Before you start your learning conversations with Sigma, we would like you to know what it is designed to do, how our conversational agent works and ensures that your data privacy rights are not affected.

Sigma: A Tool, Not a Replacement for Teachers
Sigma is a powerful AI conversational agent and tool that augments human expertise and is not here to replace teachers or educators. Our approach is built on Human-In-The-Loop (HITL) and real-world teaching experience.

Designed by Educators: The design and development of Sigma was implemented with direct input from real, qualified teaching practitioners. This ensures that every feature, instruction, and safety guardrail promotes learning experiences that truly engage, enhance, and lead to learning success and academic achievement. This partnership will remain central to all future improvements.
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For Learners: Sigma is your friendly guide on the side, but your teacher remains your primary mentor. The human teacher provides context, personalised motivation, emotional support, and the final judgment on your learning path.
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For Teachers: Sigma is your powerful education assistant. It improves because of your intelligence! When teachers review Sigma’s suggestions, refine its learning resources, or audit its conversation logs, they are providing the necessary human input that keeps the agent accurate, relevant, and free of bias.

This essential partnership ensures that we blend the speed and scale of AI with the non-negotiable quality and ethical judgment that only a trained human educator can provide. You can be assured that human oversight is essential to Sigma’s success.

When you first sign into access Sigma you are required to 'Request Access'. This is to ensure that genuine human users are registered to interact with Sigma and have been authorised to use the service. Only users who authenticate with Google will be able to access and interact with Sigma through the conversational messenger chat interface.

What is Sigma and who is it for?
Sigma is an advanced, specialised AI conversational agent designed to support everyone in the learning ecosystem.
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For Parents: Sigma is a trusted, safe technology partner that ensures digital conversations are productive, secure, and always focused on education.
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For Students/Learners: Sigma is a friendly guide ready to help with homework, explain complex concepts, and explore new topics through natural conversation.
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‍For Teachers & Education Leaders: Sigma is an education assistant that helps you explore pedagogical practices, design enhanced learning experiences, and craft rich, engaging resources and activities tailored for all learning styles and needs.

Is it safe and private to chat with Sigma?
Absolutely. Building trust is our top priority.

Zero Need for Personal Data: Sigma is purpose-built to focus only on learning and educational content. It never asks for and does not need any personal or sensitive information (like full names, addresses, or account numbers) to help you.

‍Automatic Data Redaction: We have mandatory, built-in digital safeguards that act as an invisible shield. If sensitive information is accidentally typed, our system automatically detects and instantly removes (redacts) it before the conversation is even recorded. This means the data never reaches our logs.

‍A Positive Environment: Sigma's design ensures all interactions are supportive, respectful, and always within the established guardrails for learning and education.
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‍Q: Is my personal information used to train AI models?
A: A big, clear NO!
Your personal data is never used to train the general, large AI models (like Gemini) that power Sigma. Those models are already huge and don't need your homework questions!

We have a strict policy: Your PII is scrubbed instantly.
If you accidentally type a phone number or full name, our super-smart security system (called DLP) automatically and instantly deletes it before the conversation is saved. It's like a digital shield.
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‍The only data we keep is about teaching and learning. This ensures your privacy is protected and our logs contain only what we need.

How is my conversation history used by Otem AI?
Your conversations are used for one purpose only: to make Sigma the best possible education assistant.
‍We review anonymous conversation history (that has already had all personal data scrubbed) to find areas where Sigma can be more accurate, clearer, or improve its ability to explain concepts.

‍Crucially, your data is NEVER used to train the underlying, foundational AI models that power Sigma. Your data stays within our secure Otem AI environment and is only used to improve your specific learning tool.
We only keep these anonymous, scrubbed records for a short, defined period before they are securely deleted.

‍Q: Why do you need my chat history at all?
A: Great question! It's so we can guarantee a better learning experience for everyone.

‍Improvement, not Training.
We review the anonymized (PII-free) chat transcripts to see where Sigma needs to be smarter. For example, if many students ask about "Pythagoras' theorem" but Sigma gives a confusing answer, we review that log and immediately adjust our specific AI for educational rules so Sigma can improve understanding during interactions and provide better responses.
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Better Accuracy, Less Confusion: This process helps us catch inaccuracies, remove any unintentional bias, and ensure Sigma is a reliable source of information, dedicated to giving you accurate, helpful answers every time.

‍Sigma’s whole purpose is to be the best education assistant and AI tutor learning companion possible, and we only use your anonymous, educational chats to make that happen.

What assurance can Otem AI give to schools and families?
We understand that, particularly in the education sector, data compliance must be transparent and robust.Accountability & Compliance: Otem AI adheres strictly to UK GDPR's Fairness, Transparency, and Accountability principles.

‍For Teachers, School Leaders & DPOs: We use enterprise-grade Google Cloud technology with strict Data Loss Prevention (DLP) to protect all conversational data. We maintain a detailed record of processing activities and are ready to support your Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA) requirements.

‍For Parents: You can be assured that your child's learning interactions are kept private, and their data is never exploited. We encourage you to review our full Privacy Policy for details on your data rights.

What if I want to know more?
Your rights under GDPR are not affected, and you can always enquire about how your data is handled or exercise your rights through our Privacy Policy