Skip to content

Privacy Policy

Privacy Policy | Cookie Policy | Terms of Use

 

Your privacy

We take the privacy of your personal information very seriously and are committed to ensuring that we safeguard your personal information. In order to deliver our services to you, from time to time we need to collect personal information. The information we collect from you, along with the content that you use on our services and the data on how you use our websites help us to provide a range of services that meet your needs.

When you share your information with us, you have the right to expect that this information is treated in a secure and confidential manner. This means that:

  • We take full responsibility for all information you provide to us,
  • We will protect your personal information,
  • We will not sell your information to a third party.

The policy below outlines our commitment to you and the security of your data.


Last updated: 1 May 2020

We reserve the right to change the policy at any time, so please check back regularly to keep informed of updates to this policy.


Privacy policy highlights 

Service communications

  • If you are a customer of one of our services, we will contact you with service relevant information, for example if we are not able to deliver the service you have paid for.
  • We will also contact you to provide you with additional resources, lesson plans and content suggestions to improve your experience of the service you have purchased.

Marketing communications

  • If you provide us with a school email address (an email address where the domain is provided by your school), we will contact you by email with marketing material on products and services you may be interested in. You may choose to opt-out of these messages at any time using the opt-out link provided at the bottom of each email.
  • If you provide us with a personal email address, we will not contact you by email with marketing material on products and services you may be interested in, unless you have opted in to receive this information.

Storage and use of information

  • All data is held and managed within our CRM system and a server hosted locally. All data is only accessible by Discovery Education staff and is accessed within a secure environment. All staff who can access data have been made aware of the confidential data that they are accessing.
  • Data is only retained for the period of time necessary to fulfil the need for which the data was obtained.

Discovery Education Europe Limited privacy policy 

This privacy policy governs the collection, storage and use of personal information collected by us, Discovery Education Europe Limited, both via our website at discoveryeducation.co.uk (the “Site“) and through our provision of subscription services, digital content, virtual and in-person events, classroom contests and challenges and professional development services to teachers and pupils for use in the classroom environment (“Services“).

Specifically this privacy policy provides you with details about the personal information we collect from you, how we use your personal information, and your rights regarding the personal information we hold about you.

Please read this privacy policy carefully – by accessing or browsing the Site or requesting the provision of Services from us, you confirm that you have read and understood this privacy policy in its entirety.

Overview

We respect your right to privacy. Our overall aim is to ensure that our collection and use of personal information is appropriate to the provision of services to you, and is in accordance with applicable data protection laws, including GDPR.

Further details of how we do so is set out in each section of our privacy policy as follows:

  1. Who we are
  2. Personal information relating to pupils
  3. Personal information we collect about you
  4. How we store and use your personal information
  5. How we share your personal information and who we share it with
  6. International transfers
  7. Cookies
  8. Security of your personal information
  9. How long we keep your personal information
  10. Your rights
  11. Third-party sites
  12. Changes to this privacy policy
  13. Complaints, questions and suggestions

 

1. Who we are

Discovery Education Europe Limited is a company registered in England and Wales (registration number 03261277), whose registered office is at 1 Lyric Square, Hammersmith London W6 0NB and we are the data controller of the personal information that we collect from you.

You can contact us in relation to this privacy policy by telephone on 0800 6 527 527 or email at ukprivacy@discoveryed.com.

2. Personal information relating to pupils

Our Website

Our Site is not directed at children (apart from those elements intended to be made available by teachers to pupils in a classroom environment) and we do not knowingly collect any personal information from children through our Site. From time to time we may run a contest or competition which requires pupil entry. In such instances we collect only the bare minimum information necessary for the administration of the contest or competition. Once the competition has ended all pupil information will be disposed of in a secure manner.

If you are a child and we learn that we have inadvertently obtained personal information from you from our Site then we will delete that information as soon as possible.

If you are aware of a child who has provided their personal information to us, please contact us at ukprivacy@discoveryed.com so we may remove from our systems.

Our Services

Discovery Education Experience, Techbook, STEM Connect, Curriculum Connect

Pupils of schools who subscribe to Curriculum Connect access our content with a unique login and as such we may hold information such as first and last name, grade, school and school name. This information is provided to us by the school who subscribed to the Service and is deleted once we are alerted the pupil has left the school or if the school does not renew its subscription to the service – whichever is sooner.

Discovery Education Coding

Pupils of schools who have subscribed to Discovery Education Coding access our online content using a generic pupil login account (a “Pupil ID”). This generic pupil ID may be assigned to all pupils in the school or to all pupils within a class. We do not collect personal information such as names or contact details from pupils. We do collect information about what Services and content is accessed through a Pupil ID (i.e. the content used by all pupils within a school or class) but no single individual pupil will be identifiable from this information.

We collect, store and use anonymised usage data from each Pupil ID for the purpose of monitoring usage of our Services and informing future improvements (for example finding out what content is most popular). We do not believe that this storage and use will unduly prejudice a pupil’s rights or freedoms because this data does not allow us to identify any individual pupils.

3. Personal information we collect about you

When you access and browse the Site (including when you submit personal information to us through data entry fields on the website), enter a competition or contest, fill in an order form for our Services and where we provide Services to you, we collect the following information from you:

  • your name;
  • your phone, fax and e-mail details including the school where you work, its DfE number and the relevant local authority;
  • your job title;
  • any email communications, including attachments, which you send to us;
  • your username and password for using the Services; and
  • how you use our Services and the devices that you use to access our Services. This includes collecting unique online identifiers such as IP address.

4. How we store and use your personal information

We collect, store and use your personal data including your name, contact details, Service user name, Service usage data and any other information provided for our legitimate interests, so that we can:

  • make the Site available to you; and
  • provide any Services that you request.
  • administer the Services; and
  • suggest similar products to you that you may be interested in and to understand which products appeal to our customers.

We do not believe that our storage and use of your personal information for these purposes will unduly prejudice your rights and freedoms.

We also collect, store and use your name, contact details, and Service user name as necessary in order for us to provide you with access to the Site and the Services, pursuant to the Site’s Terms of Use.

Where we provide you with professional development training in your school, we will collect, store and use your name, contact details and other personal details submitted by you on the order form for our legitimate interests in providing the professional development training to you. We do not believe that this storage and use will unduly prejudice your rights or freedoms.

Sometimes, our use of your personal information is for purposes which are ancillary to the provision of the Site and Services. In those circumstances, we believe we have a legitimate interest in handling your personal information, and do not believe that this storage and use of your personal information will unduly prejudice your rights or freedoms.

The relevant circumstances are:

  • detecting and preventing fraud;
  • keeping our websites, apps, products and IT systems secure;
  • ensuring that our own processes, procedures and systems are as efficient as possible;
  • analysing and enhancing the information that we collect;
  • for service administration requirements where we need to contact you for reasons related to the Service (for example, where we need to send you a password reminder, to notify you about services updates or amendments to our Terms of Use, Cookies Policy or Privacy Policy);
  • in some very limited circumstances, we will need to handle your personal information in a certain way to comply with our legal requirements; for example, if we are asked by regulatory bodies or law enforcement agencies to share the information; and
  • where you have given us your consent, contacting you (including by SMS and e-mail) with products and services which we think may interest you. We do not contact pupils for this purpose.

Anonymous data

We collect anonymised details about visitors to our website for the purposes of aggregate statistics or reporting purposes. However, no single individual will be identifiable from the anonymised details we collect for these purposes.

5. How we share your personal information and who we share it with

  • Third Party Providers: We do not, and will not, sell your personal data to any third-party. However, we do share your data with the following categories of companies in order to provide our Services to you:IT infrastructure companies, that enable us to either deliver our Services to you or provide service and support to the Services you have licensed.Professional service providers that help us to run our business, including website hosts, marketing agencies and advertising partners.Fulfilment providers that help us to get your order to you, including warehouses and delivery companies.

These companies are authorised to use your personal information only as necessary to provide these services to us.

  • Compliance with laws and legal proceedings: When we respond to court orders, or legal process, or to establish or exercise our legal rights or defend against legal claims. When we believe in our sole discretion it is necessary to share information in order to investigate, prevent or take actions against illegal activities, suspected fraud, situations involving potential threats to the physical safety of any person, violations of our terms of use, or as otherwise required by law.
  • Third parties to whom we may choose to sell, transfer, or merge parts of our business or our assets. Alternatively, we may seek to acquire other businesses or merge with them. If a change happens to our business, then the new owners may use your personal data in the same way as set out in this privacy notice.
  • Corporate education partnerships: When we provide content in partnership with a trusted corporate partner, then we will share aggregated information about access to this content (where no individual is identified) with that partner. Any corporate education partnership shall be clearly identified as such. In some instances we may run a competition for pupils or teachers within such content on behalf of the corporate partner and the personal information of the entrant will be shared with the corporate partner for administering the promotion. The corporate partner will treat any such personal information in accordance with the terms of their own privacy policy.
  • Schools: We will share a teacher’s username, email address and Service usage statistics (for teachers and pupils) with a teacher within the same school or other representatives of the school to allow the school to review usage of our Services. Where pupil usage data has been provided this is provided only at the aggregate level and no individual pupil is identifiable from this information.
  • Regional suppliers: Where we outsource the installation and set-up of our Services, we need to share the teachers’ usernames and email addresses with the supplier so that the supplier can arrange access to the Services at the school. The supplier shall only be authorised to use your personal information as necessary to provide these services to you.

6. International transfers

We only transfer personal information outside of the European Economic Area (including to the United States) in order to facilitate our own analysis of customer usage so the customer experiences a higher quality service and obtains maximum value for money. There is no actual data processing taking place outside of the European Economic Area.

We may also occasionally pass data about individuals to our Parent Company, Discovery Education Inc, headquartered in Silver Spring, Maryland, United States of America, for the purposes of administering a specific request, for example attendance at an event, or fulfilment of a competition. You will be notified that your data will be transferred in these circumstances. Please be aware that countries which are outside the European Economic Area may not offer the same level of data protection as the United Kingdom, although our collection, storage and use of your personal data will continue to be governed by this privacy policy.

When transferring personal information outside the EEA, we will:

  • include the standard contractual data protection clauses approved by the European Commission for transferring personal information outside the EEA into our contracts with those third parties (these are the clauses approved under Article 46.2 of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)); or
  • ensure that the country in which your personal information will be handled has been deemed “adequate” by the European Commission under Article 45 of the GDPR.

You can find out further information about the rules on data transfers outside the EEA, including the mechanisms that we rely upon, on the European Commission website here.

7. Cookies

Technologies such as cookies, beacons, tags and scripts are used by us and our partners, affiliates, or analytics or service providers. These technologies are used in analysing trends, administering the Site, tracking users’ movements around the Site and to gather demographic information about our user base as a whole. We receive reports based on the use of these technologies by these companies on an individual as well as aggregated basis.

We use cookies, for example, to remember users’ settings (e.g. language preference) and for authentication. Users can control the use of cookies at the individual browser level. If you reject cookies, you may still use our Site, but your ability to use some features or areas of our Site may be limited.

Please read more about how we use cookies and what information is collected using cookies in our cookie policy here.

8. Security of your personal information

Whilst we take appropriate technical and organisational measures to safeguard the personal information that you provide to us, no transmission over the Internet can ever be guaranteed secure. Consequently, please note that we cannot guarantee the security of any personal information that you transfer over the Internet to us.

We are committed to protecting your personal information using appropriate technical and operational measures such as access controls that restrict and manage the ways in which your personal information is stored and handled.

9. How long we keep your personal information

We will retain information (including personal information) for as long as we need to use it for the reasons set out in the privacy policy and will delete it after that time except where we need to keep any personal information to comply with our legal obligations, resolve disputes, or enforce our agreements.

  • When a school stops the provision of our Services to that school, then we delete all accounts associated with that school (including teacher accounts and the Pupil ID) from our service delivery systems within 30 days of the stopping of the account. We would continue to hold emails in our CRM system for contacts who have shown an interest in receiving our email communications.
  • When we are notified that an individual no longer works at a school, then we delete all personal information from our systems within 30 days of being notified.
  • When we are notified you wish to have your data removed, then we delete all personal information from our systems within 30 days of being notified. Please note, your ability to use our Site may be restricted and some areas may not be available to you.

10. Your rights

You have certain rights in relation to your personal information. If you would like further information in relation to these or would like to exercise any of them, please contact us at ukprivacy@discoveryed.com at any time. You have the right to request that we:

  • provide access to any personal information we hold about you;
  • update any of your personal information which is out of date or incorrect;
  • delete any personal information which we are holding about you;
  • restrict the way that we process your personal information;
  • prevent the processing of your personal information for direct-marketing purposes;
  • provide your personal information to a third party provider of services;
  • provide you with a copy of any personal information which we hold about you; or
  • consider any valid objections which you have to our use of your personal information.

We will consider all such requests and provide our response within a reasonable period (and in any event within any time period required by applicable law). Please note, however, that certain personal information may be exempt from such requests in certain circumstances.

If an exception applies, we will tell you this when responding to your request. We may request you provide us with information necessary to confirm your identity before responding to any request you make.

11. Third-party sites

This website contains links to other websites operated by third parties. Please note that this privacy policy applies only to the personal information that we collect through the Site and we cannot be responsible for personal information that third parties may collect, store and use through their website. You should always read the privacy policy of each website you visit carefully.

12. Changes to this privacy policy

This privacy policy was last updated on 23 April 2020.

Please check back regularly to keep informed of updates to this privacy policy. Where we make significant changes to this privacy policy, and we have your email address, we will send you notification of the changes.

13. Complaints, questions and suggestions

We have designated roles within the Company who are responsible for ensuring we are compliant with all data protection regulations. They can be contacted at any time at ukprivacy@discoveryed.com.

If you have any complaints about our Site or Services, please contact us at: ukprivacy@discoveryed.com or 0800 6 527 527

In the EEA, you may also make a complaint to our supervisory body for data protection matters (the Information Commissioner’s Office in the UK) or seek a remedy through local courts if you believe your rights have been breached.