Privacy Policy

Last updated February 26, 2024

 

This privacy statement (“Privacy Policy”) discloses the privacy practices for greatschools.org (“Website”), a website owned and operated by GreatSchools Inc. (“GreatSchools“) If you have questions or concerns about this Privacy Policy, you should send us a message through our contact page.

For the purposes of all applicable and relevant laws pertaining to data protection, data privacy, data security, data breach notification, and cross-border data transfer, such as but not limited to  EU data protection laws (“Data Protection Law“), GreatSchools is the Data Controller (i.e., the company, alone or jointly with others, who determines the purposes and means of the processing of your personal data).

Information Collection and Use

GreatSchools collects information from our users at several different points on our Website. GreatSchools is the sole owner of the information collected on this Website . We will not sell, share or rent this information to others in ways other than as disclosed in this Privacy Policy.

We share aggregated demographic information with our partners, vendors and sponsors. This is not linked to any personally identifiable information.

We use third-party vendors to provide services on the Website, such as sending email messages to subscribers. The information that a user submits on the Website will be provided to our vendor so that we may send GreatSchools communications to users who have ‘opted in’ to receive them. We may share your email address with our partners to offer you programs and services we are jointly promoting. You may opt-out of these communications at any time by going to https://www.greatschools.org/account/newsletters/. Please note, however, if such communications include a link to a vendor’s website or a co-branded partner page and you submit personal information to such vendor’s website or a co-branded partner page, then the privacy policies and practices of such vendor’s website or a co-branded partner page governs the use of your personal information.

We may release information provided by a user if a subpoena, order, or demand from a governmental agency or court requires disclosure. We may also release information provided by a user if GreatSchools in its sole discretion determines that release may assist in protecting the health, safety, or welfare of another. However, GreatSchools has no obligation to exercise such discretion.

Also, we may use your information to:

Cookies

GreatSchools deposits cookies on users’ devices. A cookie is a piece of data stored on the user’s devices containing information about the user. By setting a cookie on our Website, a user does not have to log in a password more than once and saves time while on our Website. Users who reject the cookie may still use greatschools.org, but they may be limited in some areas of our Website.

Cookies can also enable GreatSchools to track and target the interests of our users to enhance their experience. Some of the information about how our users experience our Website, such as page views and specific pages visited, is logged by a third-party marketing company on our behalf, using cookies and web beacons. Web beacons help us understand information such as what browsers our users have so that we are able to develop our Website to best support our users. We control how this data may and may not be used. If you do not want to help us learn how to improve our Website, please send us a message using our contact page.

GreatSchools also works with third-party media measurement services that enable advertisers, publishers and agencies to view audience reports for websites. They use certain data, including your IP address and information from cookies they place on your device, to aggregate internet activity to produce these reports and analyses. To opt out of these kinds of services, please send us a message using our contact page.

GreatSchools also uses Google Analytics to help analyze how visitors use our Website. Google Analytics uses cookies to collect standard internet log information and visitor behavior information in an anonymous form. For more information on how Google collects and processes this data, please click here. To opt-out of this service, please click here.

GreatSchools also works with third-party companies to serve ads when you visit www.greatschools.org. These companies may use information (not including your name, address, email address or telephone number) about your visits to www.greatschools.org in order to provide advertisements on www.greatschools.org, other websites and other forms of media about goods and services that may be of interest to you. If you would like more information about this practice and to know your choices about not having this information used by these companies, please click here.

If you wish to exercise your data subject rights under relevant privacy laws and regulations, please send us a message using our contact page.

You also have the right to lodge a complaint to your local data protection authority.

Log Files

We use IP addresses to analyze trends, administer the Website, track users’ movement and gather broad demographic information for aggregate use. IP addresses are not linked to personally identifiable information.

Links

This Website contains links to other websites. Please be aware that GreatSchools is not responsible for the privacy practices of these other websites. When users leave our Website, we encourage them to be aware of and to read the privacy statements of each and every website that collects personally identifiable information. This privacy statement applies solely to information collected by this Website.

Newsletters

If a user wishes to subscribe to our newsletters or other email services, we may ask for contact information such as name and email address. This information is used to contact the user with and about the services on our Website for which they have expressed interest. It is optional for the user to provide demographic information (such as child’s grade level or ZIP code) but encouraged so that we can provide more personalized service.

From time to time, GreatSchools may email our newsletter subscribers a request to complete user surveys and/or events that we believe are of interest. This may include promotions from a related third-party sponsor or partner.

Choice/Opt Out

Users who no longer wish to receive our newsletters or other communications can unsubscribe using the tools provided in every email message or by logging into their account from the subscription management page.

User Surveys

From time to time, we request information from users and newsletter subscribers via surveys. Participation in these surveys is voluntary and the user therefore has a choice whether or not to disclose this information. Information requested may include contact information (such as name, phone number, and address), and demographic information (such as ZIP code and child’s grade level). Contact information may be used by GreatSchools to notify winners and award prizes.

Survey information will be used for purposes of monitoring or improving the use and satisfaction of this Website and GreatSchools services. The information you provide in response to survey questions may be shared, but only in the aggregate or anonymously, with advertisers and partners, unless we notify you otherwise at the time of collection.

Email Referral Service

If users elect to use our email referral service (“Tell a Friend”), for informing a friend about our Website, we ask them for the friend’s name and email address. GreatSchools will automatically send the friend a one-time email inviting them to visit the Website. GreatSchools stores this information for the sole purpose of sending this one-time email. The friend may request the removal of their information from our database by sending GreatSchools a message using our contact page.

Compliance with Laws

We will disclose your personal information when required to do so by law or subpoena.

Retention of Your Personal Information

We will retain and use your 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. 

Security

GreatSchools has implemented commercially reasonable technical and organizational measures designed to secure your personal information from accidental loss and from unauthorized access, use, alteration or disclosure. When users submit sensitive information via the Website, GreatSchools uses commercially reasonable efforts to protect their information both online and offline. However, we cannot guarantee that unauthorized third parties will never be able to defeat those measures or use your personal information for improper purposes. Thus, you acknowledge that you provide your personal information at your own risk.

If and when our Website asks users to enter sensitive information (such as credit card number and/or Social Security number), that information will be encrypted and protected with encryption software called SSL. Learn more about SSL.

While we use SSL encryption to protect sensitive information online, we will use commercially reasonable efforts to protect personal user information offline. Only employees who need the information to perform a specific job (for example, our billing clerk or a customer service representative) will be granted access to personally identifiable information. Furthermore, all employees are kept up to date on our security and privacy practices. The servers that are used to store personally identifiable information are kept in a secure environment.

If you have any questions about the security at our website, please send us a message using our contact page.

Data Storage and Transfer

Information collected through our Website may be stored and processed in the United States or any other country in which GreatSchools or its affiliates or service providers maintain facilities. If you are located in the European Union or other regions with laws governing data collection and use that may differ from U.S. law, please note that we may transfer information, including personal information, to a country and jurisdiction that does not have the same data protection laws as your jurisdiction, and we will take steps reasonably necessary to ensure that any personal data are treated securely and in accordance with this Privacy Policy. Such transfers are made pursuant to appropriate safeguards. If you wish to enquire further about these transfers, please send us a message using our contact page.

Compromise of Security

In the event that personal information is compromised as a result of a breach of security, GreatSchools will promptly notify those persons whose personal information has been compromised, in accordance with the notification procedures set forth in this Privacy Policy, or as otherwise required by applicable law.

Correction/Updating of Personal Information

If a user’s personal information changes or if a user no longer desires our services, we will endeavor, upon request, to provide a way to correct, update or remove that user’s personal data provided to us.

Copyright

By accessing our Website and materials, you agree not to change, edit or delete any copyright or trademarked materials related to GreatSchools or its services.

Notification of Changes

As we continue to develop our Website, this Privacy Policy will likely change. We will post all changes to this Privacy Policy on this page and will indicate at the top of this page the policy’s effective date. We therefore encourage you to refer to this policy on an ongoing basis so that you understand our current Privacy Policy. You agree to review this Privacy Policy periodically since such changes, modifications, additions or deletions shall be effective immediately upon posting and your subsequent use after such posting shall conclusively be deemed to be acceptance by you of such changes, modifications or deletions.

Login Security

When you choose a password in signing up for one of GreatSchools’ services, for example as an authorized school official (i.e., principal or other school administrator) for your School Account or as a parent/guardian to join a GreatSchools community, the password is stored on the password-protected GreatSchools server. However, because Internet communications are generally not secure, you should be aware that when you send your password across the Internet to us, there is a possibility that an experienced hacker could intercept your password. However, we have no evidence to date that password information presents a serious security threat to warrant using a secure shell for this transaction.

A Notice About Our Advertisers

GreatSchools allows advertising by third parties. GreatSchools does not control linking practices of advertisers, partners, or sponsors and does not monitor or claim responsibility for any content or privacy practices of such websites. Once you have clicked on an advertisement or other integration and have left our Website, you must read the privacy policy of the advertiser, partner or sponsor to see how your personal information will be handled.

GreatSchools may offer contests, sweepstakes, and promotions that are sponsored or provided by third-party advertisers, partners, or sponsors. These third parties may obtain personally identifiable information that users voluntarily submit to participate in the activity. GreatSchools does not control the third parties’ use of information.

GreatSchools uses an advertising server (Google Ad Manager) developed by a third party to display ads on our Website. Some of these ads may contain cookies that are set by third parties (advertisers, partners, sponsors). In addition, we may allow third parties to place cookies or related tools on our Website to collect data that may be used to serve advertisements and integrations elsewhere (i.e., on other websites). We do not have access to these cookies or other tools or any information that they contain. The GreatSchools Privacy Policy does not cover any use of information that a third-party may have collected from you. For more information on the privacy practices of Google Ad Manager, please click here. You may opt out of Google Ad Manager’s information collection by clicking here.

You have choices about what information is gathered and used for serving third-party ads based on your interests. You can opt out of seeing interest-based ads by clicking here (the AboutAds website). The choices you make on these websites are browser-specific. So, if you use a different browser, you will need to opt out again.

We present some interest-based ads to you directly and sometimes we work with partners and vendors to present the ads. These interest-based ads may be for the products and services of our partners and advertising clients or for our own products or services. The Ad Choices Icon appears on ads that use interest based advertising. You can click on it to find out more about why it appeared and if you want to opt out, as described above.

We have partnered with Publisher First, Inc. dba Freestar (“Freestar”) for the purposes of placing certain advertising on our site. To learn more about Freestar’s data usage and terms, click here.

Information from Other Sources

We have partnered with Google and Facebook/Meta to provide a more personalized experience on GreatSchools for Google users and members of Facebook/Meta. When you visit GreatSchools, you will see an option to sign in with Google or Facebook/Meta. In order to provide you with a personalized experience, Facebook/Meta provides us with information that you have chosen to make available pursuant to your Facebook/Meta privacy settings. That information may include your basic information, email address, name, profile picture, your likes, location, schools you’ve attended (education history), friends list, and any other information you have chosen to make available. We do not share this information with any third party.

If, at any time, you would like to turn off personalization on GreatSchools, you can do so by logging out of Google and Facebook/Meta. You can also disable the GreatSchools app in the Your Apps section of the Facebook/Meta App Center or in Google. Please note that, if you have Facebook/Meta friends who are using GreatSchools, they may also have shared information about you with us through Facebook. If you wish to prevent that sharing, you can do so by editing your Facebook/Meta privacy settings.

A Notice About External Links

You will find links from our Website to independently owned, controlled, and/or managed websites whose content we believe will be of possible interest and value to our users. Additionally you’ll see links from advertisers, sponsors and other partners that may use GreatSchools’ logo as part of a co-branding agreement.

In many cases, these links represent cooperative projects or mutual links established with the organizations connected with these websites. We don’t control the content of these links. These other websites may send you their own cookies, collect data, or solicit personal information. While we identify partner, sponsor and advertiser areas of our Websites, we do not control these cookies or the content of these third parties.

GreatSchools has partnered with other companies to provide certain services. In some cases, you may see GreatSchools’ logo on another company’s website. GreatSchools does not share any of your personally identifiable information with these partners.

Once you leave our Website, the use of any information you provide is governed by the privacy policy of the operator of the website you are visiting. That policy may differ from ours. If you can’t find the privacy policy of any of these websites via a link from that website’s home page, you should contact the website directly for more information.

We specifically recommend that users, parents/guardians, teachers and/or school officials monitor any new websites before children connect to them.

Public Forums

GreatSchools makes it possible for our users to share information through options such as school reviews. Please remember that any information that is disclosed in these areas becomes public information. Consequently, you should exercise caution when deciding to disclose your personal information.

Our Commitment to Children’s Privacy

Protecting the privacy of young children is especially important. For that reason, GreatSchools does not knowingly collect or maintain personal information through the Website from persons under 13 years of age, and no part of our Website is directed to persons under 13. If you are under 13 years of age, then please do not use or access the Website at any time or in any manner. If GreatSchools learns that personally identifiable information of persons under 13 years of age has been collected through the Website without verified parental consent, then GreatSchools will take the appropriate steps to delete this information.

Notification Procedures

It is the policy of GreatSchools to provide notifications, whether such notifications are required by law or are for marketing or other business related purposes, to our customers or Website users, via email notice, written or hard copy notice, or through conspicuous posting of such notice on our Website page, as determined by GreatSchools in its sole discretion. Notwithstanding the foregoing, GreatSchools reserves the right to determine the form and means of providing notifications to our customers or Website users.

Contact Us

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, please send us a message using our contact page.