Privacy
Last updated July 2026
LABKickstart Benchtop is a free, open community site where physics teachers and students share experiments. This page explains what we collect, why, and who we share it with. We keep it short and plain, because that is how the whole site works.
What we collect
- Your Google account, when you sign in. We use Google sign-in only to confirm who you are. From Google we receive your name, email address, and profile picture. We do not post to your Google account or read anything else.
- Your public profile. When you first sign in you set a handle, name, and optional role, school, and city. These are shown publicly next to what you post.
- What you contribute. Experiments, comments, replies, and the files you upload. These are public by design. Saved labs are private to you.
- Basic usage data. Standard server logs and privacy-conscious product analytics (page views and feature use) to understand what is helpful. We do not sell this or use it for advertising.
How we use it
To run the site: to sign you in, to attribute your contributions, to show your profile, to keep the community usable, and to fix and improve things. That is all.
Who processes it
We use a few trusted services to run Benchtop. Your data passes through them only to make the site work:
- Supabase for the database, sign-in, and file storage.
- Vercel for hosting the site.
- Google for the sign-in you choose to use.
- PostHog for product analytics.
We do not sell your personal information to anyone.
Your content and its license
Everything you publish on Benchtop is shared under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license (CC BY 4.0), so other teachers can use and adapt it with credit. That license is not revocable for copies already shared, but you can still edit or remove your posts from the site.
Keeping and deleting your data
You can edit your profile and delete your comments and experiments at any time. To close your account, use the delete option on your account page, or email benchtop@labkickst.art.
Closing your account deletes your profile, your sign-in details, and every file you uploaded. Labs you never published, and labs we removed, are deleted with it.
Labs you did publish stay on the site, and so do comments you wrote, both with your name removed and shown as "Removed account". They stay for two reasons: other teachers may be using them, and other people's replies would otherwise disappear along with them. Content here is also shared under CC BY 4.0, which cannot be withdrawn once given, and may already exist in copies elsewhere.
Students
Students are welcome and are first-class users. If you are under the age where your country requires a parent or guardian to consent, please use Benchtop with their permission and your teacher's guidance.
Changes
If this policy changes in a meaningful way, we will update the date above and, where it matters, note it on the site.
Contact
Questions about privacy: benchtop@labkickst.art.