Hoot Reading Web App Privacy Policy

Effective Date: November 11, 2024

Hoot Reading, Inc. (“Hoot Reading,” “we,” “us”), owns and operates the web-based Hoot Reading application available at https://app.hootreading.com (the “App”) that supports delivery of Hoot Reading lessons and literacy services (collectively, the “Services”). Services are made available to education institutions, households, employers and such other individuals and organizations to whom we agree to offer access to the Services for purchase, from time to time (each a “Customer”) and the education institution or other other organization employees or contractors (including, without limitation, teachers), parents or guardians, and students who use the Services (each a “User”). When Users access the Hoot Reading App, Hoot Reading and our service providers collect information in order to provide the Services.

This Privacy Policy is intended to inform our Customers (collectively, “you,” “your”) about how we may collect, use, and disclose your or your student or child’s Personal Identifiable Information (“personal information,” “PII”). It also describes your choices regarding use, access, and changes to your PII.

By accessing or using the Services, you acknowledge that you have read, understood and agree to this Privacy Policy.

Information We Collect:

We only collect information about an individual with the individual’s knowledge and consent, except as otherwise indicated in this Privacy Policy. Generally, this means we collect personal information directly from Users using the Services. Occasionally, we may collect personal information from third party sources, but only with the knowledge and consent of the individual or where otherwise authorized by law.

We may collect and process all or some of the following information about you, for the purposes of providing Services or as otherwise indicated in this Privacy Policy:

 

Information Collected From Parents, Guardians, and Education Institutions as part of a related Master Service Agreement ("MSA") with an Education Institution	How We Use This Information
First name, last name, email address, phone number, Country, State/Province, and password. When a Customer is accessing Hoot Reading, the name of their employer may also be collected as part of a related Master Service Agreement (“MSA”).	We use this information to set up your account, contact you for lessons scheduled with us, and to send you updates about your student’s progress.
Student’s name, grade, reading level, strengths or challenges, and if the student has attention issues we should be aware of. When a User accesses Services as part of an MSA, their associated School and/or District may be collected, as well as special learning indicators, demographic information, and relevant assessment data.	We use this information to select an appropriate learning level for lessons, match and introduce a student to their teacher(s), and identify books the student may be interested in. Additionally, when legally permissible to do so, we may use this information to further improve and develop our products and services. When the student is accessing Hoot Reading through a school program, their school is recorded for attendance and usage tracking to report back to the school or district.
Information Collected From Parents or Guardians as part of a related Master Service Agreement ("MSA") with a Household or Employer	How We Use This Information
First name, last name, email address, phone number, Country, State/Province, Postal or Zip Code, and password. When a Customer is accessing Hoot Reading, the name of their employer may also be collected as part of a related Master Service Agreement (“MSA”).	We use this information to set up your account, contact you for lessons scheduled with us, determine your billing rate, and to send you updates about your student’s progress.
Student’s name, year of birth, grade, hobbies or interests, math or reading level, strengths or challenges, and if the student has attention issues we should be aware of.	We use this information to select an appropriate learning level for lessons, match and introduce a student to their teacher(s), and identify books the student may be interested in. Additionally, when legally permissible to do so, we may use this information to further improve and develop our products and services. When the student is accessing Hoot Reading through a school program, their school is recorded for attendance and usage tracking to report back to the school or district.
Information Collected From Children	How We Use This Information
Audio and video of the student, as part of the video calls they have with their teacher(s), books read, and reading progress and preferences.	We use this information to deliver the learning experience to the student, to assess impact, and to monitor and assure the quality of the teachers providing the tutoring. Additionally, when legally permissible to do so, we may use this information to further improve and develop our products and services. Video recordings are encrypted and destroyed after 30 days, except where a longer retention period is required by applicable law, or the Customer or User requests access to the recording.

 

Customers also have the option to provide us with additional information about their student or child, including their self identified pronouns, reading level, or any learning challenges that may be helpful to their teacher(s). We use this information to deliver the learning experience for the student.

Professionals (including, without limitation, teachers) who seek to enter into independent contractor agreements with Hoot Reading are asked to provide additional personal information, including first name, last name, email, phone number, Country, State/Province, Postal or Zip Code, password, work experience, supplied profile information (such as payment information, Social Insurance of Security numbers, DEI self-identification, signature and password), lesson notes saved in the Services, and Audio and video of the teacher, as part of the video calls they have with their student(s). We may also receive criminal history information through an external, third party background check vendor, however, we do not collect or store the background check information. We use this information to allow teachers to use the Services with students, and to allow us to maintain their profile associated with the Services (including to make payments to them, as applicable).

We may also collect personal information for other purposes, either from the individual about whom the personal information relates or from third parties, where we have a legal duty or right to do so.

Usage Information and Cookies:

When Users access our Services, our servers automatically collect the Internet Protocol (“IP”) address associated with your browser. Like most online services, we may also collect additional information such as a geographic location (including city, state, or country), device ID and type, login timestamp, website navigation and use, browser and type and version, and the operating system. We use this information to help us provide the Services in the local language, to diagnose technical problems and to administer the Services. We may also leverage Google Analytics to understand more about demographics and behaviors of our Users. Collectively, we may analyze this information for aggregate trends about how our Services are used, and to help us improve our Services. We do not attempt to re-identify anonymous information.

To collect this information, we use these tracking technologies:

Cookies. Cookies are small data files sent by a website and stored on the computer or device at the request of that site. Cookies store information related to a user’s browser to enable us to recognize the browser on return visits and to remember your preferences.

Click tracking: Click tracking allows us to capture “clickstream data” about your use of our website, including the pages you visit and the content you view. This includes the full URL clickstream, including the date and time of your interaction, time spent, response times, browsing activity (including scroll positions, clicks, mouse movements), search queries, and the URL of the website you visited immediately beforehand. We use clickstream data to better understand your needs and preferences so that we can improve the Website experience.

By using Hoot Reading, you agree to the use of these technologies.

Third Party Cookies:

We use third-party service providers to assist us in collecting and analyzing usage information. We do not disclose more PII than is necessary for a third party to facilitate our delivery of the Services or to provide features on our behalf. We may, however, share aggregated demographic information that is not linked or linkable to personal information with third-party services. Hoot Reading ensures all third parties receiving PII are contractually bound to data privacy and security measures as they relate to personal information that are at least as protective as those Hoot Reading utilizes. For more information on the cookies and analytics that we use, see the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy of the third parties in our Cookie Notice.

When you first log in to access our Services, you will be asked to choose the cookies you wish to opt in for. Strictly Necessary cookies are required for the use of our Services. They cannot be turned off. They’re set in response to requests made by you, such as setting your privacy preferences, logging in, or filling in forms. Analytical Cookies collect information to help us understand how you use our Services to help us improve your experience.

Most browsers can also be set to detect browser cookies and to let a user reject them, but refusing cookies may make it difficult to use our Services. A list of companies that use cookies on our Website, the services they provide, and information on how you may opt out of certain cookies is included in our Cookie Notice. To learn more about browser cookies, including how to manage or delete them, refer to the Tools, Help, or similar section of your web browser.

As with many organizations, we do not honor “Do Not Track” signals transmitted by web browsers as there is no industry standard for implementing such programs. To find out more about DNT, please visit http://allaboutdnt.com.

For more information about third-party advertisers and how to prevent them from using your information, visit the NAI’s consumer website at http://www.networkadvertising.org/choices, http://www.aboutads.info/choices, or http://www.youronlinechoices.com/uk. If you do want to opt out using these tools, you need to opt out separately for each of your devices and for each web browser (such as Chrome, Edge Firefox, Safari or others) that you use on each device.

How We Use and Disclose Personal information:

WE DO NOT SELL OR RENT DATA. We do not access or disclose your Personal information except as described above or in the following circumstances:

 

To provide, maintain, and administer the Services, including to create User accounts, provide the reading lessons, create progress reports, and as needed, by sharing personal information with third-party service providers who provide certain features, such as server maintenance, analytics, and cloud storage on our behalf. To provide customer support, including to resolve a problem or support issue, notify Users about changes to the Services, and to otherwise communicate and solicit feedback on your experiences with the Services.	Our legal bases for these practices are fulfillment of our legitimate interests and performance of a contract, to enable us to perform our obligations and provide you with access to our Services and to improve the educational efficacy of our Services.
To protect our rights or the rights and safety of our Users, or as necessary in the event of a court order, regulatory inquiry or other lawful request. Unless legally prohibited from doing so, we will direct any such request to the User or notify the User before responding unless to do so would prejudice the prevention or detection of a crime. In relation to a known or suspected violation of our Terms of Service or MSA, fraud prevention or other unlawful use including to share Personal Information with entities assisting us in investigation and as may be required by applicable law.	Our legal bases for these practices are to fulfill our legal obligations and legitimate interests, such as to allow us to ensure the legality of our Services and to cooperate with law enforcement and regulatory authorities.
In the event of a reorganization, merger, sale, assignment, bankruptcy, or similar business change, we may need to transfer your personal information to that re-organized entity or new owner after the sale or reorganization for them to use in accordance with this Privacy Policy.	Our legal basis for these practices is fulfillment of our legitimate interests, to change our business.
To provide parents with updates and offers about our Services. At any time, you may unsubscribe or opt-out of further communication on any electronic marketing communication by using the link labeled “unsubscribe” available in each email communication or by contacting us at help@hootreading.com. Hoot Reading does not advertise to students.	Our legal basis for these practices is your consent, where such consent is required.

 

We may also use or disclose personal information for other purposes where we have a legal duty or right to do so.

We may rely on one or more service providers to perform the Services. The names of such service providers may be provided upon request. If we transfer personal information that we collect or that you provide as described in this Privacy Policy to service providers, those service providers will be contractually obligated to use it only for the purposes for which we disclose it to them, and to process the personal information with the same standards set out in this Privacy Policy.

We agree not to transfer de-identified data to any third party, unless that third party agrees not to attempt to re-identify the data.

Accuracy and Completeness of Personal Information:

We make every reasonable effort to ensure that personal information is accurate and complete. This may involve requesting further information or updates from you. We rely on you to notify us if there is a change to your personal information that may affect your relationship with Hoot Reading. If a correction to PII is requested by an eligible parent, student, teacher, or principal and is deemed necessary, Hoot Reading agrees to correct the information within 30 days of written notice.

How You May Modify Your Personal Information:

At any time, you may access, change, or delete your Personal Information by contacting us at help@hootreading.com. We may take steps to verify your identity before fulfilling your request.

How We Protect Your Personal Information

COPPA Consent:

We operate in compliance with applicable privacy laws including the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). We collect only the minimally required personal information from children in order to provide the Services, and do not condition a child’s access to or participation in the Services on providing more personal information than is necessary. We use personal information from children only to provide the Services.

Before we collect personal information from children under the age of 13 in the US, or otherwise under the age of consent in your country, we obtain permission from the verified parent or legal guardian. Parents or legal guardians may contact us at any time to revoke their consent, review the information we have collected from their child, request that we collect no additional information, or request that we delete their child’s information. In the event that an education institution Customer allows Users under the age of 13 to submit personal information as defined in the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) in connection with its use of the Service, the education institution Customer agrees that it will be responsible for obtaining verifiable parental consent prior to making the Service available to those Users.

You may contact us at help@hootreading.com to exercise these rights. Please be aware that we may request certain information from you to reasonably verify your identity before fulfilling your request.

FERPA Compliance:

Hoot Reading works towards compliance with the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). We provide contracted services to classroom teachers, schools, and districts (collectively, "schools"), as a "school official" (as that term is used in FERPA §§ 99.31(a)(1)) who has been determined by the schools to have a "legitimate educational interest" in receiving personally identifiable information from a student record for the purpose of carrying out our responsibilities under an agreement with a school.

Hoot Reading shall be bound by all applicable provisions of FERPA, and agrees that personally identifiable student information as defined in FERPA, obtained from Customer and its Users in the performance of Services, will remain under the direct control of the Customer, will only be used to provide the Services, and will only be disclosed to Hoot Reading service providers as needed to provide the Services to the Customer.

We may create deidentified data from User information by removing, obfuscating and/or otherwise altering all personal identifiers. We may use deidentified data for legally permissible purposes. We agree not to attempt to re-identify de-identified data.

Security:

We maintain commercially reasonable physical, technical, and administrative safeguards to protect the security, integrity and availability of your personal information. We host personal information in secure, third-party cloud-based environments that use firewalls, encryption of personal information in transit and at rest, and other industry-standard technologies in an effort to prevent interference or access from outside intruders. The Internet, however, is not perfectly secure. We are prepared to take appropriate and timely steps in the event of any incidents involving personal information in accordance with applicable privacy laws.

We require Users to access the Services using unique identifiers and passwords. You are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your user name and password. If you become aware of any unauthorized use of your account or suspect a security breach, notify us at help@hootreading.com

Data Retention:

We retain personal information for as long as is necessary to provide the Services. In the case of Customers who are not education institutions, we will retain personal information until there is five (5) years of account inactivity, at which time, we will delete personal information associated with the account, unless otherwise specified with your Registration, Order Form or MSA (as the case may be). In the case of Customers who are education institutions or other organizations, we will delete personal information thirty (30) days after the MSA or other agreement with the Customer terminates or expires. In all cases, we will retain personal information for such longer periods of time as may be required by applicable laws.

At any time, Users may submit a written request to have their or their student or child’s personal information deleted. We will comply with such written requests within thirty (30) days, subject to a legal requirement for us to retain personal information for a longer period of time.

We do retain non-Personal Information, including aggregated, de-identified data for legally permissible purposes.

Opt-Out Policy:

We may send emails to parents with information about our Services that we believe may be of interest in accordance with applicable laws, including Canada’s Anti-Spam Legislation. Parents may opt out of receiving these email messages by contacting us at help@hootreading.com or by clicking on the “unsubscribe” link found at the bottom of every email that we send. We do not send these emails to students, and we do not send email messages on behalf of third parties.

If you have opted out of receiving communications from us, we may still send essential communications regarding the Services.

Additional Information for Users from the European Union and the United Kingdom
When we provide Services to you, we operate in the capacity of a “data controller” under applicable EU and UK law. In those circumstances, our processing of your personal information is governed by this Privacy Policy as well as our Terms of Service. In some cases, we will ask for your consent so that we may process your personal information. In other circumstances, we may rely on a different lawful basis, as explained in the section, “How we Use and Disclose Your personal information.” Where our lawful basis is our legitimate interest, a balancing test is available upon request.

Storage of Personal Information:

If you are located outside of the United States, please be aware that your information will be transferred to, processed and maintained in the United States.

By submitting your personal information, you acknowledge that we may transfer, process and store your information in this way. Wherever the information is, it will be treated securely and in accordance with this Privacy Policy and applicable privacy laws. These laws may be different from the privacy laws in your country, however, this does not change our commitments to safeguard your privacy and we will comply with all applicable laws relating to the cross-border data disclosure of your personal information. In the absence of an adequate decision regarding the safe processing of your personal information, we will implement Standard Contractual Clauses in our agreement with you and with our third parties, or rely on such other transfer mechanisms to ensure that the transfer of your personal information outside of your country is lawful. You may request details of the transfer mechanisms that we rely on to transfer personal information outside of your country by emailing us at help@hootreading.com.

Additional Data Rights:

Please note that the rules in your country may provide you with additional rights or may limit these rights. In all cases, our provision of the rights will comply with the applicable laws.

Any personal information we hold will be made available to the applicable Customer or User upon request, provided that it has not been earlier deleted pursuant to the terms of this Privacy Policy.

If you are based in the EU or UK, for example, you may have the right to access, update or correct your personal information, to request deletion of such personal information, and to object to certain processing, including that related to marketing, to receive a machine-readable copy of the personal information concerning you that you provided to us or request us to transfer such data to an applicable third party in certain circumstances.

In addition, where you provided your consent so that we might process your personal information, you may withdraw your consent by contacting us using the details provided in the “Contact” section, subject to any legal requirements. You may also restrict how we use your personal information while a complaint is being investigated, however, if consent is withdrawn, we may not be able to provide the Services.

Your exercise of these rights is subject to certain exemptions to safeguard the public interest (for example, the prevention or detection of crime) and our interests (such as the maintenance of legal privilege). To exercise your rights, please contact us using the information in the “Contact” section below.

Updates to This Policy:

As our Services evolve, we may make changes to this Privacy Policy. A new or revised version will be posted on our website. In the event any modification is material, we will provide you reasonable notice via email before such modifications take effect (the “Effective Date”). Your use of the Services following the Effective Date constitutes acceptance of such modifications, provided that any new authorized uses or disclosures of student personal information will not take effect unless the consent of such students (or their parents or guardians, as the case may be) is obtained.

Contact:

If you have any concerns or complaints about how we handle your personal information, or if you have questions regarding this Privacy Policy, please contact us at:

210-1600 Kenaston Blvd. Unit 340, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, R3P 0Y4
legal@hootreading.com
+1(833)789-HOOT(4668)

You may also ask questions or file complaints related to this privacy policy and practices, by contacting the iKeepSafe Safe Harbor program dedicated consumer complaint email address, COPPAPrivacy@ikeepsafe.org.

You also have a right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority. Please contact us for the information for the relevant authority.

Definitions:

Personal Identifiable Information – information that identifies, describes, or relates to an identified or identifiable individual, or data that is reasonably capable of being associated with, or could reasonably be linked, directly or indirectly, with a particular consumer or household.