Privacy Policy

List all terms and policies

Effective: May 25, 2018

At TeachBoost, your privacy and data security are our top concerns. We are and have always been committed to protecting your personal information and the data you store in TeachBoost, handling it in a responsible manner, and securing it with administrative, technical, and physical safeguards.

We also believe in being honest, direct, and transparent when it comes to your data. We’ve recently revised and clarified all of our policies with regard to your privacy rights and terms of use when using TeachBoost and the different ownership rights and control over the information you enter into our platform. Please review our User Terms, Acceptable Use Policy, and Data Retention Policy to get a complete picture.

Introduction

The TeachBoost platform is provided by Schoolbinder, Inc. ("Schoolbinder," “we,” or “us”). We build and support TeachBoost for educators, school administrators, coaches, and staff to manage classroom observations, teacher evaluations, and other professional development practices on one universal platform (the “Service” or “TeachBoost”). Individuals access TeachBoost or our marketing materials at https://teachboost.com (the “Site”) and interact with a variety of different types of data that they and other users in their organization provide. We call your organization our “Customer” as they are the entity we contract with, and if you have a TeachBoost account then you are a TeachBoost “Authorized User.”

We collect and store different types of data through your use of TeachBoost as an Authorized User—whether purposefully created by you and other members of your organization, or by us automatically. Each category is outlined below under sections describing what we collect, how we use it, and how we share it (if we do). To preview a bit, because TeachBoost has never and will never sell any data from our platform, the only times we share your information are to better support and automate certain parts of our services.

We provide this Privacy Policy to not only inform you of our policies and procedures regarding the collection, use, and disclosure of the Personal Information we receive from TeachBoost users, but to detail our commitment to safeguarding this critical information. This Privacy Policy applies only to information that you provide to us through this Site and Service. We recommend consulting this policy regularly to understand how your data is collected and used on TeachBoost, to always take your privacy seriously on every service you use, and to contact us with any questions at any time by emailing us at support@teachboost.com .

Account creation and your engagement with TeachBoost

The Personal Information required to create a TeachBoost account is only your name, an email address, and a password. Continued access to TeachBoost and use of its features may also require additional information, including Performance Data and other information related to your professional development.

Use of TeachBoost following your account’s creation and invitation by Customer requires you to agree to the TeachBoost User Terms and this Privacy Policy by clicking “Continue” on the account confirmation page. By clicking “Continue,” you are telling us that you consent to TeachBoost collecting, processing, and sharing your Personal Information as described in this Privacy Policy and in any other documents referenced here.

Information we collect

The information we collect and store comes from your or your colleagues’ use of TeachBoost. We process this information solely in furtherance of our contractual obligations with customers, including Customer—the entity or organization paying for your use of TeachBoost that created your account and invited you to use TeachBoost.

Some of this information is provided directly by you and our users while certain other types are provided automatically by the device or other services you use to connect to the Site and Service. We’ve broken down the information we collect into three categories—information you (or your colleagues) enter about you, information your device sends, and information we obtain about you from third parties—and describe each type within those categories below.

Information you or your colleagues enter into TeachBoost

The vast majority of the information we collect about you in TeachBoost comes from either you or other Authorized Users at your organization and is entered directly into TeachBoost. We call this category of information “Personally Identifiable Information” ("Personal Information"), and it includes all of the content you create on TeachBoost in addition to your contact information.

Account information

When Customer creates your TeachBoost account and invites you to use TeachBoost, we collect:

  • Your name,
  • Email address,
  • Organizational role, and
  • Password you create when signing in the first time.
Profile information

You can also provide additional profile information on our profile page, such as an image avatar and organizational ID number.

Authorized Users of Customer who hold administrator privileges may attach additional attributes to your account, including:

  • Grade(s),
  • Tenure length,
  • Caseload(s), and
  • Groups or buildings you belong to.

This profile information is visible to the other Authorized Users of your organization managed by Customer.

Performance Data and user-generated content

At its core TeachBoost is a platform to conduct classroom observations and manage educator professional development. In order to provide the Service, we collect and store all of the observation data and ratings you input into TeachBoost. This includes:

  • Observation notes and summaries,
  • Ratings,
  • Goals,
  • Next steps or action steps,
  • Letters-for-file,
  • Descriptions of classroom environments,
  • Internal memoranda and notes,
  • Meeting notes,
  • Pre- and post-meeting notes,
  • Scheduled events,
  • Videos,
  • Photos,
  • Documents and other files, and
  • Other recordings, media, or evidence voluntarily provided in TeachBoost through our observation and tracking tools.

We call all of this user-generated content "Performance Data" as it pertains to your professional performance and development, as recorded in TeachBoost. Performance Data can be seen by you or certain other members of your Organization depending on the type of privacy or access controls enabled at the group- or organization-level.

Assessment Materials and user-provided support content

In addition to Performance Data, we also collect related text documents, videos, photos, links, audio files, and other types of files or media in support of your use of the Service. This includes:

  • Rubrics,
  • Frameworks,
  • Rating scales,
  • Training materials,
  • Resources uploaded to the Library,
  • Observation templates,
  • Workflows, and
  • Other types of professional support media uploaded to TeachBoost or sent to us via email.

We call these "Assessment Materials" and we only collect them via email or upload by you or other Authorized Users at your organization. Examples include your observation framework or rubric, the form templates you use, or training videos in your Library.

Your communications

Your communications to us via email or our support channels provide us with certain information about you, including your name, email address, the groups you belong to on TeachBoost, and the content of your communications.

Additional user information

Information you provide to us when you answer email surveys, complete online questionnaires, or register for webinars or other events we hold.

Information your devices send to TeachBoost

The device you use to access the Site and TeachBoost sends certain types of data to us through your normal use and interaction. This data is either sent automatically by your device or intentionally requested and logged by us in certain circumstances. While we explain this in greater detail further down, we only use this data for our own internal research—e.g., improving workflows and user interfaces—or our internal analytics and site tracking.

Device data, browser data, and supported features

We collect information about the device and systems you use to access the Service. This includes:

  • The IP address of your computer, mobile device, or the proxy server that you use to access the Internet;
  • Device operating system and version;
  • Web browser, version and user agent;
  • Name of your ISP or mobile carrier; and
  • URL you came from before getting to TeachBoost.

In addition to this raw device data we also determine certain characteristics of your device and the features on TeachBoost that your device supports. This includes things like local storage, plugin support, and other technologies we may enable or disable based on your device's support.

Usage and tracking data

We collect information about your interactions on the Site or on the Service, including:

  • Pages you access;
  • Your TeachBoost user ID, if applicable;
  • Time spent on those pages;
  • Events and actions you complete (e.g., when you complete a form or create a goal).
Cookies

Like nearly all websites, we use "cookies" to collect information. A cookie is a small data file that we transfer to your device's hard drive and they can be either "first party" (i.e., TeachBoost cookies) or "third party" (i.e., cookies put on your device by other services that we use).

There are two types of first party cookies that we use:

  • Persistent cookies save your email address and login password for future logins to TeachBoost so that you don't have to sign in every time you access it.
  • Session cookies are used to enable certain features of the Service, help us better understand how you interact, and to help us monitor aggregate usage by users and web traffic routing on TeachBoost. Unlike persistent cookies, session cookies are deleted from your computer when you log off from TeachBoost and then close your browser.

We also use some third party cookies placed on your device by the analytics tools we use in TeachBoost. You can change your browser's settings to stop accepting cookies (or to prompt you before accepting a cookie) from the websites you visit, including TeachBoost; if you do not accept cookies, however, you may not be able to use all portions or functionality of TeachBoost.

Please read our entire Cookie Policy for more information on how we use cookies, the third-party cookies we use, and how to opt out or disable cookie use.

Information we obtain from third parties

At times we also obtain information about you via third party services through sales and marketing efforts. We never incorporate any Personal Information or other information we obtain from third parties into TeachBoost.

Organizational data

We supplement our own internal customer databases and records with information about your organization that we obtain online. This information comes from your organizations' website or other directories and typically includes business addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, and names.

Prospective customer data

From time to time we may purchase prospective customer lists containing name, email address, role, and organization.

How we use Personal Information

TeachBoost only uses Personal Information to provide the Service in fulfillment of its contractual obligations with Customer. Authorized Users may only use and access the Service after their organization contracts with us and the only reason we process Personal Information is for the express purpose of these obligations

Beyond making the Site and Service available to you and Customer and providing access to your data, we use Personal Information to communicate with you in support of the Service. We also use it to advertise our own marketing efforts to you, but only when you specifically authorize us to do so; we never sell it and we never share it for others’ advertising purposes.

Providing the TeachBoost Service

We use your Personal Information to provide, personalize, improve, update, and expand our Service—in other words, operate TeachBoost. This takes a number of different forms:

  • Authenticating your access to TeachBoost and ensuring you connect to appropriate group(s) with the correct access level(s);
  • Processing Customer's payments for its TeachBoost subscription(s);
  • Presenting your Performance Data and Assessment Materials in various tools and reports;
  • Connecting to your calendar and other integrations;
  • Providing exports to you or members of your organization via our export tools or API;
  • Analyzing and predicting usage patterns to increase Site and Service reliability;
  • Building new and improving existing products and services;
  • Issuing surveys and questionnaires to collect additional information for use in the Service, as well as facilitating product development and research initiatives;
  • Detecting and protecting against error, fraud, or other criminal or malicious activity and enforcing our Customer Terms and User Terms.
Communications

We use your Personal Information to communicate with you about TeachBoost, such as when we:

  • Respond to support inquiries that you or other members of your organization initiate;
  • Notify you of new forms or discussions created;
  • Inform you of new features or changes to existing functionality;
  • Inform you of changes to our terms or other policies;
  • Inform you of disruptions to the Service or scheduled maintenance or downtime; and
  • Provide you with information, send you requested media or exports, or to request action in response to technical, security, and other operational issues.
Marketing events or materials you opt into

If you opt in to receive marketing communications from us, we use your Personal Information to send you emails related to our events, webinars, blog, or other marketing materials we create.

Note: You can always control how we market to you by using the unsubscribe link in any email you receive, by changing your account preferences in the Service, or by following the instructions in any other marketing communications you receive.

How we share and disclose Personal Information

We never sell any information we collect from you or any Authorized User and we never share your information for any third party advertising or marketing efforts. We promise that we will only ever share your Personal Information with third party services that directly relate to our ability to provide the Service to you and only to the extent outlined below and in our Contract with Customer.

In general, this means that we only share Personal Information with the services we rely on to provide TeachBoost, such as the datacenter we use to store all the data we collect and the help desk and ticket software we use to run our Help Center. We are also required by law to share your information in certain legal situations. Here are all of the ways we share information with third parties:

Other TeachBoost users within your organization

When you enter information into TeachBoost—e.g., completing a form or creating a goal—we show that information to various other users within your organization on TeachBoost. This includes administrators at your school, coaches who may be working with you, or district supervisors and staff. This information is accessible by these users within TeachBoost and sometimes via email when we send notification emails.

If Customer has enabled them, settings may also exist to allow you to control the privacy of certain types of information you enter into TeachBoost depending on your group and role within that group.

Data centers

We store all of our data and host the Site and Service at secure off-site facilities managed by industry-leading Linode at their data centers in Newark, NJ. All access to the information within the Service stored on these servers is encrypted and transmitted securely. User passwords are also encrypted and all data stored with Linode on their computers is secured behind a firewall.

We make regular backups of the TeachBoost databases and settings and store them at Linode and Amazon AWS.

Service providers

We employ various third parties and individuals to help us better provide the Service or perform related functions that we cannot do as well in-house (e.g., event tracking or web analytics). These service providers are subject to contractual obligations governing data security and confidentiality consistent with our Privacy Policy and applicable laws.

The service providers we share your information with are:

  • Google Analytics: page and event tracking
  • Zendesk: customer support and ticketing
  • Intercom: event tracking and in-app communication
  • Hubspot: marketing automation
  • Close.io: sales communication and tracking
  • SaaSOptics: contract management
  • Quickbooks: invoicing

These services have access to your Personal Information only to perform these discrete tasks on our behalf and are obligated not to disclose or use it for any other purpose. We will never authorize them to save or store this information outside the scope of these tasks on our behalf and the duration of our engagement. When we end our engagement with them we will delete all customer data from their platforms.

Legal or regulatory processes

We may share your Personal Information if we believe it is reasonably necessary to:

  • Comply with valid legal process (e.g., subpoenas or warrants);
  • Enforce or apply the TeachBoost Customer Terms and User Terms;
  • Protect the security or integrity of the Service; or
  • Protect the rights, property, or safety of TeachBoost, our employees, or Authorized Users.

If we are compelled to disclose your Personal Information to law enforcement, we will do our best to provide you with advance notice, unless we are prohibited under the law from doing so.

We have never received a request from law enforcement or in any legal or regulatory process to date.

If we are acquired

If the ownership of our business changes, we may transfer your information to the new owner so they can continue to operate the Service. We will notify you well in advance if this ever happens.

A note on aggregated data

We may disclose user information in an aggregated form as part of the Service or our marketing efforts. For example, we might note the total number of observations completed last year or the percentage of our users who signed in regularly this year. Such disclosures will never include Personal Information.

A note on data breaches

In the event that we sustain a data breach and Personal Information is obtained, we will notify local authorities and all affected individuals as soon as we are made aware of the breach.

We have never experienced a data breach or any other improper access of Personal Information.

Your rights to your Personal Information

Your rights as an Authorized User

As outlined much more completely in our User Terms—and for a number of business, continuity, and operational reasons—Customer owns and ultimately controls all Personal Information and Customer Data entered into TeachBoost. Nevertheless we have built a number of tools and features into TeachBoost that give Authorized Users various methods of access to their Personal Information and we strive to make this data as portable as possible. You can access, update, and delete your account information anytime on your account preferences page. We also have a number of download features and you can use tools like Sketch, list pages, and reports to edit or delete information you created on TeachBoost while you maintain an active account.

We may also process Personal Data for direct marketing purposes and you have a right to object to our use of your Personal Data for this purpose at any time. You can opt out of marketing communications by using the appropriate link at the bottom of every email and you can opt out of most Service emails on your account preferences page. We have more information in our Cookie Policy to further opt out of certain features and types of tracking. If you opt out of marketing emails, we may still send you non-marketing emails; these include emails about your account and use of the Service that are necessary for fulfilling our obligations to our customers.

Authorized Users in the European Economic Area

Authorized Users located in certain countries, including the European Economic Area, have certain statutory rights in relation to their personal data. Subject to any exemptions provided by law, you may have the right to request access to Personal Information, as well as to seek to update, delete, or correct this Information. You can usually do this using the aforementioned settings and tools provided in the Service; if you cannot use these settings and tools, contact Customer or your building administrators for additional access and assistance.

To the extent that our processing of your Personal Information is subject to the General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”), we rely on its legitimate interests, described above, to process your data.

A note on deleting your data

Please note that there may be some latency in deleting your Personal Information from our backup systems after it has been deleted from our production, development, and staging systems. We may also retain certain information as reasonably necessary to comply with our legal obligations (including law enforcement requests), resolve disputes, maintain security, prevent fraud and abuse, as well as to comply with tax, financial, securities, and other regulatory compliance requirements that may exist.

Security

We maintain a comprehensive information security program designed to protect all of our users’ Personal Information using modern administrative, physical, and technical safeguards. The specific security measures we use are based on the sensitivity of the information collected and we have measures in place to protect against inappropriate access, loss, misuse, or alteration of Personal Information under our control.

TeachBoost’s security team regularly reviews our security and privacy practices and enhances them as necessary to help ensure the integrity of our systems and your data. We use secure server software to encrypt all authentications and data we store and transmit and we only partner with security companies that meet and commit to our security standards. While we cannot guarantee that loss, misuse, or alteration of data will not occur, we always use reasonable efforts to prevent this.

Please remember that despite our safeguards and commitments, It is also important for you to guard against unauthorized access to your account and Personal Information by maintaining strong passwords and protecting against the unauthorized use of your own computer or device.

For a detailed description of all of our data security practices and commitments, please take a look at our Data Security Policy .

Our Policy Toward Children

The Site and Service are not intended for use by persons who are under 16. Any access to or use of the Site or Service by anyone under 16 is expressly prohibited.

We will not make the Service available to persons who are under 16, and you are prohibited from inviting or permitting persons who are under 16 to join TeachBoost. Likewise, student information—including Personal Information, student assessment data, and student observation data—may not be uploaded or incorporated into the Service without a specific written agreement in place between us and the Customer controlling your account.

If a written agreement is in place between us and Customer permitting us to collect Personal Information from students under 16 or to make the service available to them, it must be for the use and benefit of the school or school district and it must be in compliance with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) and Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA).

If a parent, guardian, or school official becomes aware that his or her child or pupil has provided us with Personal Information without their consent—voluntarily or involuntarily—he or she should contact us at privacy@teachboost.com . If we become aware that a person under 16 has provided us with Personal Information or that such information has been incorporated into the Service without a written agreement, we will take measures to delete such information from our files immediately.

Privacy Shield notice for residents of the European and Swiss Economic Areas

We are committed to subjecting all personal data received from European Union ("EU") member countries and Switzerland, in reliance on the Privacy Shield Framework ("Privacy Shield"), to the Privacy Shield’s applicable Principles. To learn more about the Privacy Shield Framework, and to view our certification page, please visit: https://www.privacyshield.gov .

Schoolbinder is responsible for the processing of Personal Information we receive and for any subsequent transfer to a third party acting as an agent on our behalf. We abide by the Privacy Shield Principles for all onward transfers of personal data from the EU and Switzerland, including the onward transfer of liability provisions unless we prove that we are not responsible for the event giving rise to the damage.

Data processed

We provide the Service so that our customers can manage their professional development and educator training systems and processes. In providing the Service, we process data our customers submit to the Service or instruct us to process on their behalves in connection with the Service ("Customer Data").

Purposes and legal bases for data processing

In general, we process Customer Data submitted by customers for the purpose of providing the Service to customers. To fulfill these purposes, we may access data to provide the Service, to prevent or address service or technical problems, to respond to customer support matters, to follow the instructions of our customer who submitted the data, or in response to contractual requirements with our customers. Please see “How we use personal information” for a more complete explanation.

With regard to the GDPR and other applicable EU laws, this means we collect and process information about you only where we have legal bases for doing so. These legal bases depend on how you use the Service or the contract you have with us and have the following priority:

  • We have a contractual obligation to provide you and your organization the Service, provide customer support and personalized features, and to protect the safety and security of the Service;

  • In the absence of a contractual requirement, it satisfies a legitimate interest not overridden by your data protection interests, such as to protect our legal rights and interests;

  • You give us consent to do so for a specific purpose; or

  • We need to process your data to comply with a legal obligation.

If you have consented to our use of information about you for a specific purpose, you have the right to change your mind at any time, but this will not affect any processing that has already taken place. Where we are using your information because we or a third party (e.g., Customer) have a legitimate interest to do so, you have the right to object to that use though, in some cases, this may mean no longer using the Service.

Third parties with whom we may share Customer Data

We use a limited number of third party providers to assist us in providing the Service to our customers. Please see “How we share and disclose Personal Information” for a complete list of these third parties and their purposes.

Questions, complaints, and dispute resolution

If you are a resident of a European country participating in the Privacy Shield and you believe we maintain your Personal Information within the scope of this Privacy Shield certification, you may direct any questions or complaints concerning our Privacy Shield compliance to privacy@teachboost.com or at our mailing address:

Schoolbinder, Inc.
Attn: Privacy Officer
228 Park Ave S., #82173
New York, NY 10003

We will work with you to resolve your issue. If you have not received a timely response to your concern or we have not addressed your concern to your satisfaction, however, you may seek further assistance, at no cost to you, from JAMS , which is an independent dispute resolution body in the United States.

You may also be able to invoke binding arbitration for unresolved complaints but prior to initiating such arbitration, a resident of a European country participating in the Privacy Shield must first: (1) contact us and afford us the opportunity to resolve the issue; (2) seek assistance from JAMS ; and (3) contact the U.S. Department of Commerce (either directly or through a European Data Protection Authority) and afford the Department of Commerce time to attempt to resolve the issue. If such a resident invokes binding arbitration, each party shall be responsible for its own attorney’s fees. Please be advised that, pursuant to the Privacy Shield, the arbitrator(s) may only impose individual-specific, non-monetary, equitable relief necessary to remedy any violation of the Privacy Shield Principles with respect to the resident.

U.S. Federal Trade Commission enforcement

Our Privacy Shield compliance is subject to the investigatory and enforcement powers of the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

Right of access

Some international users (including those whose personal data is within the scope of this Privacy Shield certification) have certain legal rights to access certain personal data we hold about them and to obtain its correction, amendment, or deletion. Those users may exercise some of those rights through the options described in this Privacy Policy. Please be advised that because our team has a limited ability to identify and access an individual user’s personal data that a customer has submitted to the Service, if you wish to request access, to limit use, or to limit disclosure, we may first refer your request to the customer who submitted your personal data, and we will support them as needed in responding to your request.

Requirement to disclose

We may disclose personal data when we have a good faith belief that such action is necessary to: conform to legal requirements or to respond to lawful requests by public authorities, including to meet national security or law enforcement requirements; or to enforce our contractual obligations.

Other important information

Changes to this policy

We may modify this Privacy Policy at any time. If we do, we will provide prominent advance notice of any material changes to it, such as posting a notice on the Site or sending you an email, to provide you the opportunity to review the changes and choose whether to continue using the Service.

We will also notify you of non-material changes to this policy as of their effective date by posting a notice on the Site or sending you an email. Your continued use of TeachBoost after notice of non-material changes means that you consent to the updated Privacy Policy.

If you object to any changes, you may delete your account by contacting us at support@teachboost.com and we will work with you and your organization.

Digital Millennium Copyright Act

If you are a copyright owner or the agent of a copyright owner and you believe that any content or link on the Site or Service infringes upon your copyrights, you may submit a notice pursuant to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) by providing our Copyright Agent the following information in writing:

  • Your physical or electronic signature;

  • Identification of the copyrighted work(s) at issue;

  • Identification of the material that you claim is infringing that copyrighted work, with specific internal URLs sufficient to permit us to locate that material;

  • Information to permit our DMCA agent to contact you, including address, telephone number and email address, together with a statement that you have a good faith belief that use of the material is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law; and

  • A statement that the information in the notification is accurate, and that, under penalty of perjury, you are either the owner or that you are authorized to act on behalf of the owner of the copyright you allege to be infringed.

You acknowledge and agree that if you fail to comply with all of the requirements listed, your DMCA notice may not be valid. DMCA notices should go to our DMCA Agent:

Schoolbinder, Inc.
Attn: DMCA Agent
228 Park Ave S., #82173
New York, NY 10003
legal@teachboost.com

International data transfers

For data storage and analytical purposes only, your information may be transferred to—and maintained on—computers located outside of your state, province, country, or other governmental jurisdiction where the privacy laws may not be the same as those in your jurisdiction. If you are located outside the United States and choose to provide information to us, TeachBoost transfers Personal Information to the United States and processes it there. Your consent to this Privacy Policy followed by your submission of such information represents your agreement to that transfer.

Contact us

If you reside in the United States or any other country outside the EEA, Schoolbinder, Inc. is responsible for the use of your data and for responding to any requests related to your Personal Information. You may contact it at privacy@teachboost.com .

If you reside in the EEA, TeachBoost Limited is your data controller and you may contact it at dpo@teachboost.com .

If you need to contact us by post, please use the following addresses depending on your location:

For users in the United States or other countries outside the EEA:

Schoolbinder, Inc.
Attn: Legal Department
228 Park Ave S., #82173
New York, NY 10003

For users in the EEA:

TeachBoost Limited
Attn: Legal Department
Worth Corner
Turners Hill Road
Pound Hill, Crawley, West Sussex
RH10 7SL