Halo Notification Service is a software that sends Halo-related notifications via Discord to GCU students. It is not officially affiliated with GCU.
Notification preview
In order to use Halo Notification Service (HNS), you need two things:
When you’re ready to get started, check out the Halo Notification Service Setup Guide!
After you give it permission, the HNS browser extension can access certain parts of halo.gcu.edu using your browser. If you’re logged into Halo, that means it can see specific things like grades and announcements. Using code, the browser extension talks to the Discord bot to figure out if a new grade or announcement has been posted in any of your classes. From there, the bot sends you a Discord direct message with the new information, which arrives to your phone as a push notification.
No. Halo Notification Service developers have contacted the United States Department of Education to obtain information on proper digital security practices when dealing with student data. FERPA grants students several rights regarding their personal educational records, the collection of which is necessary for Halo Notification Service to function. Our specific data handling procedures are outlined in our Privacy Policy, and our Terms of Service includes a section dedicated to clearly explaining what is expected from students in regard to their FERPA-given rights.
Under FERPA, your educational records are your property. By using Halo Notification Service, you’re allowing HNS to view some of your educational records, which is completely within your legal right. If you change your mind at any time, simply uninstall the browser extension to prevent HNS from seeing any new educational records. As soon as you uninstall the extension, any other educational records that were being stored by HNS will be permanently removed.
Nothing beyond what is necessary to provide you with grade notifications. ****Grades and other educational records are all securely stored on Halo Notification Service internal servers. They are not being sold, datamined, scraped, or otherwise maliciously handled. No grade-related records are stored outside of these internal servers. Further information on what we do with collected information can be found in our Privacy Policy.
GCU has not officially acknowledged the existence of this software. While their approval would be fantastic, it is not necessary for the software to function.
Transparency is a core belief of Halo Notification Service’s primary developer. The source code for the discord bot can be found here and the source code for the browser extension can be found here. Contributions are welcome!