Privacy Notice

Date Last Updated: April 2024

VoiceThread services, including (without limitation) our websites ed.voicethread.com and voicethread.com, the VoiceThread mobile applications, and other interactive properties through which the services are delivered (collectively, the “Services”) are owned, operated and distributed by VoiceThread (referred to in this Privacy Notice as “VoiceThread” or “we” and through similar words such as “us,” “our,” etc.). This Privacy Notice outlines the personal information that VoiceThread may collect, how VoiceThread uses and safeguards that information, with whom we may share it, and your resources. The proceeding paragraphs may not be applicable to certain portions of the Services. The category of information that VoiceThread collects and how it’s used may vary depending on which website or feature of the Services you are utilizing.

While VoiceThread is available internationally and provided in a manner compliant with international privacy laws, THIS SERVICE IS OFFERED FROM THE UNITED STATES (“US”) and VoiceThread is a US-based company. If you use the Service, all information, including personal information, will be transferred to VoiceThread in the US and used as described in this Privacy Notice. Specific and detailed information about use internationally, including General Data Protection Regulation ("GDPR"), can be found below.

While this policy applies broadly to all Users, specific guidance around children’s Personal Information, including exceptions to the general rules of personal information stated herein, can be found in the section labeled Children’s Privacy.

VoiceThread encourages our students, administrators, educators, customers, visitors, business associates, and any other interested parties to read this Privacy Notice, which applies to all Users. While VoiceThread makes every effort to maintain the accuracy of the personal information it holds through a variety of methods, the primary method for ensuring accurate data is facilitating your ability to correct the personal information we hold about you as described in this Notice. As such, we also encourage our Users to frequently review and update their personal information to ensure its accuracy. All corrections to personal information are made immediately upon submission, unless confirmation with the school or other parties is necessary in which case it could take up to 45 days, as defined by applicable privacy laws.

By using our Service or submitting personal information to VoiceThread by any other means, you acknowledge that you understand and agree to be bound by this Privacy Notice, and agree that VoiceThread may collect, process, transfer, use, and disclose your personal information as described in this Notice. Further, by accessing any part of the Service, you are agreeing to THE TERMS OF OUR TERMS AND CONDITIONS (the “Terms and Conditions”). IF YOU DO NOT AGREE WITH ANY PART OF THIS PRIVACY NOTICE OR OUR TERMS AND CONDITIONS, PLEASE DO NOT USE ANY PORTION OF THE SERVICES. Please note, this Privacy Notice is offered in multiple languages consistent with the version of the platform you are using. To ensure you are viewing in the appropriate language, please review this Notice as connected via your instance of the platform.

VoiceThread asserts no ownership rights over the personal information submitted via the Service, and such data ownership rights are retained by the individual Users or, in certain cases, the institutions with which individual Users are associated (e.g., schools, universities, school districts). VoiceThread does retain certain data licenses in order to provide the Services as described in the Terms and Conditions.

What personal information do we collect about you?

Personal information (also commonly known as personally identifiable information (PII) or personal data) is information that can be used to identify you, or any other individual to whom the information may relate. The types and amounts of information collected vary depending on whether you are a student, parent, educator, or school administrator. We will only collect, use, and share your personal information in accordance with this Privacy Notice.

The personal information that we may collect directly from those registering for the Service, includes the following categories:

Name and contact information (e.g. address; phone number; email);
Biometric data is not collected;
Account and Profile Information (e.g. password, profile picture);
Student and Class Information (e.g. class year, names of students, identity name);
School Information (e.g. school name, address, administrator contact);
Billing Information (e.g. credit card, bank account, billing contact information);
Order Information (e.g. current order/purchase information, purchase history, shipping details);
Company/employer information;
Geolocation and geotracking data is never collected. Regional location data may captured and stored for security, infrastructure, and customization use and planning but is never sold to any third parties;
Information contained in posts you make on the public forums and interactive features of the Service;
Information in our Cookie Policy, the degree to which such information is defined as personal information under the laws of a particular jurisdiction;
Other information that may be exchanged in the course of engaging with the Service. You will be aware of any subsequently collected information because it will come directly from you.

For the avoidance of doubt, any data (whether such data alone is considered personal or non-personal information) combined with or associated with your name or other identifier specific to you shall be treated as your personal information.

The Services are not intended to support the processing of health information (i.e. Personal Health Information (PHI)) as defined and protected under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). As such, VoiceThread does not collect PHI and Users should not use the Services to upload, store, or otherwise process PHI.

VoiceThread is committed to providing you with easy ways to access, update, correct, or delete your information. You may access the personal information that VoiceThread has collected by accessing your information through your account or by contacting us as described herein. There are certain instances where VoiceThread may not be able to guarantee complete access due to legal restrictions or fulfill requests that are unreasonably difficult, repetitive, or impractical.

Collection of User Generated Content

The Service enables Users to post content on the Service, including your comments and any other information that you would like to be available on the Service, which may become public (“User Content”). User Content may include uploaded media (images, videos, presentations, documents, etc.), comments on uploaded media, reviews of the Services, messaging in private comments, and posts on public forums or discussion boards. If you do post content, all of the information that you post will be available to authorized personnel of VoiceThread and may be made available to the public as permitted by the capabilities of the Service and at your discretion. VoiceThread utilizes a cloud infrastructure to store and back-up any content uploaded to the Services. You expressly acknowledge and agree that we may access in real-time, record, and store archives of any User Content on our servers to make use of them in connection with your use of the Service. You retain all ownership rights in User Content as described in the Terms and Conditions, though VoiceThread may retain certain, limited license to use such User Content (though VoiceThread does NOT retain Copyright License). For more information about the license retained by VoiceThread, and when such license terminates, please review the Terms and Conditions. If you submit a review, recommendation, endorsement, or other User Content through the Service, or through other websites including Facebook, Instagram, Google, Yelp, and other similar channels, we may share that review, recommendation, endorsement, or content publicly on the Service.

No educator, school administrator, parent, or student profiles are made available to the general public through the Services. However, Users may choose to share information or content through the Services via publishing or sharing work they have created (such as VoiceThread conversations, participating in public Threadboxes, or submitting content to our Digital Library or other public venues for content). Please keep in mind that information (including your personal information or children's personal information) or content that you voluntarily disclose to others (including to other VoiceThread Users you interact with through the Service) can, like all digital information that appears on a screen, be viewed, copied, stored, and used by the people you share it with. We cannot control the actions of people with whom you choose to share information.

As an educator or school administrator, you can invite your students’ parents or outside subject matter experts to view or even comment on your students’ work. We will collect and store the names, email addresses, and phone numbers of those people, and those items will be treated as personal information in accordance with this Privacy Notice. If any individual that has been invited to the Services would like to remove their information from the system, they may contact VoiceThread as described herein.

Children’s Privacy

The Services provided by VoiceThread are designed to be suitable for education use in an academic setting, among other uses, and, as a result, children’s personal information may be collected. If you are under the age of 13, you are not permitted to register for an account on the Service or the Websites. You may only access and use the Services if an account has been created for you by an educator at your school. If you are under the age of 18, you are not permitted to register for an account on ed.voicethread.com and may only access and use the portion of the Services available on ed.voicethread.com if an account has been created on your behalf by an educator at your school. Before providing student access to any of the Services, VoiceThread obtains parental consent and/or relies on the parental consent obtained by a school or educator prior to student data being uploaded. Any such consent shall be consistent with the requirements of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (“COPPA”) for students under the age of 13. You may inquire with your school or with VoiceThread via the contact information in this Notice to understand how consent for a particular student is managed. If VoiceThread receives notice or discovers independently that information of a child under the age of 13 was collected without parental consent, that child’s personal information will be promptly deleted if consent cannot be confirmed or obtained within a reasonable time.

The portion of the Services available on ed.voicethread.com are dedicated for use with grade school students and educators. By themselves, children cannot create accounts on ed.voicethread.com; only school personnel may do so. As such, VoiceThread does not receive information directly from children, and we rely solely on school personnel to provide identity data about students. ed.voicethread.com requires a student’s educators and school administrators to have control and visibility over that student’s work. No student profile or student work is made available or visible to the public or to any other students by default, but educators may allow their students to share their work with other students, educators, school administrators in their school, and beyond. The option to share such student information is at the discretion of the educator, and students and parents should inquire with the educator about such sharing. In addition, Educators may share their own work with other students, educators, school administrators in their school, and beyond. Special controls available on the ed.voicethread.com portion of the Services include controls that allow school personnel to implement age-appropriate and individually appropriate sharing and publishing policies. For assistance on these control features, please see our FAQ on the subject or contact us as described herein.

There is a “two-level-identity-policy” available for students that allows a student’s identity name and image to be anonymized as locally appropriate while ensuring that all educators and administrators within the same school or district license can see the true name of the student. This two-level-identity system enables more schools to opt to allow their students to collaborate and publish with the appropriate level of anonymity, while also ensuring that students are working within a transparent environment. Educators may deploy this method when registering for student accounts.

VoiceThread abides by its Student Privacy Pledge in an effort to protect children’s information. As provided in this pledge, VoiceThread commits itself to periodic examinations of the security infrastructure and privacy practices, as well as compliance with the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (“FERPA”), the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (“COPPA”), this Privacy Notice, and our Terms and Conditions.

What are the sources of personal information collected by VoiceThread?

When providing personal information to VoiceThread as described in this Notice, that personal information is collected directly from you, and you will know the precise personal information being collected by us. In addition, as indicated in this Privacy Notice, certain personal information may be collected from educators or school administrators in order to facilitate student access to the Services.

VoiceThread does not collect personal information from any other sources, except where it may automatically be collected by third-party service providers, e.g. analytics, security, and infrastructure monitoring services, though such collection will always be within the context of the Service.

How does VoiceThread use personal information?

Subject to the terms of this Privacy Notice, VoiceThread uses the above-described categories of personal information in several ways. Unless otherwise stated specifically, the above information may be used for any of the following purposes:

to administer the Services to you;
to respond to your requests for assistance;
to provide information to you about the Services;
to allow you to participate in surveys or provide testimonials (Your testimonials are only published with your consent);
to understand and improve the Services based on how the Services are operating and being utilized by you (Here is a current list of analytics providers);
to distribute communications relevant to your use of the Service, such as system updates or information about your use of the Services;
as may be necessary to support the operation of the Services, such as for billing, account maintenance, and record-keeping purposes;
for educator and administrator Users (i.e. over the age of 18) to send to you VoiceThread solicitations, product announcements, and the like that we feel may be of interest to you (you may “opt out” of receiving these marketing materials);
to notify you about changes to this Privacy Notice;
to carry out VoiceThread’s legal obligations and enforce rights arising from any contracts between you and VoiceThread;
to investigate and deter fraudulent activity;
in other manners after subsequent notice is provided to you and/or your consent is obtained, if necessary.

VoiceThread does not sell, re-sell, or distribute for re-sale your personal information, however, VoiceThread may share aggregated, non-personally identifiable information publicly, including with Users, partners, or the press in its own discretion.

Other than as described herein, VoiceThread will not disclose your personal information for any purpose without your consent. VoiceThread is committed to transparency in its data privacy practices ensuring that you can make meaningful choices about how your personal information is used. For example, you may be able to opt-out of providing certain information, access and manage your account information within your account, control who you share information with, and delete or otherwise remove information. However, certain information must be provided in order for VoiceThread to provide the Services. Such information might include a valid email address or the name of the school you attend or are affiliated with.

How does VoiceThread share your personal information with third parties?

We may provide any of the described categories of personal information to VoiceThread employees, consultants, affiliates or other businesses or persons for the purpose of processing such information on our behalf in order to provide the Service to you. In such circumstances, we require that these parties agree to protect the confidentiality of such information consistent with the terms of this Privacy Notice, as well as comply with applicable laws and provide the same security protections as VoiceThread, including but not limited to adherence to deletion and other available requests. Third parties receiving personal information may include:

Third-party vendors or service providers providing crucial services and necessary to provide the Services to you (e.g. emailing on behalf of VoiceThread, database management services, database hosting, customer support software, and security);
Business partners, contractors, channel partners, subsidiaries, or other affiliated entities for specific purposes consistent with this Privacy Notice;
Certain third party applications, websites, and services may be integrated with our Services. As such, those integrated third-party service providers may receive information about what you post or share. For example, when you access your Google Drive or Flickr account in order to import work into a VoiceThread, Google and Flickr receive the information that you share through that functionality. Information collected through these third parties is subject to their respective terms and policies;
Government agencies or other parties in response to legal process or other requests, where permitted by law.

Third parties that receive your information are prohibited from using your personal information in any manner outside of providing services to VoiceThread. A list of the third parties we work with to provide the Services is available here.

For student Users (i.e., users under the age of 18), we will never sell, rent, or otherwise share your personal information with other, third-party companies for their commercial or marketing use.

In addition, we may release personal information: (i) to the extent we have a good-faith belief that such action is necessary to comply with any applicable law; (ii) to enforce any provision of the Terms of Service, protect ourselves against any liability, defend ourselves against any claims, protect the rights, property and personal safety of any User, or protect the public welfare; (iii) when disclosure is required to maintain the security and integrity of the Service, or to protect any User’s security or the security of other persons, consistent with applicable laws; (iv) to respond to a court order, subpoena, search warrant, or other legal process, to the extent permitted and as restricted by law; or (v) in the event that we go through a business transition, such as a merger, divestiture, acquisition, liquidation or sale of all or a portion of our assets. At no time is personal information stored outside the control of VoiceThread, as VoiceThread either exercises direct or contractual control of personal information at all times.

In the event that VoiceThread or its assets are acquired by or merged with a third party, personal information would be one of the assets transferred to or acquired by that third party. In such circumstances, this Privacy Notice would continue to apply to your personal information and any acquirer would only be able to handle your personal information as per this Notice unless you consent otherwise. We will provide you with notice of acquisition within thirty (30) days following the completion of such transaction by posting on the Services or via the email associated with your account. If you do not consent to the use of your personal information by the third-party successor company, you may request deletion from the Services. In the unlikely event that VoiceThread ceases operations or files for bankruptcy, we will protect your information and will not sell your personal information to any third party.

How does VoiceThread communicate with you?

If you are registered for the Services and provided an email or phone number, opted-in to receive communications from VoiceThread, or created VoiceThread conversations and invited others to comment on them, we may send you messages via social media updates, SMS, push notifications, and or email. If you invite another person to join you on the Services by adding them as a contact and providing their email address or phone number, we may contact them regarding the Services using email or SMS. If they would prefer to not receive such communications, they may opt-out using instructions contained in those communications. Your notification preferences may be viewed and adjusted within your account settings.

If you no longer wish to receive correspondence, emails, or other communications from us, you may opt-out by submitting a request through one of the following means:

using the UNSUBSCRIBE link in any email communication you may have received;
noting your preferences at the time you register your account with our Service;
logging into your account settings and updating your preferences;
contacting us using the contact information provided below.

For educator and administrator Users engaged with the VoiceThread products (i.e. Users over the age of 18), we may use third party marketing providers to market or promote our products and services. If you no longer wish to receive emails, SMSs, facsimile messages, or other communications from such third parties, you are responsible for contacting the third party directly. VoiceThread will never contact student Users (i.e. Users under the age of 18) with any marketing communication.

VoiceThread does not permit third-party contextual advertisements, marketing, or other third-party promotion on the Services.

How long does VoiceThread retain your personal information?

ed.voicethread.com

The length of time that student data is kept on the Service is up to educators and administrators of the license under which the students are working. Administrators of the license have absolute control over the student accounts. We only keep a student’s personal information for as long as administrators of the license allow it. At any time, an administrator can delete a student’s account and all of their work. When a classroom, school, or district license expires, we give a 60-day grace period within which the administrators can decide how to manage student accounts and their work. There are three options, listed in order of our preference, but all options are available to administrators:

Hand the student’s account off to parents. A simple email change and password reset prior to removing the student’s account from the license enables parents to take control of the student’s work. Parents generally love this option because it allows them to keep copies of often priceless student work.
Change the passwords for all the student accounts but keep the accounts and the work they’ve accomplished archived for record keeping and sharing purposes.
Delete the student's account and all their personal work on the Service, including comments, presentations, etc.

VoiceThread

VoiceThread will retain your personal information only for as long as is necessary for the purposes set out in this Privacy Notice. We will retain and use personal information to the extent necessary to comply with our legal obligations (for example, if we are required to retain your data to comply with applicable laws), resolve disputes and enforce our legal agreements and policies. To determine the appropriate retention period for your personal information, we will consider the amount, nature, and sensitivity of the personal information, the potential risk of harm from unauthorized use or disclosure of your personal information, the purposes for which we use your personal information and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means, and the applicable legal requirements. Unless we are obligated to retain all or some of your personal information, deleting an account may remove your personal information from the Services.

VoiceThread will also retain usage data for internal analysis purposes. Usage data is generally retained for a shorter period of time, except when this data is used to strengthen the security or to improve the functionality of our Sites and/or Portals, or we are legally obligated to retain this data for longer periods.

International Data Transfer

If you are located outside the United States, in particular if you are located in Canada, Brazil, the European Union (“EU”), the European Economic Area (“EEA”), New Zealand, the Republic of South Africa, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, or other countries with similar data privacy laws, please note that we and our servers are located in the United States. Any information that you provide to us may be transferred to and processed in the United States or other countries around the world where we do business. Although this may include recipients of information located in countries where there may be a lower level of legal protection for your personal information than in your country, we will make efforts to protect your information in accordance with requirements applicable to the law in your particular jurisdiction and take steps to only share with third parties that offer similar protection. By using our Service, you unambiguously consent to your information being collected, processed, used, and transferred as disclosed herein.

Data Privacy Rights (European Union and Similar Jurisdictions)

If you are located in the EU or a jurisdiction with a similar law, the GDPR or its local equivalent may grant you certain rights under the law. In particular, the right to access, correct, and delete the personal information we hold about you. VoiceThread will retain your personal information for the length of time you engage with our services as described in the retention section of this Notice, until you request deletion of such personal information. VoiceThread is considered the Data Controller (or equivalent distinction) with regard to your personal information. You can find our contact information as described herein or in other portions of the Service.

In certain circumstances, you have the following data protection rights:

The right to access, update, or delete the personal information we have on you.
The right of rectification. You have the right to have your personal information rectified if that information is inaccurate or incomplete.
The right to object. You have the right to object to our processing of your personal information.
The right of restriction. You have the right to request that we restrict the processing of your personal information.
The right to data portability. You have the right to be provided with a copy of the personal information we have on you in a structured, machine-readable and commonly used format.
The right to withdraw consent. You also have the right to withdraw your consent at any time where we relied on your consent to process your personal information.

In order to make a request regarding your personal information, please contact us here.

If you have a comment, question, or complaint about how we are handling your personal information, we hope that you contact us as described herein order to allow us to resolve the matter. In addition, if you are located in the EEA, you may submit a complaint regarding the processing of your personal information to a regulatory authority. The following links may assist you in finding the appropriate regulator:

In the UK, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner: ico.org.uk
In South Africa, you have the right to file a complaint with the Information Regulator: inforegulator.org.za
In Switzerland, you have the right to contact the Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner: FDPIC
In the EU, you have the right to lodge a complaint with your local data protection authority. To find your local authority, you can check the list on the European Data Protection Board website: edpb.europa.eu/about-edpb/about-edpb/members_en
In Brazil, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the National Data Protection Authority: ANPD
In Argentina, you have the right to contact the National Directorate for Personal Data Protection: PDP
In Canada, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the Office of the Privacy Commissioner in Canada: priv.gc.ca/en/
In Japan, you have the right to contact the personal information Protection Commission: ppc.go.jp/en/
In Australia, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the Privacy Commissioner: Australian Information Commissioner
In New Zealand, you can contact the Privacy Commissioner’s office: privacy.org.nz/

Legal Basis for Processing under GDPR

If you are located in the EEA or a jurisdiction that requires a similar legal basis for processing, our legal basis for collecting and using the personal information described in this Notice depends on the personal information we collect and the specific context in which we collect it.

We may process personal information because:

We need to perform a contract with you;
You have given us consent to do so;
The processing is in our legitimate interest to offer the Service, when that legitimate interest is not overridden by your rights;
To comply with the law.

Where personal information is processed based on consent, you may have the right to withdraw such consent at any time. To do so, please contact us as described in this Notice. If there is a different legal basis that would permit us to continue processing your personal information after withdrawing consent, we will notify you of that legal basis at the time of your request.

Your State Privacy Rights and Additional Disclosures

Depending on the state in which you reside, you may have certain privacy rights regarding your personal information. If you are a California resident, please see our “Notice to California Residents” section below. For other state residents, your privacy rights may include (if applicable):

The right to confirm whether or not we are processing your personal information and to access such personal information;
The right to obtain a copy of your personal information that we collected from and/or about you in a portable and, to the extent technically feasible, readily usable format that allows you to transmit the information to another controller without hindrance, where the processing is carried out by automated means;
The right to delete personal information that we collected from and/or about you, subject to certain exceptions;
The right to correct inaccurate personal information that we maintain about you, subject to certain exceptions;
The right, if applicable, to opt out of the processing of your personal information for purposes of (1) targeted advertising; (2) the “sale” of your personal information (as that term is defined by applicable law); and (3) profiling in furtherance of decisions that produce legal or similarly significant effects concerning you (NOTE: while VoiceThread is obligated by state law to disclose this right, VoiceThread does NOT conduct targeted advertising, does not sell, and does not conduct profiling);
If we are required by applicable law to obtain your consent to process sensitive personal information, the right to withdraw your consent; and
The right not to receive discriminatory treatment by us for the exercise of your privacy rights.

You may submit a request regarding your rights by contacting us here or by calling us at (888) 407-3929. If you submit a request to delete online, you may be asked to confirm separately that you want your personal information deleted.

Notice to California Residents

The California Consumer Privacy Act, as amended by the California Privacy Rights Act of 2020 (“CCPA”), requires that we provide California residents with a privacy policy that contains a comprehensive description of our online and offline practices regarding the collection, use, disclosure, sale, sharing, and retention of personal information and of the rights of California residents regarding their personal information. This section of the Privacy Notice is intended solely for, and is applicable only to, California residents.

The CCPA defines “personal information” to mean information that identifies, relates to, describes, is reasonably capable of being associated with, or could reasonably be linked, directly or indirectly, with a particular California resident or household. Personal information does not include publicly available, deidentified or aggregated information or lawfully obtained, truthful information that is a matter of public concern. For purposes of this “Notice to California Residents” section we will continue refer to this information as “personal information,” as previously defined.

We currently collect and, in the 12 months prior to the effective date of this Privacy Notice, have collected the categories of personal information described above in this Notice and for the purposes described in this Notice. We collect personal information directly from California residents or as otherwise described here (e.g. from your school). We do not collect all categories of personal information from each source.

Sale, Sharing, Disclosure, and Retention of Personal Information under CCPA

The CCPA defines “sale” as the transfer of personal information for monetary or other valuable consideration. VoiceThread does not engage in any activity that would be defined as a “sale” of data under CCPA.

We have only shared personal information to third parties for the purposes defined above in the section of this Notice entitled “How does VoiceThread share your personal information with third parties?”

We retain your personal information based on the VoiceThread Service you use the length of time as described in the section of this Notice entitled “How long does VoiceThread retain your personal information?”.

Your Rights under CCPA

If you are a California resident, you have the following rights with respect to your personal information:

The right to know what personal information we have collected about you, including the categories of personal information, the categories of sources from which we collected personal information, the business or commercial purpose for collecting, selling or sharing personal information (if applicable), the categories of third parties to whom we disclose personal information (if applicable), and the specific pieces of personal information we collected about you;
The right to delete personal information that we collected from you, subject to certain exceptions;
The right to correct inaccurate personal information that we maintain about you;
If we sell or share personal information, the right to opt out of the sale or sharing (NOTE: while VoiceThread is obligated by state law to disclose this right, VoiceThread does NOT “sell” or “share” personal information as defined by CCPA);
If we use or disclose sensitive personal information for purposes other than those allowed by the CCPA and its regulations, the right to limit our use or disclosure;
The right not to receive discriminatory treatment by us for the exercise of privacy rights the CCPA confers.

How to Submit a Request to Know, Delete, and/or Correct under CCPA

If you are submitting a request on behalf of a California resident, please submit the request through one of the designated methods discussed above. After submitting the request, we may require additional information to verify your authority to act on behalf of the California resident.

Our Process for Verifying a Request to Know, Delete, and/or Correct under CCPA

If we determine that your request is subject to an exemption or exception, we will notify you of our determination. If we determine that your request is not subject to an exemption or exception, we will comply with your request upon verification of your identity and, to the extent applicable, the identity of the California resident on whose behalf you are making such request.

If you maintain a password-protected account, we may verify your identity through existing authentication practices available through your account. Prior to disclosing or deleting the personal information, we will ask you to re-authenticate yourself with respect to that account.

Erasure Law

If you are a California resident under the age of 18 and a registered user of the Services, California Business & Professions Code § 22581 permits you to request and obtain removal of content or information posted on the Services by you. If you wish to make a request, please contact us as described in this Notice.

Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA)

The Service may create, receive from or on behalf of School Personnel (as defined by FERPA), or have access to, information about students that is considered an education record (“Education Record”) and subject to the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act ("FERPA"), 20 U.S.C. Section 1232g (collectively, the "FERPA Records"). VoiceThread represents, warrants, and agrees that it will:

Hold the FERPA Records in strict confidence and will not use or disclose the FERPA Records except as (a) permitted or required by the Terms and this Privacy Notice, (b) required by law, or (c) otherwise authorized by School Personnel in writing;
Safeguard the FERPA Records according to commercially reasonable administrative, physical and technical standards that are no less rigorous than the standards by which VoiceThread protects its own confidential information;
Continually monitor its operations and take any action necessary to assure that the FERPA Records are safeguarded in accordance with the Terms and this Privacy Notice;
Not read the contents of any such files it receives with FERPA Records in the VoiceThread Service, except as necessary to process the transaction thru the system or store the data as part of Service;
Use FERPA Records only for the purposes for which they were intended;
Provide an administrative mechanism enabling School Personnel to destroy all of an institution’s FERPA Records that are stored on the service.

The Service will never share Education Records with third parties except (i) as directed by School Personnel (i.e. teacher sharing with another teacher or parent); or (ii) to our service providers that are necessary for us to provide the Service, as stated in the Terms and this Privacy Notice. A list of our current essential service providers is located here. Education Records are never used or disclosed for third-party advertising or any kind of first- or third-party behaviorally-targeted advertising to students or parents. Additionally, information collected directly from a student using VoiceThread is never used or disclosed for third party advertising, or any kind of first- or third-party behaviorally targeted advertising to the student, and personal information collected from a student is never sold or rented to anyone. This section shall not be construed (i) to limit the ability of VoiceThread to use student information or Educational Records for adaptive learning or customized student learning purposes.

In addition, the Service may use Education Records that have been De-Personalized (stripped of data that could be used to identify the the person described in the Educational Record) for product development, research or other purposes (“De-Personalized Data”). Such De-Personalized Data will have all personal identifiers removed, including, but is not limited to, name, date of birth, demographic information, geolocation information, and school name.

Information Security and User Responsibility

We employ industry-standard security measures designed to protect the security of all information submitted through the Service. For example, VoiceThread deploys industry standard encryption for all data in transit and at rest (in storage). Further, VoiceThread periodically reviews information, collection, storage, and processing practices, continually develops and improves encryption practices, and works with outside security experts to periodically test VoiceThread’s Services for vulnerabilities. However, the security of information transmitted through the internet or via a mobile device can never be guaranteed. We are not responsible for any interception or interruption of any communications through the internet or for changes to or losses of data. If VoiceThread learns of a security breach, we will attempt to notify you electronically (subject to applicable laws) so that you can take appropriate proactive steps. Depending on where you live, you may have a legal right to receive notice of a security breach.

Your VoiceThread accounts are protected by password. Passwords should be appropriately robust to help prevent unauthorized access. Users of the Service are responsible for maintaining the security of any password, user ID or other form of authentication involved in obtaining access to password protected or secure areas of the Service. In order to protect you and your information, we may suspend your use of any of the Service, without notice, pending an investigation, if any breach of security is suspected.

External Links

The Service may contain links to other websites maintained by third parties. Please be aware that we exercise no control over linked sites and VoiceThread is not responsible for the privacy practices or the content of such sites. Each linked site maintains its own independent privacy and data collection policies and procedures, and you are encouraged to view the privacy policies of these other sites before providing any personal information. While VoiceThread does not permit posting age-inappropriate material and reserves the right to remove links or posts that are not appropriate, VoiceThread does not have a means to automatically delete such links, and there may be a time period where a link is available before it can be removed.

Depending on the preferences set by a school or district utilizing ed.voicethread.com, the Services may offer social media features such as the Facebook “share” buttons or the Twitter “tweet” button. These social media features may collect a User’s IP address, web pages visited, and may set a cookie to enable functionality. At no time will Users’ login credentials, password, or other login data be shared with any third-party site. Social media features and widgets are governed by the privacy policy of the company providing such feature.

You hereby acknowledge and agree that VoiceThread is not responsible for the privacy practices, data collection policies and procedures, or the content of such third-party sites, and you hereby release VoiceThread from any and all claims arising out of or related to the privacy practices, data collection policies and procedures, and/or the content of such third-party sites.

Changes to this Privacy Notice

VoiceThread reserves the right to modify this Privacy Notice from time to time in order that it accurately reflects the regulatory environment and our data collection principles. When material changes are made to this Privacy Notice, VoiceThread will post the revised Notice on our website and/or notify you via the Services or through the email address associated with your account. If the material changes to this Notice impact student Users (i.e. Users under 18), such changes will only be undertaken after appropriate parental consent is obtained by VoiceThread or facilitated through the students’ educators or schools.

If you do not agree with any changes made to this Privacy Notice, you may terminate your account. Continued use of the Services after this Privacy Notice has been changed constitutes an acceptance of the updated Privacy Notice. Previous versions of this Privacy Notice are available upon request, for a time frame consistent with your use of the Services.

Contact Us

If you have any questions or comments about this Privacy Notice or the Service provided by VoiceThread, please contact us using one of the following:

Web Form: https://voicethread.com/support/contact
Phone: (888)-407-3929
Mail: 51020 Main Road, Route 25
Southold NY 11971