- Mark your calendars! Fall 2024 release schedule of Virtual Field Trips and our first-ever DE Doc is here!
This Privacy Policy (“Policy”) describes how Discovery Education, Inc., an Illinois corporation, (“Discovery Education”) and its subsidiary and affiliated companies that are incorporated in the United States of America only (collectively, “we,” “us,” or “our”) collect, use, and otherwise process personal information about our customers and users of our websites and services.
This Policy explains how we collect, disclose, use, and protect information when you visit or use our Websites and Services (defined below). We advise you to read the Policy in its entirety, including the jurisdiction-specific provisions, which will apply to users in certain jurisdictions. Additionally, please note that Section 3 of this Policy, which describes our collection and use of information through our Websites and Services, also serves as our Notice At Collection for California residents for purposes of the California Consumer Privacy Act (“CCPA”), which you can view by clicking here.
Discovery Education Experience platform, Mystery Science, Mystery Writing, Doodle Math and Pivot Interactives are products in Discovery Education’s portfolio and are referenced herein where appropriate.
Discovery Education is an online education service provider that produces and delivers high-quality digital content for K-12 education and beyond, including digital lessons, textbooks, streaming media, and other rich content. The services we offer enable teachers and students to participate in enhanced learning experiences. Depending on the context of the personal data you or your school/district provides, we may be the data “controller” or “business”, or “processor” or “service provider” of your personal data under applicable data protection laws. We are a “processor” or “service provider” of our customer data, personal data submitted to the Services or collected through the Services on behalf of or at the direction of the subscriber (the schools or school districts who are the “controllers” of the personal data), and personal data we receive or collect from the subscriber. When we are acting as a “processor” or “service provider”, we will only process the personal data on behalf of and subject to the terms of its contract with the subscriber, to the extent such contract exists, unless otherwise required by law. If you have questions about our processing of your personal data on behalf of a subscriber, please refer to the subscriber’s privacy policy.
We respect the privacy of our customers and visitors of our websites (identified below); users of our online subscription services and digital lessons; participants in contests, promotions, challenges, or sweepstakes; participants of our surveys; educators who attend training or Professional Development, or participate in the Discovery Educator Network (“DEN”); and attendees of conferences, trade shows or other events (collectively, the “Services”), and have developed this Policy to demonstrate our commitment to protecting your privacy. For the purposes of this Policy, the term “Websites” shall refer collectively to www.discoveryeducation.com, www.mysteryscience.com, www.doodlelearning.com/us, and www.pivotinteractives.com, as well as other websites that we operate (such as our corporate and non-profit education partner websites) and that link to this Policy.
In order to deliver our Websites and Services to you, from time to time we collect personal information. This Policy describes how we process your personal information when you interact with our Websites and Services; participate in our events, programs, and research studies; communicate with us; and participate in our educator and leader networks.
This policy DOES NOT apply to:
• Personal information we collect about job applicants, independent contractors, service providers, or current or former full-time, part-time and temporary employees and staff, contract workers, officers, directors or owners of Discovery Education.
• Our Websites and Services may contain links to third-party websites, which do not operate under this 2 Policy. These third-party websites may independently solicit and collect personal information from you. We do not have control over, and cannot be responsible for, the actions of other third parties. We encourage you to review the privacy policies of all third-party websites you visit to understand their information practices before providing personal information directly to them.
In this Policy, “personal information” means information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person. An identifiable person is one who can be identified, directly or indirectly, in particular by reference to an identifier such as a name, an identification number, location data, and online identifier or to one or more factors specific to his/her physical, physiological, genetic, mental, economic, cultural, or social identity. Personal information does not include aggregate information or de-identified information.
Please read this Policy carefully. It is your choice whether or not to provide personal information to us. If you choose not to provide your personal information to us, you may not be able to use our Websites and Services and we may not be able to communicate with you. If you do not agree with our policies and practices, do not access or use the Websites and Services. By accessing or using the Websites and Services, you accept and agree to be bound and abide by this Policy.
We may collect several categories of personal information from or about you, including information:
We collect this information:
A. Information Provided by You
The personal information that we collect about you broadly falls into the categories set out below. Some of this information you provide voluntarily when you interact with Discovery Education’s Services and Websites, or when you participate in our events, programs, and research studies; communicate with us; and participate in our educator and leader networks.
i. Purchasing our Products and Services.
When you purchase a subscription or membership to our Services, we may collect information necessary to process your transaction, including your name, email address, mailing address, phone number, payment information, such as a credit card number and/or other related information that may be required from you to complete your purchase (“Financial Information”). Unless we tell you otherwise at the time of your purchase, we do not collect, store or maintain your Financial Information; rather this information is handled by our Service Providers. For more information on how your information is shared in these instances, please see the “Third-Party Payment Processing” Section below.
ii. Using Our Websites and Services.
In order to use certain features of our Websites and Services, you (or your school) may be required to create a password-protected user account and provide us with personal information, including first name, middle initial, last name, username (Logon ID), password, teacher ID, teacher email, student ID, student grade, student email, parent/guardian name, parent/guardian email, and/or in-app preferences.
We will store and use this information to administer the Websites and Services in which you choose to participate. Doodle Math does not require or allow students thirteen (13) years old or younger to create Doodle Math user accounts. Mystery Science does not require or allow students to create Mystery Science user accounts. Doodle Math and Pivot Interactives allows students and children twelve (12) years old and younger to create an account only if the student receives an invitation from the student’s teacher and parental consent has been obtained by the student’s school, or if the parent creates an account for their child.
iii. Account Registration on Our Corporate and Non-Profit Education Partner Websites (non-subscription services).
We may collect your first and last name and email address if you choose to provide it in connection with your account registration on our Corporate and Non-Profit Education Partner Websites.
iv. Discovery Educator Network STAR Educator Program and Leadership Council.
If you participate in the DEN STAR Educator Program or Leadership Council, we may collect personal information from you, including your name, email address, role, the grade and subject(s) you teach, your social media handles and websites, school district, school name, picture, supervisor’s name, supervisor’s role, and supervisor’s email.
v. Courageous Leaders Leadership Network.
If you participate in our Courageous Leaders leadership network, we may collect personal information from you, including your name, business email address, school or district name, and school or district postal code.
vi. Contacting Us.
When you contact us for customer support or another inquiry, we may ask you to provide, or confirm, personal information, including your first and last name, job title, email address, phone number, city, state, school or district, so that we can better serve you.
vii. Challenges, Promotions, Contests or Sweepstakes.
If you enter a challenge, promotion, contest, or sweepstake, we may ask you to provide personal information, including first name, last name, birth date and/or age, home address, email address, grade, school, and/or a video, so that we can consider your entry and, if you win, so that you may redeem your prize.
viii. Newsletters.
For non-student users of the Websites and Services, we may collect your email address, first and last name, and zip code if you sign up to receive our newsletters.
ix, Participating in a Survey or Providing Feedback.
We may contact you to participate in surveys or provide feedback. If you participate in a survey, we may ask you to provide personal information, including your name, session ID, job title, grade level you teach, your school name, and your school district for internal analysis, research studies, and to support product and services development.
x. Promotional or Marketing Communications. If you sign up to receive promotional communications or notifications from us, we may ask you to provide personal information, including name and email address, so that we can provide these to you.
xi. Featured Questions.
From time to time, we may want to feature questions and comments we receive from you and your students. To submit a Featured Question, we collect the email address of the teacher, and the first name of the student and their grade system (e.g., United States grades). If the question is selected to appear as a Featured Question on our Websites, we will send you a permission form to obtain appropriate consent from the student’s parent or legal guardian for the student to appear in the featured video. Participation in this recorded video is optional, and we will never proceed without a signed consent form.
xii. Interactive Features.
We may offer interactive features such as commenting functionalities, “likes,” chat services, review forums, tips, and social media pages. We may collect the information you submit or make available through these interactive features. Any information you share on the public sections of these channels will be considered “public” and is not subject to privacy protections referenced in this Policy. We may access and use any of your public reviews along with your member profile name for any purpose, including marketing.
xiii. Professional Development, Training Conferences, Trade Shows, and other Events.
We may host professional development and training events, and may attend conferences, trade shows, and other events where we collect personal information from individuals who interact with or express an interest in us and/or the Services. We may add you to our newsletters and contact you about our Services.
xiv. Registering for Events.
When you register for an event, such as professional development or a virtual field trip, we may collect your name, job title, professional email address, phone number, mailing address, state, school district, and school name during the registration process.
xv. Referrals.
Some of our Services may allow you to refer other educators to use or participate in a trial or pilot of our Services. We may collect your name, the names and email addresses of the educators you refer to us. We will use this information you provide to send them an email inviting the recipient to use or sign up for a trial or pilot of our Services and let them know that you referred them. If the recipient does not respond to the invitation, we may send a single reminder email. We will retain this information through the duration of the promotion, trial and/or pilot to help us assess and improve the effectiveness of the promotion, trial, and/or pilot.
xvi. 3M Young Scientist Challenge Alumni Network.
If you participate in the 3M Young Scientist Challenge, we may invite you to join our 3M Young Scientist Challenge Alumni Network. In order to join the Alumni Network, we may collect your first and last name, mailing address, email address, your social platform username(s) (e.g., LinkedIn and Discord), your parent or guardian’s name and email address (if applicable), and details about your participation in the 3M Young Scientist Challenge (e.g., which year(s) you participated).
xvii. Research.
If you participate in our research studies including surveys, focus groups, and/or interviews, we may collect your first and last name, email address, job title, grade and subject(s) you teach, and your school or district along with your responses and feedback.
The above list provides examples of the personal information that may be collected when using our Websites and Services.
If you do not want us to collect your personal information, please do not provide it to us.
B. Information that We Collect Automatically From You On Our Websites and Services, and the Technologies We Use to Collect It
We may automatically collect information from you when you visit or access our Websites and Services. We use this information to deliver our webpages to you upon request, to tailor our Services to the interests of our users, to learn how our Websites and Services are used, and to measure traffic and usages within our Websites and Services.
i. Usage Details.
When you access and use our Websites and Services, we may automatically collect certain details of your access to and use of our Websites and Services, including, but not limited to, location data, time of visit, length of time your visit and of specific pages, page views, scroll depth, logs, scoring content that you are interested in, referring or exit website address, the content of any undeleted cookies that your browser previously accepted from us, and other communication data and the resources that you access and use on or through our Websites and Services.
ii. Device Information.
We may collect information about the device and internet connection you use to access our Websites and Services, including, but not limited to, the device’s unique device identifier, IP address, operating system, system configuration information, browser type, network information, internet service provider, JavaScript support, language preferences, screen resolution, and screen color processing ability.
iii. Interacting with Social Media Sites.
If you choose to join (or “like”) our page on a third party’s social media site, the social media site may provide us with certain information about you, including but not limited to your other “likes,” your email address, place of residence and other information from your public profile if you interact with our social media pages, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, etc., so we can tailor our interactions to you. Please see the privacy policy for the applicable social media site to learn more about how these sites share your personal information.
We use various technologies to collect information from your computer or other device and about your activities on our Websites and Services, including:
i. Cookies.
When you visit our Websites and/or Services, we may assign your device one or more cookies to help you navigate our Websites efficiently, to personalize your online experience, and to perform certain functions, including website traffic analysis. Through the use of a cookie, we also may automatically collect information about your online activity on our site, such as the web pages you visit, the links you click, and the searches you conduct on our site. A cookie is a small text file that is stored on a user’s computer for record keeping purposes. Cookies can be either session cookies or persistent cookies. A session cookie expires when you close your browser and is used to make it easier for you to navigate our website. A persistent cookie remains on your hard drive for an extended period of time. For example, when you sign int o our Websites and Services, we will record your username (Logon ID), and the name on your user account in the cookie file on your computer. We store your unique user ID in a cookie for automatic sign-in. This cookie is removed when you sign-out. For security purposes, we will encrypt the unique user ID and any other user account-related data that we store in such cookies. In the case of sites and services that do not use a user ID, the cookie will contain a unique identifier. We may allow our authorized service providers to serve cookies from our website to allow them to assist us in various activities, such as providing analysis and research on the effectiveness of our Website, content, and advertising. Most browsers automatically accept cookies, but you can usually modify your browser setting to decline cookies. You may delete or decline cookies by changing your browser settings (click “Help” in the toolbar of most browsers for instructions). If you do so, some of the features and services of our Websites and/or Services may not function properly. To read more about how we use cookies, please review our Cookie Policy, https://www.discoveryeducation.com/learn/cookie-policy/.
ii. Pixels and Other Technologies.
We may use pixel tags (also known as clear gifs, web beacons, or web bugs), including pixel tags placed by our third-party vendors to advertise our Services to previous visitors to our Websites when they visit other websites and social networks, and to measure the effectiveness of our ad campaigns. We also may include pixel tags in marketing and 6 promotional email messages or newsletters to determine whether messages have been opened and acted upon. The information we obtain in this manner enables us to customize the services we offer our Websites and Services visitors, to deliver targeted advertisements, and to measure the overall effectiveness of our online advertising, content, programming or other activities. Pixel tags are tiny graphics with a unique identifier, similar in function to cookies, and are used to track the online movements of web users or to access cookies. Unlike cookies, which are stored on the user’s device, pixel tags are embedded invisibly on web pages (or in email) and are about the size of the period at the end of this sentence. Pixel tags may be used to deliver or communicate with cookies, to count users who have visited certain pages and to understand usage patterns. We also may receive an anonymous identification number if you come to our site from an online advertisement displayed on a third-party website.
iii. Google Analytics 4. We use Google Analytics 4 provided by Google Inc. It uses cookiesto collect certain information, for example, information about the operating system and the browser that you use, your IP address, the website you previously accessed (referrer URL) and the date and time of your visit to the Services. On subsequent repeated visits to the Websites or Services, frequentlyused information is automatically displayed for you. We are able to track your usage patterns with the help of the cookies. The information generated by cookies about the use of the Websites or Servicesistransmitted to a Google server, which may be located within or outside of, the United States, and stored there. Google will use this information to evaluate your use of the Websites or Services. Google may transfer these rights to third parties insofar as it is required to do so by law or in order that data may be processed on Google’s behalf. For more information about Google’s data privacy practices, we encourage you to review “How Google uses data when you use our partners’sites or apps”, (located at www.google.com/policies/privacy/partners/. By accepting this Policy, you consent to the processing of your data by Google.
Educators may share Mystery Science lessons with their students through Student Links to enable students to access the lessons on their own devices. Mystery Science does not collect personal information about students who access the lessons through a Student Link. Mystery Science does collect usage details (e.g., number of visitors who watched the lesson, number of times the lesson was paused, and whether the lessons were completed). Mystery Science associates the usage details, which do not contain personal information, with the teacher who shares a Student Link with their students.
C. Information Collected From Other Sources
We may also obtain both personal and non-personal information about you from the following categories of sources: your school, our marketing partners (including social media companies, and companies that license datasets of teachers, educators, and school administrators), our resellers or partners, advertising networks, and companies we work with to conduct research and surveys. We may combine this information with information we collect through our Websites, Services, or from other sources.
Third Party Payment Information. When you make purchases our Services, we may process your payments through a third-party payment service provider. In these instances, the third-party payment service may collect certain Financial Information from you to process a payment on behalf of us, including your name, email address, address, banking and other billing information in which case the use and storage of your Financial Information is governed by the third-party payment service provider’s terms, conditions and privacy policies. Our treatment of any Financial Information that we process, or that we receive from our financing partners, is subject to this Policy.
While the purposes for which we may process personal information will vary depending upon the circumstances, in general we use personal information for the purposes set forth below and as mentioned above in Section 3.
• Provide and deliver the Services or transaction requested by you.
• Personalize and improve our Websites and Services and your experiences when you use our Websites and Services, including to develop new products and services.
• Contact you in response to a form you submitted such as Contact Us or Request a Demo to provide you with customer support or the information you requested.
• Communicate with you about programs, products, and Services that may interest you; offers(such as a free trial or pilot of our Services); updates on new or popular content, features and Services; training and professional development opportunities; connecting you with other educators; special events; educational programs; and news from us. (If you prefer that we not contact you in this manner, please follow the Opt-Out instructions in this Policy). We do not contact students for this purpose.
• For information collected through our DEN STAR Educator Program and the Leadership Council, to administer the application process and programs; connect you with other educators within the DEN STAR Educator Program or the Leadership Council; send you our program specific newsletters; and provide you with exclusive resources, learning opportunities, and experiences. For our DEN Star Educators, we may use your personal information including your name and examples of how you have incorporated the Services into your curriculum or information you shared in your activity reports to support business development opportunities with your school or school district or internally to highlight how our educators are using our Services. We may also contact you to obtain your consent to share the information you provided to recognize and celebrate you during events, across social media, and within our organization. We may use this information to invite you to our engagement platform AdvocateHub; request your input and feedback on our Services; invite you to participate in our trials for new products, product testing, research studies (including surveys, feedback sessions, and focus groups); invite you to regional events (conferences and networking events), collaborate with us on articles, blogs and other press releases, or co-present with us at events and conferences; and from time-to-time, outreach to connect in person such as in-classroom visits.
• For our Courageous Leaders leadership network, to add you to our network and invite you to the Courageous Leaders’ in-person events and virtual learning opportunities.
• Manage and administer our 3M Young Scientist Challenge Alumni Network, including inviting you to the 3M Young Scientist Challenge Alumni Network on social platforms, sending our 3M Young Scientist Challenge Alumni Network newsletter and invitations to periodic networking events to you, and mailing a welcome gift to you.
• For service administration where we need to contact you for reasons related to our Websites and Services (for example, where we need to send you a password reminder, to notify you about services updates or amendments to our Terms of Use, Cookies Policy, or this Policy).
• For marketing purposes, including helping us create and publish content most relevant and impactful to you; developing and displaying content and advertising tailored to your interests on our Websites and Services; measuring and improving the effectiveness of our advertising campaigns; and developing sales and business development leads.
• Aggregate and/or de-identify information about users or to use suggestions, comments, and ideas that are not personally identifiable. We are free to use and disclose through any means and use for any purpose information that is not personally identifiable in our sole discretion.
• Monitor and analyze trends, usage, and engagement with our Websites and Services to ensure the availability and integrity of the operation of Discovery Education’s Services and for product improvement and development. • For our research study participants, we will send you invitations to participate in our research studies (e.g., a Zoom invitation to attend an interview and a focus group, and an email with a link to the survey), analyze your survey responses and feedback, and prepare reports. • Verify your eligibility and deliver prizes in connection with challenges, promotions, contests and sweepstakes you registered for.
• Ensure that our own processes, procedures and systems are as efficient as possible.
• Enforce our Terms of Service.
• Manage our business operations and perform functions as otherwise described to you at the time of collection.
• Keep our Websites, Services, and IT systems secure.
• Protect against or identify possible fraudulent transactions, and otherwise as needed to manage our business.
• For legal compliance purposes.
We share your personal information as necessary to provide the services you request, including sharing information with third party service providers; when required by law; to protect rights and safety; and with your consent.
We may share personal information with:
• Authorized Service Providers. We may share your personal information, including name, unique personal identifier, IP address, email address, job title, other similar identifier, usage details, profile reflecting a consumer’s preferences, characteristics, behavior, abilities, and aptitudes and device details with our authorized service providers that perform certain services on our behalf. These services may include delivering our Websites or Services to you; providing customer service and support to you; providing marketing, advertising, and business development; performing marketing, business and sales research and analytics; supporting our Websites and Services functionality; conducting surveys and research for product development and improvement; processing payments through a third-party payment service provider; and supporting challenges, contests, promotions, sweepstakes, surveys and other features offered through our Websites and Services. The research reports and white papers do not contain personal information.
• Discovery Education Corporate Group. Between and among Discovery Education, our affiliates, subsidiaries and the companies under our control and ownership, we may share personal information such as name and contact details of sales leads, customer lists, reporting on aggregate engagement data of our Services, customer’s sales history and account information, and information collected through our Websites and Services by tracking technologies (as described above) for the following purposes: identifying business development opportunities, our marketing and advertising activities, conducting research and analytics, and improving our Websites, Services and product improvement and development.
• Corporate and Non-Profit Education Partners. We partner and collaborate with corporate and non-profit education partners to provide educators and families with open access educational resources; professional development and training; introduce classrooms to careers and educational experiences; incorporate educational resources developed in partnership with our corporate and non-profit education partners into the Services; underwrite and sponsor Discovery Education Services for certain schools; and host competitions, promotions, contests and/or sweepstakes. If you sign up to receive information from our partners, we will share your personal information including name, email, and job title with our partners. We share aggregate or de-identified information and statistical reports relating to usage of the Website and Services with our corporate and non-profit education partners (e.g., page views, visits, downloads, video views, email and social impressions). These reports do not contain personal information. When you participate in challenges, promotions, contests and/or sweepstakes offered through our Websites, we may share personal information with third-party service providers that administer the challenge, promotion, contest and/or sweepstake; and we may share the winner of the challenge, promotion, contest and/or sweepstake with the corporate or nonprofit education partner who sponsored or funded the challenge, promotion, contest and/or sweepstake and in our promotional materials with your consent. When you elect to participate in a particular promotion, contest and/or sweepstake program, you authorize us to provide your name, email address and other information to that corporate or non-profit education partner.
• Referrals. If you choose to refer colleagues and other contacts to use our Services by providing their names and email addresses, we may share your name with your colleagues in the initial referral email and follow up email(s).
• Content Partners. We share aggregate or de-identified information and statistical reports relating to usage of content (i.e., images, videos, literary passages, music) of the Website and Services with our content partners.
• Resellers and Partners. We may share or receive your personal information with business partners and resellers in order to provide you with access to our Websites and Services. If you purchase Services through a partner or reseller, that organization may provide you with information about related products and services that may be of interest to you in accordance with the partner or reseller’s privacy policy.
• To the extent subscriber of the Services is a state department of education or similar agency that purchased the Services for use by schools and districts within its state, with the applicable school or district’s authorization, we may disclose to the subscriber reports of the authorized users’ engagement data, including but not limited to usage statistics of the Services and/or Professional Development by authorized users.
• Other situations. We also may disclose your information:
i. In response to a subpoena, document request, or similar investigative demand, a court order, or a request for cooperation from a law enforcement or other government agency; to establish or exercise our legal rights; to prosecute or defend against legal claims; or as otherwise required by law. In such cases, we may raise or waive any legal objection or right available to us.
ii. When we believe disclosure is appropriate in connection with efforts to investigate, prevent, or take other action regarding illegal activity, suspected fraud or other wrongdoing; to protect and defend the rights, property or safety of our company, our users, our employees, or others; to comply with applicable law or cooperate with law enforcement; or to enforce our terms and conditions or other agreements or policies.
iii. In connection with a substantial corporate transaction, such as the sale of our business, a divestiture, merger, consolidation, or asset sale, or in the unlikely event of bankruptcy.
iv. When you provide us with your consent to share your information with third parties.
Aggregated and Non-personal Information:
We may share aggregated and non-personal information we collect under any of the circumstances set forth in this Policy.
We may share aggregated information with third parties, including advisors, corporate and non-profit partners, and potential customers, for the purpose of conducting general business analysis. For example, we may tell our advertisers the number of visitors to our Websites and Services and the most popular features or services accessed. This information does not contain any personal information and may be used to develop website content and services that we hope you and other users will find of interest and to target content and advertising.
Discovery Education will retain your personal information for as long as is needed to fulfill the purposes set forth in this Policy, unless a longer retention period is required or permitted by law (such as for tax, accounting, or other legal requirements).
Upon expiration or termination of any subscriber agreement, Discovery Education destroys personal information previously received from the subscriber, customer, and/or user when the subscriber, customer, or user signed up for the Services along with information relating to the subscriber, customer, and/or user’s use of the Services no later than sixty days following such termination, unless a reasonable written request is submitted by the subscriber or customer to us to hold such personal information.
Mystery Science retains the information it collects for an unrestricted period of time subject to requests for deletion.
Doodle Math retains the information it collects until a user is inactive and no longer has a paid subscription. Thereafter, Doodle Math deletes information from parents and teachers after six months and information from students after twenty-four months.
Pivot Interactives retains the student information it collects for six months after the student’s class ends and the teacher information it collects for three years after the teacher’s last login.
You may have certain rights in relation to your personal information. If you would like to exercise any of them, please contact us (contact details below).
We will consider all such requests and provide our response within a reasonable period (and in any event within any time period required by applicable law). Please note, however, that certain personal information may be exempt from such requests in certain circumstances.
If an exception applies, we will tell you this when responding to your request. We may request you provide us with information necessary to confirm your identity before responding to any request you make.
How You Can Access or Request to Delete Your Information If you have an online account with us, you have the ability to review and update your personal information online by logging into your account. You can also review and update your personal information by contacting your school.
If you are a user of the Services, you may request to have your personal information that you provided when you subscribed along with the information relating to your use of the Services removed from our databases by submitting a request to our contact information set forth at the end of this Policy, and insert “Privacy Rights Request” in the subject line. We will remove such information as soon as practicable for us, however, we may still retain certain information associated with your account for analytical purposes and record keeping integrity, as well as to prevent fraud, collect any fees owed, enforce our terms and conditions, take actions we deem necessary to protect the integrity of our Websites or our users, or take other actions otherwise permitted by applicable law. In addition, if certain information has already been provided to third parties as described in this Policy, retention of that information may be subject to those third parties’ policies.
Your Choices About Collection and Use of Your Information You can choose not to provide us with certain information, but that may result in you being unable to use certain features of our Websites and Services because such information may be required in order for you to access features of our Websites, participate in a contest, survey, or sweepstake; ask a question; contact customer support; or otherwise initiate other transactions on our Websites and Services.
How to Opt-Out At any time you can choose to no longer receive promotional emails or newsletters from us by modifying your email preferences by selecting the “Unsubscribe” link found in the footer of the email and following the instructions, or by contacting us. Non-student users of the Services may be given a choice as to whether you want to receive email messages about Services related to your interest. You may modify your choice at any time by using the “Unsubscribe” link as described above. You also will be given the opportunity in any promotional email that we send to you, to opt out of receiving such messages in the future. It may take up to ten (10) days for us to process an opt-out request. We may send you other types of transactional and relationship email communications, such as notifications relating to your subscription, service announcements, administrative notices, and surveys, without offering you the opportunity to opt out of receiving them.
Please note that changing information in your account, or otherwise opting out of receipt of promotional email communications will only affect future activities or communications from us.
Mystery Science does not permit students to create user accounts and does not collect personal information from students. Doodle Math accounts are created by parents and guardians for use by their children. Doodle Math does not permit students thirteen years old and younger to create user accounts. Pivot Interactives allows students thirteen years old and younger to create an account only if the student receives an invitation from the student’s teacher and parental (or guardian) consent has been obtained by the student’s school.
In most instances, Discovery Education will only request the first name, last name, and email address of a child under sixteen years old in order to complete an immediate request from the child. For students using the Services, any personal information that may be provided, which may include, but is not limited to, first and last name, grade, class, month and year of birth, and school, will be provided by the school district, individual school, or individual using the Services.
Use of Personal Information Collected from Children
When we collect personal information from children under sixteen years old, we will only use that information for the express purpose for which it was collected. The personal information will not be used for any other purpose.
Sharing of Personal Information Collected from Children
Except as provided in this Section, we do not share personal information collected from children under sixteen years old with any third parties. We may, however, share a child’s personal information that we have collected from the child’s school district, school or from the child in the following limited instances:
• We may share such information with our authorized service providers who help us maintain our Websites and Services and provide other services to us. We seek to ensure that these service providers may not use the personal information for any other purpose. These service providers have agreed to maintain the confidentiality, security and integrity of the personal information.
• If a child registers to participate in a challenge, contest, competition, promotion, or sweepstake, we may share the personal information of the finalists and winners of such challenge, contest, competition, promotion, or sweepstake with the corporate or non-profit education sponsor of that event. We will provide notice to parents/guardians and obtain verified parental consent before the collection, use, and disclosure of personal information as required by law.
• We may disclose a child’s personal information to third parties if we believe we are required to do so in order to comply with law (including court orders and subpoenas); to comply with requests from law enforcement agencies or the government; to enforce our Terms of Use; to protect our rights, privacy, safety or property and the rights, privacy, safety or property of our employees or others; to protect our operations; and to permit us to pursue available remedies or limit the damages that we may sustain.
Note to Parents and Legal Guardians
Please contact Discovery Education at any time regarding privacy questions or concerns, or to request to review what personal information we have collected from a child. Parents may also contact us at any time to request that we delete the personal information of a child or a parent and/or refuse to permit further collection or use of a child’s information.
We will take steps to verify that any person contacting us for a child’s information is that child’s parent or guardian.
Discovery Education, Inc.
Attn: General Counsel and Privacy Counsel
4350 Congress Street Suite 700 Charlotte, NC 28209 12
Tel: 1-800-323-9084
Email: privacy@discoveryed.com
Below, you will find additional privacy information you may find important.
Security
The security of your personal information is important to us. We follow generally accepted standards (including by taking physical, electronic and procedural measures) to protect the personal information that we collect and process. While we are focused on the security of your personal information and follow strict standards, processes and procedures that are designed to protect your personal information, you must remember that the internet is a global communications vehicle open to threats, viruses and intrusions from others and so we cannot promise, and you should not expect, that we will be able to protect your personal information at all times and in all circumstances.
You should also take care with how you handle and disclose your personal information and should avoid sending personal information through insecure email. Please refer to the Federal Trade Commission’s website at http://www.ftc.gov for information about how to protect yourself against identity theft.
No Rights of Third Parties
This Policy does not create rights enforceable by third parties.
Changes to this Policy
We will occasionally update this Policy to reflect material changes in our privacy practices. If we make any material changes in the way we collect, use, and/or share your personal information, we will notify you by posting the modified Policy on our Websites and Services and indicating at the top of the Policy the date it was last updated. We may also notify you by sending you an email. We encourage you to review the Policy each time you visit one of our Websites and Services to see if this Policy has been updated since your last visit to make sure you understand how your personal information will be processed.
If we become aware that we have inadvertently received personal information from a child under the age of thirteen other than in a legally permissible situation, we will delete the information from our records as soon as we discover it.
In this section, we set forth additional information as required under applicable privacy laws in certain jurisdictions.
A. California
In this section, we provide information for California residents as required under California privacy laws, including CCPA, which requires that we provide California residents certain specific information about how we handle their personal information, whether collected online or offline. This section does not address or apply to our handling of:
• Publicly available information made lawfully available by state or federal governments;
• Personal information we collect about job applicants, independent contractors, or current or former full time, part-time and temporary employees and staff, officers, directors or owners of Discovery Education; or
• Personal information about individuals acting for or on behalf of another company, to the extent the information relates to our transactions with such company, products or services that we receive from or provide to such company, or associated communications or transactions (except that such individuals have the right to opt-out of any sale of their personal information and to not be subject to any discrimination for 13 exercising such right). Categories of personal information that we collect and disclose. Our collection, use and disclosure of personal information about a California resident will vary depending upon the circumstances and nature of our interactions or relationship with such resident. The Section above titled “Information We Collect and How We Collect It” sets out generally the categories of personal information (as defined by the CCPA) about California residents that we collect, sell, and disclose to others for a business purpose. We collect these categories of personal information from the sources described in the Section above titled “Information We Collect and How We Collect It,” and for the purposes described in the Section above titled “Purposes for Processing Personal Information.”
If you are a California resident, the CCPA grants you certain rights and imposes restrictions on particular business practices as set forth below:
• Do-Not-Sell and Do-Not-Share: California residents have the right to opt-out of the sale of their personal information and the sharing of their personal information for purposes of cross-context behavioral advertising. We do not sell personal information.
• Limit the Use of Sensitive Personal Information: California residents have the right in certain instances to request that we limit the use and sharing of their sensitive personal information. The CCPA defines “sensitive personal information” to include, among other things, your: social security, driver’s license, state identification card, or passport numbers; account log-in, financial account, debit card, or credit card numbers in combination with any required security or access code, password, or credentials allowing access to an account; racial or ethnic origin, religious or philosophical beliefs, or union membership; genetic data; and biometric information (including physiological, biological, or behavioral characteristics). You may exercise this right by making a request as described in the “Submitting Requests” section below.
• Initial Notice: We are required to notify California residents, at or before the point of collection of their personal information, the categories of personal information collected and the purposes for which such information is used.
• Request to Delete: California residents have the right to request deletion of their personal information that we have collected about them and to have such personal information deleted, except where an exemption applies. We will respond to verifiable requests received from California residents as required by law. The instructions for submitting a verifiable Request to Delete are described below.
• Request to Know: California residents have the right to request and, subject to certain exemptions, receive a copy of the specific pieces of personal information that we have collected, used, and disclosed about them in the prior 12 months and to have this delivered, free of charge, either (a) by mail or (b) electronically in a portable and, to the extent technically feasible, readily useable format that allows the individual to transmit this information to another entity without hindrance. California residents also have the right to request that we provide them certain information about how we have handled their personal information in the prior 12 months, including the:
– categories of personal information collected;
– categories of sources of personal information; business and/or commercial purposes for collecting and selling their personal information;
– categories of third parties with whom we have shared their personal information; and
– categories of personal information disclosed for a business purpose in the preceding 12 months, and for each category identified, the categories of third parties to which we disclosed that particular category of personal information. California residents may make a Request to Know up to twice every 12 months. We will respond to verifiable requests received from California residents as required by law. The instructions for submitting a verifiable Request to Know are described in the “Submitting Requests” section below.
• Request to Correct: California residents have the right to request that we correct inaccurate personal information that we maintain. 14
• Right to Non-Discrimination: The CCPA prohibits discrimination against California residents for exercising their rights under the CCPA. Discrimination may exist where a business denies or provides a different level or quality of goods or services, or charges (or suggests that it will charge) different prices, rates, or penalties on residents who exercise their CCPA rights, unless doing so is reasonably related to the value provided to the business by the residents’ data.
• Financial Incentives: A business may offer financial incentives for the collection, sale or deletion of California residents’ personal information, where the incentive is not unjust, unreasonable, coercive or usurious, and is made available in compliance with applicable transparency, informed consent, and opt-out requirements. California residents have the right to be notified of any financial incentives offers and their material terms, the right to opt-out of such incentives at any time, and may not be included in such incentives without their prior informed opt-in consent. We do not offer any such incentives at this time.
Submitting Requests. If you are a California resident and would like to make a request to exercise your rights under the CCPA, please contact us at: privacy@discoveryed.com and insert “California Privacy Rights Request” in the subject line or call this toll free number: 1-800-323- 9084. You may also designate an authorized agent to make a request on your behalf by submitting your authorization to us via a verified form of communication, such as through the email address you previously provided to us or previously used to communicate with us. Please allow forty-five (45) days for a response.
We will use the following process to verify Requests to Know, Requests to Delete, and Requests to Correct: We will acknowledge receipt of your request, verify it using processes required by law, then process and respond to your request as required by law. To verify such requests, we may ask you to provide the following information:
• For a request to know categories of personal information which we collect, we will verify your identity to a reasonable degree of certainty by matching at least two data points provided by you against information in our systems which are considered reasonably reliable for the purposes of verifying a consumer’s identity
. • For a request to know specific pieces of personal information or for requests to delete, we will verify your identity to a high degree of certainty by matching at least three pieces of personal information provided by you to personal information maintained in our systems and also by obtaining a signed declaration under penalty of perjury that the requestor is the consumer whose personal information is the subject of the request. An authorized agent can make a request on a California residents’ behalf by providing a power of attorney valid under California law, or providing:
(1) proof that the consumer authorized the agent to do so; (2) verification of their own identity with respect to a right to know categories, right to know specific pieces of personal information, or requests to delete which are outlined above; and (3) direct confirmation that the consumer provided the authorized agent permission to submit the request. We will respond to verifiable requests received from California residents as required by law. For more information about our privacy practices, you may contact us as set forth in the Section below titled “Contact Us.”
Do Not Track Disclosure
Discovery Education does not support Do Not Track browser settings and does not currently participate in any “Do Not Track” frameworks that would allow us to respond to signals or other mechanisms from you regarding the collection of your personal information.
B. Virginia
In this section, we provide information for Virginia residents as required under Virginia law, which grants Virginia residents certain rights and imposes restrictions on particular business practices as set forth below.
• Right to Access: Virginia residents have the right to confirm whether or not we are processing their personal information and to access such personal information.
• Right to Correction: Virginia residents have a right to correct inaccuracies in their personal information, taking into account the nature of the personal information and our purpose for processing their personal information.
• Right to Delete: Virginia residents have the right to request the deletion of their personal information that we have collected about them and to have such personal information deleted.
• Right to Data Portability: Virginia residents have a right to obtain a copy of their personal information previously provided to us in a portable and, if feasible, readily usable format.
• Right to Opt-Out: Virginia residents have a right to opt-out of the processing of their personal information for purposes of (i) targeted advertising; (ii) the sale of personal information; or (iii) profiling in furtherance of decisions that produce legal or similarly significant effects. Under Virginia law, “sale” means only if we exchange personal information for monetary consideration with a third party.
• Right to Non-Discrimination: Under Virginia law, we are prohibited from discriminating against Virginia residents for exercising their rights listed above.
Submitting Requests. If you would like to make a request to exercise your rights, please contact us at the contact details provided in Section 12.
C. Utah
In this section, we provide information for Utah residents as required under Utah law, which, beginning on December 31, 2023, grants Utah residents certain rights and imposes obligations on businesses as set forth below.
• Right to Know: Utah residents have the right to confirm whether or not we are processing their personal information.
• Right to Access: Utah residents have a right to access their personal information that we are processing.
• Right to Obtain a Copy: Utah residents have a right to obtain a copy of their personal information that we have collected in a portable and readily usable format, if feasible.
• Right to Deletion: Utah residents have a right to request the deletion of their personal information that we have collected about them.
• Right to Opt-Out: Utah residents have a right to opt-out of the processing of their personal information for the purposes of targeted advertising and the sale of their personal information. Under Utah law, sale means our exchange of personal information to a third party for monetary consideration.
• Right to Non-Discrimination: We are not permitted to discriminate against a Utah resident for exercising one of the above rights.
Submitting Requests. If you would like to make a request to exercise your rights, please contact us at the contact details provided in Section 12.
D. Connecticut
In this section, we provide information for Connecticut residents as required under Connecticut law, which, beginning on July 1, 2023, grants Connecticut residents certain rights and imposes restrictions on particular business practices as set forth below.
• Right to Access: Connecticut residents have a right to confirm whether we are processing their personal information and access the personal information we are processing.
• Right to Correction: Connecticut residents have a right to correct inaccuracies in their personal information previously provided to us.
• Right to Deletion: Connecticut residents have a right to request the deletion of their personal information that we have collected about them.
• Right to Data Portability: Connecticut residents have the right to obtain a copy of their personal information that we have collected in a portable format, if technically feasible.
• Right to Opt-Out: Connecticut residents have a right to opt-out of the processing of their personal information for the purposes of (i) targeted advertising, (ii) the sale of their personal information, or (iii) profiling in connection with certain automated decisions that produce legal or similarly significant effects. Under Connecticut law, the sale of personal information is the exchange of personal information for monetary or other valuable consideration by the controller to a third party.
• Right to Non-Discrimination: We are not permitted to discriminate against a Connecticut resident for exercising one of the above rights.
Submitting Requests. If you would like to make a request to exercise your rights, please contact us at the contact details provided in Section 12.
E. Colorado
In this section, we provide information for Colorado residents as required under Colorado law, which, beginning on July 1, 2023, grants Colorado residents certain rights and imposes restrictions on particular business practices as set forth below.
• Right to Access: Colorado residents have a right to confirm whether we are processing their personal information and access the personal information we are processing.
• Right to Correction: Colorado residents have a right to correct inaccuracies in their personal information previously provided to us.
• Right to Deletion: Colorado residents have a right to request the deletion of their personal information that we have collected about them.
• Right to Data Portability: Colorado residents have the right to obtain a copy of their personal information that we have collected in a portable format.
• Right to Opt-Out: Colorado residents have a right to opt-out of the processing of their personal information for the purposes of (i) targeted advertising, (ii) the sale of their personal information, or (iii) profiling in furtherance of decisions that produce legal or similarly significant effects. Under Colorado law, sale means our exchange of personal information for monetary or other valuable consideration to a third party.
• Right to Non-Discrimination: We are not permitted to discriminate against a Colorado resident for exercising one of the above rights.
Submitting Requests. If you would like to make a request to exercise your rights, please contact us at the contact details provided in Section 12.
F. United Kingdom/European Union/European Economic Area
If you are an individual located in the United Kingdom (“UK”), European Union or European Economic Area (“EU”), please refer to our UK Privacy Policy available at https://www.discoveryeducation.co.uk/privacy-policy/.
If you have any questions about this Policy or our privacy practices, please contact us by email, telephone or postal mail as follows:
Discovery Education, Inc. Attn: General Counsel or Privacy Counsel
4350 Congress Street Suite 700 Charlotte, NC 28209
Email: privacy@discoveryed.com
Tel: 1-800-323-9084
We will use the following process to verify your consumer or privacy rights requests: We will acknowledge receipt of your request, authenticate it using processes required by law, then process and respond to your request as required by law. To authenticate such requests, we may ask you to provide additional information as reasonably necessary