Consent

Before using Colophon

• The extension clearly states what it logs and why. See what gets recorded.
• No logging happens by default; you must explicitly start a session.
• You can opt out at any time by stopping the session or uninstalling the extension.

During use

• A visible indicator in the extension's side panel shows when logging is active.
• You can pause or stop logging at any time.
• You can view the log yourself to see exactly what's being recorded.

After use

• You own the data. It's stored locally until you choose to export and submit it.
• You decide whether to share the log, and with whom.
• A shared TWFF file is self-contained; no external service is required to view it.

Two different things, today bundled into one choice

Using Colophon in your course and including your pseudonymized data in a published research report are conceptually two different decisions. Today, joining a course's case study bundles both into a single agree/decline choice. We're working on letting you choose them separately, and this page will be updated when that ships11 Tracked as a follow-up item in our public backlog rather than promised without a date. See the note on the rest of this pack about saying so plainly instead of overclaiming.. Either way, your teacher can already see your work the same way they always could, as ordinary course access; that part isn't gated by the research choice at all.

Research participation, specifically

Colophon is a writing support tool first. With your explicit, separate agreement, the writing history it records can optionally be used to evaluate the tool and understand writing behavior. If you opt in:

• You're shown a clear, dedicated consent screen before anything of yours is included.
• You can withdraw at any time, without penalty. The British Educational Research Association's Ethical Guidelines for Educational Research (5th ed., 2024) treats consent as ongoing, not a one-time checkbox, and we follow that here22 BERA (2024), §3: participants retain an unconditional right to withdraw at any point, without needing to give a reason..
• Your data is pseudonymized before any analysis. See Privacy architecture.
• It's used only for the stated research purposes named on Mission.

On the power imbalance in a classroom

BERA's guidelines specifically flag a teacher-researcher asking their own students to participate as a case where consent can't be assumed to be fully free33 BERA (2024), §2: where a dependent relationship exists between researcher and participant, extra care is needed, and participants must be clearly reassured that declining carries no penalty.. We take that seriously. Declining the research layer never affects your grade, your access to the course, or your relationship with your teacher. It only means your data isn't included in the published report.

Independent ethics review

The published-report research program is human-subjects research, and we say so plainly rather than describing it as something else. We're formalizing independent ethics review (an IRB determination) for that program; this page will name the actual review body and protocol once that's real, rather than asserting an exemption that doesn't exist yet. It's the same "we'd rather say so than promise a date" approach used throughout our how Colophon works walkthrough.