Who Can Read a Student's AI Tutor Chat?

Who can read a student's AI tutor chat? The answer depends on the service and how accounts are linked and managed. Khan Academy's documentation provides a concrete example: enabled teacher accounts can review student transcripts, while other account relationships and retention practices have their own rules. Our analysis is that schools should map those permissions before expanding a pilot, rather than assuming a conversation belongs only to the student.

A learning tool still needs a defined purpose

UNESCO guidance calls for privacy protection and ethical and pedagogical validation of generative AI in education (UNESCO’s education guidance). The EEF recommends identifying the teaching and learning need before introducing technology (EEF’s digital guidance). These are different tests. A product can offer a plausible classroom interaction while leaving the school unsure what educational need it addresses or what evidence would show improvement. Our recommendation is to write down the teaching task, the intended oversight role and the success measure before opening student access.

Check actual account roles, not a generic dashboard

Khan Academy says teachers whose accounts and students have Khanmigo enabled can view a student's chat transcripts (Khan Academy’s teacher instructions). Khan Academy lists both full student chat histories and summarised reporting among teacher-facing Khanmigo features (Khan Academy’s reporting guide). These statements describe Khanmigo, not every AI tutor. Our assessment is that a school should test the permissions available to a real teacher account linked to a test student account. Check whether staff can see complete conversations, summaries or flagged interactions, and document which people receive alerts.

Retention is more than the chat window

Khan Academy distinguishes ordinary chat history from flagged conversations and says users can request earlier deletion (Khan Academy’s deletion practices). Khan Academy says account control in many classroom uses differs from some structured school programmes that give schools additional administrative controls (Khan Academy’s account explanation). The presence of a deletion request option does not prove that every copy or summary disappears immediately. Our recommendation is to ask the provider which record types remain after a request, who may submit it and which school programme controls apply. Keep a separate list for chat history, summaries and moderation records rather than treating them as a single data object.

Legal scope and data permissions are separate

The FTC explains the scope of COPPA for operators of child-directed commercial websites and online services that collect personal information (the FTC’s COPPA questions). The FTC says school consent on behalf of parents is limited to school-authorized educational purposes, not other commercial purposes (the FTC’s school guidance). The US Department of Education lists direct school control over education-record use among the conditions for outsourced contractors under the FERPA school-official exception (the Department of Education’s FERPA explanation). The US rules have distinct scopes and exceptions; these pages do not establish one universal school consent rule for every provider, age group or country. Our analysis is that purchasing teams should verify the applicable jurisdiction and contract before assuming a product meets a school's obligations. Specify allowed uses and the limits of access instead of relying on a broad privacy promise.

Make the pilot accountable to teachers

The EEF advises schools to engage staff and monitor and adapt an implementation (EEF’s implementation guidance). Our recommendation is a limited pilot with named roles for approving access, reviewing flagged interactions and explaining the process to families. Ask who can change permissions and how staff would learn when a policy changes. Record classroom observations against the original learning goal as well as the data controls. Only then decide whether a wider deployment is justified.

Related coverage: classroom AI evaluation; AI-assisted coaching; classroom interactives; school AI standards; education applications.