Seesaw provides student driven digital portfolios and simple parent communication. In Seesaw, interactions are originated by and largely mediated through the teacher. This hierarchy provides a relative degree of control over who can work in the website, and who can view student work in the website. Parent accounts can be created in the website, and parent access is restricted to their own child's work. Parents have the ability to share their child's work via social media, and the policy warns about sharing by screenshots.

Seesaw's policies indicate that PII is collected from users under the age of 13 and that parental consent is obtained through the teacher / school. Policies state that no form of advertising is used on the site and that third-party vendors are used for the operations of the website (no data is rented or sold). Social login is provided via Google and some PII is collected from those services. Teachers can share Activity Journals and tag various students in them. These journals can be made public but student information may be kept private. Policies state that publicly available Journals may contain PII on the teacher from an Author Profile; the teacher has limited control over what information is made publicly visible. Policies do not indicate if Seesaw monitors, moderates, audits/reviews, logs, filters or blocks content, nor if there are polices for reporting abusive behavior.

Seesaw can be accessed through its website, and is available for download at the iOS App Store, the Google Play Store, and Amazon Appstore. The Privacy Policy and Terms of Use accessed for this evaluation can be found on Seesaw’s website, iOS App Store, the Google Play Store, and Amazon Appstore. Additionally, other policies used for this evaluation include the Copyright & Intellectual Property Policy. This evaluation only considers policies that have been made publicly available prior to an individual using the application or service.

Safety

Policies state that “Seesaw is designed for safe sharing”. Teachers can share journals and parents can make them publicly visible / share on social media. Students can also comment on others work but only teachers can share journals (without student information). The terms reference that teachers can make Activity Journals visible but must make their Author Profile visible; including their name, profile picture and other activities posted along with other PII the teacher may choose to share. Policies do not indicate if Seesaw monitors, moderates, audits/reviews, logs, filters or blocks content, nor if there are polices for reporting abusive behavior.

Privacy

Policies state that PII is collected of users, automatic tracking (via cookies and analytics services) are used, but no sensitive data is indicated to be collected. The terms reference that some PII is shared with third parties for the operation of the services but data is not sold or rented to third parties and they are contractually limited in their usage of data; information on deletion of data if requested is provided. Policies clearly state that no forms of advertising are used on the site. Policies indicate that users are notified of material changes to the policies via email and that continued use indicates acceptance. Policies do not contain information on how combined PII is treated or if users are provided notice for changes to how data is collected (or if consent is obtained for changes). Policies include contact information for questions regarding policy changes. Federated social login (Google) is supported and information is automatically collected. Policies do not indicate if Seesaw shares information with social login providers. Policies do not contain information on de-identified or re-identified information. Policies do not contain information on Do Not Track requests. Terms do make reference to sending marketing emails for Seesaw products to users (teachers)and indicate there is an opt-out option. No information is provided in the terms of deletion request prior to transfer or sale of Seesaw.

Security

According to the policy, authorized users can manage information on students; teachers and parents can also modify, delete or download PII collected by Seesaw. Policies state that PII is used to verify user identity and that PII may be transferred to a different internal account, with authorization from the school. Policies do not clearly state if an account is required to use the product nor if two-factor authentication is required. Policies do indicate that reasonable security measures are in place including data encryption in transit, at rest, and access controlled data centers. In the case of breach, users are notified.

Compliance

Policies indicate that PII is collected on users, the product is intended for students in K-12 and PII is collected on users under the age of 13, including information from education records. Terms indicate that consent is collected by the school and links are provided on methods of obtaining parental consent; also that students under 13 cannot create an account themselves. Policies state what information is collected on users under 13 but not how it is used and disclosed. Seesaw allows for users to upload content and policies indicate that ownership of content remains with the user, with a limited license being granted to Seesaw for use within the context of the Seesaw service. Policies do indicate that users can modify or correct information in their account. Policies also clearly outline processes for deleting accounts. Policies also state timeframes for deleting abandoned accounts and processes to delete active accounts. There is an indication in the policies that Seesaw will delete data no longer required, and that notice will be given first. Policies state that data privacy and security practices are routinely third party audited. Terms reference education records entered into Seesaw by school / teacher but do not specify content. The policy does make reference that content uploaded by student or teacher may be considered as part of the students education record and that Seesaw is designated as a “School Official” under FERPA.