Service Privacy Policy

1. Introduction
Seesaw’s mission is to create an environment where students can be their best. Protecting your privacy is fundamental to our mission and business. This Privacy Policy applies to the Seesaw Service provided to educational institutions and their users (including teachers, students and families) that is available through our websites at seesaw.me, the Seesaw Applications, and any other online or offline offerings (collectively “the Seesaw Service”, “the Service”, “Seesaw”, “we”, “us”, or “our”). This policy explains how we collect, use and protect personal information that we collect through the Seesaw Service, including when you create an account (“Account Information”), add content to class journals (“Journal Content”), through activities teachers create (“Activities”), and messages (“Messages”) sent via Seesaw.

In order to use the Seesaw Service, you must create an account and agree to our Terms of Service.

If you are using the Seesaw Service from outside the United States, please see our International Privacy Policy.

2. Seesaw and FERPA
When the Seesaw Service is used by a teacher, school, school district or other K12 educational institution (collectively referred to as “School”) for an educational purpose, we may access, collect or receive personal information directly related to students (“Student Data”) that is provided by the School, by the student, or by a Family Member. Student Data collected by Seesaw includes personal information from students’ education records that are subject to the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (“FERPA”), including student names, parent or guardian (collectively, “Family Member”) names, Messages, and Journal Content. Seesaw receives and processes such Student Data as a “School Official” (as that term is used in FERPA and its implementing regulations) under the direct control of the school with regard to the use and maintenance of such information. Seesaw agrees to work with our School partners to jointly ensure compliance with FERPA.

3. Seesaw and COPPA
Seesaw complies with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (“COPPA”). COPPA protects personal information collected from a child younger than 13. We do not knowingly collect information from a child under 13 unless a School has authorized us to collect such information through the provision of the Service on the School’s behalf.

 When a School uses Seesaw for an educational purpose, we rely on the School to provide appropriate consent for Seesaw to collect personal information directly from a student under 13 for the use and benefit of the School and for no other commercial purpose, as permitted by COPPA. When authorized by the School, we use and process the child’s personal information only for the purpose of providing the Service to the School and maintain such information no longer than necessary to provide the Service. Upon written request, we will provide the School the opportunity to review and delete the personal information collected from their students. If you are a Parent and you have questions about your child’s use of Seesaw and any information collected, please discuss your questions with your child’s School.

Please continue reading this Privacy Policy to learn more about how we collect and use information from students of all ages or see the Children’s Privacy Policy here to learn more about how we collect and use information from students under the age of 13.

Seesaw is COPPA Safe Harbor certified by iKeepSafe.

4. Who does Seesaw collect information from?
We collect information from individuals who create accounts on Seesaw, which includes teachers, students, and Family Members (“you”).

5. How does Seesaw obtain my information?
We receive information from the information that you and others provide, from your device(s), and from third-party services. The categories of sources from which we’ve collected or received information include:

• You: We collect the content, communications, and other information you provide when you create an account, add content to Journals, create Activities, send Messages or otherwise use Seesaw.
• Other users: We collect information that other people provide when they use Seesaw, such as when a teacher adds a parent’s phone number to send updates about a student’s work.
• Your device(s): We collect information from and about the computers, phones, and other web-connected devices you use to access Seesaw.
• Third-Parties: When you create a Seesaw account using a third-party single sign-on service (e.g. Google or Clever), we access the name, profile picture, and email address or other information (if available) provided by these services, subject to the data sharing preferences you have set with respect to that third-party service.

6. What information does Seesaw collect?
We intentionally limit our data collection to only what we need to provide the Seesaw service for you. Through our provision of the Seesaw Service, we may collect the following information:

Account Information: When you create an account on Seesaw we collect your name, email address, password, and optional profile picture. Seesaw may also collect your phone number if you enter it in your Account Settings. Teachers using Seesaw may add a Family Member’s email or phone number to Seesaw in order to send messages or updates about school work. We do not collect student phone numbers.

Students are not permitted to create an account by themselves but must be invited to a Seesaw class by a teacher or school administrator. Where students have permission to use Seesaw, Seesaw collects personally identifiable information that is necessary to provide the Service, including a student’s name and/or username, email address, and optional profile picture or avatar. This information may be entered by a teacher or the student or populated from the student’s account with a third-party sign-in service, such as their Google account. We also collect information about the student’s use of the Service and connections, such as the name of the student’s School, teacher, and linked Family Members.

Users can make changes to their profile, messaging preferences, and other account details in Account Settings. Changes to some student settings may be controlled by the teacher.

Journal Content: Seesaw collects content that is added to a class or student journal. This content may include photos, audiovisual content (including from your device’s camera, microphone, or photo/video library), drawings, files, notes, hyperlinks, and other ways of documenting student learning. We regularly add types of content that can be uploaded to a Journal, and these are all covered by this Policy. We also collect comments on posts in the class and student journals, including text and voice recordings. Journal Content that is uploaded by a student or teacher may be considered a student education record as defined by FERPA.

Messages: Seesaw collects all messages that are sent and received in Seesaw. Messages may include text, audio, video, photos, drawings, files, notes, hyperlinks, or other information.

Activities: Teachers may use Seesaw to create activities to use with their students. Activities may include text or voice instructions for how to complete the activity, an example of a correct response, or a template for students to edit.
Activity Author Profiles: Teachers who choose to publish their educator activities to the Community Activity Library or the Activity Library managed by their school or district can also create an Activity Author Profile. This includes the name and profile picture they choose to publish on their Author Profile, as well as their school name and location.

Communications: Seesaw collects any information you send to us directly, such as email, phone, or chat communications, or through your responses to our optional surveys.

Information from your Google Account or other Third-Party Sign-in Service: Seesaw allows school administrators, teachers, Family Members, and students (after being invited by a teacher) to sign up for and log into our service using a Google or Clever Account. Teachers can also create student accounts on behalf of students in their class using these services. When you create a Seesaw account using one of these Third-Party Services, we receive the name, profile picture, email address and other information (if available) provided by these services, subject to the data sharing preferences you have set with those third-party services. Seesaw does not share your personal information with these services.

Account Usage and Log Data: When you use Seesaw or visit our website, we collect information about your use of the Service, such as pages visited, amount of time spent on the Service, actions (e.g., views, uploads, messages) and similar information about your interactions with Seesaw. We also collect log data which includes information about your browser or device, such as your IP address, cookie identifiers, browser type, operating system, device information and identifiers, and your mobile carrier.

7. How does Seesaw use this information?

We use this information to:

• Allow you to access and use the Service by verifying your identity and storing your Journal Content, Activities, and Messages.
• Provide support to teachers, school administrators, and Family Members.
• Provide school administrators with information about how Seesaw is performing in their school(s).
• If you’ve enabled notifications, notify you about activity on and updates to your account or your student’s account.
• Research, understand, and analyze user trends to improve and develop new features for our educational products and services.
• Promote and advertise the Services and enhancements to Seesaw relevant for teachers, schools, and families. Note that we do not use Student Data to inform or enable advertising or marketing activities.
• Investigate, prevent, and detect activities on our service that we believe may violate the law, applicable regulations, or Seesaw policies. We may, at the request of a school, investigate accounts to determine whether they comply with school policies.

8. Does Seesaw allow third-party advertising or share user data for advertising third-party products?

No. Our business model is straightforward: we charge for optional, additional features that enhance our free product and we have no interest in advertising third-party products or services within the Seesaw Service. We do not allow third-party advertisers or data brokers to collect information about our users’ use of the Seesaw Service for their own purposes, nor do we share such information or personally identifiable information with third parties for advertising or marketing purposes.

We also do not allow in-app purchases for student accounts.

9. In what limited circumstances may Seesaw need to share my information?

We share data with third parties in the limited circumstances detailed below:

• We share information within Seesaw in accordance with the functionality of the Service. For example, student Account Information, Journal Content and Messages are shared with the student’s teacher and school. Certain Account Information, Journal Content and Messages may also be shared with Family Members and/or other members of the class or school at the direction of the school, depending on the settings and functionality selected by the school or teacher (see “Who can view content posted in Seesaw?” below to learn more).
• Seesaw may assist the school or teacher in providing access to student Account Information, Journal Content, and Messages to authorized individuals upon request, including as required by FERPA.
• We may provide school administrators with information about how Seesaw is performing in their school(s).
• Seesaw may disclose your information to a third party to comply with applicable laws or regulations, or a valid legal request – including to meet national security or law enforcement requirements. If we are compelled to release your data, we will do our best to provide you with advance notice by email, unless we are prohibited from doing so by law.
• By default, Activities teachers create are private to their account. Optionally, teachers may choose to publish Activities they create to the Community Activity Library or the Activity Library managed by their school or district. In these cases, the activity and the teacher’s Activity Author Profile will be shared publicly (in the case of the Community Library) or with other teachers at their school or district. No student responses to Activities are ever shared in the Community Activity Library or the school or district Activity Library.
• We may share activities published to the public Community Activity Library with teachers who we think may be interested in using them with their class.
• We use a small number of third-party service providers in order to operate and improve Seesaw – for example, a data center operator that manages our servers or a notification service that helps us send you messages about your account. These services need access to your Personal Information in order to work (i.e. your email address is required to send you an email), but are contractually obligated to meet our strict security standards, maintain the accuracy of the data they collect, and must only use Personal Information in identifiable form for purposes of providing or supporting the Seesaw Service. Complete details on our third-party service providers and the information we share with them can be found at our subprocessor list.
• We may disclose or transfer your Account Information and Journal Content in connection with the sale, merger, bankruptcy, sale of assets, or reorganization of our company. You will be notified via email or some other means as required by law of any change in ownership or uses of your Personal Information, as well as any choices you may have regarding your information (including the right to delete your information). The promises in this Privacy Policy will apply to your data as transferred to the new entity. If Seesaw goes out of business without a successor, Seesaw will delete your information. In the event that we sell, divest or transfer our business to a new corporate owner, we will not transfer Student Data unless the new owner has agreed to data privacy standards no less stringent than our own or we will provide Schools with notice and an opportunity to opt out of the transfer of Student Data by deleting the Student Data before the transfer occurs.

10. Who can view content posted in Seesaw?

Student work is private to the classroom by default. Users cannot view a student’s Journal Content or Messages in Seesaw unless they are the teacher or school administrator or a Family Member invited to Seesaw by the teacher or school administrator. Teachers control who can access a student’s account by authorizing specific people to connect to that student’s account. Teachers decide whether Family Members can view, like, share, or comment on their student’s work and whether students can view, like, and comment on classmates’ work. Teachers can turn on settings that require teacher approval of student work, allowing teachers to moderate and, when necessary, remove content shared by students before it is posted. Teachers may also choose to publish some class content to a public class web page managed by Seesaw. In addition to controlling what student work is published, teachers have the option to password protect the public class web page.

Teachers also control whether or not students or Family Members can save Seesaw content to their personal device or get a link to specific Journal Content. However, Seesaw cannot prevent all forms of sharing (e.g. a user taking a screenshot and posting to social media), so it is important that teachers only grant access to authorized parties and discuss their policies with families.

School administrators can access all Journal Content and Messages shared in their Seesaw organization, including Messages that have been edited or deleted by the student.

11. Do you work with third-party analytics services?

Seesaw is constantly improving, and we use aggregate data about how Seesaw is used — for example what buttons you click on or what pages you visit — to inform those decisions.

To help us analyze this data, we use a small number of third-party services such as Google Analytics. For more information, please visit Google’s Privacy Policy. To learn more about how to opt out of Google Analytics’ use of your information, please click here. To view our Subprocessors list, click here.

12. How do you use cookies?

Cookies are small text files that we transfer to your web browser that allow us to identify your web browser and store information about your account. We use cookies to keep you logged into Seesaw, customize your Seesaw experience, and understand how you use Seesaw. We do not use third party cookies within the Seesaw Service for targeted advertising purposes. You can choose to remove or disable cookies via your browser settings. Please be aware that Seesaw may not work properly if you disable or decline all cookies.

13. How to View, Correct, Edit, Export, or Update Your Personal Information

You have the right to access, correct, or download for transport to a similar service any of your Personal Information collected by Seesaw, where permitted under applicable law. If you are an administrator, teacher, or Family Member you can update the information associated with your Seesaw account directly by logging into your Seesaw account and viewing the Account Settings tab on your profile.

If you are a parent or guardian and want to correct, edit, download, or update information about your child, or to access or inspect the child’s personal information or educational records maintained by Seesaw, please direct your request to your teacher or school, or you can contact us at privacy@seesaw.me if you need additional assistance.

14. Account Retention And Termination

We do not knowingly retain Student Data beyond the time period required to support the school’s educational purpose, unless authorized by the school or Family Member. The school is responsible for identifying Student Data which is no longer needed for an educational purpose by submitting a deletion request. We will delete or de-identify Student Data within 60 days of receipt of a request from the School. Even if we do not receive a deletion request from the School, we may delete or de-identify Student Data after a period of inactivity in accordance with our standard data retention schedule. If you are a parent or guardian and would like to delete your child’s Seesaw account, please work directly with your teacher or school to request deletion.

If your school or district has purchased Seesaw for Schools and the school or district ends their contract with Seesaw and requests deletion of accounts, we will attempt to notify impacted users by email or another method and provide the option for authorized Family Members to establish or maintain an account with Seesaw for the purpose of storing student-generated content.

Adult users may close or request to delete their accounts through App settings or by contacting privacy@seesaw.me. If you request that your account or any content submitted to Seesaw be deleted, Seesaw may still retain information for a limited period as needed to provide customer support and prevent accidental deletion, or as required or permitted by law. If you terminate your account, all of your data will be unavailable to you immediately, but be aware that Messages and Journal Content shared with others in which you participated will remain available to those other users.

Please note: We may not be able to immediately or completely delete all data in response to a deletion request, 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. We will also not delete any Student Data that has been transferred or stored in a personal account except at the request of the Parent.

Seesaw reserves the right to suspend or permanently delete accounts that have not been accessed by the account holder and appear to have been abandoned. Prior to permanently deleting an abandoned account, Seesaw will attempt to notify the account holder by email.

15. How does Seesaw keep your data safe?

Seesaw takes protecting your security and privacy seriously and we’ve put a number of measures in place to protect the integrity of your information, including the use of access-controlled data centers, routine 3rd party security audits, restricted employee access to user information, and data encryption in transit. For more information, please read this article.

In the event of a security breach, Seesaw will notify affected account holders within the amount of time required by law so that you can take steps to keep your data safe.

16. How does Seesaw handle data from international visitors?

If you are a Seesaw user outside the United States, please see our International Privacy Policy here for more information about our practices and your rights with respect to your information.

17. Does Seesaw comply with your state’s student data privacy laws?

We sometimes get asked whether Seesaw complies with specific US state student data privacy laws. Protecting student’s privacy is fundamental to our mission and business. We are proud signatories of the Student Privacy Pledge and committed to the following principles to protect Student Data:

• We collect, maintain and use Student Data only for purposes which we are authorized by School or by the parent or guardian.
• We do not use or disclose Student Data for behavioral or targeted advertising purposes.
• We will not build a personal profile of a student other than for supporting school or educational purposes or as authorized by the parent or guardian.
• We will not knowingly retain Student Data beyond the time period necessary to support the School’s purpose, unless authorized by the parent.
• We will never sell Student Data to third parties, unless the sale is part of a corporate transaction, such as a merger, acquisition, bankruptcy, or other sale of assets, and the successor entity is subject to these same commitments for the previously collected Student Data.
• We maintain a comprehensive security program that is reasonably designed to protect the security, confidentiality and integrity of Student Data against risks – such as unauthorized access or use, or unintended or inappropriate disclosure – through the use of administrative, technological and physical safeguards appropriate to the sensitivity of the information.
• We will clearly and transparently disclose our data policies and practices.
• We support access to and correction of Student Data by the parent or guardian by assisting the School respond to such requests.
• We provide resources to support educational institutions, teachers and parents to protect the security and privacy of Student Data while using the Seesaw Service.
• We will not make any material changes to our Services Privacy Policy that relate to the collection or use of Student Data without first giving notice to the School and providing a choice before the Student Data is used in a materially different manner than was disclosed when the information was collected.
• We will incorporate privacy and security when developing or improving our educational products and services and comply with applicable laws.

For more information about your state, please see here.

18. Does Seesaw comply with your state’s laws?

We sometimes get asked whether Seesaw complies with U.S. state privacy laws. Many of these laws exclude the type of information we process in connection with the Seesaw Service (e.g., FERPA-covered data or information that we process as a service provider on behalf of educational institutions). To learn more about what information we process as a business or controller, what rights you may have under US state privacy laws, and how to exercise such rights, please review the  Website Privacy Policy.

19. Changes to Our Privacy Policy

Seesaw may from time to time make changes to this Seesaw Service Privacy Policy to account for changes to our practices or applicable law. The “Last Updated” date at the bottom of this policy indicates when this Policy was last revised. Your continued use of the Services means you thereby agree to the new Privacy Policy.

We will not make any material changes to this Privacy Policy that relate to the collection or use of Student Data without first giving notice to the teacher or educational institution and providing a choice before Student Data is used in a materially different manner than was disclosed when the information was collected.

20. Contact Information

If you have any questions or feedback about this Seesaw Service Privacy Policy, please contact privacy@seesaw.me. You can reach Seesaw by mail at:

Seesaw Learning, Inc.
548 Market St
PMB 98963
San Francisco, CA 94104-5401

Last Updated 05/24/2024