Client and Student Privacy Policy

Introduction

This Client and Student Privacy Policy (“Privacy Policy”) or (“Policy”) describes how Propello (“Company” or “We”) collects, uses, and discloses personal information and data through the provision of its education products and services (“Products”), and any other product or service that links to this Privacy Policy, to its users (K-12 students, educators, staff and families) and School Customers (School Districts and State Agencies, as defined below). In the course of providing the Products to the School Customers, Propello may collect or have access to “education records,” as defined by the federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 (“FERPA”) and personal information that is directly related to an identifiable student, most of which the School Customer provides to Propello through the School Customer’s learning management system or student information system. This Policy does not apply to Propello’s company website; information collected from users of the website is governed by our website privacy policy.

Propello considers Student Data to be confidential and we collect and use Student Data solely for the purpose of providing our Products to, or on behalf of, our School Customer and for the purposes set out in this Privacy Policy and Customer Agreements. We take measures to maintain the security and confidentiality of Student Data collected or stored by Propello on behalf of our School Customers, and we enable our School Customers to control the use, access, sharing of the data. Our collection and use of Student Data is governed by our Agreements with our School Customers, including this Privacy Policy, and applicable laws including FERPA, the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (“COPPA”), as well as other applicable federal, state and local privacy laws and regulations. With respect to FERPA, Propello receives Student Data as a “school official” under Section 99.31 of FERPA for the purpose of providing its Products, and such Student Data is owned and controlled by the School Customer.

There may be different contractual terms or privacy policies in place with some of our School Customers. Such other terms or policies may supersede this Policy for information collected or released under those terms. If you have any questions as to which legal agreement or privacy policy controls the collection and use of your information, please contact us using the information provided below.

1. Definitions

Capitalized terms not defined in this section or above will have the meaning set forth by Applicable Laws.

a)  “Agreement” means the underlying contractual Agreement between Propello and the School Customer.

b) “Authorized Users” means K-12 students, educators, staff and families using Propello’s Products pursuant to an Agreement.

c) “Applicable Laws” means COPPA, FERPA, and the US Data Protection Laws. 

d) “School Customer” means the School District or State Agency that is the party to the Agreement to provide the Propello Products to the School Customer’s Authorized Users.

e) “School District” means a local education agency, school network, independent school, or other regional education system.

f) “State Agency” means the educational agency primarily responsible for the supervision of public elementary and secondary schools in any of the 50 states, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the District of Columbia or other territories and possessions of the United States, as well as a national or regional ministry or department of education in other countries, as applicable.

g) “Student Data” means any information that directly relates to an identifiable current or former student that Propello collects, receives, or generates in the course of providing the Products to or on behalf of a School Customer. Student Data may include personal information from a student’s “educational records,” as defined by FERPA.

h) “US Data Protection Laws”  means all applicable data protection and privacy laws in effect in the United States of America (“US”) that are applicable to the processing of Personal Data of Authorized Users to provide the Propello Products to the School Customer’s Authorized Users.

2. Personal Data Collected

We collect several types of information from and about Authorized Users. We collect information: (i) by which you may be personally identified, such as name, age, e-mail address, telephone number, or any other identifiers by which you may be contacted online or offline; (ii) that is about you but individually does not identify you, such as IP address or other online identifiers, teacher comments and feedback, school and class roster information, and educational information; and/or (iii) about your internet connection, the equipment you use to access our Products and usage details (collectively, “Personal Data”).

We collect this information: 
 • Directly from you, our Authorized Users, when you provide it to us.
 • Automatically as you use the Products. Information collected automatically may include usage details, IP addresses, and information collected through cookies, web beacons, and other tracking technologies.
 • From third parties, for example, our School Customers and their learning management systems or student information systems.

Information You Provide to Us
The information we collect or receive may include:

 
 • Information that Authorized Users provide to use our Products. This includes:

• School Customer Information. We collect Personal Data when a teacher, administrator or other authorized person associated with a School Customer creates an account or uses our Products or communicates with us. This could include contact information, such as a name and email address as well as information about the individual’s school.
 • Parent and Guardian Information. From time to time, we may collect Personal Data from or about a student’s parent or legal guardian. This information may be provided by a School Customer or directly by the parent or guardian who communicates with us or creates an account.

 • Information collected through our Products. This includes:

 • Information in responses to instructional activities and participation in collaborative or interactive features of our Products, such as written texts and created and uploaded images, video and audio recordings generated by students in use of our Products. 
 • Teacher comments and feedback. Some of our Products may enable educators to provide scores, written comments, or other feedback about student responses or student course performance.

 • Device and Usage Data. This includes  information about the device used to connect to our Product, such as device type and model, browser configurations and persistent identifiers, such as IP addresses and unique device identifiers.

 
 • Geolocation information from a user’s device, or approximate device location based on other metrics, like an IP address. Some of our Products use “cookies,” Web beacons, HTML5 local storage and other similar technologies to collect and store such data. We use this information to remember returning users and facilitate ease of login, to customize the function and appearance of the Products, and to improve the learning experience. This information also helps us to track product usage for various purposes including website optimization, to ensure proper system capacity, troubleshoot and fix errors, provide technical assistance and customer support, provide and monitor the effectiveness of our Products, monitor and address security concerns, and to compile analytics for product improvement and other internal purposes. With respect to cookies, you may be able to reject cookies through your browser or device controls, but doing so may negatively impact your experience as some features may not work properly. 

 • Information collected through School Customers or their service providers, such as their learning management systems or student information systems. This includes roster information, including name, email address, grade level, and school ID numbers. This information is provided to Propello by our School Customers either directly from the School Customer’s learning management systems or student information system or via a third party with whom the School Customer contracts to provide that information.

 • Third-party website tracking. Propello does not track students across third-party websites and does not respond to Do Not Track (DNT) signals. Propello does not permit third party advertising networks to collect information from or about students using Propello educational Products for the purpose of serving targeted advertising across websites and over time and Propello will never use Student Data for targeted advertising.

 

3. Use of Student Data

Propello uses Personal Data to support the learning experience, to provide the Products to the School Customer and their Authorized Users, and to ensure secure and effective operation of our Products, including:

 • to provide and improve our educational Products and to support School Customers’ and Authorized Users’ activities;
 • for purposes requested or authorized by the School Customer or as otherwise permitted by Applicable Laws;
 • for adaptive or personalized learning purposes, provided that Personal Data is not disclosed;
 • for customer support purposes, to respond to the inquiries and fulfill the requests of our School Customers and their Authorized Users;
 • to enforce product access and security controls; and
 • to conduct system audits and improve protections against the misuse of our Products, or to detect and prevent fraud and other harmful activities.

Propello may use de-identified data as described in Section 5 below.

4. Disclosure of Personal Data

We disclose Student Data only as needed to provide the Products under the Agreement and as required by law, including but not limited to the following:

• as directed or permitted by the School Customer or the Authorized User; • to other Authorized Users of the School Customer entitled to access such data in connection with the Products;
• to our service providers, subprocessors, or vendors who have a legitimate need to access such data in order to assist us in providing our Products, such as platform, infrastructure, and application software. We contractually bind such parties to protect Personal Data in a manner consistent with those practices set forth in this Policy;
• to comply with the law, respond to requests in legal or government enforcement proceedings (such as complying with a subpoena), protect our rights in a legal dispute, or seek assistance of law enforcement in the event of a threat to our rights, security or property or that of our affiliates, customers, Authorized Users or others;
• in the event Propello or all or part of its assets are acquired or transferred to another party, including in connection with any bankruptcy or similar proceedings, provided that successor entity will be required to comply with the privacy protections in this Policy with respect to information collected under this Policy, or we will provide School Customers with notice and an opportunity to opt-out of the transfer of Personal Data by deleting such data prior to the transfer; and
• except as restricted by Applicable Laws or contracts with our School Customers, we may also share Personal Data with Propello’s affiliated education companies, provided that such disclosure is solely for the purposes of providing Products and at all times is subject to this Policy.

5. De-Identified Data

Propello may use de-identified or aggregate data for purposes allowed under FERPA and other Applicable Laws, to research, develop and improve educational sites, services and applications and to demonstrate the effectiveness of the Propello Products. We may also disclose de-identified data to research partners to help us analyze the information for product improvement and development purposes.

Records and information are considered to be de-identified when all personally identifiable information has been removed or obscured, such that the remaining information does not reasonably identify a specific individual. 

6. Prohibitions; Advertising; Advertising limitations

Propello will not:

• sell Personal Data to third parties;
• use, share, or disclose Personal Data to inform, influence, or enable targeted advertising to an Authorized User based on Personal Data or information or data inferred over time from the Authorized User’s usage of the Products;
• use Personal Data to develop a learning profile of a student for any purpose other than providing the Products to a School Customer, or as authorized by a parent or legal guardian;
• use Personal Data for any commercial purpose other than provide the Products to the School Customer, as authorized by the School Customer or the parent or guardian, or as permitted by Applicable Laws.

7. External Third-Party Services

• This Privacy Policy applies solely to Propello’s Products and practices. Propello School Customers and Authorized Users may choose to connect or use our Products in conjunction with third party services and Products. Additionally, our sites and Products may contain links to third party websites or services. This Policy does not address, and Propello is not responsible for, the privacy, information, or other practices of such third parties. Customers should carefully consider which third party applications to include among the Products and services they provide to students and vet the privacy and data security standards of those providers.
   • Authorized Users may be able to log in to our Products using third-party sign-in services such as a School Customer’s learning management systems or student information systems, Clever, or Google. These services authenticate your identity and provide you with the option to share certain Personal Data with us, including your name and email address, to pre-populate our account sign-up form. If you choose to enable a third party to share your third-party account credentials with Propello, we may obtain Personal Data via that mechanism. You may configure your accounts on these third-party platform services to control what information they share.

8. Security

• Propello’s servers are hosted in and managed and controlled by us from the United States and are not intended to subject Propello to the laws or jurisdiction of any jurisdiction other than that of the United States. If you are a user located outside the United States, you understand and consent to having Personal Data collected and maintained by Propello processed in the United States. United States data protection and other relevant laws may not be the same as those in your jurisdiction. This includes the use of cookies and other tracking technologies as described above.
   • The safety and security of your information also depends on you. Where we have given you (or where you have chosen) a password for access to certain parts of our Products, you are responsible for keeping this password confidential. We ask you not to share your password with anyone. 
   • Unfortunately, the transmission of information via the internet is not completely secure. Although we do our best to protect your Personal Data, we cannot guarantee the security of your Personal Data transmitted to our Products. Any transmission of Personal Data is at your own risk. We are not responsible for circumvention of any privacy settings or security measures contained on the Products. 
  
  

9. Choices About How We Use and Disclose Your Information

Authorized Users can review and change their Personal Data by logging into the
Product and visiting their account profile page. Authorized Users may send us an email at privacy@Propello.com to request access to, correct or delete any Personal Data provided to us. We may not accommodate a request to change information if we believe the change would violate any law or legal requirement or cause the information to be incorrect.

 • FERPA requires schools to provide parents with access to their children’s education records, and parents may request that the school correct records that they believe to be inaccurate or misleading.
 • If you are a parent or guardian and would like to review, correct or update your child’s data stored in our Products, contact your school, School District, or State Agency, as applicable. Propello will work with its School Customer to enable your access to and, if applicable, correction of your child’s education records.
 • If you have any questions about whom to contact or other questions about your child’s data, you may contact us using the information provided below.

10. Student Data Retention

We will retain Student Data for the period necessary to fulfill the purposes outlined in this Policy and our Agreement with a School Customer. We do not knowingly retain Student Data beyond the time period required to support a School Customer’s educational purpose, unless authorized by the School Customer. Upon notice from a School Customer, Propello will return, delete, or destroy Student Data stored by Propello in accordance with applicable law and customer requirements. We may not be able to fully delete all data in all circumstances, such as information retained in technical support records, customer service records, back-ups and similar business records. 

11. COPPA

We do not knowingly collect personal information from a child under 13 unless and until a School Customer has authorized us to collect such information through the provision of Products on the School Customer’s behalf. To the extent COPPA applies to the information we collect, we process such information for educational purposes only, at the direction of the partnering School District or State Agency and on the basis of educational institutional consent made on behalf of a student’s parent or legal guardian. Upon request, we provide the School Customer the opportunity to review and delete the personal information collected from students. If you are a parent or guardian and have questions about your child’s use of the Products and any personal information collected, please direct these questions to your child’s school, School District or State Agency.

12. Updates to This Policy

We may change this Policy in the future. For example, we may update it to comply with new laws or regulations, to conform to industry best practices, or to reflect changes in our product offerings. When these changes do not reflect material changes in our practices with respect to use and/or disclosure of Personal Data, such changes to the Policy will become effective when we post the revised Policy on our website. In the event there are material changes in our practices that would result in Personal Data being used in a materially different manner than was disclosed when the information was collected, we will notify School Customers affected by the changes via the email contact information provided by the customer and provide an opportunity to opt out before such changes take effect.

13. Contact us

If you have questions about this Policy, please contact us at:

• Email: privacy@Propello.com

Nevada. This section applies if you are a resident of the state of Nevada.  While Propello does not sell personal information, as defined in Nevada law, Nevada residents may email a request for no sale of their personally identifiable information to privacy@Propello.com.  

California.  This section applies to you if you are a resident of the state of California and for purposes of this section the term “personal information” has the meaning provided by the California Consumer Privacy Act (the “CCPA”). Residents of California may be entitled to certain rights with respect to personal information that we collect about them under the CCPA: the Right to Know, the Right to Request Deletion and the Right to Opt-Out of Personal Information Sales. You also have the right to be free of discrimination for exercising these rights. However, please note that if the exercise of these rights limits our ability to process personal information (such as in the case of a deletion request), we may no longer be able to provide you the Products or engage with you in the same manner. To request to exercise your California consumer rights, please contact us at privacy@Propello.com with the subject line “California Rights Request.” 

Note for students and other users who engage with Propello in connection with a School Customer’s use of Propello: Because Propello provides the Products to School Customers as a “School Official,” we collect, retain, use and disclose Student Data only for or on behalf of our School Customers for the purpose of providing the Products specified in our agreement with the Customer and for no other commercial purpose.  Accordingly, we act as a “service provider” for our School Customers under the CCPA.  If you have any questions or would like to exercise your California rights, please contact your School directly.

Effective date: September 13, 2022

Last updated: August 20, 2024