Checkology® Student Privacy Notice

The News Literacy Project Inc., 5335 Wisconsin Ave. NW, Suite 440, Washington DC 20015 (“NLP”, “we”, or “us”), takes the privacy of personal information seriously. This Privacy Notice is designed to comply with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (“COPPA”) and the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”) and contains important information for educational institutions and parents (including legal guardians) about how NLP uses and discloses personal information that we collect from our student users, including children, through our website located at www.checkology.org and any other website or application that links to this privacy notice (the “Platform” or “Checkology®”). For the purpose of this privacy notice, “student” means a person who associated with an education institution and is seventeen (17) years old or younger.

The Checkology® Platform is a virtual classroom where students learn core skills and concepts of news literacy. Through this Platform, teachers can assign goals to students and track their progress. In order to allow teachers to monitor the use of the virtual classroom by their students, we may collect information that identifies those students from teachers, the associated education institution, and other students.

We are a service provider to educational institutions that use the Checkology Platform with their students. We rely on the teacher and the educational institution to obtain consent from the parents of the students for the collection and use of personal information collected from the students as described in this notice.

What Personal Information Do We Collect about Students, and Why?

During registration, each teacher provides us with the teacher’s name and email address, and a way to identify each student, which may be the student’s name or another identifier. In some cases, the student registers for the Checkology® Platform using his or her name and email address. Teachers are provided a copy of this Checkology® Student Privacy Notice, which gives direct notice of our privacy practices. Teachers are required to verify that they have authorization to consent to the collection, use, and disclosure of personal information about their students.

We also collect information generated from students’ activities on the Platform for the purposes of quality assurance and quality improvement activities. For example, we collect information regarding assignments each student has completed and performance on those assignments. We treat any information that is linked to student identifiers as personal information under this policy.

We may automatically collect the following identifiable information about users of the Platform through cookies, web beacons, and other technologies: domain name, browser type, operating system, web pages viewed while logged in, links clicked, the length of time spent on our Site, and the referring URL for the purpose of internal reporting and platform improvement.

Students’ personal information is not tied to this data. We may also collect IP address, but we only use this information to maintain the Platform and to understand user activity while using the Platform.

How Do We Use a Student’s Information?

We use the information that we collect to provide our services to educational institutions. We may also use any personal information for the following purposes:

• To maintain the Site, including to respond to questions from teachers, to provide technical support, and for quality assurance and quality improvement activities.
• To provide students and teachers with information and reports about their performance and use of the Site.

We may also use aggregate information that does not identify a student for our operational purposes, such as to analyze overall performance of all students who use the Site on a particular activity. When we do this, we strip out all names, email addresses, and other personal information.

How Do We Protect a Child’s Personal Information?

NLP uses appropriate administrative, technological, and physical safeguards to protect the information collected and provided via the Platform from loss, misuse, and unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration, or destruction. However, you should understand that no transmission over the internet is ever fully secure.

How Long Do We Retain a Student’s Personal Information?

NLP deletes personal information about students who use the Checkology® Platform every twelve (12) months. If we are contacted by a parent/guardian for account removal or a contractual relationship ends before the twelve (12) month time period, personal information about students will be deleted.

How Do We Share a Student’s Personal Information?

We do not sell personal information about students and we do not use personal information for advertising, including online behavioral advertising or marketing purposes. Our platform enables a student’s teacher and educational institution to view personal information about the student, including a student’s performance of activities and assignments on the Platform. We do not control the privacy practices of these educational institutions. We also may disclose personal information that we collect about students as follows:

• To third-party vendors who perform services for us. We seek contractual assurances from our vendors that they will maintain the privacy and security of such information and only use it as provided in this notice.
• In order to comply with the law, a judicial proceeding, a court order, a subpoena, or other legal process.
• Where we believe it is necessary to investigate, prevent, or take action regarding illegal activities, suspected fraud, or situations involving a potential threat to the safety of any person.
• If we are acquired by or merged with another company, including if substantially all of our assets are transferred to another company as part of a sale or bankruptcy proceeding. Each Checkology® user will be notified prior to the effective date of any such transaction, with the successor organization being obligated to use the transferred information in accordance with this notice.

Your Rights to Review, Object to, Delete, and Control Our Use of a Student’s Personal Information

Parents have the right to review the personal information that we have collected about their student, to delete it, and to tell us to no longer use such personal information. If a parent does not want us to collect a student’s information anymore, the parent can cancel the student’s use of the Platform. Parents should contact us at info@newslit.org to request access to their student’s personal information or deletion of their child’s account. Note that, where permitted under applicable law, information may continue to be stored and used if required by law or legal process or to defend ourselves from a legal claim, to enforce our Terms of Use or Platform rules, or to protect the safety and security of our users and our Platform.

Who We Are and How to Contact Us

The operator of the Platform is The News Literacy Project Inc. You can contact us at:

5335 Wisconsin Ave. NW
Suite 440
Washington, DC 20015

202-715-3722
info@newslit.org

Updates and Changes to NLP’s Privacy Policy

We reserve the right to change or amend this Checkology® Student Privacy Notice from time to time. We will inform teachers and students about any material changes or amendments to this Notice that affect personal information previously collected, by posting a notice when they enter the Platform, requiring that they review the “Last Updated” legend at the top of this page to see the revised Privacy Policy. Posting of a revised Privacy Notice electronically on the Site serves as actual notice. Any dispute over our Privacy Notice is subject to this notice.