Privacy policy

MakerBuddy is the STEM education brand of OR97, the company that makes the MakerBuddy kit. OR97 is based in Lahore, Pakistan. In this policy, "we", "our" and "us" mean MakerBuddy and OR97.

We work to protect your privacy. This policy explains what information we collect, how we use it, who we share it with and how we keep it safe.

It applies when you visit this website, contact us, or use MakerBuddy resources and services, such as the kit, the web app and the browser extensions.

The MakerBuddy board and its dashboard are made to work on your own Wi-Fi:

• The board reads its sensors and runs your rules by itself.
• Your browser or phone shows the readings and sends your button presses.
• The dashboard talks to the board directly over your Wi-Fi.
• In normal use, your sensor readings and rules are not sent to MakerBuddy.
• You need no account to use the kit.
• The kit has no camera and no microphone. The motion sensor only tells whether something moved.

What the board saves. These stay on the board itself, not with us. They are kept when the power goes off:

• your Wi-Fi name and password
• the board's name
• your rules
• any words you typed for its screen, and settings such as soil calibration

Holding the board's button for 10 seconds clears only the Wi-Fi name and password, and sets the screen back to its normal mode. Any attempt to update the board over the air erases all of its saved settings.

Before you pass a kit on to another class, family or owner:

If you change the software. You may change the kit's open-source software, connect it to another company's online service, or add other add-ons. Then your data may go to new places. It is up to you to check where it goes and to tell anyone it affects.

You control the board from a dashboard: the web app or a free browser extension. The phone app is not released yet.

• Google Analytics counts visits to the dashboard page. It does not get your sensor readings or rules.
• Every dashboard asks GitHub whether newer firmware exists. GitHub sees a normal web request, with no readings in it.
• Your readings, rules and button presses go straight between your browser and the board.
• Your browser remembers your colour theme and which cards you show. The extensions also remember your board's address.
• Demo mode (type demo as the device name) shows sample data and connects to no board.

We use information to:

• answer your questions and help you
• handle kit orders, prepare quotes and arrange delivery
• plan school programs, workshops and partnerships
• send you news or community updates you ask for
• run, protect and improve the website and our learning resources
• count overall use, and find and fix technical problems
• stop abuse, fraud and security attacks
• meet our legal duties and keep the records a business must keep

Other companies help us run the website, the forms and the dashboards. We also link to some. Each one handles information under its own privacy policy.

Our own code sets no cookies. Cookies on this site come from the tools Google Tag Manager runs: Google Analytics, Microsoft Clarity and the Meta (Facebook) Pixel. On the contact and Buy Now pages, Google reCAPTCHA sets them too. YouTube sets nothing until you press play.

What we save in your browser. Some features save small notes in your browser's storage (local storage). They stay on this device and are never sent to us:

• lesson "Try it" progress, your reading tables, your notes and your final project
• whether you said you have the kit
• ticks on checklists, like the one in section 3
• after an order: the order number, total, number of kits and date, but no name, phone or address

The tools in section 6 can also save their own items in your browser. For example, the Meta Pixel notes which website sent you here.

You can block cookies and storage in your browser settings. Lesson labs still work, but they forget your progress when you reload. Blocking storage can affect other site features too.

• What you post on our public GitHub pages (code, issues, discussions) is public, under your username there.
• Other members can see what you post in our Discord server or WhatsApp Community.
• Never post passwords, keys, personal details, or your Wi-Fi or other network details in a public place.

We keep personal information only as long as we reasonably need it. That means: for the reason we collected it, to meet legal duties, to settle disputes, and for security.

Form details reach us as emails in our team mailbox. Resend, which sends them, keeps its own records under its own policy.

We use reasonable technical and organisational safeguards. But no way of sending or storing data over the internet is completely secure.

Depending on the law where you live, you may have the right to ask us to:

• show you the personal information we are responsible for (access)
• correct it (correction)
• delete it (deletion)
• use it less (restriction)
• stop using it for a purpose (objection)
• give you a copy to take somewhere else (portability)

You can also withdraw your consent to optional messages at any time.

To make a request, email info@makerbuddy.cc. We may need to check who you are first.

• MakerBuddy kits and lessons are made for supervised learning by children aged 10 and up.
• Some pages, such as For Students and the 32 lessons, are written for these learners. They never ask a child for a name, email or other personal details.
• What a student types in a lesson's "Try it" lab stays in that browser. Like every page, lesson pages run the visit-counting tools in section 6.
• Our forms, emails and other direct online messages are not meant for children under 13. A parent, guardian or teacher should contact us for them.
• We do not knowingly collect personal information directly from a child under 13 without proper permission, such as from a parent, guardian or school.
• If you are a parent, guardian or school and think a child has sent us personal information, please contact us.

Some companies we use, such as Google, Microsoft, Meta and Resend, may handle information in countries other than yours. Where the law requires it, we use suitable contract or legal safeguards for these transfers.

We may update this policy when our services, the companies we use or our legal duties change. The "Last updated" date at the top shows the latest version. For big changes, we will put a notice on the website when practical.

Send questions or requests about this policy by email, phone or post, or use our contact page.

• Email: info@makerbuddy.cc
• Phone: +92 332 3336797, also on WhatsApp
• Post: OR97 (MakerBuddy), 102 Q Block, Johar Town, Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan