TeachTown’s Privacy Notice

Last Updated: [May 2, 2023]

TeachTown understands that you care about your information and how it is used and shared. This Privacy Notice (“Privacy Notice”) applies to the online services, mobile services, website and software (collectively, the “Service”) of Jigsaw Learning, LLC, dba TeachTown (“TeachTown,” “we,” “our,” or “us”). This Privacy Notice describes how we collect, use and disclose your personal information when you use our Service or otherwise engage with us.

Our Service is intended to be used for educational purposes by school districts, school boards and individual schools within a district (collectively “Educational Institutions”); individual teachers, interventionists, specialists, data analysts, authorized school administrators, qualified clinicians, and other educators (collectively “Educators”); students (“Students”); and, in some cases, their parents or legal guardians (collectively “Parents”). TeachTown processes two distinct categories of personal information, Student Data (data about Students) and Consumer Data (data about Parents, Educators and individuals visiting our public-facing website, web.Teachtown.com), with specific privacy and security controls for each category.

Table of Contents

• Student Data Privacy
• Consumer Data Privacy
• Your Choices and Control over Your Information
• Children’s Privacy
• Links to Third-Party Websites
• How to Contact Us
• Updates to this Privacy Notice

Student Data Privacy

When TeachTown provides our Service to an Educational Institution or a Parent, we collect personal information that is directly related to an identifiable Student. This Privacy Notice refers to that type of information as “Student Data.” We consider Student Data to be confidential and do not use Student Data for any purpose other than to provide the Service on behalf of the Educational Institution or Parent and in accordance with any contractual agreements between TeachTown and the Educational Institution or Parent.

How We Collect Student Data

• Directly from the Owners: We collect Student Data directly from a Parent or Educational Institution (the “Owners” of Student Data). Student Data may include “educational records” as defined by the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (“FERPA”), 20 U.S.C. § 1232(g). Examples of student data may include a Student’s name, date of birth, gender, and developmental information. We also collect information about the Student’s school and district and name of their teacher.
• When data Owners connect our service with Third-Party Sites: We may receive personal information about a Student from third-party platforms, networks, services and/or sites that Educational Institutions connect with our Service. For example, if your Educational Institution registers through or otherwise grants access to a service such as ClassLink or OneRoster, we may receive personal information from that service. This information may include, for example, Student courses, Student rosters, and Student submissions. The information we receive from these third parties depends on the policies and the privacy settings chosen by the Educator for that third-party site. You should always review and, if necessary, adjust your privacy settings on third-party websites and services before linking or connecting them to our Service.
• Information We Automatically Collect: We automatically collect usage information when a Student accesses our Service, such as pages visited, Student submissions and teacher assessments. We collect information about the device used by the Student such as IP address, browser type and other information about the device used to access the Service.

How We Use Student Data

We consider Student Data to be confidential and do not use Student Data for any purpose other than to provide the Service on the Owner’s behalf, in accordance with any contractual agreements with the Owner.

• We do not build a personal profile of a Student other than what a Parent or Educator may record for educational purposes.
• We do not use or disclose Student Data for any advertising purposes; however, we may collect and use analytics data using third-party analytics tools such as Google Analytics to help us measure traffic and usage trends for the Service.
• We may use Student Data to protect the security and integrity of our business, comply with laws, regulations, court orders, or other legal obligations, to enforce our rights or applicable contract and agreements, to detect, investigate and prevent fraud or unlawful or criminal activity.
• We will never sell Student Data unless the sale is part of a corporate transaction, such as a merger, acquisition, bankruptcy, or other sale of assets, in which case we will require the new owner to continue to honor the terms provided in this Privacy Notice or we will provide the Educational Institution with notice and an opportunity to opt-out of the transfer of Student Data by deleting the Student Data before the transfer occurs.
• We may generate de-Identified information from Student Data, which cannot be tied to or associated with a specific Student. We may use the de-identified Information for development, research, and improvement of our Service, including the development and improvement of our models and algorithms. We may also use de-Identified Student Data to recommend content or services to Educational Institutions.

We will not make any material changes to our use of Student Data without first giving notice to data Owners and providing a choice before the Student Data are used in a materially different manner than was disclosed in this Privacy Notice when the information was collected.

How We Share and Disclose Student Data

We disclose Student Data solely as needed to provide the Service or at the request of a data Owner (Educational Institution or Parent). Parents and Educational Institutions have full access to their respective Student Data and may access, delete, update, copy or share the Student Data, according to applicable laws and other legal agreements. Student Data and Educator account usage data may be disclosed to or accessed by school administrators authorized by the Educational Institution.

We disclose Student Data to our trusted service providers who have a legitimate need to access such information on our behalf, subject to appropriate contractual terms to protect such data.

We may also disclose Student Data in connection with a business transaction or merger, or to support our legal rights and obligations.

How We Retain Student Data

We retain Student Data for a period of two years after termination of the contract with the data Owner to continue to provide the Owner access to its records and aggregate reports, after which the Student Data will be deleted and/or de-identified, unless we receive a valid deletion request prior to that date. Data Owners can also delete Student Data at any time. We may retain the Student Data for a longer period of time if required by law.

Please note: Educational Institutions are responsible for maintaining current class rosters and removing Student Data which they no longer need for an educational purpose through the Service itself, if applicable, or by submitting a deletion request. 

Questions about Student Data: If you have questions about specific practices relating to Student Data provided to TeachTown by an Educational Institution, please direct your questions to your Educational Institution.

Consumer Data Privacy

When we provide our Service to an Educational Institution or a Parent or when an individual visits our public website, we collect personal information that is directly related to identifiable individuals. Our Privacy Notice refers to this category of information as “Consumer Data.”

How We Collect Consumer Data

We collect Consumer Data (personal information) from your Educational Institution, directly from you when you register with our Service, automatically when you interact with our Service, and sometimes from other sources and third parties.

Directly from Consumers

We collect the following information you provide in connection with our Service:

• Contact and Account Information: We collect personal information such as name, email address, and phone number when Consumers register for our Service, sign up for our mailing list, complete a user profile, or otherwise communicate or interact with us.
• Educational Institution Information: We collect information from Educational Institutions such as title, school and district name, the individual’s email address and/or account name and password, and message content.
• Payment and Transaction Information: We collect information such as date and time of your transaction, billing address, amount purchased, order details, whether you used a particular coupon or deal, and payment information, such as a credit/debit card number, when you make a purchase on our Service.
• Comments, Messages and Opinions: When you contact us directly (e.g., by email, phone, mail or by completing an online form), we may record your comments and opinions. We may also record comments and opinions you express when responding to surveys.
• Information You May Post or Submit on the Service: We collect content you post to the Service or send through messages or other functionalities.

Information We Automatically Collect

Like most digital platforms, we collect certain personal information automatically when you visit and use our Service, including:

• When data Owners connect our service with Third-Party Sites: We may receive personal information about you from third-party platforms, networks, services and/or sites that your Educational Institution connects with our Service and combine that with information we collect through our Service. For example, applications like ClassLink or OneRoster may share limited personal information such as teacher first and last name, email address and a unique ID assigned by the service. The information we receive from these third-party sites depends on the third party’s policies and your Educational Institution’s privacy settings on that third-party site. You should always review and, if necessary, adjust your privacy settings on third-party websites and services before linking or connecting them to our Service.
  Usage and Device Information: To provide a personalized and high-quality experience for our users, we, and our third-party partners, may use various technologies that automatically record certain technical information from your browser or device when you visit our public website, open our emails, use our Service, or otherwise engage with us. This information is typically collected through a variety of tracking technologies, including cookies, web beacons, embedded scripts, location-identifying technologies, file information, and similar technology (collectively, “Tracking Technologies”). We, and our third-party partners, use these Tracking Technologies to automatically collect usage and device information, including but not limited to:
  • Your IP address, browser type, Internet service provider, platform type, device type, operating system, date and time stamp of your visit, a unique ID that allows us to identify your browser, mobile device, model and manufacturer, phone number, or your account.
  • Information on how you use our Service, including the site from which you came and the site you visit when you leave our website, the pages you visit on our site, the links you click, how frequently you access the Service, whether you open emails or click the links contained in emails, and whether you access the Service from multiple devices
  • We may be able to determine your approximate location by analyzing other information, such as IP address.
  • We may collect analytics data, or use third-party analytics tools such as Google Analytics, to help us measure traffic and usage trends for the Service and to understand more about our users by monitoring aggregate metrics such as total number of visitors, traffic, usage, and demographic patterns. You can learn more about Google’s practices at http://www.google.com/policies/privacy/partners and view its currently available opt-out options at https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.

Please note that opting out of Tracking Technologies may negatively impact your experience using the Service, as some features and services on our Service may not work properly. Depending on your mobile device and operating system, you may not be able to delete or block all Tracking Technologies. You may also set your email options to prevent the automatic downloading of images that may contain technologies that would allow us to know whether you have accessed our email and performed certain functions with it. For more information about Tracking Technologies, please see “Third-Party Tracking and Online Advertising” below.

Information from Other Sources

We also obtain Consumer personal information from other sources, which we may combine with personal information we collect automatically or directly from you.

• Social Media Networks: When you interact with our Service through various social media networks, such as when you “Like” us on Facebook or when you follow us or share our content on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, or other social networks, we may receive some information about you that you permit the social network to share with third parties. The data we receive is dependent upon your privacy settings with the social network. You should always review your privacy settings on third-party websites and social media networks and adjust them if they are not aligned with your preferences.
• Service Providers: Our service providers, such as payment processing and marketing partners, collect personal information and may share this information with us in some circumstances.
• Information Provided by Others: From time to time, we may receive information about you from third parties and other users. We may also collect information about you that is publicly available.

Our Use of Consumer Personal Information

We use your information for the purposes described in this Privacy Notice or as otherwise disclosed to you on our Service or in connection with our Service. Please Note: The uses below apply only to Consumer data, for information on the limited purposes for which we use Student Data, please see the “Student Data” above.

We use Consumer personal information for the following purposes:

• Providing Our Service: We may use your information to process and complete your orders, requests, or transactions, or respond to your customer service requests or feedback. We may also use your information to personalize your experience with us.
• Marketing and Service-related Communications: We may send you Service-related emails or messages (e.g., user account verification, change or updates to features of the Service, technical and security notices). We and our third-party partners may use Consumer personal information for advertising purposes and send you periodic promotional or informational communications about new features, updates, products and special offers. We may also use your information to serve you ads about products and special offers about products or services we think you might find interesting.  For more information on your choices about marketing communications, see “Your Choices and Control Over Your Information” below.

Third-Party Tracking and Online Advertising

Please note: As indicated above, we do not disclose or use Student Data for any advertising or marketing purposes.      

We participate in interest-based advertising and use third-party advertising companies to serve Consumers targeted advertisements based on your online browsing history and your interests. We permit third-party online advertising networks, social media companies, and other third-party services to collect information about your use of our Service over time so that they may display ads on our Service, on other websites, apps, or services you may use, and on other devices you may use. Typically, though not always, the information used for interest-based advertising is collected through cookies or similar tracking technologies. We may share a common account identifier (such as an email address or user ID) or hashed data with our third-party advertising partners to help identify you across devices. We and our third-party partners use this information to make the advertisements you see online more relevant to your interests, as well as to provide advertising-related services such as reporting, attribution, analytics, and market research.

To learn more about interest-based advertising and how you may be able to opt out of some of this advertising, you may wish to visit the Network Advertising Initiative’s online resources, at http://www.networkadvertising.org/choices, and/or the DAA’s resources at www.aboutads.info/choices. Please note that some advertising opt outs may not be effective unless your browser is set to accept cookies. Furthermore, if you use a different device, change browsers, or delete the opt-out cookies, you may need to perform the opt-out task again.

• Google Analytics and Advertising: We use Google Analytics to recognize you and link the devices you use when you visit our site or Service on your browser, log in to your account on our Service, or otherwise engage with us. We share a unique identifier, like a user ID or hashed email address, with Google to facilitate the service. Google Analytics allows us to better understand how our users interact with our Service and to tailor our advertisements and content to you. For information on how Google Analytics collects and processes data, as well as how you can control information sent to Google, review Google’s site “How Google uses data when you use our partners’ sites or apps” located at www.google.com/policies/privacy/partners/. You can learn about Google Analytics’ currently available opt outs, including the Google Analytics Browser Ad-On here https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout/. We may also utilize certain forms of display advertising and other advanced features through Google Analytics, such as Google Ads conversions. These features enable us to use first-party cookies (such as the Google Analytics cookie) and third-party cookies or other third-party cookies together to inform, optimize, and display ads based on your past visits to the Service. You may control your advertising preferences or opt out of certain Google advertising products by visiting the Google Ads Preferences Manager, currently available at https://google.com/ads/preferences, or by visiting NAI’s online resources at http://www.networkadvertising.org/choices
• Communicating directly with you: We may use your information to respond to your questions or comments and to evaluate and communicate with you about your account activities by providing transaction confirmations and alerts.
• Product Improvement and Development: We may use your information to improve, maintain, develop, and support our Service and our educational products offerings.
• Security, Compliance with Legal Obligations, or as Otherwise Permitted by Law: We may use information to protect the security and integrity of our business. We may also use information in order to comply with laws, regulations, court orders, or other legal obligations, to enforce our rights or applicable contracts and agreements, to detect, investigate and prevent fraud or unlawful or criminal activity, or for any other reason permitted by law.
• For use in a de-identified manner: We may de-Identify your personal information to generate aggregated or otherwise anonymized data (“De-Identified Information”). We use De-Identified Information for the purposes of development, research, and improvement of our Service and for the development and improvement of our models and algorithms. In addition, we may use De-Identified Information for the development and improvement of other educational sites, services and applications or technologies to the extent permitted under applicable law. We may also display aggregate summaries of De-Identified Information publicly or to our customers, such as analytics or reports at the district or school level.

Our Disclosure of Information

We share Consumer personal information in the ways described below. For more information on how we share Student Data, please see the section on “Student Data” above.

• The Public: When you provide feedback or otherwise post User Content on our Service (e.g., if you post a comment/review), your information (e.g., your first name and comments) may be displayed on our public websites or on our social media pages. When you engage with us on social media, we may tag your social media account or the social media account of others (e.g., to give photo credit to another user).
• Service Providers: We share personal information with third-party vendors, consultants and other service providers who perform functions or services on our behalf and under our instructions to make our services available to you. For example, this may include vendors and providers who engage in marketing or advertising activities or provide mailing or email services, tax and accounting services, auditing and compliance, fraud prevention, infrastructure provisioning, analytics services, IT services, payment processing, product fulfillment, and web hosting.
• Business Transaction or Reorganization: We may disclose personal information in the context of a company transaction, such as a merger, sale of company assets or shares, financing, change of control, bankruptcy or another corporate event.
• Legal Obligations and Rights: We may disclose personal information to third parties, such as legal advisors and law enforcement:
  • in connection with the establishment, exercise, or defense of legal claims;
  • to comply with laws or to respond to lawful requests and legal process;
  • to protect the rights and property of TeachTown, our agents, customers, and others, including to enforce our agreements, policies, and Terms of Service;
  • to detect, suppress, or prevent fraud;
  • to reduce credit risk and collect debts owed to us;
  • to protect the health and safety of us, our customers, or any person; or
  • as otherwise required by applicable law.
• Otherwise With Your Consent or At Your Direction: In addition to the sharing described in this Privacy Notice, we may share information about you with third parties whenever you consent to or direct such sharing.

Your Choices and Control over Your Information

• Updating Account Information and Settings: You may update your account information or settings by visiting your “Account” page.
• Controlling Communication Preferences: You can stop receiving promotional email communications from us by clicking on the “unsubscribe link” provided in such communications . We make every effort to promptly process all unsubscribe requests. You may not opt out of service-related communications (e.g., account verification, transactional communications, changes/updates to features of the Service, technical and security notices).
• Modifying or Deleting Your Information: If you are using the Service on behalf of an Educational Institution and wish to close your account, please direct your request to your Educational Institution. If you would like to delete your personal information from our marketing systems or our publicly displayed content, contact us at Marketing@TeachTown.com. We may not be able to modify or delete your information in all circumstances.

Children’s Privacy

TeachTown collects and uses Student Data at the direction of and under the control of a School or Parent. As such, we rely on each Educational Institution to provide appropriate notice to Parents of the Educational Institution’s use of third-party service providers such as TeachTown. A Parent who directly creates an account to access our Service on behalf of a specific Student is provided notice and grants consent in the online registration process. In addition, we rely on Educational Institutions, Educators and Parents to obtain and provide appropriate consent and disclosures, if necessary, as permitted under applicable laws. TeachTown only collects personally identifiable information from children under 16 with the prior consent of a Parent or Educational Institution and only for educational purposes.

Links to Third-Party Websites

Our Service may include links to third-party websites, plug-ins, and applications. Except where we post, link to, or expressly adopt or refer to this Privacy Notice, this Privacy Notice does not apply to, and we are not responsible for, any personal information practices of third-party websites and online services or the practices of other third parties. To learn about the personal information practices of third parties, please visit their respective privacy notices.

How to Contact Us

If you have any questions or requests in connection with this Privacy Notice or other privacy-related matters, please send an email to support@teachtown.com. Additionally, TeachTown can be reached by mail at 2 Constitution Way, Woburn, MA 01801.

Updates to this Privacy Notice

We will update this Privacy Notice from time to time. When we make changes to this Privacy Notice, we will change the “Last Updated” date at the beginning of this Privacy Notice. If we make material changes to this Privacy Notice, we will display a prominent notification on this website or our online services, or through other appropriate communication channels. All changes shall be effective from the date of publication unless otherwise provided.