Gradency

Data Use

Plain-English explanation of how your exam content flows through Gradency.

What gets sent for automated grading

When you click "Start grading", Gradency:

  1. Renders your answer-key PDF + each student's exam PDF as images at 75 DPI / 1024 px max.
  2. Sends a system prompt + your rubric + the answer-key images + one student's exam images to our automated grading subsystem.
  3. Receives back a per-question score breakdown and feedback text.
  4. Stores the score + feedback in our database, attached to the student's grade record.

What does NOT get sent

  • The student's name (only their internal ID is referenced).
  • The student's email address.
  • Your account credentials.
  • Other students' exams (each grading call is per-student).

Automated grading data handling

Our grading subsystem operates under contractual data-processing terms that prohibit using your content to train models. Content may be retained for a short period (typically up to 30 days) for abuse monitoring and operational reliability, after which it is purged. The list of specific sub-processors is available to enterprise customers and on request to data subjects via our contact page.

Caching

To reduce cost, Gradency caches the static portion of each grading request (the system prompt + your answer key + rubric) for the duration of a grading batch (typically 1 hour). The cached content is encrypted in transit and at rest by the grading subsystem. Gradency stores only an opaque cache identifier — never the cached content itself.

Token-usage logs

For each grading call we record the number of input tokens, output tokens, cache hits/creations, and resulting cost in our database. This is used for cost accounting and the admin dashboard. The prompt content itself is not stored beyond the request lifetime.

Backups

Daily database backups + uploaded files are stored in encrypted-at-rest object storage (Cloudflare R2 in our default deployment). Backups follow the same retention policy as the live database.

Deletion

When you delete a student, course, or your entire account:

  • Database rows are deleted immediately (cascading through grades, objections, token-usage records).
  • Uploaded PDFs in our file storage are deleted immediately.
  • Backups containing your data are purged on the normal backup-rotation cycle (30 days for daily snapshots).
  • Sub-processor abuse-monitoring caches purge per their retention windows (typically up to 30 days).

Self-hosting

For institutions with strict data-residency requirements (FERPA, GDPR, EU-only deployment), Gradency can be self-hosted. In that case all data lives on your infrastructure; Gradency operators never see it. Reach out via our contact page for guidance.

Questions

Use our contact page.