws. Synthiam is committed to protecting the privacy and safety of all users.

Education Use and Privacy Controls

Synthiam is widely used in educational settings and deployed in schools across more than 80 countries. We take user privacy seriously and provide account controls that limit which features can access community and cloud services based on age and privacy needs.

Whether community and cloud features can be enabled depends on age to comply with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). This determines what information an account holder may create and make publicly available on the platform.

By default, the platform collects only crash and debug reports related to the software; these reports do not contain personal information. Any other information stored on Synthiam's platform is added intentionally by the user—for example, by enabling Community access, confirming they are 13 or older, and manually posting content to the forum.

Sample Account Activation Email

When an account is created through the website, ARC, or the mobile app, the registered email address receives an activation message. The email explains two activation choices so the account holder can select how the account will interact with Synthiam's cloud and community features.

Choosing an Activation Option

The two activation options are determined by the account holder's age and COPPA compliance. Select the option that matches the user's age and privacy preferences.

1. For users 12 years old and under — Activate cloud services only. Cloud access allows saving ARC projects, viewing saved project history, and using cloud-based cognitive services (vision processing, emotion detection, printed-text recognition, and speech recognition). Cloud access does not allow posting to the public forum or sharing content publicly. To enable these cloud features without community access, click the cloud services activation link in the email.
2. For users 13 years old and over — Activate cloud services and community access. This option enables both cloud services and access to the community forum. Community access lets you ask questions, share projects and robot skills, earn community credits (which can be applied toward ARC Pro subscriptions and merchandise), and participate in discussions. Community access is strictly prohibited for anyone under 13. Do not activate community access if the account holder is under 13 or does not agree to the Synthiam community requirements and Terms of Use.