“Too often, educators and families are asked to choose between a tool that costs money and a tool that costs privacy. ANTON's model, engaging learning for every subject, every grade, free and with high privacy standards, shows that the tradeoff isn't inevitable.” David Hörmeyer, Co-founder & MD, ANTON

Equity by Design

ANTON is a free, self-paced K–12 learning platform built by a Berlin-based educational technology company with a mission rooted in equity and inclusion. With more than 20 million active users, ANTON covers every core subject, including math, science, ELA, music, and life skills, alongside a complete English Language Development (ELD) program and state assessment test prep. Designed to be engaging for students and effortless for teachers, ANTON meets learners where they are, regardless of background, language, or ability. That global reach, paired with a product built for some of education's most vulnerable populations, is exactly why its privacy foundation carries weight: a platform serving newcomer families and English learners across dozens of countries has less room for error, and more reason to earn trust deliberately.

Why Privacy Matters Most for the Families ANTON Serves

As AI reshapes classrooms, the scrutiny on free edtech tools has only intensified. Schools and families are right to ask where a "free" product's revenue actually comes from, because tools that look free to the user often aren't free of a business model built on their data. That scrutiny is exactly why privacy has stopped being a "nice to have" and become the cost of entry for modern learning tools, especially for products serving English language learners, newcomer families, and students with IEPs, where trust in institutions is often hard-won and easily lost.

Privacy Innovations That Set ANTON Apart

ANTON's approach to privacy is structural rather than added on after the fact:

  • Data Minimization. ANTON requires minimal personal information. Students and teachers can create anonymous, code-based accounts with no mandatory social login and no sensitive personal identifiers required.
  • Zero advertising by design. ANTON contains no advertisements of any kind, and student attention is never sold. This isn't a reversible policy choice; it's a fundamental part of how the product is built.
  • No data selling, ever. Student data is never sold, shared with third parties for commercial purposes, or used for targeted advertising.
  • Unified Privacy Across Core Subjects. Instead of managing four or five single-subject apps with separate privacy policies, ANTON consolidates Math, ELA, Science, ELD, and more under one strict, verified privacy framework.

Alongside these practices, ANTON's privacy program reflects the requirements of both GDPR and FERPA, a dual standard that matches its footprint across the U.S. and international school systems it serves.

What the Seal Means for Schools

For district IT directors evaluating dozens of edtech tools at once, an independent, third-party review offers something a vendor's own privacy policy can't: reassurance that isn't self-reported. The Common Sense Privacy Seal reflects a detailed policy review against a 200+ point rubric, giving schools an at-a-glance signal that a product's privacy claims have actually been checked.

“ANTON has grown to be a leading school learning platform in many countries almost entirely through word-of-mouth. Working with Common Sense Privacy lets U.S. families and educators recommend us with confidence.” David Hörmeyer, Co-founder & MD, ANTON

For a district IT team, that independent confirmation cuts down on procurement due diligence (one less privacy policy to parse line by line) while giving educators confidence that their edtech tools meet privacy standards and parent expectations.In a crowded edtech market, it's also a real point of differentiation: a Seal-holding product has been vetted by a third party with a long history of evaluating educational tools, not just by its own marketing team.

Looking Ahead

Privacy law and AI governance continue to evolve, and a Seal earned once isn't a Seal earned forever. Common Sense Privacy's ongoing relationship with Seal recipients is built around that reality: helping companies like ANTON stay ahead of new laws, adapt as regulations shift, and maintain the trust they've built with educators and families over time. For a platform operating in more than 50 countries, that ongoing partnership matters as much as the initial review: it's what allows a globally recognized, independently verified standard of trust to keep meaning something years after the badge is first awarded.