How The Arena Hub Ltd collects, uses and protects information in Arena Lite and Arena Hestia — including data received from Google APIs.
The Arena Hub Ltd ("Arena Hub", "we", "us") is a company registered in England and Wales, Company No. 17086105. This policy covers both of our apps, which sign in with Google under the name "Arena Hub":
Arena Lite — an evidence capture and planning platform for Alternative Provision and SEMH education practitioners.
Arena Hestia — a daily planning and evidence platform for parents and carers of children learning at home.
Contact for all data-related matters: data-protection@thearenahub.co.uk.
Learner records — observations, evidence, plans, routines and safeguarding entries — are stored in your own Google Drive, not on Arena Hub's systems. When you use a feature, the request passes through our server (Google Cloud Run, London) to carry out that action and is not stored by us afterwards (see sections 6 and 7).
Account data: your name, email address and setting, organisation or household name, provided when you sign up.
Licence data: your licence key, plan, start and expiry dates and status.
Payment data: handled entirely by Stripe, Inc. We never see or store card numbers.
Account and licence data is held in our Command Centre records and Google Cloud Firestore in the London (europe-west2) region.
When you sign in, Google asks you to allow "Arena Hub" the following permissions. Each one is used only for the purpose shown:
See, edit, create and delete only the specific Google Drive files that you use with this app (drive.file) — to create your Evidence Vault folders and your Evidence Vault spreadsheet (which holds your learner records and evidence log) in your Drive, to save evidence files you choose to upload (including through the Google file picker), and to create your reports, plans and evidence summaries and save them as PDF. The apps can only see files they created or that you selected; they cannot see or change anything else in your Drive.
Connect to an external service (script.external_request) — to contact Arena Hub's own server (Google Cloud Run, London) to check your licence, apply the export rules for each recipient, provide AI planning and evidence suggestions (section 6) and send support-access notifications; and to call Google's own Drive service to save a report the app has just created as a PDF in your Drive. Every request to our server is signed (section 5).
Your Google account email address (userinfo.email) — to match the signed-in Google account to the licence issued to that email address.
We do not request access to Gmail, your contacts, your calendar, your other Google Sheets or Docs, or the rest of your Google Drive.
Your records stay in your own Google account. Learner or child profiles, evidence, safeguarding records, routine logs, plans and exports are kept in a spreadsheet and folders inside your own Google Drive. We do not copy them into a database of our own.
Narrowest Drive permission. The apps use Google's drive.file permission only, so they can reach just the files they created or that you chose. We do not request access to all of your Google Sheets, Docs or Drive.
Protected, audited records. Safeguarding records are written by the app and the sheet is protected against manual edits. Safeguarding entries, exports and support-access events are recorded in an audit log in your own spreadsheet (who, what and when).
You decide what leaves your account. Every export is built for a named recipient (for example a local authority, school, awarding body, social worker or a Subject Access Request), and rules for each recipient decide what may be included. Sensitive items such as safeguarding records are included only when you tick them, except for a Subject Access Request, where full disclosure is the legal default. The choices made for each export are recorded in the audit log.
Temporary, controlled support access. If you ask us for help you can grant our support account access to your Arena workspace for a limited time. Google removes that access automatically when the time ends, you can end it early at any time, and you are emailed a report when it ends.
UK processing. Our server (Google Cloud Run) and the AI features (Google Vertex AI) run in Google's London region (europe-west2). AI features run only when you use them, and only on the content needed for that feature (section 6).
Encryption and signed requests. All connections use HTTPS, and Google encrypts data stored in Google Drive and Google Cloud. Every request between the apps and our server is signed with a secret key (HMAC) held in Google Secret Manager, so requests cannot be forged.
What we hold ourselves. Only the account and licence data described in section 3, kept as set out in section 9.
Some features — such as Plan the Day, HIVEMIND session plans, curriculum matching and Arena Lite's document descriptions — use Google's Gemini models through Google Cloud Vertex AI, processed in the London (europe-west2) region.
What is sent: only the information needed for the feature you are using, for example the text you have written (an evidence description, notes or a session topic), the learner's age, key stage or working level, and, in Arena Lite, a document you attach as evidence (it is automatically sent to the AI to draft a description, which you then review and edit before saving). Arena Hub does not attach learners' names, dates of birth or contact details to AI requests. Because text and attached documents are sent as you provide them, please avoid including names or other identifying details in them.
What is not done: AI requests and responses are not stored in Arena Hub's databases, and Google Cloud does not use this data to train its AI models. Arena Hub does not use Google user data to develop, improve or train generalised AI or machine-learning models.
Google Cloud (Cloud Run, Firestore, Vertex AI — London, europe-west2): hosting, licence records and AI processing.
Google Maps Platform (Arena Hestia local-learning ideas only): the area or postcode you enter and the learning topic, to suggest nearby venues. No learner details are sent.
Brevo (Sendinblue SAS, EU): sends service emails such as your welcome and activation email and support-access notifications (your name, email address and licence key).
Stripe, Inc.: payment processing.
We do not sell data, use advertising networks or use analytics trackers.
Arena Hub's use and transfer of information received from Google APIs to any other app will adhere to the Google API Services User Data Policy, including the Limited Use requirements. In particular:
• Google user data is used only to provide and improve the features you use in Arena Lite or Arena Hestia.
• It is not transferred to others except as needed to provide those features (section 7), to comply with law, or as part of a merger or acquisition with your notice.
• It is never used for advertising, never sold, and never used to determine creditworthiness.
• No person at Arena Hub reads it unless you ask us to (for example for support), it is needed for security purposes such as investigating abuse, or the law requires it.
• It is not used to develop, improve or train generalised AI or machine-learning models.
To remove Arena Hub's access to your Google account: go to your Google Account → Security → Your connections to third-party apps & services (myaccount.google.com/connections), choose "Arena Hub" and remove access.
Learner data is in your own Google Drive; you can delete the Arena folders and spreadsheet at any time. Account and licence data is kept for your subscription and up to 30 days after it ends, then deleted. You can ask us to delete it sooner by emailing data-protection@thearenahub.co.uk.
Contract (UK GDPR Art. 6(1)(b)) for account, licence and service delivery; legitimate interests (Art. 6(1)(f)) for security, fraud prevention and essential service messages. Marketing emails are only sent with your opt-in consent.
You can ask for access to, correction of, erasure of, or a portable copy of your personal data, and you can object to processing based on legitimate interests. Contact data-protection@thearenahub.co.uk; we respond within one month. You can also complain to the Information Commissioner's Office at ico.org.uk.
The apps use only the essential session cookies Google sets to keep you signed in. This website uses no analytics, tracking or advertising cookies.
If we make material changes we will email active subscribers before they take effect. The date at the top of this page shows the latest revision.
The Arena Hub Ltd, registered in England and Wales, Company No. 17086105
Email: data-protection@thearenahub.co.uk