Last updated October 7, 2026
Most people who use Doorstop never make an account or a survey, and we collect no personal information about them. Nearly everything on this page applies only to people who sign in to create surveys (or to comment, or to answer a survey that asks you to sign in), and to people who enter a survey giveaway.
The short version
- Browsing the site doesn't set tracking cookies or collect anything that identifies you.
- Survey answers are anonymous. Nobody, including the person who made the survey, can see who gave which answer.
- You need an account to make a survey or comment, and some surveys ask you to sign in so each person answers once. Accounts are for people 13 and older.
- We never sell your information, share it for advertising, or use it to build a profile of you.
- You can delete your surveys, comments and account, or ask us to delete anything we hold about you.
Who we are
Doorstop Education (“Doorstop,” “we”) is a California nonprofit that helps students make changes at their schools. This policy covers doorstopeducation.org, fix.school, and the other addresses that lead to them. Questions about it go to ben@fix.school.
Browsing the site
We count visits with privacy-friendly analytics that use no cookies and collect no personal information. They tell us things like how many people opened a page, never who they were. Content recommendations run in your browser, not on our servers.
Like every website, our web host receives your IP address and browser details when you load a page, and keeps short-lived server logs. We use those logs only to keep the site running and to stop abuse.
Surveys
Answering a survey
We store your answers without your name, email, account, IP address or device. Multiple-choice results may be shown to everyone who answers, if the survey's host turns that on. Written answers are shown only to the host, who can also download all the answers as a spreadsheet. Please don't put your name, or anyone else's, in a written answer.
Most surveys don't need an account. To stop one person from answering the same survey over and over, your browser keeps a random ID (in a cookie and in your browser's storage), and when you answer we record a scrambled version of it for that survey. We also briefly count answers from the same network and type of browser. None of this is your name or device, and it's stored separately from your answers, never linked to them.
Some surveys are set to one answer per person. To answer those you sign in, and we record that your account answered that survey, again with a scrambled code stored separately from your answers and never linked to them. That is how we stop people answering twice without being able to tell which answers are yours.
Making a survey
When you make a survey we store what you write (the title, description, questions, school and optional host name), its poster, and that your account owns it. If you upload your own poster image, we resize it and remove its hidden details, like the location a phone photo was taken, before we store it. Surveys set to public are listed on our surveys page and can be copied by other students to run at their own schools; private surveys can only be found by people with the link. Anything you write on a survey can be seen by everyone who opens it, so don't include anyone's personal information.
Comments
Comments are public to anyone who opens the survey. They show your first name and last initial, or “Anonymous” if you choose. Even an anonymous comment is linked to your account on our side, so we can act on reports of abuse, but other people never see who posted it.
Giveaways
A survey's host can run a giveaway. Entering is optional and takes your email address or a US phone number, whichever you choose, and, if this browser hasn't told us already, your birth month and year (giveaways are for ages 13 and up, so we don't take contact info from anyone younger). If you use email, we send you one link to confirm it. We never send marketing, and we never text a phone number unless it wins. Your email or number is stored separately from survey answers and never linked to them, so entering doesn't make your answers any less anonymous. We use it only to confirm your entry, count your tickets, and contact you if you win.
When you confirm, you get a share link with a random code in it. When someone answers through your link and enters, we record that your code earned a ticket, without recording what they answered. Winners are drawn at random when the giveaway ends. We delete everyone's email or phone number when the giveaway is over: at the draw we delete every entrant's except the winners' and alternates', and we delete theirs 30 days after the draw, once there's been time to reach a winner. If you win a prize the host provides, the host sees your email or number so they can get it to you. Each giveaway's official rules are linked from its survey.
Safety checks and reports
Before a survey or comment goes up, its text is checked by an automated safety system for threats, harassment and slurs. Anyone can report a survey or comment. To count reports from different people, we keep a scrambled code made from the reporter's network address, never the address itself. Content that gets several reports is hidden until we review it.
Accounts
When you make an account, our sign-in system stores your email address and, if you sign in with Google or Discord, the name and profile picture from that account, along with the session and security details any sign-in system keeps (such as when and from what device you signed in). We store your birth month and year with your account. We don't get your Google or Discord password, contacts or posts.
A school Google account may not work: many districts block students from signing in to outside apps with them. A personal Google account or your email always works.
Children and students
Accounts are only for people 13 and older. Before anyone can sign in, we ask for their birth month and year. If someone tells us they're under 13, we don't let them make an account, we remember that answer on that device for a year so the question can't simply be answered again, and we don't collect their email or anything else about them. If we learn that an account belongs to someone under 13, we delete it. People of any age can read the site and answer surveys that are open to everyone, which doesn't collect any personal information. Giveaways ask the same birth month and year question before taking an email or phone number, and turn away anyone under 13 the same way.
Parents and guardians: if you think your child under 13 has given us personal information, email ben@fix.school and we will delete it.
Doorstop isn't run by or for any school, and we don't receive student records from schools. Surveys on our site are run by students, not by their schools.
Cookies and storage on your device
We don't use advertising or tracking cookies, and we don't track you across other sites, so a browser's “Do Not Track” setting has nothing to turn off here. These are the only things we store on your device:
| What | Why | How long |
|---|---|---|
| Sign-in cookies | Keep you signed in | Until you sign out or the session expires |
| ds_age | Your answer to the age question, or the under-13 block | 1 year |
| ds_dev and a browser ID | A random ID so each browser can answer a survey once. It isn't linked to you or your answers | 2 years, or until you clear your browser data |
| Answered surveys | So we can show you results instead of the form again | Until you clear your browser data |
| Giveaway codes | Your own share code if you entered a giveaway, and the code of whoever's link you opened, so it counts for them | Until you clear your browser data |
| Survey draft | Keeps a survey you're building while you sign in | Until you close the tab |
| Projects access cookie | Only for students with a project access code | Until it expires or you sign out |
Sharing
We don't sell, rent or share your personal information, and we never use it for advertising. We'd only disclose it if the law requires it, or to protect someone's safety. The one exception you choose: if you win a giveaway prize that a survey's host provides, that host sees your email or phone number so they can deliver it.
How long we keep it
- Surveys, their answers and their comments: until the host deletes the survey.
- Your comments: until you or the survey's host deletes them.
- Giveaway emails and phone numbers: until the giveaway is over. At the draw we delete all but the winners' and alternates', and those are deleted 30 days after the draw.
- Your account: until you delete it. Surveys you made remain until you delete them.
- Abuse-prevention codes (scrambled network addresses): the ones that limit how often someone can post only count the last day of activity; the ones that count reports stay with the reported survey or comment until it's deleted.
- Server logs: for the short period our hosting provider keeps them.
- Messages sent through contact and report forms: as long as we need them to follow up.
Your choices
You can delete any survey you made from its page, which also deletes its answers and comments. You can delete your own comments, and you can delete your account from the account menu on the surveys pages. You can also email ben@fix.school to ask what we hold about you, to correct it, or to delete it. We'll respond within 30 days, wherever you live.
Security
Everything is sent over encrypted connections. Network addresses used to prevent abuse are scrambled before they're stored, survey hosts are checked against their accounts on every change, and only our team can reach the stored data. No system is perfectly secure, so we keep as little as we can in the first place.
Where your information is processed
Information is stored and processed in the United States.
Changes to this policy
When we change what we collect or how we use it, we update this page and the date at the top.
Contact
Questions, requests or concerns about privacy: ben@fix.school.