Smarterlanguage.com is owned and operated by IXL Learning, Inc. (hereafter called “IXL” “us” or “we”) and knows that you care how information about you is used and shared, and we appreciate your trust that we will do so carefully and sensibly. This Privacy Policy describes our collection and use of personal information through the online and/or mobile services, websites, and software provided on or in connection with www.smarterlanguage.com (collectively, the “Service”), which are offered through (i) www.smarterlanguage.com, (ii) mobile applications associated with www.smarterlanguage.com, and (iii) any other IXL website, app or online service which links to this Privacy Policy. “You” or “your” means a visitor or a user (whether signed in or not) of our Service. Your use of the Service is conditioned on your acceptance of this Policy.
1. What information does IXL collect about you?
IXL collects information in several ways from different parts of the Service.
Information we receive automatically from your use of our Service. Like most websites and online services, IXL and our vendors automatically collect certain types of usage information when you visit www.smarterlanguage.com or otherwise engage with us. This information is typically collected through a variety of tracking technologies, including cookies, web beacons, Locally Stored Objects (LSOs such as Flash or HTML5), log files, and similar technology (collectively, “tracking technologies”), and we may use third party providers to collect this information on our behalf. These tracking technologies collect information about how you access and use the Service (e.g., referring / exit pages and URLs, how frequently you access the Service, the pages you view, the links you click, and other actions you take on the Service); information about your browser and information about the device(s) you use to access the Service (e.g., Internet Protocol (IP address), browser type, browser language, internet service provider, device type, model and manufacturer, a unique ID that allows us to uniquely identify your browser, device or account, operating system brand and model, and whether you access the Service from multiple devices). We may also collect information about your geographical location data at the city level. We may collect analytics data, or use third-party analytics tools, such as Google Analytics, to help us measure traffic and usage trends for the Service and to understand more about the demographics and behaviors of our users. You can learn more about Google’s practices at http://www.google.com/policies/privacy/partners. We may also work with third party partners to employ technologies, including the application of statistical modeling tools, which permit us to recognize you across multiple devices. Although we do our best to honor the privacy preferences of our users, we are unable to respond to Do Not Track signals set by your browser at this time.
We may use the data collected through tracking technologies to secure the Service, improve the Service, to save you time, to provide better technical support, for promotional purposes, and to track website usage. For example, tracking technologies help us to:
- Remember your settings on the pages you visit, so that we can display your preferred content the next time you visit.
- Track website usage for various purposes including website optimization, website improvement, sales, and marketing.
Most browsers are initially set up to accept cookies, but you can reset your browser to refuse all cookies or to indicate when a cookie is being sent. However, some features and services (particularly those that require you to sign in) may not function properly if your cookies are disabled. Deleting cookies does not prevent the collection of information through non-cookie technologies and does delete Local Storage Objects (LSOs) such as and HTML5.
We and our third-party partners may also use cookies and tracking technologies for advertising purposes. For more information about tracking technologies, please see “Third-party tracking and online advertising” below.
2. How IXL uses the information we collect
We use the information we collect for the following purposes:
To provide and maintain the Service. We use the information we collect to deliver the Service to you.
To improve, personalize, and develop the Service. We use information to tailor the content and information that we may send or display to users, to offer personalized content and instructions, and to otherwise personalize your experience while using the Service, including on various devices you may use to access the Service. We collect statistics to better understand how users access and use our Service, monitor the effectiveness of our Service, detect usage patterns, and to diagnose or fix technology problems. We also use information to demonstrate the effectiveness of the Service and perform research, and to develop, support, and improve our Service and other educational products and services.
To promote safety and security and respond to legal process. We use information to promote the safety and security of our Service, our users and other third parties. For example, we may use the information to detect and prevent fraud and other harmful activities, respond to legal requests or claims, and enforce our terms and policies.
3. How does IXL share your information?
Smarterlanguage.com does not collect personally identifiable information beyond the use of analytics data and log files which may or may not include IP addresses. Our analytics data, collected via third party tracking codes, is shared with those tracking entities.
Vendors and Service Providers. IXL may share information with our trusted vendors, third party service providers and individuals to provide services or products for us or on our behalf, which may include analytics, hosting, targeted advertising, and marketing..
Aggregate or De-Identified Information. We may share information in aggregated and/or anonymous form that cannot reasonably be used to identify an individual. For example, IXL may disclose aggregated user statistics (i.e., the total number or percentage of smarterlanguage.com users from a particular geographic region) in order to describe our Service to current and prospective partners and other third parties, and for other lawful purposes.
Other. IXL may release personal information if it has a good faith belief that access, use, preservation, or disclosure of such information is reasonably necessary to (a) satisfy any applicable law, regulation, legal process, or enforceable governmental request; (b) enforce applicable Terms of Service, including investigation of potential violations thereof; (c) detect, prevent or otherwise address fraud, security or technical issues; (d) protect the rights, property, or personal safety of IXL, its users, or the public; or (e) as required or permitted by law.
4. Third-party tracking and online advertising
IXL may display targeted advertising on smarterlanguage.com.
We work with third-party online advertising networks which use technology to recognize your browser or device and to collect certain types of usage information about your visit to or use of our Service to provide customized content, advertising and commercial messages to you on other websites or services, or on other devices you may use. We (through the third-party advertising networks) use this information to direct our online advertisements to those people who may find them relevant to their interests. Typically, though not always, the information is collected through cookies or similar tracking technologies. You may be able to set your browser to reject cookies or other tracking technology by actively managing the settings on your browser or mobile device, though these tools may not be effective for all third-party tracking technologies, including Flash or HTML5 cookies. To learn more about cookies, clear gifs/web beacons and online advertising technologies and how you may opt-out of some of this advertising, you may wish to visit the Digital Advertising Alliance’s resources at www.aboutads.info/choices and/or the Network Advertising Initiative’s online resources, at www.networkadvertising.org.
If you do not want to receive targeted advertising from IXL based on your visit to our website, you can use the below link to request that IXL take steps to prevent third-party advertising networks from using information about your visit to our website to display targeted IXL advertisements to you on other websites or services on behalf of IXL. IXL cannot, however, guarantee that such steps will eliminate all collection and/or display of targeted advertising, and it may take some time for your request to take effect. Such requests will not prevent you from receiving contextual advertising or other types of advertisements that are displayed without taking into consideration whether you have previously visited smarterlanguage.com (for example, advertisements shown on the basis of a search term keyword). Such requests will not stop the collection of information for purposes other than advertising (e.g., for website analytics). This opt-out requires the setting of a cookie in your browser to record your request (and thus will no longer be effective if the required cookie is deleted), will be effective only in the browser from which you make the request, and will be effective for a maximum of one year from the request. If you delete cookies, change your browser settings, switch browsers or computers, or use another operating system, you will need to make the request again. You may make additional requests at any time.
Click here to request not to have information about your visit to smarterlanguage.com tracked for the purpose of displaying targeted IXL advertisements on other sites or services.
5. How long does IXL retain your information?
We will retain personal information for as long as needed to provide the Service and for our internal business purposes. For example, we may retain certain data as necessary to prevent fraud or future abuse, for recordkeeping or other legitimate business purposes, or if required by law. We may also retain and use information which has been de-identified or aggregated such that it can no longer reasonably identify a particular individual. All retained personal information will remain subject to the terms of this Privacy Policy.
We may not be able to immediately or completely delete all data in all instances, such as information retained in technical support records, customer service records, backups, and other similar business records. We will not be required to delete any information which has been de-identified or disassociated with personal identifiers such that the remaining information cannot reasonably be used to identify a particular individual.
6. Region-specific disclosures
We may choose or be required by law to provide different or additional disclosures relating to the processing of personal information about residents of certain countries, regions or states. Please refer below for disclosures that may be applicable to you.
Notice for California Residents
This section applies to you if you are a resident of the state of California and for purposes of this section the term “personal information” has the meaning provided by the California Consumer Privacy Act (the “CCPA”). Please note this section does not apply to Student Data that we process on behalf of our School customers. Because IXL provides the Services to Schools as a “School Official,” we collect, retain, use and disclose Student Data only for or on behalf of our School customers for the purpose of providing the Services specified in our agreement with the School and for no other commercial purpose. If you have any questions or would like to exercise your California rights, please contact your School directly.
Residents of California may be entitled to certain rights with respect to personal information that we have collected about them under the CCPA:
- Right to Know. The right to request to know more about the specific pieces or categories of personal information we have collected, the categories of data sources, and the categories of third parties with whom we have shared the personal information for a business or commercial purpose in the last 12 months.
- Right to Request Deletion. The right to request the deletion of personal information that we have collected from you, subject to certain exceptions.
- Right to Opt Out of Personal Information Sales. The right to direct us not to sell (as such term is defined by the CCPA) personal information we have collected about you to third parties.
You also have the right to be free of discrimination for exercising these rights. However, please note that if the exercise of these rights limits our ability to process personal information (such as in the case of a deletion request), we may no longer be able to provide you the Service or engage with you in the same manner.
To request to exercise your right to know and/or right to deletion, please submit a request by emailing compliance@ixl.com with the subject line, “California Rights Request.” We will need to verify your identity before processing your request, which may require us to request additional personal information from you or require you to log into your account, if you have one. In certain circumstances, we may decline or limit your request, particularly where we are unable to verify your identity or locate your information in our systems, or as permitted by law.
We do not “sell” personal information to third parties without consent, however, we do allow certain third party advertising networks and other third party businesses to collect your personal information directly from your browser or device through cookies and related technologies for advertising, attribution, analytics and research purposes. These third parties may use such personal information for their own purposes in accordance with their own privacy statements, which may include reselling this information to additional third parties. By visiting www.privacyrights.info, you can opt out from sales of this type of personal information by businesses that participate in the DAA’s CCPA App-based Opt-Out Tool.
Please see the section called “Third-party tracking and online advertising” for more information about how third parties use cookies and related technologies to collect information automatically on our websites and other online services, and the choices you may have in relation to those activities.
Shine the Light. California “Shine the Light” law (Civil Code Section §1798.83) provides certain rights to California residents that have an established business relationship with us with regard to the disclosure of certain types of personal information to third parties for their direct marketing purposes. We do not share your personal information with third parties for their direct marketing purposes without consent.
Minors. We do not sell the personal information of consumers we know to be less than 16 years of age, unless we receive affirmative authorization (the “Right to Opt In”) from either the minor who is between 13 and 16 years of age, or the parent or guardian of a minor less than 13 years of age.
Notice for Nevada Residents
To exercise your individual rights under the Nevada Privacy Law (NRS Ch. 603A, Sec. 2(2)), please contact us at compliance@ixl.com. Please include “Nevada Rights Request” in the subject line.
Notice for Residents in the European Economic Area (“EEA”) Residents
For personal information subject to the European Union General Data Processing Regulation (“GDPR”), we rely on several legal bases to process the data. These legal bases include where:
- The processing is necessary to perform our contractual obligations in our Terms of Service or other contracts with you (such as to provide you the Service as described in our Terms of Service);
- You have given your prior consent, which you may withdraw at any time (such as for marketing purposes or other purposes we obtain your consent for from time to time);
- The processing is necessary to comply with a legal obligation, a court order or to exercise or defend legal claims;
- The processing is necessary for the purposes of our legitimate interests, such as in improving, personalizing, and developing the Service, marketing the Service, such as new features or products that may be of interest, and promoting safety and security as described above.
If you have any questions about or would like further information concerning the legal basis on which we collect and use your personal information, please contact us using the contact details provided below in Section 9.
Residents in the EEA are entitled to certain rights with respect to personal information that we hold about them under the GDPR:
- Right of access and portability. The right to obtain access to your personal information, along with certain related information, and to receive that information in a commonly used format and to have it transferred to another data controller;
- Right to rectification. The right to obtain rectification of your personal information without undue delay where that personal information is inaccurate or incomplete;
- Right to erasure. The right to obtain the erasure of your personal information without undue delay in certain circumstances, such as where the personal information is no longer necessary in relation to the purposes for which it was collected or processed;
- Right to restriction. The right to obtain the restriction of the processing undertaken by us on your personal information in certain circumstances, such as where the accuracy of the personal information is contested by you, for a period enabling us to verify the accuracy of that personal information; and
- Right to object. The right to object, on grounds relating to your particular situation, to the processing of your personal information, and to object to processing of your personal information for direct marketing purposes, to the extent it is related to such direct marketing.
You may also have the right to make a GDPR complaint to the relevant Supervisory Authority. A list of Supervisory Authorities is available here: https://ec.europa.eu/justice/data-protection/bodies/authorities/index_en.htm. If you need further assistance regarding your rights, please contact us using the contact information provided below and we will consider your request in accordance with applicable law. In some cases our ability to uphold these rights for you may depend upon our obligations to process personal information for security, safety, fraud prevention reasons, compliance with regulatory or legal requirements, or because processing is necessary to deliver the services you have requested. Where this is the case, we will inform you of specific details in response to your request.
7. Links to other websites and services
The Services may contain links to and from third-party websites of our business partners, advertisers, and social media sites. If you follow a link to any of these websites, please note that these websites have their own privacy policies and their practices are not covered by this Privacy Policy. We strongly recommend that you read their privacy policies and terms and conditions of use to understand how they collect, use, and share information. We are not responsible for the privacy practices or the content on the websites of third-party sites.
8. Updates to this Policy
IXL may, in its sole discretion, modify or update this Policy from time to time, which will be reflected in the ‘Last Updated’ date set forth at the beginning of this Policy. If we change this Policy in a material manner, we will do our best to notify you of the changes by posting a notice on our website or through other appropriate communication channels. Your continued use of the Services following the effective date of such update constitutes your acceptance of the revised Policy. If you do not agree to any of the terms in this Policy or to any future terms in a future revision of this Policy, do not use or access (or continue to access) the Service.
9. Contact Us
If you have a question regarding this statement, or if a question was not addressed in this privacy policy, you may contact technical support using the contact information below. We will do our best to answer your question promptly and accurately.
IXL Learning, Inc.
777 Mariners Island Blvd., Suite 600
San Mateo, CA 94404 (USA)
Compliance@ixl.com