Privacy Policy

Last Updated: 29th April, 2024

This Privacy Policy describes how Class Companion, Inc. (“Class Companion,” “us,” “we,” and “our”) handles teacher and student personal information that we collect through our website, https://classcompanion.com, and the Class Companion platform (collectively, the “Service” or “Services”).

Class Companion respects student data privacy laws. We support schools in complying with FERPA, and we comply with COPPA. We have taken the Student Privacy Pledge. For specific questions, please contact [email protected]. If you're an IT Admin, please see our IT Approval Resources.

Privacy principles

We will not collect, maintain, use or share teacher and student personal information beyond that needed for authorized educational/school purposes, or as authorized by the parent/student. We adhere to the NIST Cybersecurity Framework.

We promise to: 

  • Collect only the minimum personal information necessary to provide our Services
  • Not sell your personal information to third parties 
  • Not advertise or use your personal information for advertising
  • Enable you to control the personal information you provide to us
  • Protect your personal information 

Teacher information

We collect the minimal amount of information needed from teachers to deliver our Services. This information includes:

  • Account information, including first name, email address, school name. Last name is optional. 
  • Content, such as your conversations with the AI chatbot, your written assignments, and other information you submit through the platform or that is associated with your engagement with the Services.
  • Customer support requests, such as when you contact us with questions or feedback. 
  • Testimonials, if you choose to give us a testimonial about your experience with the Services. With your permission, we may post your testimonial and related information publicly on the Services. To request the removal of your testimonial, please contact [email protected].

Information we obtain from third parties

  • Integrated technologies, such as Google Login or Clever. Only if you choose to use these integrated technologies will we receive information such as your name and email address. 

Automatic data collection

We and our service providers may automatically log information about you, your computer or mobile device, and your interactions over time with our Services, our communications, and other online services, such as:

  • Device data, such as your computer’s or mobile device’s operating system type and version, manufacturer and model, browser type, screen resolution, device type (e.g., phone, tablet), IP address, unique identifiers, language settings, mobile device carrier, radio/network information (e.g., WiFi, LTE, 4G), and general location information such as city, state or geographic area. We do not collect your exact geolocation. 
  • Online activity data, such as pages or screens you viewed, how long you spent on a page or screen, navigation paths between pages or screens, information about your activity on a page or screen, access times, duration of access, and whether you have opened our emails or clicked links within them.

We use the following tools for automatic data collection

  • Cookies, which are text files that websites store on a visitor‘s device to identify the visitor’s browser or to store information or settings in the browser for the purpose of helping the visitor navigate between pages efficiently, remembering preferences, enabling functionality, and helping us understand user activity and patterns. You can adjust your web browser’s settings to refuse cookies. 
  • Web beacons, also known as pixel tags or clear GIFs, which are used to demonstrate that a webpage or email was accessed or opened, or that certain content was viewed or clicked.

Student information

We collect the minimal amount of information needed from teachers to deliver our Services. This includes: 

  • Email address, so the student can login. We alter the email address to protect student privacy. We never contact students for marketing purposes. 
  • First name, so that the teacher can see who submitted which submission.
  • Content, which is the student’s submission to an assignment created by their teacher.

For school and district partners, we may collect additional student information if requested to do so. 

Parents and guardians may review the information we have collected from your student or ask us to make no use of, or delete, such information. You can send your request to [email protected] and include your name, your student’s email, and the action you would like us to take. If your student uses our services through their school, please contact the school or school district with your request.

How we use your personal information

We do not rent, sell, or exchange teacher or student personal information to any third party. We do not advertise. We do not build personal profiles of students other than for supporting authorized educational/school purposes or as authorized by a school or school district.

To provide our Services

  • Provide, operate, maintain, secure, and improve our Services.
  • Provide you with customer service, and respond to your requests and feedback. 
  • Communicate with you about our Services, including by sending you announcements, updates, security alerts, and support and administrative messages.
  • Understand your needs and interests, and personalize your experience with our Services and our communications.

Research and development

We first turn teacher and student personal information into anonymous data by removing information that makes the data personally identifiable to you. Then, we use this de-identify data for research and development purposes. The goal of research and development is to improve our Services. We may further aggregate the de-identified information. We may use de-identified data and share it with third parties for our lawful business purposes. We only share data with third parties that adhere to our policies and pledge to protecting student privacy.

For compliance and protection

  • Comply with applicable laws, lawful requests, and legal process, such as to respond to subpoenas or requests from government authorities.
  • Protect our, your or others’ rights, privacy, safety, or property (including by making and defending legal claims).
  • Audit our internal processes for compliance with legal and contractual requirements and internal policies.
  • Enforce the terms and conditions that govern our Services.
  • Prevent, identify, investigate and deter fraudulent, harmful, unauthorized, unethical or illegal activity, including cyberattacks and identity theft.

How we share your personal information 

We do not rent, sell, or exchange teacher or student personal information to any third party. We do not advertise. 

Data that you ask us to share. For users who belong to the same educational institution, we share personal information, that you ask us to share, with other authorized users of the Services. For example, teachers can view their own students’ completed assignments and conversations through the AI chatbot.

Approved service providers. We hold approved service providers to the same privacy and security requirements as ourselves. We only share information with third-party companies if it is necessary to deliver our Services (such as cloud hosting, database management, and email delivery) and if the third party company adheres to our policies and pledge to protecting student privacy. We do not share teacher or student personally identifiable information with AI service providers. Google Workspace APIs are not used to develop, improve, or train generalized AI and/or ML models. A list of our third-party service providers can be found here

Government authorities. We may disclose teacher or student personal information to law enforcement, government authorities, or private parties in order to comply with the law or a valid legal request.  

Business transfers. In the event of an acquisition, merger, or reorganization or sale of assets, or in the event of bankruptcy or dissolution, we will require the acquiring company to act in accordance with this Privacy Policy or allow users a choice to send information to the future entity or have their information deleted.

Your choices

Access, update, or delete your account information. You may access or update your personal information in your account by logging in and editing your information or by emailing [email protected]. Parents may inspect and correct information for students. Schools and districts may access, update, or delete student data maintained by the school or district. You can request that we delete your account by emailing us at [email protected]. We may retain de-identified data after you delete your account, in order to improve the operation of our Services; this data will not contain your personal information. 

Opt out of emails. You may opt out of product update emails by following the opt-out or unsubscribe instructions at the bottom of the email. You may continue to receive critical Service-related emails.

Online tracking opt out. There are a number of ways to limit online tracking, which we have summarized below:

  • Blocking cookies in your browser. Most browsers let you remove or reject cookies. To do this, follow the instructions in your browser settings. Many browsers accept cookies by default until you change your settings. For more information about cookies, including how to see what cookies have been set on your device and how to manage and delete them, visit www.allaboutcookies.org.
  • Using privacy plug-ins or browsers. You can block our services from setting cookies by using a browser with privacy features, like Brave, or installing browser plugins like Privacy Badger, DuckDuckGo, Ghostery or uBlock Origin, and configuring them to block third party cookies/trackers.

Note that because these opt-out mechanisms are specific to the device or browser on which they are exercised, you will need to opt out on every browser and device that you use.

Do Not Track. Some Internet browsers may be configured to send “Do Not Track” signals to the online services that you visit. We currently do not respond to “Do Not Track” or similar signals. To find out more about “Do Not Track,” please visit https://www.allaboutdnt.com.

Data retention

We retain your information to deliver our Service, but we do not retain it longer than necessary to support the authorized educational/school purposes, or as authorized by the user.

You can deactivate your account by going to your account settings. When you deactivate an account, you will not be able to access it, there will be no further activity in your account, and other users will no longer see any information connected to your account. For students and teachers, this means your school will no longer be able to access information connected to your account. You may restore the account by contacting [email protected]

When you deactivate your account, we turn personal information into anonymous data by removing information that makes the data personally identifiable to you. We retain this de-identified data to improve our product. You may contact us if you would like your data to be permanently deleted. 

In the case of school contracts, the school may request that we deactivate and de-identify accounts, and we will do so, unless there is a regulatory or valid legal need to retain certain information.

Privacy Protection & Security 

Protecting your privacy and security is important to us. We adhere to the NIST Cybersecurity Framework.

We use strict user access controls, multi-factor authentication, and a combination of technical and procedural safeguards to protect your data. We secure data in transit and at rest using encryption. We have an incident response plan in place and a break notification protocol. Despite these risk mitigation strategies, no security measures are perfect or impenetrable, and we cannot guarantee “perfect security.” Any information you transmit to us you do at your own risk.

Please note that any information you send to us electronically, while using the Services or otherwise interacting with us, may not be secure when it is transmitted to us. We recommend that you do not use unsecure channels to communicate sensitive or confidential information to us. 

International visitors

If you use our Service outside of the United States, your data is collected in the country where you are located and then transferred to the United States where our servers are located.

If you are located within the European Union (EU), European Economic Area (EEA), or the United Kingdom (UK), you are afforded specific rights under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) or the UK GDPR. These rights include the ability to access, rectify, erase, limit the processing of, or oppose the processing of your personal data. Should you wish to exercise any of these rights, please contact [email protected].

Furthermore, as an EU/EEA or UK resident, you possess the right to file a complaint with your local data protection authority regarding our handling of your personal information.

State-specific provisions

  • California. We comply with SB-1177 SOPIPA. We will not use your information for purposes other than those indicated in the Terms of Service and this Privacy Policy. We do not use your information for targeted ads, and we do not sell your data. 
  • Colorado. We will not use your information for purposes other than those indicated in the Terms of Service and this Privacy Policy. Our privacy and security policies include only providing access to information on an as-needed basis. 
  • Florida. In the event of a breach, we will notify you in accordance the Florida Information Protection Act of 2014. 
  • Illinois. We comply with Illinois’ Student Online Personal Protection Act (SOPPA). 
  • Maine. We comply with Maine’s Student Information Privacy act.  
  • Maryland. We do not use your information for targeted ads. 
  • New York. We comply with New York Education Law § 2-d and the Parents’ Bill of Rights for Data Privacy and Security. 
  • Pennsylvania. In the event of a breach, we will notify you in accordance with the Pennsylvania’s Breach of Personal Information Notification Act. 
  • Washington. We will notify you of material changes in this Privacy Policy. 

Changes to this Privacy Policy

We may modify this Privacy Policy from time to time, in which case we will provide prominent notice to the users and account holders and provide choices before data is used in any manner inconsistent with the original terms. This will be accomplished through a prominent statement stating that the policy has been changed the first time the user logs on following the change and users provide consent by continuing to use the service. We will not make changes to policies that are inconsistent with our contractual requirements. Data collected under a school or district contract supersedes individual consent to the Privacy Policy and Terms of Service.

Contact us

Please direct questions or comments about this Policy or our privacy practices to: [email protected].