Protecting the privacy of our users and our partners is fundamental to our mission and our business. Even one minor breach of data privacy puts our reputation and our bottom line in jeopardy. More than that, it undermines the very mission we work day in and day out to fulfill: putting students and their best interests at the forefront of everything we do.

What’s in this policy?

This privacy policy governs the use and disclosure of all data that Education Analytics obtains, meaning data that are generated from or provided to an EA platform by a user (such as a teacher, school leader, or district administrator). These data include user activity information as users interact with our platforms (such as the Rally Analytics Platform, CORE Dashboard, South Carolina Growth Dashboard, Strategy Workshop, or Strategy Clearinghouse).

This policy does not govern how Education Analytics uses data that we receive from a partnering agency, such as students’ Personally Identifiable Information (PII). The use of those data is specified in the contract and Data Release Agreement (DRA) signed by Education Analytics and a partnering agency when work on a project or partnership begins. These contracts and DRAs are at least as stringent, and often more so, than the policies described here, and they always comply with all district and state regulations related to data privacy.

This policy also does not govern how Education Analytics uses data that we collect from users of our website at edanalytics.org. Please see EA's website privacy policy for that information.

We start by explaining what we believe about privacy and what we promise when it comes to privacy. Next, we briefly summarize what we might do with data we obtain and what we will never do with data we obtain. These four sections are just a summary of what comes later in the policy, so that you can reference the basics at the top of this page, and dig into the details as you continue reading.

After that, we list out key definitions for the terms we use throughout the policy. Although some of these terms have precise legal definitions, we try to use plain English whenever possible in order to be transparent about how we think about privacy.

Next, we go through the kinds of data that EA obtains, describe how EA uses this information, and specify how EA will never use this information.

At the end, we have some Frequently Asked Questions.

What we believe:

• We believe data are something we protect, not something we own. Fundamentally, we do not own any data. We are simply stewards of the data provided to us by our partners.
• We believe privacy is part of our product stack. It’s important to us that you know how your information is protected, because it’s a feature (not a side effect) of our tools and solutions.
• We believe security adds value to what we do. Our work consists of enhancing the data provided to us through things like data analysis and visualization, and then giving it back to the people who own it. If we can’t do that securely, our work loses its value.

What we promise:

• We will never sell the data we obtain.
• We use the latest best practices from the broader security industry to protect all the data we obtain.
• We do not own any of the content that is added to a platform.
• We are transparent about our practices, and we will always notify our partners if anything changes.
• We will never advertise in a platform that we create and provide.
• We rigorously adhere to and comply with FERPA, COPPA, and all applicable state laws.

What we might do with data we obtain:

• Verify a user’s identity, so we know each user has access only to the data they should
• Analyze trends and patterns in users’ activities, so we can make improvements to the platform they are using
• Monitor how often users are visiting certain pages of our platforms, so we know what’s useful and what’s not
• Make it easier for users to log-in to our platforms, by remembering their information (when they want us to)
• Personalize the content users see within one of our platforms
• Share the data back to the LEA or SEA that pays for the platform and therefore owns the data, if the LEA or SEA requests it

What we will never do with data we obtain:

• Sell the data we obtain to any outside agency
• Use the data to advertise to users (or to anyone else)
• Share the data with anyone, except the LEA or SEA that pays for the platform, if requested
• Conduct research with the data for any purpose other than improving the products we provide—and only when this purpose is explicitly agreed upon in our contracts with our partners

Key definitions

1. When we talk about we or us, we mean Education Analytics (EA).
2. When we talk about you or your data, we mean individuals who use and engage with an EA platform. This could include, for example, users employed by the partnering agency (e.g., a teacher employed by a district) or users under the jurisdiction of the partnering agency (e.g., a teacher under the jurisdiction of a state education agency).
3. When we talk about partnering agencies, we mean an agency that EA partners with, such as local education agencies (LEAs), state education agencies (SEAs), non-profit organizations, or any other organization that purchases an EA platform.
4. When we talk about an EA platform, we mean a product, dashboard, platform, or interactive tool that EA creates, administers, and maintains, and that is purchased by a partnering agency for use by users in that agency.
5. When we talk about data, we mean any data that we obtain through an EA platform. This includes data that are generated from your activity on an EA platform, and data you provide to an EA platform. In the next section, we describe each type of data that we obtain in more detail: user identity information, user-provided information, cookies information, log file information, and web usage analytics.

What data does EA obtain via our platforms?

1. User Identity Information: When you access one of our platforms, we obtain your name and email address. In some cases, this is provided to us directly by your district or state. In other cases, we obtain this from a third-party sign-in service (like your Google account). Collecting your name and email address allows us to verify your identity and provide services to you via the platform.
2. User Provided Information: EA collects any information that you provide or send to us directly, such as email communications and help desk communications via our platforms.
3. Cookies Information: When you visit one of our platforms, we may send one or more cookies to your computer that uniquely identifies your browser. Our platforms may use both session cookies and persistent cookies. A session cookie is temporary and disappears after a user closes their browser. A persistent cookie remains after a user closes their browser, and may be used by the browser during later visits to the site.
   
   You can remove cookies by following the instructions provided by your web browser. You can set your web browser to refuse all cookies, or to indicate when a cookie is being sent, but note that some features of our platforms may not function properly if you disable the ability to accept cookies.
4. Log File Information: When you access one of our platforms, our servers automatically record certain information that your web browser sends whenever you visit any website. These server logs can include information such as your:
   • web request
   • Internet Protocol (“IP”) address
   • browser type
   • browser language
   • referring pages (meaning the URL that directs you to our platform)
   • exit pages (meaning the last page in our platform you visit before leaving our site)
   • your platform type (meaning the operating system on your computer or device)
   • number of clicks
   • domain names
   • landing pages
   • pages viewed and the order of those pages
   • the amount of time spent on particular pages
   • the date and time of a request
   • one or more cookies that may uniquely identify your browser
5. Web Usage Analytics: EA uses Matomo Analytics to help our internal team analyze how you interact with our sites, applications, and online services. Matomo collects user information like IP addresses, browser types, the accessing app, unique user webpage visits, and referring pages and websites. EA has selected Matomo as the provider of these web usage analytics because they are an open-source platform that is committed to exceptional privacy protection and to never sharing any of the analytics they collect on EA’s behalf with any other party. This ensures that the information we obtain is solely used for the purposes we’ve outlined here—all in service of improving your experiences with our platforms.
   
   We also use a small number of third-party services as part of our platforms, including Amazon Web Services, that may collect usage data for their own internal purposes. However, these third-party services are prohibited from sharing these usage data with other parties and from using them for advertising or marketing purposes.

EA does not own any data; instead, the partnering agency owns the data we obtain about your activities. This means that if the LEA or SEA that provides an EA platform to you were to request for us to share the data we obtain about your activities on an EA platform, then EA will provide those data back to the LEA or SEA, but only for the users that are part of the partnering agency (for example, if requested, we will send usage analytics about the teachers and principals within a local education agency to that local education agency—but never to any other agencies that may use a version of the same platform).

How does EA use these data?

For all of the types of information described above, we only use that information for the sole and explicit purpose of providing our services to you, and improving how we do that.

Here are examples of the ways that EA uses the information that you provide to us:

• We rely on your information to ensure that you have access to the data you should, and only the data you should, and to prevent access by anyone who shouldn’t.
• We provide you with customer support.
• We research, analyze, and interpret trends of your activities to improve and develop new features for the platform you are engaged with—but we never share or disclose those with any third parties or other agencies.
• We design and develop enhancements to our platforms that are relevant for educators, school leaders, district administrators, and state education leaders.
• For some platforms, you can enter data yourself that you want to access later. In those cases, we need to associate your activities on the platform with your identity, so that we can give you access to those data at a later time. For example, in the Rally Analytics Platform, a teacher user can write notes about a student that get saved for that user to view later.
• We investigate, prevent, and detect activities on our service that we believe may violate the law or applicable regulations.
• We use both your personally identifiable information and certain non-personally-identifiable information (such as anonymous user usage data, cookies, IP addresses, browser type, clickstream data, etc.) to improve the quality and design of our platforms. This allows us to create new features, functionality, and services by storing, tracking, and analyzing your preferences and trends. But we never release these data and our analyses to anyone else, and we never use those data for advertising.
• We may use cookies, clear GIFS (meaning a tracking pixel that is clear/invisible to you but tells us that you visited our pages), and log file information to:
  • remember information so that you will not have to re-enter it during your visit or the next time you visit our platforms.
  • provide custom, personalized content and information.
  • monitor aggregate metrics, such as the total number of visitors, pages viewed, etc.

But we never extend this outside of the platforms that we provide—meaning we don’t use activity on any other websites or platforms, and we don’t let others see your activity in our platforms.

What won't EA do with these data?

We will never:

• Sell your data to any outside agency
• Use the data to advertise to you (or to anyone else)
• Use or sell your data for any marketing or advertising purposes
• Share your data with anyone, except the LEA or SEA that pays for the platform, if requested
• Conduct research with the data for any purpose other than improving the products we provide—and only when this purpose is explicitly agreed upon in our contracts with our partners

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Below is a list of FAQs for users of our platforms.

Who owns the data that EA obtains?

We believe data are something we protect, not something we own. Fundamentally, EA does not own any data; we are simply stewards of the data provided to us by our partners. The data that we collect through EA platforms are owned by the partnering agency that pays for the platform. Often, this is a local education agency (LEA) or state education agency (SEA) that pays to make the EA platform accessible to and customized for you.

How do users opt out of web usage analytics?

It is required for us to collect and use certain kinds of data, such as user identity information and user provided information, which allow you to securely log in to a platform and have access to the correct information in the platform. However, EA offers flexibility when it comes to opting out of web usage analytics. Because the partnering agency owns the data EA obtains, the partnering agency can opt out of EA collecting web usage analytics. You, as an individual user, are not necessarily able to opt in or opt out of web usage data collection, as the agreement exists between EA and the partnering agency; however, if the partnering agency decides to permit opt in or opt out of web usage analytics at the user level, EA will enable this feature. When this feature is enabled, users should log in and out repeatedly until you see a pop-up with a checkbox you can select to opt out of web usage analytics.

Can users request to see the data that EA obtains about them?

EA does not own any data; instead, the partnering agency owns the data we obtain about their users’ activities. This means that if the LEA or SEA that provides an EA platform to you were to request for us to share the data we obtain about their users’ activities on an EA platform, then EA will provide those data back to the LEA or SEA, but only for the users that are part of the partnering agency (for example, if requested, we will send usage analytics about the teachers and principals within a local education agency to that local education agency—but never to any other agencies that may use a version of the same platform).

How does EA keep your data safe?

EA views protecting your security and privacy as central to our mission and our business. We’ve put a number of measures in place to protect the integrity of your information, including use of access-controlled data centers, routine third-party security audits, restricted employee access to user information, data encryption in transit, and encryption of data at rest.

In the event of a security breach, we will notify you within the amount of time required by law, so that you can take steps to keep your data safe.

Does EA allow advertising, or does EA share data for advertising?

Absolutely not. EA is a non-profit organization, so we are prohibited from commercial activity like advertising. More importantly, we have no interest in advertising within our platforms, as they are designed for use only by educators and our partners. We never display ads, allow third-party ads, share data for advertising or marketing purposes, or allow data collection by third-party advertisers or data brokers.

Does EA use these data for research purposes?

As specified in our contracts with partnering agencies, EA obtains permission from the partnering agency to use the data we obtain for research purposes to improve the quality of our products and services, as well as to improve your experiences with our platforms.

EA does not use these data for any other research purposes, unless requested and approved by the partnering agency.

When might EA need to share my information?

The short answer: In very limited circumstances, and only as needed, such as in one of the scenarios listed below.

1. We may be asked to provide your personally identifiable information and non-personally-identifiable information to our affiliated companies or to other businesses or persons for the purpose of processing such information on our behalf. Examples of this include performing an IT security audit and/or a data security audit, in order to support the use of our platforms. We require that these parties agree to process all such information in compliance with our privacy policy. We also use reasonable efforts to limit their use of such information, and to use other appropriate confidentiality and security measures.
2. We may release personally identifiable information and/or non-personally-identifiable information if required to do so by law, or in the good-faith belief that such action is necessary to comply with state and federal laws (such as U.S. Copyright Law) or to respond to a court order, subpoena, or search warrant.

We never share your personally identifiable information (such as your name or email address) with other, third-party companies for their commercial or marketing use. We may, however, share your personally identifiable information for the two other purposes described above—in other words, only if required by law or as part of a data security audit.

We never sell your personally identifiable information to third parties. We may, however, use your email address without further consent for non-marketing or administrative purposes (such as notifying you of major changes to our platform, or for customer service purposes).

Does EA obtain data about [blank]?

We’ve listed all the data we obtain via our platforms in the section above, “What data does EA obtain via our platforms?” We intentionally limit the data we obtain to only what we need to provide our services to you on the platforms you engage with.

Does EA work with third-party analytics services?

EA is an organization committed to continuous improvement. Towards this end, we use aggregate data about how our platforms are used—for example, what buttons users click on or what pages users visit—to inform our decisions about how to improve the platforms we create or what new features to build into our platforms.

To help us analyze these kinds of data, we use a small number of third-party services (such as Matomo Analytics) to analyze usage data on our platforms. Under no circumstances are any data that users have shared with EA (such as account information or any notes users input into a platform) shared with these services. These services are also prohibited from sharing these usage data with other parties and from using them for advertising or marketing purposes.

How does EA use cookies?

Cookies are small text files that we transfer to your web browser in order to identify your web browser and store information about your accounts. We only use these cookies to keep you logged in to the platform you are using, to customize your experience, and to understand how you use the platform for our internal team to improve upon it.

You can choose to remove or disable cookies via your browser settings. Please be aware that some of our platforms, or some features of a platform we provide, will not work properly if you disable or decline cookies.

How can I view, correct, edit, or update my personal information?

Any personal information that we have about you comes from data records provided to us by the agency that is partnering with Education Analytics to provide the platform to you. If you want to correct, edit, download, or update this information, please work directly with your school site or the education agency that has partnered with Education Analytics. Users can also contact us at support@edanalytics.org.

What about international users?

Our website and platforms are hosted in the United States, and are intended for and directed to users in the United States. If you are accessing our platforms from the European Union, Asia, or any other region with laws or regulations governing personal data collection, use, and disclosure that differ from United States laws, your continued use of the platform (which is governed by U.S. law and this Privacy Policy) amounts to transferring and consenting to the transfer of your personal information to the United States.

What happens if EA experiences a merger, sale, or bankruptcy?

EA does not own any data—we are simply stewards of the data provided to us by our partners. The contracts that we sign with our partnering agencies (such as an LEA or SEA) govern that stewardship. As a result of this, in the event that EA is acquired by or merged with a third-party entity, those contracts would need to be renegotiated with the third-party entity, or the third-party entity would have to delete the relevant data.

In the unlikely event of our bankruptcy, insolvency, reorganization, receivership, or assignment for the benefit of creditors, the same principle applies. This means that the stewardship of the data would be renegotiated with the partnering agency, or the relevant data would be deleted.

What changes will be made to this privacy policy in the future?

EA’s Privacy Policy may be revised periodically. In the event of a material change in the management of user data, EA will document those changes on this page, and will update the “Last Updated” date at the bottom of this page.

Please revisit this page to remain aware of any changes. Continued use of our platforms constitutes your agreement to EA’s Privacy Policy and any future revisions, and your agreement to regularly check this page for updates.

Who do I contact if I have questions?

support@edanalytics.org

Last Updated: August 9, 2023