Privacy

Effective as of September 1, 2014


Here at Gradelicious one of the most important things we can do for students is to guard their privacy and make sure that nobody takes advantage their personal information and data. We fully support, and implement, all of today's privacy initiatives including FERPA and the SIIA pledge to advance student data privacy.

Gradelicious joins the Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA), the Future of Privacy Forum (FPF), Edmodo, Dream Box, Gaggle, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and others in the Student Privacy Pledge, which holds service providers accountable to:

  • Not sell student information

  • Not behaviorally target advertising

  • Use data for authorized education purposes only

  • Not change privacy policies without notice and choice

  • Enforce strict limits on data retention

  • Support parental access to, and correction of errors in, their children’s information

  • Provide comprehensive security standards

  • Be transparent about collection and use of data


Privacy Policy

At Gradelicious, we appreciate the trust you place in us to treat your information carefully and sensibly. As part of our commitment to honouring your privacy, we provide this policy (Privacy Policy) to make you aware of the choices you have about the way your information is used and to explain to you how we guard your information. We hope this policy helps you make informed decisions about sharing information with us.

This policy answers the following questions:

  • What information do we collect about you and how do we use it?

  • Will we share your personal information with third parties?

  • What security measures do we take to safeguard your personal information?

  • How do we comply with major standards where student data and protection of minors is concerned


This policy discloses our current privacy practices; we will not make any changes to these practices without informing all of our users prior to making any material changes to this privacy statement and pledge.

If you have any questions or concerns about our policy or its implementation, you may contact us at this email address: info@gradelicious.com.

Information collection and use

We collect personal and non-personal information to improve the usefulness of the content and services we offer to you. By knowing about you, we can deliver more helpful information, programs and tools, and offer you the most relevant services.

Information you provide

We collect personal information when you voluntarily provide it to us or authorize us to collect it on your behalf. When you register, we collect personal information from you such as your email address and password. Registering allows you to access personalized features and content on our site on a recurring basis.

Occasionally, you may be asked to give your opinion when you visit our site. We use information from opinion polls to better understand the needs of our users and to gather information about energy, environmental and sustainability trends and issues. Questions and answers are stored, but they will not be shared with third parties.

Information that is automatically collected


Log information

When you visit our site, our servers will automatically collect log information. This information may include your web page request, Internet Protocol (IP) address, browser type, browser language, the date and time of your request and one or more cookies that may uniquely identify your browser.

We collect log information so that we can properly administer our system and gather aggregate information about how our site is being used, including the pages visitors are viewing. We do not associate IP addresses with records containing personal information.

Cookies

We may collect anonymous information about your use of our site through cookies. The cookie will not tell us who you are. Only you can tell us that.

The information collected by cookies will helps us generate content and also allows us to statistically monitor how many people are using our site and for what purpose. We do not store any identifying information in any cookies on your computer.

Your browser software can be set to reject all cookies or to accept cookies only from our site. Most browsers offer instructions on how to reset the browser to reject cookies in the "Help" section of the toolbar.

We may also have agreements with companies, sometimes called Ad Networks, that serve advertising on behalf of third parties. These Ad Networks may place or recognize a unique cookie, sometimes called a third party cookie, on your browser. Ad Networks use cookies to understand web usage patterns of people who see advertisements, to control the sequence of advertisements you see, to provide you with the most relevant advertising, and to make sure you don't see the same ad too many times. Ad Networks may collect information about pages you visited on our site with information about pages you visit on other sites and show you advertising based on this combined information. We do not control third-party Ad Networks or what they do with the information they collect. We have relationships only with organizations that have agreed to participate in the Network Advertising Initiative (NAI) and abide by NAI principles, which prohibit members from connecting personally identifiable information to information they collect through cookies without your explicit consent.

If you wish to opt out of participating in advertising programs conducted by Ad Networks, please go to the NAI Opt-Out site and follow the instructions on that site. After you opt out, you will continue to see advertising on Gradelicious, but this advertising will not be tailored to your web preferences and usage patterns.

Web beacons

We may also use web beacons, sometimes called single-pixel GIFs, that momentarily direct your browser to a server other than Gradelicious in a way that may not be apparent to you. Web beacons are used to count users who visited specific pages and determine which emails were opened and/or acted upon when we send HTML-formatted email messages. We will not link any identifying information to web beacons.

Information Provided by Third Parties

When you make a purchase from us, we may use the personal information you provide to us to obtain additional information about people in your neighbourhood. This is average information for people who live within your postal or zip code. The information may include average household income, presence and age(s) of children, presence and age(s) of elderly parents, size and value of dwellings, and other census data. We may use this information, combined with information you provide to us and information collected by our systems, to better understand the characteristics of the visitors to our site and to develop new products, services and content areas. The information will also allow us to tailor content, advertising and offers to your interests and needs.

When we associate information that we obtain from third parties with personally identifiable information that we have collected under this Privacy Policy, we will treat the acquired information like the information that we collected ourselves. We will not share information we obtain from third parties in personally identifiable form. However, we may share Aggregate Information, as described in this policy that may include information we obtained from third parties in a form that does not permit you to be identified.

Communications


Email communications

Email communication that you send to us via the email links on our site may be shared with a Gradelicious representative or other employee. From time to time, we may send you service-related emails, such as a welcome email when you register with our site.

Invitations

When you invite a friend or family member to join our site, we will automatically send them an email invitation. We will not use their email address for any other purpose.

Newsletters and alerts

At various places on the site, you may be given the option to receive recurring informational newsletters and to set alerts and reminders. You can unsubscribe from newsletters by clicking on the unsubscribe link at the bottom of any newsletter.

Learn from others

Our site may include and feature community areas where people with similar interests can share information. Please remember that any information that you disclose in community areas is, by design, open to other members of Gradelicious.

Information disclosure to third parties

We know how important it is to keep the information you've entrusted to us confidential. We will not rent, sell or share identifying information about you with third parties unless you request a product or service from us and we need to share your information to fulfill your request or under certain circumstances as described below. In all other cases, we will ask for your permission before we disclose your personal information.

Disclosure for legal reasons

We may release personal information to third parties: (1) to comply with valid legal requirements such as a law, regulation, search warrant, subpoena or court order; or (2) in special cases, such as a physical threat to you or others, a threat to our system or network, or cases in which we believe it is reasonably necessary to investigate or prevent harm, fraud, abuse, or illegal conduct. In the event that we are legally compelled to disclose your personal information to a third party, we will make reasonable efforts to notify you unless doing so would violate the law or court order.

Agents and contractors

Contractors sometimes have access to your personal information in the course of assisting in operating our business and providing products or services to you. These contractors include vendors and suppliers that provide us with technology, services, and/or content for the operation and maintenance of our site. Some of these relationships may be with companies who co-brand portions of their site and services, or who provide services to you on our behalf. Access to your personal information by these contractors is limited to the information reasonably necessary for the contractor to perform its limited function.

Linked sites:

For your convenience, we may provide links to sites operated by companies that are not affiliated with our site and that do not have contracts to provide content or services through our site. These links may be found in advertisements, referenced within content, included in community profiles, or placed beside the names or logos of sponsors. We do not disclose your personal information to these third-party web sites without obtaining your permission. Before providing any information to these linked sites, we encourage you to read their privacy policies.

Aggregate Information

We may share aggregated information about you with third parties. This is information that is combined with the non-personal information of other users and does not allow you to be identified or contacted. Depending on the circumstances, we may or may not charge third parties for this aggregated information. We also may not limit the third parties' use of the aggregated information.

Changes in our corporate structure

If all or part of our company is sold, merged or otherwise transferred to another entity, the personal information you have provided at this site may be transferred as part of that transaction. We will take steps to ensure that, without your consent, any personal information that is transferred will not be used or shared in a manner inconsistent with the Privacy Policy under which it was collected.

Efforts we take to safeguard your personal information

We are committed to protecting the security of your information through procedures and technology designed for this purpose by taking these steps:

We limit access to your personal information to employees having a reasonable need to access this information to provide products and services to you. Employees who misuse information are subject to disciplinary action, including termination.

We provide secure sign-on to our site.

What you can do to help keep your information secure?


Choose your passwords carefully

Always create a password that's easy for you to remember but difficult for someone else to figure out. Don't use your name, address, phone number, initials, Social Security number, license plate or birthday. Don't use names of your friends, family, or pets, company names, common numerical sequences or the word password.

Suggestion: Use a mix of special characters, numbers, and upper- and lowercase letters. Also, remember to change your password frequently and never give your password to anyone.

Log out and close your browser

Open browsers invite snoops. When you finish your online session, close your browser to erase any information it may have temporarily stored on your computer.

Install antivirus software and spyware protection

Viruses are dangerous. Many viruses are sent as email attachments. They can slip into your system without your knowledge the moment you open the email. Some viruses such as Trojan Horses can capture the contents of your system, including your passwords. Installing up-to-date antivirus software and running it will help thwart these and other unwanted programs.

Spyware is a program or technology that aids in gathering information about a person or organization, often without their knowledge, and includes programs like hijackers and keyloggers. The best way to identify whether or not spyware is installed on your computer is to run and regularly update anti-spyware programs. Similar to antivirus software, antispyware software identifies and helps you remove spyware.

Protection of Children's contact information


Gradelicious encourages teachers, parents and guardians to spend time online with their students and/or children. We urge teachers/parents to instruct their students/children to never give out their real names, addresses, or phone numbers without permission when using the Internet. We recognize the obligation to protect personal information obtained from children. In an effort to be in compliance with COPPA (the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act), along with our pledge to support SIIA we have adopted the following policies to keep kids safe, there are a few exceptions to these policies as noted below. We have adopted the following policies to keep kids safe:

  • We will NOT knowingly collect, use, or distribute personally identifiable information from children under the age of 13 without prior verifiable consent from a teacher, parent or guardian.

  • Personally identifiable information we collect from children under the age of 13 will be used solely by Gradelicious or its agents for internal purposes only and will NOT be sold or otherwise distributed to third parties.

  • We will NOT knowingly allow children under the age of 13 access to chat rooms, message boards, email accounts, or other services within Gradelicious that would allow them to publicly post or otherwise distribute personally identifiable information without prior verifiable consent from a parent or guardian.

  • We will NOT knowingly ask a child under the age of 13 to divulge more information than is needed to participate in any activity, game, or service.

  • We will NOT knowingly keep any personally identifiable information that is inadvertently included in a child's email submission, help inquiry, or other one-time request, if we know that the child is under the age of 13. Information will be automatically purged or purged immediately after the issue has been resolved.

  • We will NOT knowingly post any personally identifiable information that is inadvertently included in a child's submission to a general audience contribution area if we know that the child is under the age of 13. These submissions will be deleted and handled anonymously thereafter.

  • We will NOT knowingly provide any direct link to websites that are unsuitable for children or teens.

  • We will advise children under the age of 13 that they MUST obtain permission from their parent or guardian before sharing ANY personal information.

  • Upon request, Gradelicious will provide a parent with a description of the information that may have been provided about their child during a registration process for a program or service of this site. Gradelicious only asks for a child's or teen's personal information if it is necessary to participate in the program or service.


If you have any questions about our Privacy Policy, please contact us immediately at info@gradelicious.com

Notification and Verifiable Parental Consent

Before any personally identifiable information is collected, we will do our best to notify the parent or guardian that their child is participating. Notification will include the exact nature and intended use of the information we are collecting, as well as the opportunity for the parent or guardian to prevent the use of the information and the child's participation in the activity. For every child (anyone under 13 years of age) we require the parent or guardian to provide verifiable parental consent such as an email, mail-in letter, fax, or toll-free phone call to Gradelicious.

Exceptions to Verifiable Parental Consent

There are few instances where we will NOT get verifiable parental consent, such as:

  • If a teacher registers any student / child without needing that student or child's contact info then it is up to the teacher to monitor the content of that page and abide by the "Terms of Use". See "Visitor's Risk" section of Terms.

  • Requesting the contact information of a parent or guardian for the sole purpose of obtaining verifiable parental consent or providing notification to the parent or guardian;