Vernier’s web-based platform Vernier Connections® (the “Platform”) is designed to deepen students’ understanding of scientific concepts and develop crucial skills, such as inquiry, problem-solving, communication, collaboration, and flexibility. Your use of the Platform is governed by the Vernier Connections® Terms of Use or a Beta Test Agreement as agreed between Vernier Software & Technology, Inc. dba Vernier Science Education (“Vernier,” “us,” “our,” or “we”) and the school, school district, or other organization (each a “School”) through which you access the Platform. This Privacy Notice explains our privacy practices related to your use of the Platform. 

By accessing or using the Platform, you consent to the privacy practices described in this Privacy Notice. If you do not agree with this Privacy Notice, do not access or use the Platform. 

Please note that Vernier’s Website and Applications are governed by their own privacy notices, not this one.

Questions? If you have questions about this Privacy Notice or the Platform, please contact us at info@vernier.com or toll free at 1-888-837-6437.

Your Learning Management System

Users link to the Platform from their user accounts on their School’s learning management system (“LMS”). The privacy practices of your LMS are separate from the Platform and are not addressed by this Privacy Notice. You are encouraged to review the Privacy Notice for your LMS.

Consent for Students

Schools that subscribe to the Platform permit Users to access the Platform through School’s LMS. By integrating the Platform into its LMS, the School consents to this Privacy Notice on behalf of its students, instructors, and other end users who access the Platform through the School’s subscription (“Users”), and the School is responsible for determining and obtaining any additional consent for students, including parental consent, that may be required under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, or other applicable privacy laws. The School, not Vernier, is responsible for obtaining any legally required end user or parent or guardian consent to use the Platform.

Collection & Use of Personal Information

The Platform interacts with your Personal Information through your LMS account. A detailed description of what we mean by Personal Information is provided at the bottom of this Privacy Notice (What Is “Personal Information”?).

When you use the Platform, Vernier may collect your identifiers, educational or employment information, and internet activity data from your LMS account and data about your tasks and other activities using the application. 

• If you are an instructor, the Platform will collect and process your name or username, email address, course information, and activities while using the Platform. 
• If you are a student user, the Platform collects the unique ID associated with your LMS account to differentiate your work from your classmates and data about your coursework and other activities on the Platform. 
• The Platform uses cookies and similar technologies to track users’ activities on the application. These cookies are essential for the Platform to function and generally only collect technical data and only for the purpose of ensuring key features will function as intended.

We collect this information to achieve our legitimate interest in facilitating and improving the use of the Platform by Schools and their users. Vernier is careful to only collect and process Personal Information as necessary to facilitate your use of the Platform as requested by your School.

In addition to the specific uses described above, Vernier might also use your Personal Information to (i) fulfill any other purpose to which you consent; (ii) protect your privacy and enforce this Privacy Notice; (iii) if we believe it is necessary, to identify, contact, or bring legal action against persons or entities who may be causing injury to you, to us, or to others; (iv) monitor your compliance with agreements between you and us; or (v) comply with a law, regulation, legal process, or court order.

Privacy Controls

If you wish to change the Personal Information collected by the Platform, you can access, correct, update, or delete the Personal Information available to the Platform by logging into your LMS account and saving your changes. Your School and the LMS provider determine the controls that are available to you through your LMS account. Please contact your School if you require assistance. See Privacy Inquiries below for more information. 

Children’s Privacy

The Platform does not collect any Personal Information directly from the student. All Personal Information collected by the Platform is transmitted from the student’s account on the School’s LMS. As such, the Platform leverages the School’s LMS controls for notice to parents or guardians, methods to provide parental consent, and other efforts to protect children’s privacy. If we become aware that a child under the age of 13 has provided Personal Information to the Platform outside of a data transmittal via their LMS account, we will promptly delete that data from our systems. Please contact privacy@vernier.com if you believe a child has provided us with Personal Information.

Data Retention

Vernier retains Personal Information collected through the Platform as long as your LMS account remains linked to the Platform or as otherwise instructed by your School. It is Vernier’s policy to minimize the scope of Personal Information we collect and to retain that information only for the period necessary to achieve the purpose of its collection. Vernier regularly reviews and deletes or deidentifies unnecessary data. We reserve the right to retain data for longer periods as necessary to comply with our legal obligations. 

Data Disclosures 

Vernier will only disclose Personal Information to trusted third parties as described in this paragraph, with your permission, or as required by law. In the preceding 12 months, Vernier has disclosed Personal Information about Platform users collected from the user’s LMS account to the following recipients:

• Our Service Providers. Vernier’s third-party service providers may have access to your Personal Information to perform their contractual obligations to us. For example, Vernier works with our service provider EdLink to connect your LMS account to the Platform.  We also work with data hosting services, analytics services, and other technology providers to develop and provide the Platform to Schools and their users.  The type of information that we disclose to a service provider will depend on the services they provide to us. Our service providers are subject to contractual agreements that protect Personal Information, and we require all service providers to maintain confidentiality standards that are commercially reasonable to ensure the security of your Personal Information.
• Other Third Parties, as permitted by applicable law, for example: if we go through a business transition (e.g., merger, acquisition, or sale of a portion of our assets); to comply with a legal requirement or a court order; when we believe it is appropriate in order to take action regarding illegal activities or prevent fraud or harm to any person; to exercise or defend our legal claims; or for any other reason with your consent.
• Law enforcement, and other governmental agencies, at our sole discretion in connection with an investigation of any matter that is illegal or that could expose Vernier or our affiliates or subsidiaries to liability.
• Aggregated and De-Identified Information. Vernier reserves the right to disclose aggregated, anonymized, or de-identified information about any individuals with non-affiliated entities for research, product development, marketing, or other purposes, without restriction.

Data Security 

Vernier has implemented and maintains reasonable security measures to secure your Personal Information from accidental loss and unauthorized access, use, alteration, and disclosure. Our security measures are appropriate to the volume, scope, and nature of the Personal Information processed and designed to meet our duty of care with respect to your Personal Information. The Platform is designed with data security in mind to continuously protect your data and our systems. Vernier maintains internal policies to govern the collection, processing, and handling of data, and reserves data access only for those employees who require such access to perform their job functions. We educate our employees about the importance of confidentiality and privacy through standard operating procedures. We also ensure that our employees, contractors, and agents responsible for handling privacy inquiries are informed of applicable privacy law requirements and we restrict access to those who need that information to process it. Anyone with this access is subject to strict contractual confidentiality obligations and may be disciplined or terminated if they fail to meet these obligations. 

Please note, however, that no transmission of data over the Internet is 100% secure, and we cannot guarantee that unauthorized third parties will not defeat our security measures or use your Personal Information for improper purposes. Schools and educators that create an account on the Site are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of their username and password. We encourage you to take steps to protect against unauthorized access to your account and device by choosing a robust password and signing off after each session. Vernier is not responsible for any lost, stolen, or compromised passwords, or for any activity on your account via unauthorized access.

Platform User Privacy Rights

Depending on where you live or are located, you may have certain rights over your Personal Information that we collect and retain. This section provides notices of privacy rights under predominant privacy laws applicable in the United States, EEA, UK, and Canada. Additionally, Australia, as well as many countries within the continents of Africa, South America, and Asia, have enacted comprehensive consumer privacy laws offering a broad spectrum of consumer rights over their Personal Information. To exercise your rights or ask questions about this Privacy Policy, you can submit a verifiable privacy request by email to privacy@vernier.com or by phone at 888.837.6437.

U.S. Privacy Rights

In the United States, consumer privacy is governed by federal privacy laws covering specific industries or data uses and state privacy laws providing with general consumer privacy rights. This section provides informational notices for the more than a dozen U.S. state privacy laws that provide consumer privacy rights and require companies to inform consumers about those rights. Residents of states offering privacy protections (each a “Consumer”) may have some or all of the following rights:

• Right to Correct. You have the right to correct inaccurate Personal Information about you that is on our systems. To do so, login to your account to update your Personal Information and save your changes or send us a privacy request at privacy@vernier.com or by phone at 888.837.6437.
• Right to Delete. You have the right to request that we delete any of your Personal Information that we collected and retained, with certain exceptions. You can request that we delete your Personal Information by submitting a privacy request. In response, we may permanently delete, deidentify, or aggregate your Personal Information.
• Right to Access. You have the right to request that we provide you with access to specific pieces of Personal Information we have collected about you. In some cases, the data available in response to this request may be limited to the preceding 12 months. To access your data, login to your account where you can view or download it. If you need support, email privacy@vernier.com or call 888.837.6437. Please note that we may be prohibited by law from disclosing certain pieces of Personal Information that would create a substantial, articulable, and unreasonable risk to the security of the information, our business systems, or your account.
• No selling or sharing Personal Information—Some jurisdictions entitle consumers to opt out of the sale or sharing of their Personal Information or targeted advertising practices. Vernier does not sell your Personal Information or share your Personal Information with third parties for cross-contextual behavioral advertising purposes. If this changes in the future, we will update this Privacy Notice and provide you with a method to opt out.
• Limited use and disclosure of sensitive Personal Information—Vernier does not seek to collect sensitive Personal Information about anyone, and in no case will we use or disclose sensitive Personal Information for the purpose of inferring characteristics about a consumer. If this ever changes in the future, we will update this Privacy Notice and provide you with methods to limit use and disclosure of sensitive Personal Information.
• No profiling. Vernier does not use any form of automated processing of Personal Information to evaluate, analyze, or predict your performance, preferences, choices, or behavior. If this changes in the future, we will update this Privacy Notice and provide you with an option to opt-out or prevent profiling.
• Right to Disclosure. You may have the right to request that we disclose information to you about our collection and use of your Personal Information, such as: (a) the categories of Personal Information we have collected about you; (b) the categories of sources for the Personal Information we have collected about you; (c) our business purpose for collecting or selling that Personal Information; (d) the categories of third parties with whom we disclose that Personal Information; and (e) if we sold or shared your Personal Information under the CCPA, two separate lists stating: (i) sales or sharing, identifying the Personal Information categories that each category of recipient purchased; and (ii) disclosures for a business purpose, identifying the Personal Information categories that each category of recipient obtained. Note that under California and certain other states’ privacy laws, Vernier is only required to respond to two disclosure requests within a 12-month period.
• Right to non-discrimination. We will not discriminate against you for exercising any of your privacy rights. If you are a resident of the State of California, we will not (a) deny you goods or services, (b) charge you different prices or rates for goods or services, (c) provide you a different level or quality of goods or services, (d) retaliate against you as an employee, applicant for employment, or independent contractor; or (e) suggest that you may receive a different price or rate for goods or services or a different level or quality of goods or services, because you exercised your statutory right unless permitted by law.
• California’s Shine the Light Act. If you are a resident of the State of California, note that California’s Shine the Light Act (Civil Code sections 1798.83-1798.84) entitles California consumers to request certain disclosures regarding Personal Information sharing with affiliates and/or third parties for marketing purposes.
• Health Data Rights—Vernier does not collect any health data through the Website. Some laws entitle consumers to certain details about health data collected about them, including (a) confirmation of whether the entity collects, shares, or sells the consumer’s health data and access that data, including a list of all third parties and affiliates with whom the entity has shared or sold the health data and a method to contact those third parties, (b) a method to withdraw consent related to use of health data, and (c) the right to have their health data be deleted.

Canadian Privacy Rights

This section provides supplemental information in compliance with Canada’s Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (“PIPEDA”). This section applies solely to residents of Canada where PIPEDA applies (“Canadian Consumers”). PIPEDA gives Canadian Consumers specific rights regarding Personal Information offering details on an identifiable person without the inclusion of name, title, telephone number, and business address of an employee of a business or organization. The following paragraphs describe PIPEDA rights and explain how to exercise those rights.

• Right to know why we collect, use, and distribute the Personal Information we process. We have set the required notices in this Privacy Notice. We may provide you with additional notices about other ways we process your Personal
  Information, such as by sending you a notice via email or by other means of communication.
• Right to expect us to collect, use, or disclose Personal Information responsibly and not for any other purpose other than which you consented. We set your expectations in this Privacy Notice and collect express or implied consent at various stages of collection or processing. If we collect or use your Personal Information based on your consent, we will also notify you of any changes and will request your further consent as needed. You may withdraw your consent at any time with reasonable notice via email.
• Right to accuracy of your Personal Information. We take steps to reasonably ensure that your Personal Information we are using is accurate. In most cases, we rely on you to ensure that your information is current, complete, and accurate. We provide methods for you to correct, update, and delete inaccurate Personal Information in your account, and we will provide you with reasonable assistance to ensure that your Personal Information is accurate in our systems and with our service providers.
• Right to access your Personal Information. Upon written request and identity authentication, we will provide you with your Personal Information under our control, information about the ways in which that information is being used and a description of the individuals and organizations to whom that information has been disclosed. We will make the information available within 30 days or provide written notice where additional time is required to fulfil the
  request. If limited by law or potential infringement on another’s privacy rights, we may not be able to provide access to some or all of the Personal Information you request. We will notify you in writing if we must refuse an access request and we will document the reasons for refusal and outline further steps that are available to you.

EEA and UK Privacy Rights

This section is provided to comply with the General Data Protection Regulations and its counterpart regulation applicable to residents of the United Kingdom (“GDPR”). This section applies solely to residents of the EEA and the United Kingdom (“Data Subjects”). Vernier collects and processes Personal Information of Data Subjects either as a controller when marketing our Services through the Website or as processor to the School using our Services. If you are a Data Subject, you have the following rights in relation to the Personal Information we hold about you:

• Right to know how we process your Personal Information. We have set the required notices in this Privacy Notice. We may provide you with additional notices about other ways we process your Personal Information, such as by sending you a notice via email or by other means of communication.
• Right to access your Personal Information. Upon request, we will provide you with a copy of your Personal Information, along with details about the types of Personal Information we process, why we process it, and any third parties we work with to collect Personal Information on our behalf. We may have one or more legally valid reasons to refuse your request in whole or in part, for example, to protect the rights of other individuals.
• Right to restrict processing of your Personal Information. You can request that we restrict the processing of your Personal Information if: (a) the data is inaccurate; (b) the processing is unlawful; (c) we no longer need the Personal
  Information; or (d) you exercise your right to object.
• Right to rectify your Personal Information. If you become aware that the Personal Information that we hold about you is incorrect, or if your information changes, please inform us and we will update our records.
• Right to data portability. In some circumstances, we are required to provide your Personal Information to another organization at your request and in a structured, commonly used machine-readable format, so that the other organization can read and use it.
• Right to erasure or the “right to be forgotten”. Upon your request, and in certain circumstances and where we are required to do so by law, we are required to delete or anonymize your Personal Information. This right is not absolute, and we may be entitled to retain and process your Personal Information despite your request. If you make this request, we balance certain legal, contractual, and business interests against your right to request the deletion of your Personal Information.
• Right to object to certain processing of your Personal Information. Upon your request, and in certain circumstances and where we are required to do so by law, we will limit our processing of your Personal Information as you request.
• Right to not be subject to Automated Decision-Making. Vernier does not use automated decision-making (“ADM”) to provide our Services. If this changes in the future, we will update this posting to describe our use of ADM and your options to exercise your right to not be subject to ADM.
• Right to Complain. If you are a resident of the EEA and you believe we are unlawfully processing your Personal Information, you also have the right to complain to your local data protection supervisory authority. If you are a resident in Switzerland, you have the right to complain to the Swiss data protection authorities.
• Supplemental Notice for France. If you are a Data Subject residing in  France, you have the right to provide Vernier with general or specific instructions for the retention, deletion, and communication of your Personal Information after your death. The specific instructions are only valid for the processing activities mentioned therein and the processing of these instructions is subject to your specific consent. You may amend or revoke your instructions at any time. You may designate a person responsible for the implementation of your instructions. This person will be informed of your instructions in the event of your death and be entitled to request their implementation from us. In the absence of designation or, unless otherwise provided for, in the event of the death of the designated person, their heirs will have the right to be informed of 
  your instructions and to request their implementation from us. To issue
  instructions, contact privacy@vernier.com.

Notice for Mexico

This Privacy Notice is available in Spanish upon request. In case of dispute, the Spanish version of this Privacy Notice shall prevail. The type of Personal Information we use, purpose of processing, and cookie information is listed above in this Privacy Notice. In general, we do not require your consent to transfer your Personal Information. By using the Services and providing us with your Personal Information, you agree to the data transfers detailed in this Privacy Notice that require your consent. The above descriptions of privacy rights to access, rectification, erasure, and object apply to residents of Mexico, as does the right to restrict processing to storage only (which includes the limitation to the use and disclosure of your Personal
Information), and advertising. You also have the right to revoke the consent that you have provided us to process your Personal Information. To exercise any of your rights, contact privacy@vernier.com.

Privacy Inquiries

To exercise your privacy rights, express concerns, revoke your consent, lodge a complaint, or request information, please contact your School. Questions specific to Platform functionality and privacy inquiries from Schools can be sent to privacy@vernier.com. Depending on the nature of your inquiry, Vernier will respond to you directly or forward the inquiry to your School. 

Vernier endeavors to respond to privacy inquiries as required by applicable law. Note that we can only respond to verifiable inquiries, and only when we have sufficient information to understand, evaluate, and respond to the inquiry. We do not charge a fee to process or respond to an inquiry unless we have legal grounds to do so. If we determine that a fee is warranted, we will provide you with a cost estimate before you incur a cost. If we do not respond to your inquiry within the legally required timeline, you can appeal by contacting privacy@vernier.com. 

If you are a resident of the European Economic Area (“EEA”) and you believe we are unlawfully processing your Personal Information, you also have the right to complain to your local data protection supervisory authority. If you are a resident in Switzerland, you have the right to complain to the Swiss data protection authorities. Residents of the European Economic Area or Switzerland with privacy inquiries related to the Platform or other Vernier solutions should direct their questions to the broker or reseller used to facilitate their purchase.

Cross-Border Data Transfers

Vernier is owned and operated in the United States. We provide the Platform using technical infrastructure in the United States and other jurisdictions. As such, we must sometimes transfer data across jurisdictional boundaries. If you use the Platform from outside the United States, please be aware that your Personal Information may be transferred to, processed, stored, and used in the United States or elsewhere. When your information is moved across borders, the laws where your information is transferred may be different from those of your home country. For example, if your information is in the United States, it may be accessed by government authorities under United States law.

When we transmit data from Europe or the UK to other jurisdictions, we do so pursuant to standard contract clauses approved by the European Commission and employ those security measures required by the country in question to secure the data. We also require our third-party service providers to meet the same standards. Each Customer is solely responsible for determining whether their use of the Platform complies with applicable laws. By allowing us to collect Personal Information about you, you consent to the transfer and processing of your Personal Information as described in this section.

Third-Party Platforms

Vernier may provide links from the Platform to third-party platforms for your convenience. Vernier is not responsible for and cannot control the privacy and data collection, use, and disclosure practices of any third party. When you use an LMS or other third-party platform, you will be subject to the third party’s privacy practices, not ours. You are encouraged to review and understand the third party’s privacy notice before submitting any information.

Changes to this Privacy Notice

The privacy practices stated in this Privacy Notice are effective beginning on December 11, 2023. Vernier reserves the right to amend this Privacy Notice from time to time. We will update this post 90 days before any changes to our privacy practices take effect. Your continued use of the Platform following the effective date of changes constitutes your acceptance of such changes. Please note that EdLink, your School’s LMS, or other third-party platforms or service providers may alter their privacy practices or update their privacy notices at different intervals and with different or no prior notice to you. 

What is “Personal Information”?

When we say, “Personal Information” we mean any information that identifies, relates to, describes, is reasonably capable of being associated with, or could reasonably be linked, directly or indirectly, with a particular consumer or household. Personal Information is a broad legal term often sorted into categories: 

• Identifiers (e.g., name, email, telephone number, address, username); 

• Commercial information (e.g., products or services purchased, obtained, or considered; or other purchasing or consuming histories or tendencies); 
• Educational information, including information protected under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (20 U.S.C. § 1232g, 34 C.F.R. Part 99);
• Employment information (e.g., current or past employment);
• Sensitive information (e.g., government identification number; precise geolocation; racial or ethnic origin; religious beliefs; health information; contents of messages when we are not the recipient; in some cases, information about a known child);
• Legally protected information (e.g., race, citizenship, marital status, sex);
• Biometrics (e.g., DNA, face/voice prints, health data) and audio, electronic, visual, thermal, or olfactory information;
• Internet activity (e.g., browsing history; content interactions); and
• Inferences drawn from Personal Information to create a profile about preferences, characteristics, trends, predispositions, behaviors, attitudes, intelligence, and aptitudes. 

Not all information about a person qualifies as Personal Information under privacy laws. For example, publicly available information, aggregated data, and anonymized information is often exempt from legal rights and protections.