Privacy policy
For US and Canada usersThis policy is for users of Book Creator in the US and Canada. We have chosen to provide a US/Canada specific policy so that we can refer to legislation such as COPPA, FERPA and PIPEDA, whereas the non-US/Canada policy is written in the language of GDPR. Your rights and data privacy are equivalent across the policies, and the features and behaviour of Book Creator are consistent across geographies. We just wanted to make the policy easier to read!
Book Creator is run by Tools for Schools, Inc. (we, us, our) and we collect and use information in order to run and manage Book Creator. This policy sets out how we do this and applies to anyone who uses Book Creator, whether by uploading book content or creating and using an account. Please read it carefully and if you are under 13, please ask a parent or guardian to read it for you.
Who do we collect information from?
We may collect information from teachers, parents, family members, guardians and students who create an account with Book Creator or upload content to Book Creator. We might also collect anonymous information about users before accounts are created or content is uploaded.
What information do we collect about you?
We may collect the following personal data about you:
- Your name, email address, a password and the school that you are from. You provide this information when you sign up for a Book Creator account.
- Information you choose to send to us, for example in an email.
- Any other personal data that you upload as book content. This may include:
- text which includes information about you;
- a video or photo which shows you; and/or
- audio files which include information about you.
- Some technical information about how you use Book Creator, for example the type of device you are using, your operating system, IP address, uniform resource locator (URL), clickstream and length of visit.
- If you sign into Book Creator using a Google or Office 365 account, we will receive your full name and profile picture from your account provider.
- Sometimes we might be given personal data about you by someone else who is using Book Creator. For example, someone might upload a photo of you to one of their books. It is that person's responsibility to make sure that you don't mind them doing this.
We will only collect the minimum data necessary to run and manage Book Creator.
How do we use your information?
We use information about you to:
- provide Book Creator and make sure you can use it properly and effectively;
- manage and administer your account and the books that you create;
- respond to any questions, requests or complaints we receive from you;
- communicate with you about Book Creator if we need to;
- investigate potential illegal activities on Book Creator;
- analyse use of Book Creator; and
- to improve Book Creator.
We will never use your information to target advertising at you based on your behavior. We will not build a personal profile of you other than for supporting authorised educational or school purposes, or as authorised by you (or by a parent or guardian if necessary). We also won't use your information for any purposes except those above without letting you know and getting your permission if necessary.
If you are a teacher or school we will work with you as far as we are legally able to accommodate your directions regarding our treatment of personal data belonging to your students, recognizing that the school may be in control of personal data relating to its students.
This includes adhering to a school's requests after Book Creator is no longer in use by a teacher or the school or after this policy is terminated or expires in relation to transfers of students' personal data, deleting students' personal data and making sure that any third parties that work in connection with Book Creator do the same, in each case subject to our legal requirements regarding the use, storage and transfer of such data. You can also request that we provide you with written confirmation of the deletion of your data.
For U.S educational institutions we will work with you to ensure mutual compliance with the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). FERPA is a Federal law that protects personally identifiable information in students' education records from unauthorized disclosure. It affords parents the right to access their child's education records, the right to seek to have the records amended, and the right to have some control over the disclosure of personally identifiable information from the education records. As a parent you may request to access or review your student's records at anytime by contacting your child's school directly.
Who do we share your information with?
We don't sell your information.
We don't share your information except:
- with third party service providers, such as hosting providers or an email service, so that they can provide services to us. In cases where we share student personal data with these third parties they will be obligated to comply with the commitments in this policy. We maintain a list of these third party service providers.
- if we have a legal obligation to disclose the information (for example, if a court orders us to).
- if another company buys our company, or if we go insolvent, or if we merge with another company, in which case the company that receives your information will protect the information in the same way we do. If we transfer our obligations under our terms of use to another company, this may mean that we need to transfer your personal data to that company. We will contact you to let you know if we plan to do this. If you are unhappy with the transfer you may contact us to end your contract with us within 30 days and if you do so, we will not transfer your data to that company.
Other people might be able to see book content that you create, as well as your name, if they are invited to view the books. For educational usage it is the teacher's responsibility to invite people to view books. People will be invited by a private link so the information cannot be viewed publicly unless someone chooses to make it public. Published books can be removed at any time by the teacher through Book Creator.
All information collected through Book Creator is stored in Google Cloud and hosted in the USA. We take reasonable steps to protect your personal data when it is transferred to Google Cloud. We have signed EU model contract clauses with Google. This means it safeguards your personal data appropriately. You can see a copy of the model contract clauses.
Information about other people
Sometimes you might want to upload information about other people to Book Creator as part of book content you create, for example, a photo or audio recording of someone else. Please do not do this unless you have that person's consent (or their parent's or guardian's consent, if applicable).
Security
We have strict security measures in place to try to protect your information and make sure that it is not lost, damaged or accessed by anyone who should not see it. Your data is transmitted securely over SSL and stored in Google Cloud using Google's security model – https://cloud.google.com/security. Additionally, we conduct regular security audits on these services and access to this data is restricted to only authorized employees of Tools for Schools with suitable training and background checks.
In the unlikely event of an unauthorized disclosure of your data we will notify you by email (or by telephone where possible) and act in accordance with our legal requirements to resolve such disclosure and prevent any future unauthorized disclosure.
Your rights
You can ask us for a copy of your personal information and we will try and send this to you as soon as possible (but within one month of receipt of the request).
You can also ask us to correct any information we hold about you that is inaccurate.
You can also ask us to delete your account and all associated personal data at any time.
You can also ask us to restrict our processing of your account (which means that we will only store your account data and not do anything further with it) in certain circumstances, such as where you think your account data is inaccurate and we need time to verify the data.
If you would like to exercise any of these rights, please email us at [email protected].
Deleting information
We don't keep your information for longer than we need to for the purposes listed in this policy.
We will only keep your information for as long as your account is open and you can ask us to delete your account and all associated personal data at any time.
We have the right, after notifying you to delete any books and information stored on bookcreator.com if you haven't used your account for over 12 months. You can download books at any stage and it is your responsibility to download books if you do not want to lose that content.
Cookies
We have distinct cookie policies for our marketing site—bookcreator.com, and our online tool—app.bookcreator.com.
Changes to this policy
From time to time we may need to change this policy. We will not reduce your rights under this policy, use your data for purposes not covered by it, or lessen the security of your data without your consent. We will post any changes within the policy, so you should check the policy regularly for any changes. If the changes are significant we will provide a more prominent notice, and option to consent to the changes, within Book Creator and will provide you with advance notice of the changes by email.
Contact information
Should you have any questions relating to this policy, please contact us at [email protected] or alternatively in writing at Tools for Schools, Inc., 1321 Upland Dr., Suite 8524, Houston, TX, 77043, USA, or by phone on +1 (832) 736-7282.
For US customers you may also directly contact the iKeepSafe COPPA Safe Harbor program at [email protected].
Effective date: 19th April 2018
