Privacy Evaluation: Biology Games

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As part of the Common Sense Privacy Evaluation Initiative, privacy evaluations break down complex privacy policies and help you make informed choices to protect student information online. Our privacy team goes beyond the requirements of COPPA, FERPA, PPRA, and other federal and state privacy regulations. We consider a broad range of legal requirements and industry best practices to pinpoint what you need to know about company policies on safety, privacy, security, and compliance.
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Updated November 21, 2018

Biology Games

  • Privacy polices do indicate a version or effective date.
  • Data are not sold or rented to third parties.
  • Data are shared for advertising or marketing.
  • Behavioral or contextual advertising is displayed.
  • Data are collected by third-party advertising or tracking services.
  • Data are used to track and target advertisements on other third-party websites or services.
  • Third parties cannot use data to create ad profiles, data enhancement, and/or targeted advertisements.
The criteria for "Use with Caution" are narrowly focused around data uses related to creating profiles that aren't related to any educational purpose, and using data to target ads. We include both first party (ie, the vendor that builds the service) and third party (any company given access by the vendor) data use. It's worth highlighting that using data to profile students violates multiple state laws, and in some cases also violates federal law. A service can be designated "Use with Caution" for either a lack of transparency around data use -- which creates the potential for profiling and behavioral targeting -- or for clearly stating that they use data to target advertisements and/or create profiles. As with any application being considered for use within schools, school and/or district staff should review the privacy policies and terms of service to ensure that they meet the legal and practical requirements of their state laws and school policies. As with the "Not Recommended" criteria, a "Use with Caution" designation is NOT a sign that a vendor is necessarily doing anything unethical or illegal. It is a sign that, based on publicly available policies, we do not have adequate guarantees that data will not be used by first or third parties to create non-educational profiles or to target behavioral ads.
Use with Caution
Basic evaluation
A basic privacy evaluation answers key questions about a product's policies covering issues of safety, privacy, security, and compliance.
Overview

Biology Games challenges users to max out their score – not just in the game but also when they take they next High School Biology test. The terms specify that the Service may allow users to create their own profile, which may be displayed publicly or semi-publicly. The terms state that the service may collect Personal Information and Demographic Information from users. In addition, the terms state that all data sent to and from their platform are protected via Transport Layer Security, or TLS. Teachers are strongly encouraged to review the parental consent procedures within their school or district before sharing student information.

Biology Games is available for download at the iOS App Store. The Privacy Policy and Terms of Use used for this evaluation can be found on Biology Games' iOS App Store. Additionally, other policies used for this evaluation include: Intervention Technology Privacy Policy and K-12 Learning Platforms Privacy Policy. This evaluation only considers policies that have been made publicly available prior to an individual using the application or service.

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The standard privacy report (SPR) displays the most important privacy practices from a product’s polices in a single easy-to-read outline. The report displays an alert when a particular privacy practice is risky, unclear, or not evaluated. This alert indicates more time should be focused on these particular details prior to use.
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About Privacy Evaluations

The privacy evaluations have been designed with the help and support of a consortium of schools and districts across the United States. These evaluations are designed to streamline making an informed decision about the potential privacy implications of educational technology used to support teaching and learning.

Our core evaluation criteria are freely available and will remain freely available. People are encouraged to read the questions we use and the information security primer we released. Vendors are encouraged to use our questions and the information security primer to self-evaluate. You can also learn more about our evaluation process.

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About Common Sense Privacy Evaluation