Privacy Policy

Big Universe Inc. is a wholly-owned subsidiary of K12 Inc.

K12's Commitments to Privacy

K12 Inc. seeks to maximize every child's potential by transforming the educational experience, and making it accessible, engaging and individualized.

This Privacy Policy lets you know how we collect, use, share and protect information that we may gather from K12.com and K12's other web sites, the K12 Online School ("OLS"), and the websites we manage for schools (collectively, "Sites"). This policy also applies to information that we may collect from you outside of our Sites, such as over the phone, by fax, through conventional mail, or by other means. By using any of the Sites, you agree to accept the terms of this Privacy Policy that are in effect at the time of use, including any provisions pertaining to changes to the Privacy Policy. You can click on the links below to be taken directly to sections of the policy that interest you the most.

What definitions apply to the Privacy Policy?

"K12 Inc." or "K12" means K12 Inc. and all of its subsidiaries and Affiliates. An "Affiliate" of K12 Inc. is an entity that controls, is controlled by, or under common control with K12, where "control" means the possession, directly or indirectly, of the power to direct or cause the direction of the management policies of an entity, whether through the ownership of securities, by contract or otherwise.

"K12 School Program" means a school (whether private or public) or school district that offers curriculum and services provided by K12 under a written agreement with K12.

"Local School" means a school district, individual public school, charter school or private school which contracts with K12 for a specific K12 School Program in which your child is or seeks to be enrolled.

"PII" means Personally Identifiable Information. PII is information that, alone or in combination, is linked or linkable to a specific person that would allow a reasonable person, who does not have personal knowledge of the relevant circumstances, to identify the person with reasonable certainty.

What laws generally apply to student records?

Your children's education records will be protected by K12 as required by the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act ("FERPA") and applicable state laws regarding the privacy of student records or PII. We will only disclose education records or provide access to them in compliance with FERPA and applicable state laws, and we will require third parties that contract with us and have access to education records to do the same. K12 will not use PII to target a student for advertising, sell PII or use PII to create profiles about a student (other than for purposes of the student's education in a Local School) when those activities are prohibited by law. K12 will not use, or will seek permission to use, a student's PII for purposes unrelated to providing or improving their education where required by law to do so. If any provision of this Privacy Policy conflicts with FERPA or other federal or state law, K12 will comply with the more protective standard for the education records.

What non-personally identifiable information does K12 collect?

Each time you visit our Sites, non-personally identifiable information is automatically entered into an information system. Such information includes your IP address (that is, the unique string of numbers that identifies the device you are using to communicate over the Internet), the name of the Web page from which you accessed our Site, the page or pages you visit on our Site, and how much time you spend on each page.

How does K12 use non-personally identifiable information?

We use this information to monitor and improve our Site and for internal analysis. In particular, we use IP addresses to analyze traffic trends, administer the Site, and gather information for aggregate use. However, IP addresses, whether alone or in combination with other non-PII, are not linked to PII.

When does K12 share non-personally identifiable information?

We will neither share (except with respect to "cookies") nor sell non-PII to any third party, except that we may share non-PII i) if required to do so by law, such as by a court order, ii) if permitted to do so for law enforcement, health or safety purposes, iii) if collected within the OLS, to your child's Local School, iv) to third parties that use it in connection with providing services related to the education of your child in the child's Local School, or v) where permitted, to protect K12's legal rights.

How do K12's sites use "cookies"?

A "cookie" is a text file that is placed on your device by a Web page server. Our Sites use "cookies" to help personalize your online experience. Cookies are uniquely assigned to the device, but do not collect PII. We use cookies to keep track of how you are using the Sites to tailor Web content to your interests. If you have enrolled your children in a K12 School Program, cookies will ease your access to the K12 Online School ("OLS") and navigation around the OLS. K12 cookies do not contain personal information about the parent(s) or children enrolled in K12 School Programs. Cookies cannot be used to run programs or deliver viruses to your computer.

We may use third-party cookies of other vendors (such as, but not limited to, Google), to help provide you with relevant information as you use the Internet. These third-party cookies may record that you visited our Sites, as well as the websites that you visited prior to visiting our Sites. Such cookies can then be used to serve relevant messages to you on other websites. The third party cookies do not collect PII.

You also have the ability to accept or decline cookies. Most web browsers automatically accept cookies, but you can usually modify your browser setting to decline cookies if you prefer. You can use the "help" feature of your browser to determine how to modify it to decline cookies. If, however, you choose to decline cookies, you may not be able to fully experience the interactive features of our Sites or have some of our services on the Sites function properly.

You may choose to opt out of the use of third party cookies for marketing messages on other websites by visiting the Digital Advertising Alliance Consumer Choice Page and opting out with those companies that participate in those choices. On the effective date of this policy, that site was located at http://www.aboutads.info/choices. You may also opt-out of the use of third party cookies for marketing messages on other websites by visiting the Network Advertising Initiative opt out page and opting out with those companies that participate on that site. On the effective date of this policy, that site was located at http://www.networkadvertising.org/choices. Opting out will not prevent advertisements from being served to you on the Internet; it will only affect advertisements that utilize cookies to serve messaging on the specified networks. We are not responsible for the activities of other parties that may not comply with your opt-out requests.

Does K12 share information collected from cookies?

We will not disclose, share or sell non-aggregated information contained within cookies to any third party, except that we may do so if required by law, such as by a court order, or permitted to do so for law enforcement purposes. We may also share non-aggregated information contained within cookies in order to keep track of how you are using the Sites to tailor Web content to your interests.

What personally identifiable information does K12 collect?

You can use portions of our Sites without divulging any PII. Our Sites do not collect personal information about individuals except when such individuals specifically provide such information on a voluntary basis (for example, when registering with a Local School for a K12 School Program; requesting additional information by contacting us; signing up for a K12 in-person event; posting a message to a message board; requesting help; engaging in an online chat; or accessing, adding to, or changing the information on your account information page on the OLS). When you register your children for a K12 School Program or participate in a Local School, you are providing us with information regarding you and your children. This personal information may be collected on our Sites, or via telephone, facsimile or conventional mail. The types of information that you may be asked to provide, depending on what services you would like to receive, include but are not limited to: first and last name; postal address; telephone number; the names and ages of your children; the services you request; registration and enrollment information about your children; and an e-mail address where we can contact you. If you are enrolling in one of K12's private schools or making a purchase from the K12 store, we may also collect credit card information from you.

Does K12 share personally identifiable information?

Registration and enrollment information that you provide may be provided to your Local School or to third parties as required by state or federal law or requested by your Local School. Information provided by you or the child may be provided to state and federal agencies, including law enforcement as may be required or permitted by law.

To the extent that third party vendors assist K12 in the provision of online products or services, those vendors are provided the minimum amount of data required to perform the tasks for which they have been engaged, consistent with legal requirements, such as FERPA. They have no independent rights to such data and have agreed to maintain the confidentiality of the data, to use it solely for the purpose of performing the school-based tasks for which they have been engaged and to safeguard the data as required by law and by contract.

Only if permitted by state and federal law, K12 may share your information with companies that are not affiliated with K12 but that are interested in sending you information about their products and services. Also, only if permitted by applicable state and federal law, K12 may share your information with other companies in order to improve the academic performance of K12 School Programs or so that K12 may offer products and services to you or provide you with information about products and services of third parties. You can request that your personal information not be shared with third parties by making a request in writing to privacy@K12.com.

How does K12 use personally identifiable information?

K12 may use the PII to provide educational services to your children who are enrolled in a Local School, and to otherwise support your children and you with regard to matters such as testing, academic progress, attendance, customer service, student affairs or for health or safety purposes. K12 may also use PII to protect its own legal rights.

K12 responds to customers who have requested information from us and to answer questions. Because we only call customers at the telephone numbers they leave for us to provide the requested information, K12 does not call people by generating random or sequential telephone numbers. K12 may use pre-recorded messages when allowed by law in order to ensure that customers receive the information they requested. Customers do not have to consent to receive calls in order to receive K12's services.

Once you have registered your children in a Local School for a K12 School Program (whether you registered on our Sites, or through offline communications), there will be a personal information page on the OLS that contains some or all of your personal information. You may also be assigned a Member ID and password and may create, at your discretion, a Member ID for your children any time you are logged on to the OLS. If you designate someone other than yourself as a learning coach, that person will also be assigned a Member ID. The Member IDs will be used to recognize you, the learning coach and your children on the OLS. The Member IDs will allow K12 to recognize: your first and last name; registration ID; type of account, such as teacher, administrator, parent, learning coach or student (if you created a separate Member ID and password for your children or learning coach); your child's Local School; integration number; the e-mail address you provided, and the education records of your child associated with the account. The Member IDs and the OLS will also allow you and the learning coach to track your children's attendance, school work, and testing, and to submit relevant portions of same to K12, and/or your Local School to track your children's progress and abide by state and/or federal standards and regulations.

K12 and/or your Local School may use PII provided by you in the OLS to contact you or your child's learning coach about your child's progress, testing, attendance, or other school issues or for customer service, and quality control procedures. The PII is also used to deliver services to you or your child's Local School or to carry out activities that you or your child's Local School has requested. K12 also uses PII voluntarily supplied by you to fulfill requests for information, and to deliver requested services to you and your children.

K12 will use or share PII if required to do so by law, such as a court order, or permitted to do so for law enforcement, health or safety purposes or to protect K12's legal rights.

If permitted by applicable state and federal law, K12 may use your information to provide you with information about new products and services available through K12 and may aggregate PII to improve the educational experience or to determine how K12's educational products and services may interest other persons.

How does K12 treat information about children under 13 years old?

We understand that children who are under 13 years of age need enhanced safeguards and privacy protection, as set forth in the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). COPPA protects the information privacy of children under the age of 13 by requiring web site operators and online services to post privacy policies and obtain verifiable parental consent before collecting information from those children.

K12 receives personal information about children who are under the age of 13 strictly from their parents or guardians at the time those children are enrolled into a Local School using a K12 School Program. The only information received directly from your children is the information they provide (such as test answers, electronic mail and class discussions) in the OLS as part of their education in a K12 School Program.

Other than through the OLS, the Sites do not solicit children to provide personal information. We also do not knowingly contact or collect PII from children under 13.

Nevertheless, we want to provide assurances that information about young children is safe. If you want to notify us that we have inadvertently received information for a child under the age of 13 as, for example, by fraud or deception by others, please email us at privacy@K12.com. Also, you can review certain personal information that K12 has regarding your children by making such a request in writing to privacy@K12.com.

For information on COPPA and the use of children's personal information, please contact:

K12 Legal Department
2300 Corporate Park Drive
Herndon, VA 20171
privacy@K12.com

What are my California privacy rights?

Under the California "Shine The Light" law, California residents may opt-out of K12's disclosure of PII to third parties for their direct marketing purposes. You may choose to opt-out of the sharing of your personal information with third parties for marketing purposes at any time by emailing us at privacy@K12.com.

As of January 1, 2016, the Student Online Personal Information Protection Act becomes effective in California. K12 will protect "covered information" consistent with the new law.

What information is collected or shared on message boards and chats?

We may offer message boards and chat rooms to you on our Sites. Please be aware that anyone may read your postings on a message board or in a chat room. Furthermore, all information which you submit to be posted to a message board or in a chat room will be available to all users of that message board or chat room, and is therefore no longer private. We cannot guarantee the security of such information that you disclose or communicate online in public areas such as message boards and chat rooms, and you do so at your own risk. We reserve the right, but not the obligation, to monitor the content of the message boards only and to republish your postings from message boards or chat rooms elsewhere on the Web or otherwise in any format.

The Sites may contain links to other websites, chat rooms, or other resources that we provide for your convenience ("Linked Sites"). These sites are not under the control of K12, and K12 is not responsible for the content available on any Linked Site or the actions of any Linked Site. Such links do not imply K12's endorsement of material on any Linked Site, and K12 expressly disclaims all liability with regard to your access to such Linked Sites. Access to any other websites linked to the Sites is at your own risk. You should review the Privacy Policy that may be set forth on the Linked Sites as those websites are not covered by this Privacy Policy.

What is K12's commitment to data security?

To reduce the risk of unauthorized access, maintain data accuracy, and ensure the correct use of information, we have put in place commercially reasonable physical, electronic, and managerial procedures to safeguard and secure the information we collect. We also use Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) protocol on your account information and registration pages to protect sensitive personal information. We encrypt credit card numbers that you provide to us. As effective as our safeguards are, no security system for data is completely impenetrable. Therefore, K12 cannot guarantee that PII you supply will not be intercepted by others.

What happens if K12's corporate structure changes?

If all or part of K12 Inc. is sold, merged or otherwise transferred to another entity, the personal information you have provided at these Sites may be transferred as part of that transaction or process. However, K12 will take steps to assure that the personal information is used in a manner consistent with the K12 Privacy Policy under which it was collected. The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act protects your children's educational records, in the event of such a transaction or transfer.

Will this Privacy Policy change?

We will occasionally amend this Privacy Policy to reflect company and customer feedback or changes in the law. We reserve the right to change, modify, add, or remove portions of this policy at any time. If K12 materially changes its use of your personal information, we will announce such a change on the OLS, and will also note it in this Privacy Policy. If we make any changes to this Privacy Policy, we will post the revised policy. The effective date of this Privacy Policy is documented as below, at the statement of the Privacy Policy's most recent update. If you have any questions about K12's Privacy Policy, please contact us in writing at privacy@K12.com.

Privacy Policy last updated May 9, 2017.