Privacy Policy

Introduction

Educa’s mission is to create an online community around each child. To accomplish this goal, it’s essential that Educa is a safe place to document learning, and that parents and teachers control how that information is shared.

To guide our development of the Educa Application, and as our privacy commitment to you, we have the following Privacy Principles.

We don’t own the content you provide – our customers do.
Content is private by default. Teachers control what is shared and with whom.
We don’t advertise in Educa or sell any user data.
We use security industry best practices and routinely monitor our systems to protect you.
We are transparent about our practices and will notify you if things change.
We are COPPA, GDPR, Privacy Act 1988, Australian Privacy Principles, the Privacy Act 2020 (New Zealand) and FERPA compliant.
We meet California compliance statements SB 1177 and AB 1584.

This Privacy Policy governs the use of data collected by our websites at geteduca.com, and the Educa Application. This includes personally identifiable information that we collect when you create an account (“Account Information”), content added to Educa and messages sent via Educa. Any data collected by Educa that can be linked back to an individual student is considered “Student Data”.

By using Educa, you agree to this Privacy Policy. If you don’t agree or if you do not agree with our Terms & Conditions, please do not use Educa. You can contact us at anytime with questions about this policy at [email protected]

Privacy Policy Overview

Educa Limited (“we”, “us”, “our”) takes your privacy very seriously. This Privacy Policy explains how we use, collect and store personal information. It should be read in conjunction with our Terms and Conditions.

Here’s what we will cover in this policy:

Section 1: Child Care Center & School Users.

Collection and use of Personal Information
Protection of Personal Information
Data Storage
Disclosure of Personal Information
Your Rights

Section 2: Parents

Collection and use of Personal Information
Access to personal information
Protection of Personal Information
Data Storage
Disclosure of Personal Information
Your Rights

Section 3: Privacy Policy FAQ & Other Information

Section 1: Child Care & School Users.

We will collect personal information about you when you access and use the Educa Application, and when you browse our public website.

Below we’ll explain how we collect and use that information.

1. Collection and use of Personal Information

We collect information from the staff of participating child care providers and schools:

where this is included in information we store about children (for example a report by a teacher about a particular child may include particulars which identify that teacher);
content — defined as stories, plans, forms, reports and other content in a child’s portfolio related to a child created in Educa by teachers, other staff parents, and where the student user mode is activated, students; and
as part of a registered user account to ensure that only authorized persons have access about the Application.

We will also collect information about you when you log onto the Application or visit our public website.

This will include the information you provide about yourself to maintain your account and other statistical information we may collect about the way users arrive at, browse through and interact with our site.

We use Personal Information to:

provide and improve the Sites; and
communicate with you.

We use this information to have a better understanding of the way people use our site and to tailor it to be more relevant and useful to your particular needs.

If you are a member of staff at a child care service, you should be aware that any information uploaded to our Application which directly or indirectly identifies you will be made available to other staff within your child care provider and to Parents of relevant children.

If we establish a facility whereby you can pay the fees on behalf of your child care service online, you will be transferred to our third party payment provider and all your financial information (e.g. credit card numbers, bank accounts etc) will be collected and held by that payment provider, not by us. If you would like to know how the payment provider will handle your personal information, please see its privacy policy.

2. Protection of Personal Information

We do not rent, sell, or share Personal Information about you with other people or non affiliated companies.

We may use your Personal Information to facilitate transmittal of information that may be useful, relevant, valuable or otherwise of interest to you.

We may anonymize and aggregate data collected through the Sites and use it for any purpose.

We strive to ensure that the personal information we hold on behalf of child care services is protected by all the security safeguards it is reasonable to take.

3. Data Storage

All the personal information we collect, hold and process may be securely stored in the monitored data house of our service provider in Australia or the United States, depending on the center’s location.

4. Disclosure of Personal Information

We may disclose any of the personal information we hold:

to service providers working with us on the operation and ongoing development of the Application and the Website;
in relation to the proposed purchase or acquisition of the business or assets of Educa Limited; or
where required by law or any court, or in response to a legitimate request by a law enforcement agency;

Access To Content & Child Portfolios

We might use the child portfolio and child information for the purpose of operating, maintaining and improving our Application and the website on which it operates. This includes remote access to your site.

For instance, support staff at Educa might need access to your site to help in technical issues. All staff are vetted and Educa has a range of security policies to protect access to any devices that could be used to log in, this in addition to our cyber security policies.

Storage

We store the Child Information on behalf of the child care provider as an agent on its behalf and do not generally edit, adapt, delete or update such information, other than on the instructions of the child care provider or to maintain and improve our Application and the website on which it operates.

If you have a complaint about the personal information on the Application in respect of your child or would like to correct any mistakes or incomplete information, please contact your child care provider directly.

5. Your Rights

You have the right to request access to any of the personal information we hold about you. You also have right to request that any of your personal information be corrected. If you would like to exercise these rights, please contact your child care manager and ask him or her to liaise with us regarding access to or correction of your information.

Whereas Educa is processor of data, our customer are controllers of personal data. As such they are advised to seek consent from parents and families.

Section 2: Parents

1. Collection and use of Personal Information

We do not collect personal information directly from your child.

We do not rent, sell, or share any personal information about your child with other people or non affiliated companies for any purpose.

The child care service which your child attends is responsible for collecting personal information about children and selecting, uploading, accessing and using that information through the Application.

We will then store and make available that information to parents, guardians, caregivers, relatives or other responsible adults (referred to in this policy as “Parents”) on behalf of and as directed by the child care provider.

We specifically require each child care provider to seek parental consent before uploading any information to the Application. However, if for any reason you have not given your consent, please contact your child care provider immediately.

The personal information which the child care provider uploads to the Application may include information which is relevant to your child’s care, growth and learning, such as learning stories produced by your child’s teacher, photographs of your child’s artwork, reports by teachers on your child’s progress and development, photos and other materials (referred to in this policy as “Child Information”).

The Child Information we hold and process on behalf of a child care provider will be used by educators for the purposes of:

storing, accessing and updating records about each child within their care;
promoting the growth and development of children within their care;
allowing Parents to access Child Information; and
demonstrating how the child care provider operates as part of any Education Review Officer assessment of the child care service

We may also use the Child Information for the purpose of operating, maintaining and improving our Application and the website on which it operates.

2. Access to personal information

We strive to ensure that personal information is only disclosed to people the child care provider specifically authorizes us to disclose to.

Usually this means that Parents will only have access to information about their own children and that Child Information about each child is only made available to that child’s Parents. However, in some cases we may be instructed by a child care provider to make Child Information about a group learning project available. If your child participates in a group learning project, his or her personal information may be made available to you and other Parents.

3. Protection of personal information

We strive to ensure that the personal information we hold on behalf of child care providers is protected by all security safeguards it is reasonable to take. We ask child care providers to restrict access to Child Information to those staff who have a “need to know” and we use a secure encrypted connection to protect the transmission of information over the internet. We require any Parents who will have access to Child Information to register a separate account with us and agree to our Terms and Conditions.

4. Data Storage

All the personal information we collect, hold and process including the Child Information may be securely stored in the monitored data house of our service provider in Australia or the United States, depending on the center’s location.

5. Disclosure of Personal Information

We strive to ensure that staff from other childcare providers cannot access to the Child information held in relation to any other child care services.

In addition to the disclosure of Child Information to Parents described above, we may disclose any of the personal information we hold:

to service providers working with us on the operation and ongoing development of the Application and the Website;
in relation to the proposed purchase or acquisition of the business or assets of Educa Limited; or
where required by law or any court, or in response to a legitimate request by a law enforcement agency.

We may also use the Child Information for the purpose of operating, maintaining and improving our Application and the website on which it operates.

We store the Child Information on behalf of the child care provider as an agent on its behalf and do not edit, adapt, delete or update such information, other than on the instructions of the child care provider or to maintain and improve our Application and the website on which it operates.

6. Your Rights

You have the right to request access to any of the personal information we hold on behalf of the child care provider about you or your child. You also have right to request that any of your or your child’s personal information be corrected. If you would like to exercise these rights, please contact your child care provider directly.

Section 3: FAQ & Other Information

Data Retention & Erasure

Our data retention policy meets the ‘data minimization’ and ‘storage limitation’ principles of GDPR that require companies to look for ways to minimize the holding of personal data as well as how it is stored, archived and destroyed compliantly and ethically. We have data deletion procedures in place to meet the new ‘Right to Erasure’ obligation, also called the “right to be forgotten” along with any exemptions, response timeframes and notification responsibilities.

Data Breaches

Our breach procedures ensure that we have safeguards and measures to identify, assess, investigate and report any personal data breach at the earliest possible time.

Website Visitors, Webinar Attendees & Other Marketing Forms

Educa provides webinars and other events to market its services. It also maintains websites and social media platforms that from time to time provide opportunities to provide personal data. Educa does not rent, sell or share this personal data with any third party.

Is Educa COPPA, FERPA and GDPR Compliant?

Yes. Educa only collects personal information through the Services from a child under 13 where their school, district, and/or teacher has agreed (as described in more detail in the Terms of Service) to obtain parental consent to use the Services and disclose personal information to us for the use and benefit of the learning environment.

If you are aware of a case where Educa s collecting information from a student under age 13 without parent consent, please contact us immediately at [email protected] and we will delete the data.

Who does Educa collect information from?

Teachers, parents, family members, students, and schools may create accounts on Educa.

We also collect limited log-data from all visitors to our marketing website via services such as Google Analytics, as well as data in CRM software when forms on our geteduca.com website are submitted. We collect data primarily from the submission of forms, relying on our Terms & Conditions which allow for us to communicate with anyone submitting their information to us.

You are entitled to contact Educa to request to see the data we have on file for you. If we have a file for you, it can be deleted upon your request. If you have any questions about our information collecting, would like to raise or a concern or submit a complaint, please contact us at [email protected].

What information does Educa collect?

Account Information: When teachers, parents, family members, or customer administrators create an account on Educa we collect your name, email address, password, and profile picture. Educa may also collect your phone number. A child profile will also include a child’s picture and Date of Birth.

Students cannot create an account by themselves. They can only access Educa via a teacher or parent log in.

Content: Educa also collects content that is added to a class or child portfolio. This content may be photos, drawings, files, notes, hyperlinks, and other ways of documenting student learning. We regularly add types of information that can be uploaded to a Portfolio, and these are all covered by this Policy. We also collect comments on posts in stories, child portfolios and messages which may be text, or if you allow Educa to access the microphone on your device, voice recordings. Content that is uploaded by a student or teacher may be considered a student education record under the Federal Education Rights and Privacy Act (“FERPA”).

Messages: Educa collects messages that are sent and received in Educa by teachers, family members, and students.

Communications: Educa collects any information you send to us directly, such as email communications.

Information from Third Party Services: Educa allows teachers, parents, extended family and other interested parties invited by a parent to sign up for and log into our service using a unique email address, which may be a Google Account. When you sign up for an account using a Google Account, Google sends us the full name, profile picture, and URL of your Google+ profile associated with your Google Account. Educa may also receive additional information, such as publicly available information on your Google+ profile.

Other Services: Educa uses third-party services to receive incoming email and chat requests to the Educa support team. It tracks certain data to help the support team to answer your queries, including your location, web browser and version and operating system and version.

These third-party services also handle outgoing bulk communication from Educa, collection of customer satisfaction survey results and other purposes that help us improve our service to customers.

Log Data: When you use Educa, we receive log data such as your IP address, browser type, operating system, device information, and your mobile carrier. In addition, we may receive or collect additional information such as the referring web page, referring search terms, and pages visited.

Marketing Data: If you submitted a form through the Educa marketing website, Educa collects your name, email, phone and other details. It may also use your IP address to determine your approximate location for the purposes of sending you customized marketing and other information about our products.

Cookies: We use “cookies” on this site. A cookie is a piece of data stored on a site visitor’s hard drive to help us improve your access to our site and identify repeat visitors to our site. For instance, when we use a cookie to identify you, you would not have to log in a password more than once, thereby saving time while on our site. Cookies can also enable us to track and target the interests of our users to enhance their experience on our site. Usage of a cookie is in no way linked to any personally identifiable information on our site.

How does Educa use this information?

We only use this information to provide our services to you. For example we use this information to:

Allow you to access and use our service by verifying your identity and storing your Content.
Provide teachers, schools, and family members with customer support.
Notify you about activity on and updates to your account.
Research, understand, and analyze trends of users to improve and develop new features for our products.
Promote new Educa features and updates to teachers, parents and schools.
Investigate, prevent, and detect activities on our service that we believe may violate the law or applicable regulations.

Does Educa allow advertising or share data for advertising?

Absolutely not.

Our business model is based on subscriptions. We charge our child care center and school customers a fee to use our product and have no interest in advertising in Educa. We never display ads, allow 3rd party ads, share data for the purpose of displaying ads, or allow data collection by 3rd party advertisers or data brokers.

In what limited circumstances may Educa need to share my information?

We do not sell, rent or share any Student Data, Content, Messages, or Account Information with third parties except in the limited circumstances detailed below:

We use a small number of third party services in order to operate and improve Educa – for example a data center operator that manages our servers or a notification service that helps us send you messages about your account. These services need access to your personally identifiable information in order to work (i.e. your email address is required to send you email), but are contractually prohibited from using that information for any other purpose other than to provide the Educa service. In cases of onward transfer to third parties of data of EU individuals received pursuant to the EU-US Privacy Shield, Educa is potentially liable.
Educa may disclose your information to a third party to comply with applicable laws or regulations, or a valid legal request – including to meet national security or law enforcement requirements. If we are going to release your data, we will do our best to provide you with notice in advance by email, unless we are prohibited by law from doing so.
Educa may disclose student profile information and content the child’s school district upon request, as required by FERPA.
We may disclose or transfer your Account Information and Content in connection with the sale, merger, bankruptcy, sale of assets or reorganization of our company. We will notify you if a different company will receive your information. The promises in this Privacy Policy will apply to your data as transferred to the new entity.

Do you work with third party analytics services?

Educa is constantly looking to improve the user experience, and we use aggregate data about how Educa is used — for example what buttons you click on or what pages you visit — to inform those decisions.

To help us analyze this data, we use a small number of third party services (such as Google Analytics and Fabric). In no circumstances are any data you have shared with Educa (such as your Account Information or Content) shared with these services. In addition, these services are contractually obligated only to use data about your usage of Educa to provide analytics services to us and are prohibited from sharing it or using it for other purposes.

We also sometimes use third party conversion tracking services only to understand if someone visits the Educa marketing website after seeing an ad for Educa on a platform like Facebook or Twitter. None of the data you share with Educa (such as your Account Information or Content) is shared with these services.

How do you use cookies?

Cookies are small text files that we transfer to your web browser that allow us to identify your web browser and store information about your account. We use these cookies to keep you logged in to Educa, customize your Educa experience and understand how you use Educa.

Please be aware that Educa may not work properly if you disable or decline cookies.

How can users share portfolios and child information?

Educa is designed for safe sharing. Administrators and teachers control who child portfolios are shared with by authorizing people who can access a portfolio, plan, form or other related content. There is no path in Educa to publish any of the content in Educa to a public web page.

Parents may invite extended family members and other interested third parties, including specialists. For most communications and sharing Educa allows teachers to select parents and others separately. It is important that everyone understands that those family members will also be able to see and share their child’s content with third-party services and with the public.

Educa has no responsibility for any information an authorized account holder shares on a third party website. The third party website’s policies will apply to content shared there.

How does Educa handle cancelled or abandoned accounts?

Educa reserves the right to terminate accounts that have not been cancelled accounts or trial accounts that did not upgrade to paying status. Prior to terminating a cancelled account, Educa will notify the customer associated with the account by email and provide an opportunity to download an archive copy of the child portfolio.

Removing stored data

Users can request that Educa delete all stored data if they wish by emailing [email protected]. Users will have an opportunity to download child portfolios prior to deletion. Stored data includes login information, meaning that once stored data is deleted, you will no longer be able to access Educa.

How does Educa keep your data safe?

Educa takes protecting your security and privacy seriously and we’ve put a number of measures in place to protect the integrity of your information, including use of highly secure, access-controlled data centers and industry best practices on encryption.

Changes to our privacy policy

Educa may from time to time make changes to this Privacy Policy to account for changes to our practices or applicable law. If we make changes to this Privacy Policy that we believe will materially affect your rights, we will notify you by email about these changes and post a notice to our service. If you continue to use our service after you receive notice of changes to this Privacy Policy, you will accept these changes.

Contact Information

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or feedback, please contact [email protected].

You can reach Educa by mail at:

Educa Limited
2/276 Lambton Quay
Wellington 6011
New Zealand