Overview
Engrade by McGraw-Hill Education is a learning management system (LMS) and assessment engine. Engrade empowers educators and unlocks student achievement. Engrade McGraw-Hill Education's policies are not transparent about whether users can interact with trusted or untrusted users. Engrade McGraw-Hill Education's terms state they will not sell users' PII to other organizations or use information from educational records for marketing purposes. In addition, the policies state that Engrade McGraw-Hill Education will establish and maintain reasonable procedures to protect the confidentiality, security, and integrity of users' personally identifiable information. The terms of Engrade McGraw-Hill Education's policies state that they use user information to provide the digital learning solution on behalf of a school in order to meet its contractual obligations with the school or district.
Please Note: The terms state they do not apply to any data submitted to or collected by Engrade - McGraw-Hill Education in connection with the educational or instructional use of their products and services by customers, students, and/or educational institutions. If a user registers to use the services on behalf of an educational institution, they will be required to agree to additional terms and conditions in connection with the registration process that are not used in this evaluation process.
Engrade by McGraw-Hill Education can be accessed through its website. The Privacy Policy and Terms of Use used for this evaluation can be found on Engrade’s website. Additionally, other policies used for this evaluation include: Terms of Service. This evaluation only considers policies that have been made publicly available prior to an individual using the application or service.
Safety
Engrade McGraw-Hill Education's policies are not transparent about whether users can interact with trusted or untrusted users. In addition, the terms are unclear whether information may be shared or revealed by a user in order to participate in social interactions or that a user's personal information can be displayed publicly in any way. The terms also state Engrade McGraw-Hill Education reserves the right, but not the obligation to remove, to not transmit any user content that they deem to be in violation of their terms. However, Engrade McGraw-Hill Education does not and cannot review all user content or service uploads from users, and their policies state they are not responsible for such content. Engrade McGraw-Hill Education may report communications or materials provided by users to their educational institution if they believe the communications or content are in violation of their terms. Lastly, Engrade McGraw-Hill Education provides external links to resources to learn more about safety.
Privacy
Engrade McGraw-Hill Education's policies state they are a global organization and follow privacy laws and regulations that are applicable to their company and services in the areas where they do business. Their policies state Engrade McGraw-Hill Education is committed to protecting the privacy of users' personal information, and they regularly review and update their privacy practices as required. In addition, they have recently updated their Privacy Center and Terms of Use to be more transparent about how they collect and use user information, and to provide users with more control over that information.
The policies state Engrade McGraw-Hill Education collects Personally identifiable information, such as contact information and education details, in order to provide users with the product and/or service they requested. When a user registers, or is registered within one of the offered digital learning solutions, Engrade McGraw-Hill Education collects their name, school, instructor, class, and login information. However, the terms also specify Engrade McGraw-Hill Education does not collect, use, or disclose PII that is not reasonably related to a legitimate business purpose necessary to serve its users. When a user visits or make transactions on Engrade McGraw-Hill Education's web sites, they automatically collect certain information from users through the use of cookies, web beacons or other tracking mechanisms. This includes information about users' experience such as their IP address, operating systems, pages viewed, and time spent.
In addition, Engrade McGraw-Hill Education's terms state they purchase and rent marketing lists from various providers including event management companies and education non-profits. Engrade McGraw-Hill Education's policies state they may share user information with third parties to provide users with marketing information. However, McGraw-Hill Education's terms state they will not share users' PII with third parties for them to market to users on their own behalf. McGraw-Hill Education's terms also specify they will not market to students using the information from their educational records, which are records directly related to a student and maintained by an educational agency or institution, or by a party acting for the agency or institution.
Engrade McGraw-Hill Education's terms state they will not sell users' PII to other organizations or use information from educational records for marketing purposes. The terms of Engrade McGraw-Hill Education state they may use users' PII to provide them with materials that they believe are of interest to users. In addition, Engrade McGraw-Hill Education's policy states they may display advertisements to users in connection with user content, and may use user content to advertise and promote Engrade McGraw-Hill Education's products and services. This allows Engrade McGraw-Hill Education to collect information about customer usage and online behavior to tailor marketing to areas that they believe may be more appropriate for the user. Lastly, Engrade McGraw-Hill Education's terms state they allow third parties to collect information automatically from users across websites and over time through the use of their own cookies, web beacons, and tracking mechanisms.
Security
Engrade McGraw-Hill Education's policies state they may collect users' name, initials, and contact information when they create an account. In addition, the policies state Engrade McGraw-Hill Education will establish and maintain reasonable procedures to protect the confidentiality, security, and integrity of users' Personally Identifiable Information. The terms specify Engrade McGraw-Hill Education owns, controls, and operates its services from their offices in the United States. However, the terms do not state whether personal information is encrypted while in transit or while in storage and there is no information provided about notification to users in the event of a data breach.
Compliance
The terms of Engrade McGraw-Hill Education state they use user information to provide the digital learning solution on behalf of a school in order to meet its contractual obligations with the school or district. In addition, users will also be subject to any additional terms of use, agreements, guidelines or rules provided by Engrade McGraw-Hill Education applicable to the services provided. Engrade McGraw-Hill Education's products are intended for use by parents, students, and teachers. The terms further specify if a user is an educator, parent, or student, Engrade McGraw-Hill Education is a service provider to their school or organization. The service providers parents, students, and teachers with the ability to access, modify, and delete personal information. In addition, the terms state Engrade McGraw-Hill Education will retain users' data for the minimum amount of time necessary to accomplish the purpose for which it was collected, and thereafter no longer than is permitted under McGraw-Hill Education's data retention policies.
Further, the terms specify that due to the increasing focus on the security and protection of personal and student information, Engrade McGraw-Hill Education's privacy practices comply with such federal regulations as COPPA and FERPA. Engrade McGraw-Hill Education acknowledges that it will be considered a "School Official" (as that term is used in FERPA) and agrees that it will comply with the requirements in FERPA concerning the confidentiality and release of Personally Identifiable Information.
Lastly, McGraw-Hill Education has taken a leadership role with Future of Privacy Forum (FPF) and the Software and Information Industry Association (SIIA) in setting the agenda for self-regulatory goals for student privacy in the industry. The terms further specify they have an internal Privacy Council comprised of senior leaders throughout our company that provides the tone at the top to perpetuate best practices across our business.
Overall Score
Every privacy rating includes an overall score. A higher score (up to 100%) means the product provides more transparent privacy policies with better practices to protect user data. The score is best used is as an indicator of how much additional work a person will need to do to make an informed decision about a product.
Basic Score | Full Score | |
---|---|---|
Comprehensive Assessment | 62 | 60 |
Concerns
The privacy evaluation process summarizes the policies of an application or service into concern categories based on a subset of evaluation questions that can be used to quickly identify particular practices of a vendor’s policies. These concerns are composed of evaluation questions that can be used to calculate scores relative to that concern.
Concern | Basic Score | Full Score |
---|---|---|
Data Collection: Protecting personal information | 75 | 50 |
Data Sharing: Protecting data from third parties | 100 | 90 |
Data Security: Protecting against unauthorized access | 50 | 40 |
Data Rights: Controlling data use | 88 | 95 |
Data Sold: Preventing sale of data | 75 | 50 |
Data Safety: Promoting responsible use | 0 | 15 |
Ads & Tracking: Prohibiting the exploitation of users' decision making process | 42 | 55 |
Parental Consent: Protecting children’s personal information | 67 | 50 |
School Purpose: Following student data privacy laws | 100 | 70 |
Statutes
Each statute or regulation is associated with one or more evaluation questions. As such, we can calculate scores for each statute or regulation using only those questions associated with the statute or regulation. Each specific statute or regulation's score serves as an indirect proxy indicating the likelihood of the application or service satisfying all of its compliance obligations.
Statute | Basic Score | Full Score |
---|---|---|
California Online Privacy Protection Act (CalOPPA) | 75 | 67 |
Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) | 59 | 58 |
Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) | 89 | 65 |
Student Online Personal Information Protection Act (SOPIPA) | 73 | 69 |
General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) | 68 | 74 |
Privacy Policy Details
1: Transparency
1.1: Policy Version
- Privacy policies do indicate a version or effective date.
- Privacy policies do not indicate a changelog or past policy version is available.
1.2: Policy Notice
- Users are notified if there are any material changes to the policies.
- Privacy policies indicate the method used to notify a user when policies are updated.
1.3: Policy Changes
- Users are notified prior to any material changes to the policies.
- Changes to the policies are effective immediately and continued use of the product indicates consent.
1.4: Policy Coverage
- Privacy policies indicate the products that are covered by the policies.
1.5: Policy Contact
- Users cannot contact the vendor about any privacy policy questions, complaints, or material changes to the policies.
1.6: Policy Principles
- Privacy policies do indicate any privacy principles, layered notices, or a table of contents.
1.7: Policy Language
- Privacy policies are available in multiple languages.
1.8: Intended Use
- Intended for children under 13.
- Intended for teens.
- Intended for adults over 18.
- Intended for parents or guardians.
- Intended for students.
- Intended for teachers.
2: Focused Collection
2.1: Data Collection
- Personally identifiable information (PII) is collected.
- The categories of collected personally identifiable information are indicated.
- Geolocation data are collected.
- Biometric or health data are collected.
- Behavioral data are collected.
- Unclear whether this product collects sensitive data.
- Non-personally identifiable information is collected.
- Unclear whether free or reduced lunch status is collected.
2.2: Data Source
- Personal information or education records are collected from preK-12 students.
- Personal information from children under 13 years of age is collected online.
2.3: Data Exclusion
- Unclear whether specific types of personal information are not collected.
- Specific types of collected information are excluded from the privacy policy.
2.4: Data Limitation
- Collection or use of data is limited to product requirements.
3: Data Sharing
3.1: Data Shared With Third Parties
- Collected information is shared with third parties.
- The categories of information shared with third parties are indicated.
3.2: Data Use by Third Parties
- The purpose for sharing a user's personal information with third parties is indicated.
- Data are shared for analytics.
- Data are shared for research and/or product improvement.
- Data are shared for third-party advertising and/or marketing.
3.3: Data Not Shared With Third Parties
- Unclear whether there are specific categories of information that are not shared with third parties.
3.4: Data Sold to Third Parties
- Data are not sold or rented to third parties.
3.5: Third-Party Data Acquisition
- Unclear whether personal information from users is acquired from third parties.
3.6: Third-Party Links
- Links to third-party external websites are not age-appropriate.
3.7: Third-Party Data Access
- Unclear whether third parties are authorized to access a user's information.
3.8: Third-Party Data Collection
- Personal information of users is collected by a third party.
3.9: Third-Party Data Misuse
- Personal information can be deleted from a third party if found to be misused.
3.10: Third-Party Service Providers
- Data are shared with third-party service providers.
- The roles of third-party service providers are indicated.
3.11: Third-Party Affiliates
- The categories of third parties that receive personal information are indicated.
3.12: Third-Party Policies
- Unclear whether links to privacy policies of third-party companies are available.
3.13: Third-Party Data Combination
- Unclear whether data can be combined with data from third-party sources.
- Unclear whether data shared with third parties can be combined by third parties for their own purposes.
3.14: Third-Party Authentication
- Social or federated login is supported.
- Personal information from social or federated login providers is collected.
- Personal Information is shared with social or federated login providers.
3.15: De-identified or Anonymized Data
- User information is not shared in an anonymous or deidentified format.
- Unclear whether the vendor describes their deidentification process of user information.
3.16: Third-Party Contractual Obligations
- Contractual limits are placed on third-party data use.
- Unclear whether contractual limits prohibit third parties from reidentifying deidentified information.
4: Respect for Context
4.1: Data Use
- Use of information is limited to the purpose for which it was collected.
- The purpose for which data atr collected is indicated.
4.2: Data Combination
- Unclear whether this product treats combined information as personally identifiable information (PII).
4.3: Data Notice
- Notice is provided if the context in which data are collected changes.
4.4: Data Changes
- Consent is obtained if the practices in which data are collected change.
4.5: Policy Enforcement
- Accounts may be terminated if users engage in any prohibited activities.
5: Individual Control
5.1: User Content
- Users can create or upload content.
5.2: User Consent
- Opt-in consent is requested from users at the time personal information is collected.
5.3: Remedy Process
- A grievance or remedy mechanism is available for users to file a complaint.
5.4: Data Settings
- Users can control their information through privacy settings.
5.5: Data Disclosure
- Users can opt out from the disclosure or sale of their data to a third party.
- Users can request to know what personal information has been shared with third parties for commercial purposes.
- Unclear whether notice is provided in the event the vendor receives a government or legal request for a user’s information.
5.6: Intellectual Property
- Users retain ownership of their data.
- A copyright license is claimed to data or content collected from a user.
- Any copyright license to a user's data is not limited in scope or duration.
- Notice is not provided to users when their content is removed or disabled because of an alleged copyright violation.
6: Access and Accuracy
6.1: Data Access
- Processes to access and review user data are available.
- Permissions, roles, or access controls are available to restrict who has access to data.
- Processes to review data are available for the school, parents, or students.
6.2: Data Integrity
- The vendor does maintain the accuracy of data they collect.
6.3: Data Correction
- Processes to modify inaccurate data are available.
- Processes for the school, parents, or students to modify data are available.
- Unclear whether the time period for the vendor to modify inaccurate data is indicated.
6.4: Data Retention
- A data-retention policy is available.
- The retention time period of a user's data can be changed upon a valid inspection request.
6.5: Data Deletion
- Data are deleted when no longer necessary.
- A user's data are deleted upon account cancellation or termination.
- Processes to delete user data are available.
- Processes for the school, parents, or students to delete data are available.
- Unclear whether the time period for the vendor to delete data is indicated.
6.6: Data Portability
- Processes to download user data are available.
- Unclear whether a user can assign an authorized account manager or legacy contact.
7: Data Transfer
7.1: Data Handling
- User information can be transferred to a third party.
- Notice is provided to users if the vendor assigns its rights or delegates its duties to another company.
- Unclear whether users are notified if their information is transferred to a third party.
7.2: Transfer Request
- Unclear whether user information can be deleted prior to its transfer to a third party.
7.3: Onward Contractual Obligations
- Third-party transfer is contractually required to use the same privacy practices.
8: Security
8.1: User Identity
- Unclear whether a user's identity is verified with additional personal information.
8.2: User Account
- Account creation is required.
- Parental controls or managed accounts are available.
- Unclear whether two-factor account protection is available.
8.3: Third-Party Security
- Unclear whether third-party contractual security protections are required.
8.4: Data Confidentiality
- Industry best practices are used to protect data.
- Employee or physical access to user information is limited.
8.5: Data Transmission
- Unclear whether this product encrypts all data in transit.
8.6: Data Storage
- Unclear whether this product encrypts all data at rest.
- Personal information of users is not stored with a third party.
8.7: Data Breach
- Unclear whether this product provides notice in the event of a data breach.
8.8: Data Oversight
- Data-privacy and security-compliance audits are performed.
9: Responsible Use
9.1: Social Interactions
- Unclear whether this product supports interactions between trusted users and/or students.
- Unclear whether users can interact with untrusted users, including strangers and/or adults.
- Unclear whether profile information is shared for social interactions.
9.2: Data Visibility
- Unclear whether this product displays personal information publicly.
- Unclear whether this product allows users to control how their data are displayed.
9.3: Monitor and Review
- User-created content is not reviewed, screened, or monitored by the vendor.
- Unclear whether user-created content is filtered for personal information before being made publicly visible.
- Unclear whether social interactions between users are moderated.
- Unclear whether social interactions of users are logged.
9.4: Report Content
- Unclear whether users can filter or block inappropriate content.
- Users can report abuse or cyberbullying.
9.5: Internet Safety
- The vendor provides links to tools or processes that support safe and appropriate social interactions.
10: Advertising
10.1: Vendor Communications
- A user can receive service- or administrative-related communications from the vendor.
10.2: Traditional Advertising
- Traditional or contextual advertisements are displayed.
10.3: Behavioral Advertising
- Behavioral or targeted advertising is displayed.
10.4: Ad Tracking
- 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.
- Unclear whether this product creates and uses data profiles for data enhancement, and/or targeted advertisements.
10.5: Filtered Advertising
- Unclear whether children may receive inappropriate advertisements.
10.6: Marketing Communications
- The vendor can send marketing messages.
- The vendor does provide promotional sweepstakes, contests, or surveys.
10.7: Unsubscribe
- Users can opt out of traditional, contextual, or behavioral advertising.
- Users can opt out or unsubscribe from marketing communications.
10.8: Do Not Track
- Unclear whether this product responds to Do Not Track or other opt-out mechanisms.
- Unclear whether the vendor provides a method for users to opt-out from third-party tracking.
11: Compliance
11.1: Children Under 13
- Unclear whether vendor has actual knowledge that personal information from users under 13 years of age is collected.
- Children's privacy is applicable.
- Unclear whether this product restricts account creation for users under 13 years of age.
- Unclear whether this product restricts in-app purchases for users under 13 years of age.
- The vendor participates in an FTC-approved COPPA safe harbor program.
11.2: Students in K–12
- Product is primarily used by, designed for, and marketed toward students in grades preK–12.
- Product does create education records.
- Notification of a contract or additional rights is provided.
- Vendor is designated as a school official.
11.3: Parental Consent
- Parental consent is required.
- Unclear whether this product limits parental consent with respect to third parties.
- Parents can withdraw consent for the further collection of their child's information.
- Unclear whether this product deletes children's personal information if collected without parental consent.
- Unclear whether this product provides parental consent notice and method for submission.
- Unclear whether the vendor can use collected information to support the “internal operations” of the product.
- Unclear whether this product indicates COPPA parental consent exceptions.
- Unclear whether the vendor indicates FERPA parental consent exceptions.
- Unclear whether this product discloses directory information.
- Parental consent obligations are transferred to the school or district.
11.4: Legal Requirements
- The legal jurisdiction that applies to the laws governing any dispute is not indicated.
- A user is required to waive the right to a jury trial, or settle any disputes by arbitration.
- Unclear whether a user is required to waive the right to join a class action lawsuit.
- A vendor will disclose personal information to law enforcement.
11.5: Certification
- The vendor has signed a privacy pledge or received a privacy certification.
11.6: International Laws
- A user's data are subject to International data transfer or jurisdiction laws, such as the GDPR.
- The vendor has indicated it is a Data Controller or Data Processor.