A pseudonymous identifier that belongs only to CommonRoom and confirmation that you are a student.
In short:
SWITCH edu-ID confirms that you are a student. CommonRoom does not import your name, institutional email address,
or public university identifier. Other students see only your generated identity and what you choose to share.
A pseudonymous identifier that belongs only to CommonRoom and confirmation that you are a student.
Your name, institutional email address, and public university identifier are not imported into CommonRoom.
Your generated username and avatar, plus profile information, posts, and replies that you choose to publish.
Your optional contact email, edu-ID identifier, and internal account information are not shown on your profile.
Important: Chat content is encrypted in storage and limited to its participants through access controls, except for individual messages submitted to the admin using the report button. It is not end-to-end encrypted.
SWITCH tells CommonRoom only that the sign-in is valid, that the account has student affiliation, and provides a pairwise, pseudonymous identifier used to recognise the same account next time.
CommonRoom does not import your name, institutional email address, or public university identifier. Your public account uses a generated username and avatar instead.
The identifier from SWITCH is stored privately and is not visible to other students. Your sign-in is protected through the established SWITCH edu-ID login and a secure CommonRoom session.
Other students can see your generated username, avatar, selected tags and profile labels, as well as anything you write in your profile, posts, or replies.
You decide what to write. To stay anonymous, do not add your name, contact details, or other information that could identify you to free-text fields.
Your optional contact email, edu-ID identifier, and internal account ID are never shown on your public profile.
You may add any valid email address to receive chat-request notifications. It is separate from SWITCH, remains private, and is never shown to other students. You can remove it again.
A chat begins only after the other person accepts a request. Message and request text is encrypted before it is stored in the CommonRoom database. The server decrypts it for the two participating accounts, so it is still not end-to-end encrypted.
You can block another account. This prevents new requests and further messages between those accounts.
Reporting a post or chat message shares that specific content with the admin, together with the reporting account, author, and report time. An encrypted copy is kept for review even if the original is edited or deleted. The admin receives an email with these account details and a protected link to the reported content. Report counts and details are visible only to the admin.
CommonRoom uses limited internal statistics to understand which main pages are used, whether visits come from a tagged campaign, and whether the website works across devices.
These statistics do not contain chat or post content, profile text, searches, email addresses, or SWITCH identifiers. CommonRoom does not use advertising trackers, browser fingerprinting, or IP addresses to identify visitors.
The hosting provider may keep technical server logs needed to operate, secure, and troubleshoot the website. These logs are separate from CommonRoom’s internal statistics.
You control what you write publicly and whether you add a private contact email.
Chat content is encrypted in the database, but it is not end-to-end encrypted because the CommonRoom server must decrypt it for participants. Contact emails are not protected by the chat-content encryption. Access controls, protected storage, and secure transport reduce risk, but no online service can promise that stored data could never be exposed in a security incident.
You can ask what CommonRoom holds about your account or request correction or deletion through the contact option on this website.
Last updated: September 2026