Empower Learning ("Empower Learning, LLC") values your privacy. In this Privacy Policy, we describe how we collect, use, and disclose information that we obtain about users of our Learning Management System "Empower." It also describes the choices available to you regarding our use of your personal information and how you can access and update your personal information.
By submitting personal data (as defined below) through our sites, apps or services, you agree to the terms of this Privacy Policy, and you expressly consent to the collection, use and disclosure of your personal data in accordance with this Privacy Policy. IF YOU ARE A PARENT OR TEACHER OF A CHILD UNDER THIRTEEN YEARS OLD, PLEASE REVIEW OUR COPPA PRIVACY POLICY (below), WHICH CONTAINS IMPORTANT INFORMATION FOR PARENTS ABOUT HOW WE COLLECT, USE, AND DISCLOSE THE PERSONAL INFORMATION WE COLLECT FROM CHILDREN UNDER THIRTEEN YEARS OLD.
Empower Learning, LLC, recognizes the importance of data security and privacy to our users. This FERPA Privacy Policy is designed to comply with the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). Empower strives to maintain effective and up-to-date technological and procedural safeguards for protecting personally identifiable customer information, including student information within the scope of FERPA, as described further below. To help you ensure that your educational institution complies with its obligations under FERPA, we are able, as your educational services partner, to confirm that Empower takes numerous measures to maintain the securi and confidentiality of all student records by, for example, providing secure hosting facilities for the storage of student data that use encryption and/or physical security measures, as well as firewall protection and restricted, password protected access.Empower's learning management tools provide options that allow students, instructors and/or educational institutions to restrict or grant access to information by certain parties or "roles"within the platform. We also encourage all of our customers to help ensure that confidential information remains secure by using strong passwords and changing passwords frequently. Through our User Agreement with Educational Institutions, Empower requires that users maintain their passwords in the strictest confidence and prohibits the use or posting of student social security numbers in any manner, or posting of other sensitive personal information by users.
Empower is typically integrated with a school's Student Information System (SIS) or the school uploads manually all to the Empower application on behalf of the end-user (student, staff or instructor), users must still consent to the disclosure of their personal information by Empower, but it is the school's responsibility to provide notice to students that Empower is among the school's vendors to whom educational records maybe disclosed by the school and establish a method for making the user registration information anonymous if a user so requests. Regardless of how User information is obtained, Empower makes every effort to ensure that it is collected and stored consistent with FERPA's policies. Empower encourages Licensee's to employ policies and procedures that explicitly address student privacy concerns in connection with third party learning management systems hosted outside their educational institution, such as, notifying students & parents that the school/district/class uses third party platforms, educating students and instructors on school policies with regard to the use of such systems and how to use the features of Empower platforms to protect student data; and providing students and instructors with student identification numbers that are not highly sensitive (cannot be the used as the sole basis to access sensitive campus student information or educational records) in order to facilitate an anonymous experience within the Empower environment. We believe the above information appropriately addresses questions posed by adopting institutions on how Empower addresses the FERPA guidelines on management of student consent and personally identifiable information. The following details more specific privacy policies for our end users.
If you have questions about the privacy aspects of our Services, please contact us at:
Empower Learning, LLC
Attn: Legal
317 W. 4th Street
Greenville, Ohio 45331
john@empowerlearning.net
We may collect Personal Data from end users affiliated with a particular school or other educational institution or organization ("School") who are teachers or administrators ("Teachers"), students, which may include children under the age of 13 ("Students"), and parents or legal guardians of Students ("Parents") as each uses our Sites, Apps and Services (any individual end user in one of these groups or all three collectively may be referred to as "you"). "Personal Data" means data that allows someone to identify or contact you, including, for example, your name or email address, as well as any other non-public information about you that is associated with or linked to any of the foregoing data. We may also collect Anonymous Data. "Anonymous Data" means data that is not associated with or linked to your Personal Data; Anonymous Data does not, by itself, permit theidentification of individual persons. To the extent that Anonymous Data is linked with your Personal Data, we will treat it as Personal Data. We collect Personal Data and Anonymous Data that Teachers, Parents and Students provide to us directly. We may also collect Personal Data or Anonymous Data automatically, through technologies used on the Sites, in the Apps and in the Services, as described below.
Information we collect from Teachers and Parents:
In some cases, the Services may allow you to set up an Account and/or sign in using your Google Plus ID or your Clever ID. If your school chooses to use this option, if available, we will receive information for the sole purpose of setting up your Account and/or enabling you to sign in to your existing Account.
General Use
We use the information that we gather about you for the following purposes:
We may aggregate or anonymize data we collect to create Anonymous Data. Anonymous Data does not identify you individually. We may use this Anonymous Data for our own purposes, such as to better understand how users access and use our Sites, Apps, and Services in order to improve our Sites, Apps, and Services and respond to user desires and preferences, and for other research and analytical purposes. We also may disclose Anonymous Data to third parties in order to meet these purposes.
We do not sell your personal information. We will disclose the Personal Data that we collect from you only as described in this Privacy Policy.
If you make any comments to a Newsfeed, Educational Materials, Resource Pins or other items or forums associated with the Sites or Apps that are publicly viewable by the Empower Learning, LLC community, you should be aware that any Personal Data you submit there can be read, collected, or used by other users, and could be used to send you unsolicited messages. We are not responsible for Personal Data that you choose to submit in these blogs and forums.
Cookies. We use cookies to track information about your use of our Sites, Apps, or Services. "Cookies" are alphanumeric identifiers that we transfer to your computer's hard drive through your web browser for record-keeping purposes. We may use both session Cookies (which expire once you close your web browser) and persistent Cookies (which stay on your computer until you delete them). Some Cookies allow us to make it easier for youto navigate our Sites and Services, while others are used to enable a faster log-in process or to allow us to track your activities but only as those activities relate to your use of our Sites and Service.
Third-Party Analytics. We may also use third party analytics tools and technologies, such as Google Analytics, to track and analyze data from our Sites, Apps, or Services. Google Analytics uses Cookies to collect information such as how often users visit the Sites, what pages they visit, and what other sites they used prior to coming to the Sites. We use the data collected by such third party analytics tools only to help us administer and improve the quality of our Sites, Apps, and Services and to analyze usage. These third parties are not permitted to use the information collected on our behalf, except to help us conduct and improve our business.Google Analytics collects only the IP address assigned to you on the date you visit the Sites, rather than your name or other personally identifying information. Although Google Analytics plants a persistent Cookie on your web browser to identify you as a unique user the next time you visit the Sites, the Cookie cannot be used by anyone but Google. Google's ability to use and share information collected by Google Analytics about your visits to the Sites is restricted by the Google Analytics Terms of Use and the Google Privacy Policy. For more information on Google's privacy practices, please click here . For information about how to opt out of Google Analytics, please click here .
Our Sites, Apps, and Services may contain links to third-party websites. Any access to and use of such linked websites is not governed by this Privacy Policy, but instead is governed by the privacy policies of those third-party websites. We are not responsible for the information practices of such third-party websites.
We have implemented a variety of security measures to protect the personal information we collect from loss, misuse, and unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration, and destruction. We protect your login information and the transmission of data using Secure Socket Layer (SSL) technology. You should take steps to protect against unauthorized access to your password, phone, and computer by, among other things, signing off after using a shared computer, choosing a robust password that nobody else knows or can easily guess, and keeping your log-in and password private. We are not responsible for any lost, stolen, or compromised passwords or for any activity on your account via unauthorized password activity.
You have several choices regarding our use of your information on our Services:
Most web browsers automatically accept cookies, but if you prefer, you can edit your browser options to block them in the future. The Help portion of the toolbar on most browsers will tell you how to prevent your computer from accepting new cookies, how to have the browser notify you when you receive a new cookie, or how to disable cookies altogether. Visitors to our Sites who disable cookies will be able to browse certain areas of the Sites, but some features may not be available to you.
This Privacy Policy is current as of the Last Updated Date set forth above. We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our information processing practices. If we make any material changes to this Privacy Policy, we will notify you at the email address that we have on file for you in advance of the change becoming effective. We encourage you to periodically review this page for the latest information on our privacy practices.
Empower Learning, LLC, values the privacy of children and of all of its users. This COPPA Privacy Policy ("COPPA Policy") is designed to comply with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act ("COPPA") and contains important information about how we collect, use, and disclose the personal information we collect from children under thirteen years old who use our Learning Management System known as Empower. This COPPA Policy also explains how a parent or guardian ("parent" or "you") can restrict the collection, use and/or disclosure of your Child's (as defined below) information and how you can request deletion of your Child's information. The Empower Learning, LLC Services is an educational tool and resource that educator end users ("Educators") can use as part of their learning environment to identify levels of student understanding around their instruction on a real-time basis as well as personalized learning needs. To use the Services, Teachers may collect personal information from their students, including children who are under 13 years old ("Students"). For the purposes of this Policy, "Child" or "Children" means a Student under 13 years old.
When an "Educator" uses our Services in the classroom or an educational setting, such as to sign Students up for the Services, or to assign response activities to Students and track their progress, the School is required to provide consent to the collection and use of personal information from and about Children as required under applicable laws, including but not limited to COPPA and Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act ("FERPA"). They are also responsible for providing parents with notice about how personal information from their Child(ren) is collected and used by us.
Children's personal information will be handled only as described in this COPPA Policy. Any personal information we collect about other users (e.g., Students over 13 years old, Teachers, and parents) will be treated in accordance with the Empower Learning, LLC Privacy Policy ("Privacy Policy").
What Information Do We Collect About Children? We may collect information about Children directly from Children and/or their Teachers, as well as automatically through a Child's use of our Sites, Apps, and/or Services. We will not require a Child to disclose more information than is reasonably necessary to use our Services. Further, as explained below, we will not collect a Child's name, contact information, or other personal information directly unless a Teacher or School requests it. We provide Teachers and Schools with a notice regarding our privacy practices.
Information We Collect Directly. Empower Learning, LLC does not require Children to submit name, contact information, or other personal information to us to register for our Sites, Apps or Services. To log on to the Services, Children are prompted to enter either a unique and anonymous user ID, which will be provided to the Student by the school or district, and/or a unique and anonymous student ID generated either by the School or by Empower Learning, LLC.
We may collect a Child's name and other limited personal information directly from a Child's Teacher or School. Through our Services, Teachers can create assessments and track their Students' learning progress. In doing so, Teachers may require the Child's personal information in order to track and archive evidence of learning. Teachers are responsible for ensuring that their collection and use of personal information from Children complies with applicable laws, including COPPA and FERPA. If you are a parent and you have questions about your Child's Teacher's use of our Services and any information collected, you should discuss your questions with your child's Teacher or School.
A Teacher has the option of creating an account on behalf of their Students which allows those Students to view their learning progress and access learning resources provided by their Teacher. If a Teacher chooses toregister a Child for an account, Empower Learning, LLC will generate a user name and temporary password and provide directly to the Teacher who may then share with the Child. The only information we collect directly from the Child is a permanent password for their account.
We collect information about Children's performance and activities on our Sites, Apps, and Services, including the assessments taken, questions answered, and other evidence of learning. This information is made available to Teachers in personally identifiable form; we do not use this information in personally identifiable form for our own commercial purposes. If we analyze or use any activity data for our own commercial purposes, we will de-identify and/or aggregate such information.
Parents can tell us to stop collecting personal information from their Child(ren); however, in such cases the Child(ren) will not be able to use our Services, as they are intended to be controlled by a Teacher. If you direct us to stop collecting and using your Child's personal information, we must disable his or her use of our Services to ensure that no information is collected via the Teacher's use of Empower Learning, LLC as a classroom tool.
Information We Collect Automatically. We may automatically collect the following information about a Child's use of our Sites, Apps, or Services through our servers and in log files: domain name; browser type and operating system; web pages viewed; links clicked; the length of time spent on our Sites or Apps; the length of time our Services are used; the referring URL, or the webpage that led a user to our Site; language information; device name and model; operating system type, name, and version; and activities within our Sites and Apps. We use this information to analyze trends, administer the Sites, track users' movements around the Sites, gather demographic information about our user base as a whole, and better tailor our Services to our users' needs. Except as noted in this COPPA Policy, we do not link this automatically-collected data to a Child's personal information.
We may also collect IP address, device identifier or a similar unique identifier from users of our Apps and Sites; we only use such identifiers to support the internal operations of our Sites and Apps in the same manner as described above.
We may also collect information from any mobile devices that a Child uses if the Child has downloaded one or more of our Apps to the device. This information is generally used to help us deliver the most relevant information to the Child. Examples of information that may be collected and used include how the Child uses the App(s) and information about the type of device the Child is using. In addition, in the event our App(s) crash on a mobile device, we will receive information about the mobile device model software version and device carrier, which allows us to identify and fix bugs and otherwise improve the performance of our App(s). This information is sent to us as aggregated information and is not traceable to any individual and cannot be used to identify an individual.
We use the personal information that we collect from Children for the following general purposes:
As Requested by Teachers. When a Teacher or School provides a Child's name and other personal information, we use that personal information for the following additional purposes:
Unique Identifiers. As noted, with the exception of unique identifiers (e.g., IP address and device identifiers), our Sites, Apps, and Services will not collect personal information from Children. We only collect and use unique identifiers as necessary to operate our Sites, Apps, and Services, including to maintain or analyze their functioning; perform network communications; authenticate users or personalize content; and protect the security or integrity of users and our Site, App, and Services. We never use unique identifiers to track users across third party apps or websites.
Aggregate or De-identified Information. We may use aggregate or de-identified information about Children for research, analysis, and similar purposes. When we do so, we strip out names, email, contact information, and other personal identifiers. For example, we may use aggregate or de-identified information for one or more of the following purposes, among other purposes:
We do not sell Children's personal information, and a Child may not make his or her personal information public through our services (though Teachers may choose to share a Child's information and responses with the Child's classmates or with other Teachers). We will disclose the personal information that we collect from Children only as described in this COPPA Policy. We may disclose Children's personal information as follows:
Cookies. We use cookies to track information about a Child's use of our Sites, Apps, or Services. "Cookies" are alphanumeric identifiers that we transfer to a computer's hard drive through a web browser for record-keeping purposes. We may use both session Cookies (which expire once a user closes a web browser) and persistent Cookies (which stay on a computer until a user deletes them). Some Cookies allow us to make it easier for a Child to navigate our Site and Services, while others are used to enable a faster log-in process or to allow us to track a Child's activities, but only as those activities relate to a Child's use of our Sites and Service.
Third-Party Analytics. We may also use third party analytics tools and technologies, such as Google Analytics, to track and analyze data from our Sites, Apps, or Services. Google Analytics uses Cookies to collect information such as how often users visit the Sites, what pages they visit, and what other sites they used prior to coming to the Sites. We use the data collected by such third party analytics tools only to help us administer and improve the quality of our Sites, Apps, and Services and to analyze Sites and Apps usage. These third parties are not permitted to use the information collected on our behalf, except to help us conduct and improve our business. Google Analytics collects only the IP address assigned to a user on the date the user visits the Sites, rather than a user's name or other personally identifying information. Although Google Analytics plants a persistent Cookie on a user's web browser to identify the user as a unique user the next time the user visits the Sites, the Cookie cannot be used by anyone but Google. Google's ability to use and share information collected by Google Analytics about a user's visits to the Sites is restricted by the Google Analytics Terms of Use and the Google Privacy Policy. For more information on Google's privacy practices, please click here. For information about how to opt out of Google Analytics, please click here.
Empower application is learning management web platform. Teachers and Students can log in to site using a Single Sign-on (SSO) service with Google account. This service will authenticate users identity and provide the option to share google drive files with students for collaboration. Such services may give option to teacher to access files and folders from google drive to choose, create/edit documents and share with their students within Empower web Application. Students access Google drive files (shared by teachers) by login as Google account into empower web application.
Teachers may provide Children with links to third-party educational and learning resources located on third party websites. Any access to and use of such linked websites is not governed by this COPPA Policy, but instead is governed by the privacy policies of those third-party websites. We are not responsible for the information practices of such third-party websites.
Your Rights to Review, Delete, and Control Our Use of Children's Personal Information
Parents and Teachers have a right to review the information we have collected about their Child(ren) and Students, respectively, and to delete it, and to tell us to stop using it. To exercise these rights, you may contact us at. You will be required to authenticate yourself as the Child's parent or Teacher to receive information about that Child. Please note that we cannot delete copies of information that a Child's Teacher has already collected and/or copied, and copies of information that you have deleted may remain viewable in cached and archived pages of the Sites or Apps for a period of time.
Additional Choices Regarding Children's Personal Information
Disabling Cookies. Most web browsers automatically accept cookies, but if you prefer, you can edit your browser options to block them in the future. The Help portion of the toolbar on most browsers will tell you how to prevent your computer from accepting new cookies, how to have the browser notify you when you receive a new cookie, or how to disable cookies altogether. Visitors to our Sites who disable cookies will be able to browse certain areas of the Site, but some features may not be available to you.
Applications. You can stop all collection of information by the App(s) by uninstalling the App(s). You may use the standard uninstall processes as may be available as part of your mobile device or via the mobile application marketplace or network.
This COPPA Policy is current as of the Last Updated date set forth above. We may change this COPPA Policy from time to time, so please be sure to check back periodically. If we make any changes to this COPPA Policy that materially affect our practices with regard to the personal information we have previously collected from a Child, we will provide you with notice in advance of such change becoming effective by emailing you at the address we have on file for you and by highlighting the change on our Site.