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Defined Privacy Policy

THE Defined PLEDGE

Welcome to Defined! We know that you care about how your personal information is used and shared, and we take your privacy seriously. At Defined, we stand by the following principles when we collect Student Data through our Service:

  • Defined collects, stores, processes and shares Student Data only for the purposes of providing our Service as described in and authorized by this Privacy Policy
  • Defined will collect, use, share and retain Student Data only for purposes for which we are authorized by the Educational Institution or teacher
  • Defined will use the minimum amount of Student Data necessary to provide the service
  • Defined does not sell Student Data
  • Defined does not use Student Data for any targeted advertising purposes
  • Defined will maintain a comprehensive data security program designed to protect the security, privacy, confidentiality, and integrity of student personal information against risks – such as unauthorized access or use, or unintended or inappropriate disclosure – through the use of administrative, technological, and physical safeguards appropriate to the sensitivity of the information.
  • Defined will clearly and transparently disclose our data policies and practices
  • Defined currently asks for the following student data from districts, schools, and teachers: First name, last name, student id (optional), username (when no 3rd party auth), password (when no 3rd party auth), grade, school, classes, teachers, email, and district. Certain features may limited if data is not provided. Data may be provided by user input, through 3rd party authentication systems (Clever, Google, Classlink/OneRoster, Portals, LMS, SIS, etc.), or standardized CSV files. Student profiles are not kept for any non-educational purpose
  • Defined will not retain student personal information for longer than necessary to deliver the service.
  • We will not make any material changes to our Privacy Policy or Terms of Use that relate to the collection or use of Student Data without first giving notice and providing a choice before the Student Data is used in a materially different manner than was disclosed when the information was collected

If you have any questions, please contact us at privacy@definedlearning.com.

Defined is a proud signatory of the Student Privacy Pledge. To learn more about the Pledge, visit https://StudentPrivacyPledge.org.

PRIVACY POLICY

Defined Learning, Defined Academy, and Defined Careers are provided by Defined. (“Defined Learning”), located at 900 Skokie Blvd Suite 100 Northbrook, IL 60062. This Privacy Policy applies the Defined  website and mobile application(s) as well as any other websites or applications we own or operate (collectively, our “Service”), and explains our practices regarding the collection, use, disclosure, and protection of personal information as well as your choices regarding the collection and use of information. Capitalized terms that are not defined in this Privacy Policy have the meaning given them in our Terms of Use. Your use of the Defined services constitutes your agreement to the Defined  Terms of Use and to this Privacy Policy.

1. How We Collect Personal Information

Personal information is information that can personally identify a specific individual, such as a name, address, telephone number, email address, and other information linked to that personal identifier. We collect personal information in a number of ways from our website visitors and Users of our Service.

A. Information you provide. We ask for certain information when a teacher, student-teacher, school administrator or other individual (our “Users” or “User”) registers for a Defined account or corresponds with us online, which could include your first and last name, email address, profile picture, user name and password, and/or any additional personal information you voluntarily provide in your Defined profile, which could include, but is not limited to, your school name and location, your coursework or degree information, what grade level and subject matter you teach, your position within the school, and similar information. We collect personal information if you send us a message or respond to emails and surveys. We may also collect information about your friends and colleagues that you invite to join the Service or to view your content on the Service. We use this contact information to send the invitations and reminder emails, and other communications. Users can give us information about K-12 students (our “Student-User” or “Student-Users”), through both manual entry and automated processes.

B. Information collected through the use of the Service. Once the User or Student-User has created an account or an account is created for them, we collect content and information provided by the Users and Student-Users on the Service. For example, Users and Student-Users could provide information about coursework, assignments, rubrics, tasks, assessments, class rosters, photos, images, video, feedback, comments and other communications. All content provided by the Users and Student-Users to or through the Service is “User Submissions.” As provided in our Terms of Use, you are responsible for the User Submissions you post to the Service.

C. Information We Collect From Third Party Services and Social Media Sites. We may collect information about you from third party services that you connect to our Service. For example, if you login through Google or other single-sign-on services, share Defined content on social media sites, or if you access other third party services, such as DropBox, Google Drive, YouTube, and other websites (“Third Party Services”), through the Defined Service in order to share certain content selected and approved by you with those services, and/or to import content into the Defined Service, these third parties may provide us information about you. We may also receive information about you if you interact with our site through various social media, for example, by liking us on Facebook or following us on Twitter. The data we receive is dependent upon your privacy settings with the social network or other third party site. You should always review, and if necessary, adjust your privacy settings on third-party websites and services before linking or connecting them to the Service.

D. Student Data. To the extent that our Service is used by a College, University, local education agency, teacher, or other educational institution (“Educational Institution”) and (a) its students as part of school curriculum (e.g., a teacher training program in a University, or (b) by teachers (e.g. as part of a teachers improvement program), the personal information we collect through the Service may include personal information from “educational records” as defined by the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (“FERPA”), 20 U.S.C. § 1232(g) (“Student Data”). We consider Student Data to be highly confidential, and we utilize this data only to provide our Service and as permitted in this Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.

E. Information Relating to Non-Users, including K12 Students. As part of the Service, our Users and Student-Users, including teachers and teachers-in-training (“Student Teachers”), may upload User Submissions that contains videos, images or personal information of K12 students, teachers, or other non-users of the Service. As a User or Student-User, it is your responsibility to ensure that you have the appropriate rights and consents to share any such content you upload or share with the Defined services, including by obtaining any consents necessary from parents, teachers, school administrators and/or school districts, and to ensure you comply with all laws that may apply to the personal information of others that you provide in User Submissions. Although Defined  strives to apply high data privacy standards to all of the information in its possession, and does not use or share User Submissions other than as described in this Privacy Policy, any personal information related to non-users that may be provided in User Submissions is not strictly subject to this Privacy Policy. Please see our Terms of Use to learn more about User Submissions.

F. Information Collected Through Technology. We automatically collect certain types of usage information when you visit our website or use our Service. This information is typically collected through cookies, log files, web beacons, and similar tracking technology (collectively, “cookies”). These cookies collect information about how you use the Service (e.g., the pages you view, the links you click, and other actions you take on the Service), information about your browser and online usage patterns (e.g., browser type, browser language, referring / exit pages and URLs, pages viewed, whether you opened an email , links clicked), and information about the device(s) you use to access the Service (e.g., mobile carrier, device type, model and manufacturer, mobile device operating system brand and model, and, depending on your mobile device settings, your geographical location data. We may also collect analytics data, or use third-party analytics tools, to help us measure traffic and usage trends for the Service. Although we do our best to honor the privacy preferences of our visitors, we are not able to respond to Do Not Track signals from your browser at this time.

We use or may use the data collected through cookies to: (a) remember information so that you will not have to re-enter it during your visit or the next time you visit the site; (b) provide custom, personalized content and information, including targeted advertising on our website; (c) provide and monitor the effectiveness of our Service; (d) monitor aggregate metrics such as total number of visitors, traffic, usage, and demographic patterns on our website and our Service; (e) diagnose or fix technology problems; (f) investigate fraud or misuse of the Service and (g) otherwise to plan for and enhance our Service. Most browsers automatically accept cookies as the default setting. You can modify your browser setting to reject cookies or to prompt you before accepting a cookie from the sites you visit by editing your browser options. If you decide not to accept our cookies, you may not be able to use some of the Service’s features and functionality.

G(a). Third Party Tracking (for definedlearning.com / marketing lead site - NOT FOR TEACHERS/STUDENTS): On our external marketing site, we may permit third party services to collect information about your use of our Services over time so that they may be able to enhance and/or customize features specifically to you. This is not the site used by teachers and students to use the service “Defined Learning”, "Defined Careers", or "Defined Academy".  You may be able to avoid the collection of information through cookies or other tracking technology by actively managing the settings on your browser or mobile device to delete or not accept cookies. Please refer to your browser’s or mobile device’s technical information for instructions on how to delete and disable cookies, and other tracking/recording tools. (To learn more about cookies, clear gifs/web beacons and related technologies and how you may opt-out of some of this tracking, you may wish to visit http://www.allaboutcookies.org and/or the Network Advertising Initiative’s online resources, at http://www.networkadvertising.org). Depending on your mobile device, you may not be able to control tracking technologies through settings.

G(b). Third Party Tracking (for app.definedlearning.com, pbl.definedlearning.com, app.definedcareers.com / sites used by schools/districts/teachers/students): We do not permit third party services to collect information about your use of our Services over time so that they may be able to enhance and/or customize features specifically to you. Non- personally identifiable tracking through Google Analytics is used by us to continue to develop our site to meet the needs of our customers as a whole. You may be able to avoid the collection of information through cookies or other tracking technology by actively managing the settings on your browser or mobile device to delete or not accept cookies. Please refer to your browser’s or mobile device’s technical information for instructions on how to delete and disable cookies, and other tracking/recording tools. (To learn more about cookies, clear gifs/web beacons and related technologies and how you may opt-out of some of this tracking, you may wish to visit http://www.allaboutcookies.org and/or the Network Advertising Initiative’s online resources, at http://www.networkadvertising.org). Depending on your mobile device, you may not be able to control tracking technologies through settings.

To be clear, any information provided by a school district about their teachers and students are not available to third parties. 

2. How We Use and Share Your Personal Information

The Defined services facilitate the sharing of User Submissions and communications between Users and Student-Users. We share data within the Service as needed to perform the Service and we share data at our User’s and Student-User’s request and direction. For example, User Submissions may be shared between Users and Student-Users to facilitate feedback and training to improve learning outcomes. Sharing within the Service will depend on the settings and functionality selected by the User. We only share personal information with third parties in limited circumstances, described below. We will never share, use or sell Student Data with third parties for marketing purposes. 

The Defined service uses and shares your personal information in the following ways:

A. With your consent. We share information with your consent and at your direction. The Service contains a communication tool that permits and encourages data sharing and communication between Users and Student-Users. A User may control which other Users may access her User Submissions or those created by their Student-Users, and may invite and authorize non-users to access his/her User Submissions. By accessing and using the Service through a license provided by an educational institution, employer, or other third party institution, the User must also consent to have User Submissions and personal information shared with the institution that provides for the license. In all other circumstances, a User and/or Student-User may authorize a specific individual (either another User or a non-user), or a class of individuals through Settings, to access User Submissions under her control.

B. With our trusted vendors and third party service providers. We may share personal information with certain trusted vendors, third party service providers and individuals to perform tasks on our behalf, but strictly for the purpose of carrying out their work for us, which may include business development, software design, hosting, payments, accounting, and other similar services. Personal information will be shared with these third parties as reasonably needed to perform their services to us, and under reasonable confidentiality terms. Vendors and service providers who have access to Student Data, if any, shall be subject to privacy and confidentiality provisions no less protective than those provided herein. Examples of these services are Amazon Web Services (AWS / hosting), MailChimp (emailing) , Help Scout (support ticketing), Hubspot (Customer Relationship Management). 

C. We may share information with other companies owned by or under common ownership with Defined. These companies will use your personal information in the same way as we can under this Privacy Policy.

D. Aggregate Data. We will share information in an aggregated and/or anonymous form that does not reasonably identify you directly as an individual. For example, we may share aggregate data with other Users to display statistical data related to the use of the Service. Or, we can use and share aggregate data to provide feedback to our Users or to measure certain metrics over time. We may also use aggregate or anonymized data to study and improve our Service, user functionality, and product offerings.

E. We may disclose your personal information if we have a good faith belief that the disclosure is necessary to (i) comply with the law or legal process; (ii) to comply with or the reasonable request of law enforcement; (iii) to enforce or apply our Terms of Use or other agreements or to protect the security or integrity of our Service; and/or (iv) to exercise or protect the rights, property, or safety of Defined Learning, our employees, our Users, or others.

F. If Defined or some or all of its assets were acquired or otherwise transferred to a third party in the course of a company transaction, such as a merger, sale of company assets or shares, reorganization, financing, change of control, bankruptcy or other corporate event, the personal information of our Users may be transferred to or acquired by a third party. If the transaction involves the transfer of Student Data or User Submissions to a third party, we will require the third party to agree to be subject to the same commitments set forth in this Privacy Policy.

3. Communications

As part of our Service, we may use your information to communicate with you about your account or transactions with us, or send you information about Service updates, newsletters, or promotional materials. You acknowledge that by using the Service, Defined and our trusted third party business partners working on our behalf may send you email or engage in other communications with you. To be clear, trusted third parties can not send messages or communicate with you without our consent.  You can unsubscribe from these emails by clicking on the “unsubscribe” button within the body of the email. Please note that you are not permitted to unsubscribe or opt-out of non-promotional messages regarding your account, such as account verification, changes or updates to features of the Service, or technical or security notices. We may also communicate with you via in-app notifications or in-Service messaging. You may be able to control these communications through your Settings.

The Defined Learning Service and our email communications may contain links to other websites or services. These other websites and services are not under Defined’s control, and such links do not constitute an endorsement by Defined of those other websites. The privacy and security practices of websites linked to or from the Service are not covered by this Privacy Policy, and Defined  is not responsible for the privacy or security practices or the content of such websites. Moreover, Defined is not responsible for any third party links which may be provided in User Submissions by our Users. We encourage you to learn about the privacy practices of any third party website or service before providing them with personal information.

5. Our Security and Data Storage Practices

Defined  cares about the security of your information and uses commercially reasonable physical, administrative, and technological safeguards to preserve the integrity and security of all information we collect. These safeguards can include, but are not limited to, password protection, need-based access, firewall and encryption, physical security controls for our office and company locations, employee training, and other such mechanisms. Our security team periodically reviews our information storage and security practices and updates our policies and practices as needed to address changing technologies and known threats. In the event that any information under our control is compromised as a result of a breach of security, we will take reasonable steps to investigate the situation and where appropriate, notify those Users whose information may have been compromised and take other steps, in accordance with any applicable laws and regulations.

Your information collected through the Service may be stored and processed in the United States. If you are located in the European Union or other regions with laws governing data collection and use that may differ from U.S. law, please note that we may transfer information, including personal information, to a country and jurisdiction that does not have the same data protection laws as your jurisdiction (United States). By using this Service, you consent to such transfer, and you agree that Defined may process your personal information in the United States as described in this Privacy Policy.

6. Control, Access and Deletion of Personal Information

You may access, update or correct your personal information at any time by logging into your account.

User accounts and User Submissions are maintained on the Service unless requested and until Defined receives a deletion request from the User through the term of the service agreement. All personally identifiable information (PII) is removed after 30 days of contract/service agreement expiration.

In the future, Defined may delete dormant accounts and User Submissions, subject to storage constraints.

To delete an account, please contact us at privacy@definedlearning.com. Defined will promptly delete or de-identify the account, including the Student-Users, and User Submissions within the account, within thirty (30) days of such request or instruction, though we may retain and use certain information if necessary to comply with our legal obligations, resolve disputes, and enforce our agreements, and all information stored in our backup data repository will be deleted pursuant to our standard deletion policy. We may not be able to delete feedback or comments you provide to another User or another User’s User Submission on the Service. Please note that Users and Student-Users accessing the Service under an institution’s enterprise license may not be able to delete an account without the institution’s approval. Please contact your university, employer, or other institution through which you obtained the license to discuss account deletion.

We may maintain aggregate or de-identified data in a form that does not reasonably identify a particular individual, for our internal use or analytic purposes.

If you are a parent, teacher, or school administrator and would like to request access information relating to a student or minor who may appear in User Submissions that has been posted on the Service, please contact us at privacy@definedlearning.com and we will do our best to assist you. User Submissions are owned and controlled by our Users and Student-Users, who are responsible for obtaining all appropriate consents necessary to collect and share the User Submissions with the Defined Learning Service.

7. Compliance with COPPA and FERPA

Defined  complies with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (“COPPA”). Defined does not knowingly collect personal information through the Defined Learning Service from a child under 13, unless a User has affirmed that she has obtained appropriate consent from the child’s school or teacher to post such information to the Service. Please contact us at privacy@definedlearning.com if you believe we have inadvertently collected personal information from a child under 13 without proper consents so that we may delete such information as soon as possible.

Defined complies with the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). The personal information we collect from certain of our Users, for example, those Users who utilize the Defined services as part of a teacher training program at a college or university, may be subject to provisions of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) and applicable state laws, and by other state, federal and international laws relating to the collection and use of student data. We consider the information of student records to be highly confidential, and we utilize this data only to provide our Service and as permitted in this Privacy Policy and Terms of Use. We do not engage in targeted advertising based on information that we collect from students through the Service and we do not use collected information to amass student profiles except in furtherance of an educational purpose or as requested by the user.

Defined Users and Student-Users are solely responsible for assuring compliance with FERPA, COPPA and other privacy laws which may be applicable to the personal information of non-users, including, potentially, K12 students, that may be contained in the User Submissions the User and/or Student-User provides to the Defined Learning Service.

8. Our Privacy Policy Will Change Over Time

Defined may amend this Privacy Statement from time to time. If we make any changes to this Policy, we will change the “effective date” below and will post the updated Policy on this page. We will use our best efforts to provide at least 30 days-notice of a Privacy Policy change that may involve collecting, using, storing, or sharing personal data in a materially different way than was disclosed in our previous Privacy Policy, so that you have sufficient time to evaluate the change in practice. If you do not choose to accept the changes, you may opt-out by deleting your account before the changes take effect. Continuing to use our Services after the effective date of the revised Privacy Policy means that you consent to the changes.

Notwithstanding the foregoing, we will not make any material changes to this Privacy Policy that relate to the collection or use of Student Data without first giving notice to the School, via email or another notification method of our choosing, and providing a choice before Student Data is used in a materially different manner than was disclosed when the information was collected.

9. Contact Us

We welcome your feedback. If you have any comments or concerns about this privacy policy or would like to contact us for any reason, you may reach us at privacy@definedlearning.com.

Effective Date: Feb 2, 2022.

Updated Feb 2, 2022. to reflect updated company name "Defined" previously "Defined Learning.