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Privacy Evaluation for Clever

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Overview

Clever provides a platform for learning applications to connect with schools and school districts to have a central location to manage their technology. Clever does not directly provide social interactions through its services, but some elements enable schools to interact with parents, students, teachers and third party applications, for the benefit of the student’s education. In addition, Clever's terms say they collect personal information when a school administrator registers a school with Clever and non-personal usage information is collected automatically through use of the service. Clever's terms say they maintain strict administrative, technical and physical procedures to protect information stored in their servers. Lastly, Clever's terms say they consider student data that schools provide to be education records, as defined by the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (“FERPA”).

Clever can be accessed through its website, and is available for download at the iOS App Store. The Privacy Policy and Terms of Use used for this evaluation can be found on Clever’s website, and iOS App Store. Additionally, other policies used for this evaluation include: Clever Additional Terms of Use for Schools, Clever Additional Terms for Parent Accounts, Privacy Principles, Security Principles, and Compliance Principles. This evaluation only considers policies that have been made publicly available prior to an individual using the application or service.

Safety

Clever does not directly provide social interactions through its services, but some elements enable schools to interact with parents, students, teachers and third party applications, for the benefit of the student’s education. The terms state that users are fully responsible for interactions with other users. Users can control their profile visibility, but it is unclear from the terms what information is visible on the profile.

Privacy

Clever's terms state they collect personal information when a school administrator registers a school with Clever and non-personal usage information is automatically collected through use of the service. Information collected may include a name, school name, school district, school email address and/or account name and password, phone number, message content, and information relating to the school's information systems. The type of student data Clever collects will depend on how the school uses the service and the learning applications which the school connects through the service.

Clever may maintain anonymized or aggregated data, including usage data, for analytics purposes. For example, Clever may use and share aggregate or anonymized data to study and improve the service, user functionality, and product offerings. Clever’s terms state they will never share or sell student data with third parties for marketing purposes or targeted advertising. In addition, Clever does not permit third party advertising networks to collect information about users’ use of the service over time and across websites for the purpose of serving targeted advertising.

Security

Clever's terms state they recommend users create strong passwords to access the service that use a combination of upper and lower case letters, numbers and symbols, and are not reused with any other service to avoid unauthorized use. Clever provides access controls to personal information on the service such as password credentials and two factor authentication. Clever's terms state they maintain strict administrative, technical and physical procedures to protect information stored in their servers. Contractors and third-party service providers who may have access to student data in the course of performing their services are subject to confidentiality and data security requirements. In addition, only those employees who require access to personal information to perform their job functions are provided access. Lastly, Clever uses industry-standard Secure Socket Layer (SSL) encryption technology to safeguard data in transit, while other security safeguards include: data encryption at rest, firewalls, and physical access controls to building and files.

Compliance

Clever's terms state they consider student data that schools provide to be education records, as defined by the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (“FERPA”). Clever states they treat student data as confidential and not to be used for any purpose other than to provide the services on the school's behalf, in accordance with contractual agreements with the school. Clever's terms state they do not knowingly collect any information from children under the age of 13 unless the school has obtained appropriate parental consent for the student to use the service. Because Clever collects and uses student data at the direction and under the control of a school, Clever relies on each school to provide appropriate notice to parents of the school's use of third party service providers such as Clever, and for the Schools to provide consent. Users should be aware that Clever requires them to contact the school directly in order to review, modify, or delete personal information.

Clever's terms require schools they contract with to provide each student with login credentials and confirm that it has obtained appropriate parental consents, before any student is permitted to access the service. If a student contacts Clever with a question about the service, Clever will collect personal information from that student only as necessary to respond to the student's request and direct the student to contact the student's school, and they will then delete or anonymize the personal data of the student after providing their response.

Rating

This product received a Pass rating based on the following details:
  • Intended for children under 13.
  • Collection or use of data is limited to product requirements.
  • Personal information can be not displayed publicly.
  • Users can interact with trusted users.
  • Notice is provided in the event of a data breach.
  • Parental consent is required before personal information is collected or disclosed.
Data Collection
SCORE: 60%

What data does it collect?

  • Personally identifiable information (PII) is collected.
  • The categories of collected personally identifiable information are indicated.
  • Collection or use of data is limited to product requirements.
  • Geolocation data are collected.
  • Unclear whether this product collects biometric or health data.
  • Interactions, behaviors, or usage analytics data are collected.
  • Sensitive data are collected.
  • Data is automatically collected.
  • Opt-in consent is requested from users at the time personal information is collected.
  • Personal information of users is collected by a third party.
Data Sharing
SCORE: 85%

What data does it share?

  • Collected information is shared with third parties.
  • The categories of information shared with third parties are indicated.
  • The purpose for sharing a user's personal information with third parties is indicated.
  • The categories of third parties that receive data are indicated.
  • Data are shared for analytics.
  • Unclear whether data are shared for research and/or product improvement.
  • Third-party services are used to support the product.
  • The roles of third-party service providers are indicated.
  • Third-party login is supported.
  • Contractual limits are placed on third-party data use.
Data Security
SCORE: 90%

How does it secure data?

  • Unclear whether a user's identity is verified with additional personal information.
  • Account creation is required.
  • Managed accounts are available.
  • Multi-factor account protection is available.
  • Third-parties with access to information are required to provide the same security protections as the company.
  • Reasonable security practices are used to protect data.
  • Employee or physical access to user information is limited.
  • All data in transit are encrypted.
  • All data are stored in an encrypted format.
  • Notice is provided in the event of a data breach.
Data Rights
SCORE: 85%

What rights do I have to the data?

  • Users can create or upload content.
  • Users retain ownership of their data.
  • Processes to access or review user data are available.
  • Processes to modify data are available for authorized users.
  • A data-retention policy is available.
  • Processes for authorized users to delete data are available.
  • A user's data are deleted upon account cancellation or termination.
  • Data are deleted when no longer necessary.
  • Methods are available to restrict who has access to data.
  • Unclear whether this product provides users the ability to download their data.
Data Sold
SCORE: 75%

Is the data sold?

  • Personal information is not sold or rented to third parties.
  • Users can opt out from the disclosure or sale of their data to a third party.
  • User information can be transferred to a third party in the event of a merge, acquisition, or bankruptcy.
  • Users are notified if their information is transferred to a third party.
  • User information can be deleted prior to its transfer to a third party.
  • Third-party transfer is contractually required to use the same privacy practices.
  • User information that is shared is shared in an anonymous or de-identified format.
  • The company describes their de-identification process of user information.
  • Unclear whether data are shared for research and/or product improvement.
  • Unclear whether contractual limits prohibit third parties from reidentifying or de-identified information.
Data Safety
SCORE: 50%

How safe is this product?

  • Users can interact with trusted users.
  • Unclear whether users can interact with untrusted users, including strangers and/or adults.
  • Profile information must be shared for social interactions.
  • Personal information can be not displayed publicly.
  • Users can control how their data are displayed to others.
  • Unclear whether user-created content is reviewed, screened, or monitored by the company.
  • Unclear whether user-created content is filtered for personal information before being made publicly visible.
  • Social interactions between users are not moderated.
  • Social interactions of users are logged.
  • Unclear whether users can report abuse or cyberbullying.
Ads & Tracking
SCORE: 80%

Are there advertisements or tracking?

  • Personal information is not shared for third-party marketing.
  • Traditional or contextual advertisements are not displayed.
  • Personalised advertising is not displayed.
  • Data are not collected by third-parties for their own purposes.
  • Users's information is not used to track and target advertisements on other third-party websites or services.
  • Data profiles are not created and used for personalised advertisements.
  • The company can send marketing messages.
  • The company does provide promotional sweepstakes, contests, or surveys.
  • Unclear whether this product provides users the ability to opt-out of contextual, or personalised advertising.
  • Users can opt out or unsubscribe from marketing communications.
Parental Consent
SCORE: 75%

Can I provide parental consent?

  • Intended for children under 13.
  • Personal information from children under 13 years of age is collected.
  • Intended for parents or guardians.
  • Company does have actual knowledge that personal information from users under 13 years of age is collected.
  • The company does provide a section, heading, or separate policy for children in their policies.
  • Parental consent is required before personal information is collected or disclosed.
  • Unclear whether this product limits parental consent with respect to third parties.
  • Unclear whether this product allows parents to withdraw consent for the further collection of their child's information.
  • Children's personal information is deleted if collected without parental consent.
  • Parental consent notice and method for submission are provided.
School Purpose
SCORE: 88%

Is the product intended for school?

  • Intended for students.
  • Personal information or education records are collected from preK-12 students.
  • Intended for teachers.
  • Product is primarily used by, designed for, and marketed toward students in grades preK–12.
  • Processes to enter education records into the product are described.
  • Additional rights or protections may be provided with an additional school contract.
  • Company is designated as a school official.
  • Parental consent obligations are transferred to the school or district.
Individual Control
SCORE: 60%

Can I control the use of my data?

  • Users can control the use of their information through privacy settings.
  • Use of information is limited to the purpose for which it was collected.
  • The context or purpose for which data are collected is indicated.
  • Unclear whether company may combine data with additional data from third-party sources.
  • Unclear whether this product treats combined information as personally identifiable information (PII).
  • Notice is provided if the context in which data are collected changes.
  • Consent is obtained if the practices in which data are collected change.
  • A grievance or remedy mechanism is available for users to file a complaint.
  • Unclear whether users can request to know what personal information has been shared with third parties.
  • Unclear whether notice is provided in the event the company receives a government or legal request for a user's information.

Common Sense Standard Privacy Report (SPR)

The standard privacy report (SPR) displays all the privacy practices from a product's policies in a single, easy-to-read outline. The report shows a green check mark for better privacy practices and an orange alert for risky or unclear practices. This alert indicates that more time should be focused on these particular details prior to use.

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 help educators make informed decisions about the potential privacy implications of educational technology used to support teaching and learning.

Our core evaluation criteria will always be freely available. People are encouraged to read the questions we use and our information security primer. Vendors are encouraged to use our questions and the information security primer to self-evaluate. You can also learn more about our evaluation process. Please be in touch with any questions or feedback.