PRIVACY & SECURITY

It's just a desktop app.
Nothing leaves your machine.

Sightline works like a word processor or spreadsheet. It runs on your computer, saves to your computer, and doesn't talk to the internet. There's no account, no cloud, and no server with your students' data on it.

No servers
We don't operate any servers that receive student data
No accounts
Nothing to sign up for, nothing to sign into
No internet required
Works completely offline, including AI

Architecture

Sightline App
Tauri 2 desktop application
↓
Local Storage
SQLite database on your machine
↓ optional, user-initiated
AI Analysis
Local (Ollama) or cloud provider

The short version

Sightline is a desktop application. It saves data to a file on your computer, the same way Word or Excel does. It doesn't connect to the internet, doesn't create accounts, and doesn't send anything anywhere. From a FERPA perspective, using Sightline is no different from using a local spreadsheet to track observation data.

When you delete data, it's gone. There's no remote copy, no backup on our servers, no synced cloud folder. We don't have your data because we never had it in the first place.

The only exception: cloud AI (and it's optional)

Sightline has AI features (narrative report drafting, pattern detection, FBA hypothesis suggestions). These can run in two ways:

Local AI (default)

Using Ollama, AI models run entirely on your machine. Data never leaves your computer. This is what we recommend, and it's what Sightline uses out of the box. No FERPA concerns here. It's identical to running any other local software.

Cloud AI (you opt in)

If your organization has a data use agreement with a cloud AI provider (Anthropic, OpenAI, or Google), you can optionally connect Sightline to their API using your organization's API key. When you do, the session data for that specific request is sent to that provider.

This is the only scenario where student data leaves your machine, and it only happens when you explicitly click a button to request it. If your district hasn't approved a cloud AI provider, just don't add an API key. Sightline works great without it.

What this means for FERPA

If you use Sightline with local AI (or no AI), there is nothing to evaluate from a FERPA standpoint beyond what you'd consider for any other desktop application. No student data is disclosed to any third party.

If you choose to connect a cloud AI provider, the same data governance policies that apply to your organization's use of that provider apply here. Sightline doesn't add any additional data exposure. It's simply a client that sends your request to the API you configured.

  • We don't operate servers that receive, store, or process student data
  • We don't require accounts, so there's no user data either
  • All exports (PDFs, CSVs) are generated locally on your device
  • API keys are stored locally in your app config, never sent to us
  • Telemetry (if enabled) contains only anonymous usage events, never student data

Bottom line: Out of the box, Sightline is as FERPA-safe as a pencil and clipboard. The only thing that changes that is if you choose to connect a cloud AI service, and that's governed by your organization's existing agreements with that provider, not by anything Sightline does.