Privacy Policy

Effective: April 19, 2023

NCS Pearson, Inc. (“Pearson”) respects your privacy and has adopted this Privacy Policy (hereinafter “Privacy Policy”) to let you know how we collect, use, manage, share, and protect information that we may gather or receive when you use Spotlight Compass. This Privacy Policy applies to this Site and any personally identifiable information collected by Pearson through this Site.

This Privacy Policy applies only to the Site where this notice is posted. Other websites, including other Pearson websites linked through this Site, may have their own privacy policies and practices. Your use of any other website is subject to the privacy policy of that website.

By using this Site, you agree to the terms of the Privacy Policy in effect at the time of use. It is your responsibility to read this Privacy Policy and check for updates on a regular basis. By continuing to use our Site, products or services after such updates have been made you are agreeing to be bound by any changes to this Privacy Policy. If you do not agree to the terms and conditions of this Privacy Policy, please do not use this Site.

Purpose

Pearson is under contract with certain education agencies (including state education agencies), institutions, customers, or organizations (each an "Education Agency” or collectively, “Education Agencies") to provide services for designated educational programs ("Education Programs"). Each Education Agency contracts with Pearson to provide this site pursuant to agreed specifications. Some features of this site may not be accessible to all users. This Privacy Policy explains Pearson’s practices with respect to personal information collected through this site.

The purpose of this Site is to serve as a reporting portal to provide students and parents with access to their student reports. This site also serves as a data upload portal for Education Agencies to provide student reporting data to Pearson.

Pearson serves as a data Processor, and Pearson collects, processes, and uses personal data through this Site in accordance with, and for the purpose of, fulfilling its contract the Education Agency, the data Controller, for which such personal data is collected. Use of this Site is subject to the Terms of Use.

What Personally Identifiable Information Do We Collect and How Do We Use It?

Education Agency Personnel: The student information, including personally identifiable information, necessary for Pearson to provide the reporting services to the Education Agencies may be uploaded directly from the Education Agencies onto this Site. Access to the Site related to each Education Program is restricted by password to users authorized by the Education Agency sponsoring such Education Program. The Education Agency is responsible for providing Pearson with such authorized user information. Pearson will provide login credentials to those users authorized by the Education Agency.

Parents and Guardians: To access your student’s report, you may be required to respond to a “Challenge” question, in order to correctly match your reporting link to the correct student report. This question may require you to provide information such as your child’s birthday, Student ID, or username from another portal used by your school, and this information will be matched to the student’s information provided by the Education Agency to Pearson to perform the services. This information is only collected to complete the security match to provide access to the correct student report, and then deleted.

Independent Contractors and Pearson Employees: Independent Contractors and Pearson employees accessing this Site will need to provide a username, password, and email for login purposes. Independent Contractors and Pearson employees that use this site are responsible for updating their personal contact information as applicable.

Help Desk Information: If Pearson receives inquiries or emails about or through this Site, Pearson may collect an individual’s name, email address, and related correspondence and comments, to reply to the communication, perform Site support and issue resolution, and maintain business records concerning this Site.

Information from Children: This Site is not directed to or intended for use by children, including anyone under the age of thirteen (13). Pearson will not knowingly collect or process any personal information from anyone under the age of thirteen (13) through this Site.

How Do We Share Personally Identifiable Information?

Pearson will never sell your personal information. An individual’s assessment reporting information will be used by Pearson for purposes of performing its contractual obligations to the applicable Education Agency for the Education Program for which such individual’s information is collected.

The personal information supplied by users will be used by Pearson in connection with its educational reporting activities for the Education Programs, to perform contractual obligations and to comply with state and federal law, audit, security, and internal Pearson control requirements.

Except as specifically stated in this Privacy Policy, it is our policy not to share or disclose personal information collected through this Site with third parties other than affiliates of Pearson and other companies and organizations who perform work for us under contract or sell products or services that complement our products and services and who are committed to protect the privacy of personal information in a manner consistent with this Privacy Policy. In addition to the above, we may use and disclose a user’s personal information:

Non-personally identifiable aggregated information collected through this website may be used for quality assurance and for research and development and may be disclosed to third parties in non-personally identifiable form upon receipt of written approval from the education agency.

Non-Personally Identifiable Information

We may collect non-personally identifiable information about users whenever they interact with this Site. Such non-personally identifiable information may include the browser name, the type of computer, and technical information about the users’ means of connection to our Site, such as the operating system, internet service provider and IP address (a number automatically assigned to the user’s computer by their internet service provider). This information is generally collected for system administration purposes, to monitor activity levels and for security purposes. Pearson does not link IP addresses to personal information, except that we reserve the right to link IP addresses and other non-personally identifiable information to protect the integrity of this Site, to monitor compliance with our Terms of Use and for security purposes.

Information Access and Correction

Where Pearson is a service provider to an Education Agency, your request for access, deletion or correction of your education records should be directed to your school. Pearson cannot modify or delete education records or other records collected or processed by, or on behalf of, an Education Agency unless directed to do so by the Education Agency directly.

Data Retention and Destruction

Pearson acts as a data processor for our customers, the Education Agencies, and we process personal information on their behalf and at their direction. Pearson will retain and destroy all data pursuant to the contracts with our customers or applicable legal requirements.

Disclosure and Transfer of Information

The Sites are hosted and operated in the United States and are subject to United States law. We will comply with the privacy and data collection laws of the jurisdiction of the individual from whom the information is collected. Personal Data and information of users located outside of the United States will be transferred to Pearson and our third-party vendors in the United States only to facilitate the purpose for which it was collected. For transfers of personal information from the European Union, the United Kingdom, and Switzerland, we rely on appropriate transfer mechanisms, including but not limited to, Standard Contractual Clauses and performance of contract.

Information Received from Internet Service Providers

This application receives information that is automatically generated by a user’s Internet service provider (ISP). This information may include the IP address (a number automatically assigned to a computer by the ISP), the associated URLs, domain types, the browser type used to access our site, the pages of our site that the user views during the visit, any search terms entered on this site, and the user’s website address and email address. This information may be collected for system administration purposes, to gather broad demographic information, and to monitor the level of activity on the site. Pearson does not link IP addresses to personally identifiable information.

Web Analytics and Cookies

We use browser cookies and similar technologies (collectively, “Cookies”) to collect and store certain information when you use, access, or interact with our Site(s). We may, for example, collect information about the type of device you use to access the Site(s), the operating system and version, your IP address, your general geographic location as indicated by your IP address, your browser type, the content you view and features you access on the Site(s), the web pages you view immediately before and after you access the Sites(s), whether and how you interact with content available on the Site(s), and the search terms you enter on the Site(s). For information about how we use Cookies and the choices you may have, please see below.

By using our Site(s), you agree to the use of the cookies as described above and to our use of web beacons for the collection of information in order to provide the products or services you have requested and for improvements, as we deem appropriate for our legitimate purposes, related to our products and services.

Cookies: Cookies are small text files that a web server places on your computer or mobile device. Cookies contain information that can later be read by the web server that originally placed the cookie on your computer or mobile device.

Below is a list of the main types of cookies we use and what we use them for:

Strictly Necessary Cookies: These cookies are essential in order to enable you to move around the Site and use its features, such as accessing secure areas of this Site. Because these cookies are strictly necessary we do not need to ask for your consent to use them.

Performance Cookies: These cookies collect information about how visitors use a website, for instance which pages visitors go to most often, and if they get error messages from web pages. Some of the performance cookies are analytics cookies using third party web analytics software, including Google Analytics, which allow us to understand more about how our Site is used. Performance cookies are not used to collect information that identifies a visitor. All information these performance cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. The aggregated data is only used by us to identify problems and improve how our Site works. By using this Site you agree we may place these types of cookies on your device. For further information about Google Analytics, and for links to Google’s Privacy Policy and an opt-out tool for Google Analytics, go to https://policies.google.com/.

Functionality Cookies: These cookies allow the Site to remember choices you make, and provide enhanced and more personal features. The information these cookies is not used to track your browsing activity on other websites. These cookies are known as “functionality cookies” and help to improve a user’s experience of a website by providing a more personalized service. By using this Site you agree we may place these types of cookies on your device.

Do Not Track Signals. This Site does not respond to web browser “do not track” signals or comparable signals or mechanisms.

Changes to the Privacy Policy

We reserve the right to update the terms of this Privacy Policy from time to time. We encourage you to visit and review this Privacy Policy periodically to ensure you agree with any changes or updates. We will post our revised privacy notice on our website and update the ‘Last Updated’ date to reflect the date of the changes.

By continuing to use our website after we post any such changes or updates you accept the privacy notice as modified.

How to Contact Us

If you have questions or concerns about this Privacy Policy, please contact us at dataprivacyUS@pearson.com. If you want us to respond to your comment or question, please provide your contact information in your message.

Last Updated: April 19, 2023

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