GDPR and Privacy in Europe
ClassDojo
2018-05-01
In ClassDojo’s first week in 2011, our founders Sam and Liam were really excited to see 80 teachers use ClassDojo in their classrooms (you know who you are!). Today, we’re humbled to see how our community has grown to millions more in over 180 countries. Teachers, parents, and students everywhere use ClassDojo to build stronger relationships with each other, working together to improve education in their communities. This is the heart of our mission.
These relationships require trust. That’s why every ClassDojo product is designed with privacy and security first; we have a fundamental belief in doing what’s right for you, our community.
Protecting your privacy is fundamental to the trust we need to improve education together, and we work extremely hard every day to earn yours. That’s why we made this Privacy Center to provide even more transparency and peace of mind over how ClassDojo protects your privacy and security, and gives you control over your information. Here are a few highlights from it:
Control: we believe your information is yours, so in our privacy policy, we’ve legally committed to never selling or renting it to anyone. We never share any student personal information with advertisers or marketers.
12-month deletion: we protect students with our industry-leading policy. We don’t keep student personal information schools don’t need and we delete students’ feedback points after 12 months.
Privacy: ClassDojo is compliant with COPPA, FERPA, is certified by TRUSTe, and will be compliant with GDPR when it goes into effect in Europe on May 25th, 2018. ClassDojo is also a signatory to the Student Privacy Pledge, agreeing to a set of principles intended to safeguard student privacy, including responsible stewardship, protection, and transparent handling of student personal information.
If you ever have questions, please drop us a note any time on privacy@classdojo.com. We’re here to help! 🙂
Thank you for being part of our community – we can’t wait for all that’s to come!
— The ClassDojo Team
What is personal information?
Basically, personal information is information that can be used to identify or contact a particular individual or a particular device. You can see our definition here.
What personal information do you collect about students?
No part of our mission requires sensitive information about students, so we don’t collect any. We ask for the minimum necessary information from students to provide and improve the service and for educational and safety purposes: often just a name. We don’t need or ask for anything else, such as gender, social security number, email, address, or student ID. Please see our privacy policy for more details on information collected directly from students.
How long is student information stored?
We protect students with our industry-leading policy: we don’t keep student personal information schools don’t need and we delete students’ feedback points after 12 months.
Will my information ever be sold or rented to other organizations?
No. On ClassDojo, your personal information is yours. ClassDojo never sells or rents personal information to any third parties, for any reason.
Does ClassDojo share student information with Facebook?
No.
Will ClassDojo ever sell advertising targeted at my child?
No, we will never share student personal information to advertisers or marketers.
ClassDojo is a free app. How does the company make money?
ClassDojo has grown through incredible love and word-of-mouth, and is funded by investors who believe in our mission. We plan to make money through premium features we’re developing that parents and schools can pay for. Everything currently available on ClassDojo will remain free for teachers.
What happens when you work with third parties?
We do not sell or rent any information to third parties. Like every company, we work with selected third-party service providers to help provide our service – for example, we work with a service to help us send emails, instead of building that service ourselves.
Where we work with third parties, we mandate that they comply with our Privacy Policy and have contractual commitments ensuring comprehensive data protection and security protocols that satisfy all our requirements (GDPR, FERPA, COPPA, etc.). Additionally, these service providers will not have the right to use your personal information beyond what is necessary for us to provide the services.
Here is a full list of the third-party services that help us provide you with ClassDojo’s service.
How and where is information stored?
ClassDojo’s servers are in highly secure, military-grade data centers that are access-controlled. ClassDojo uses bank-grade security at the software and network level to ensure all information is transmitted securely.
In Europe, will ClassDojo be in compliance with GDPR when it goes into effect on May 25, 2018?
Yes. ClassDojo is compliant with all applicable privacy laws, is certified under the EU-US and Swiss-US Privacy Shield, and will be in compliance with the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) when it comes into effect on May 25, 2018. We’ll update you when any changes occur, and they will be reflected in our Privacy Policy.
In the US, how does ClassDojo comply with the Child Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA)?
ClassDojo has been granted the iKeepSafe COPPA Safe Harbor seal signifying our website and apps have been reviewed and approved for having policies and practices surrounding the collection, use, maintenance and disclosure of personal information from children consistent with the iKeepSafe COPPA Safe Harbor program guidelines. For additional information, please see our COPPA consent FAQ for schools and our FAQ for parents.
In the US, how does ClassDojo comply with FERPA?
Although FERPA is a law that applies to schools receiving funding from the Department of Education and does not apply directly to education technology vendors, ClassDojo’s practices fully support a school’s FERPA requirements and ClassDojo has earned a FERPA seal from iKeepSafe, an experienced privacy protection organization. Download our FERPA primer here for a helpful resource!
What about privacy outside the U.S. and Europe?
ClassDojo is used in over 180 countries, so we are always improving how we operate given where teachers are. For example, we comply with Canada’s Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA).
If you have questions about your specific country, please contact us at privacy@classdojo.com.