Mastery Coding™ Privacy Policy

Effective Date: November 1, 2021

Thank you for doing business with Mastery Coding, Inc. (“Mastery Coding™," "Company," "we," "our," or "us."). 

We welcome you and hope you find our websites, applications, professional services, products, the content of our training materials, and our other subscription services and tools helpful and useful.  For those of you who are current users, potential employees or business partners ("you" or "your"), we hope your interaction with us is pleasant and helpful.  We have adopted this privacy policy ("Privacy Policy") to help our current and potential customers, clients, their employees, our employees, and other business partners and data subjects understand what Data we collect, store, share, and use, but how and why.

If a capitalized term is not specifically defined in this Privacy Policy, it has the meaning given to it in our Terms of Service.

We always seek to improve our Services to you, and that requires that we collect, store, share, and use information about you and your usage and usage preferences.  As we do so, we are absolutely committed to protecting your privacy and the security of your personal information.

In this Privacy Policy, we use the word “Data” to describe all the information we collect that relates to you and your use of our Services.  “Data” is broken into different categories, which we may refer to separately, but when we use the word “Data,” we mean all the different categories described in this Privacy Policy. Because of the nature of our Services, the term "Data" also includes the information, including personally identifiable information, you gather and process that you upload to the Services, including personally identifiable information of students. We rely on your compliance with our Terms of Service, in which you represent and warrant that you have express permission to process all information you upload to the Services.

The term “Data” does not apply to de-identified, anonymized, and aggregated data that may be derived from Data, that cannot be reasonably connected with any individual, (“De-identified Data”). We hold all rights in and may use De-identified Data for our own purposes in any manner and without attribution or compensation to any person.

When we have a separate agreement with you and that agreement addresses how we handle Data, the terms of that separate agreement will control over any conflicting provisions of this Privacy Policy.  The definition of “Data” in that separate agreement, if there is one, may differ from the definition we use in this Privacy policy, since the agreement will address particular interactions with a particular party.

With that exception, this Privacy Policy applies to everybody who interacts with us online or otherwise.  Since different portions of the Privacy Policy will apply differently to the various groups who interact with us, we have tried to clearly categorize the types of Data we process and how we do so.  If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or how we handle your Data, please email us at legal@masterycoding.com.  

DESCRIPTION OF SERVICES

Mastery Coding™ provides a set of tools and services designed to assist teachers and students teach and learn coding techniques and skills. It provides instructional and other support materials in that effort.  In this Privacy policy, all the functions and training content made available by our tools, including the other services and professional services we provide directly, are included in the term “Services.” The term “Services” also includes any of Mastery Coding™’s website, mobile applications, tools, software, personalized content, and other applications, as well as any other services, content, and tools now known or later developed by Mastery Coding™.

LAWFUL BASIS FOR PROCESSING

Many jurisdictions require that we disclose to you the lawful basis for our processing of your Data. We do that in the “Information We Collect and How We Use It” section and otherwise throughout this PrivacyPolicy. In general, our lawful basis for processing your Data is based on your specific consent or your contract with us.

By accessing or using any of the Services or by otherwise interacting with us online, you consent to our use of your Data as described in this Privacy Policy.  If our processing of your Data is based on your consent, you may withdraw your consent at any time, and we will cease collecting your Data. However, in some cases, this may result in your inability to receive partial or full access to the Services, and your withdrawal of consent does not limit our ability to use the De-Identified Data for use by us in connection with our legitimate business efforts in the future.  In addition, your withdrawal of consent does not prevent us from retaining and processing Data if we are required to do so by applicable law or to preserve legal claims. It also doesn’t prevent us from processing Data that has been gathered pursuant to a different lawful basis. For example, if you give your consent for us to process your Data, but we are also required by law to keep your Data, that separate “lawful basis” will still apply, even if you withdraw your consent.   

When you enter into an agreement with us, either by accessing the Services, by executing an agreement in hard copy or by clicking “I Accept” or similar language online, we will process your Data for the purposes of fulfilling the terms of our contract with you.  In that case, our processing of your Data is based on the contract, so your withdrawal of consent will only be effective after the purposes for processing that Data have been fulfilled and after we no longer have a legal obligation to keep that Data.

In all cases, we will comply with applicable law and we will cease processing your Data after the legal obligation or other necessity passes.   

INTENDED USERS 

The Services are directed solely to persons 18 years of age or older or of children under 18 who are supervised by a parent, guardian, or other caregiver.  Other than for Data collected for the specific purpose of providing the Services to users, we do not knowingly collect Data from users who are under 13. If we become aware that we have gathered Data from a person under 13, except to provide the Services to such person, then we will attempt to delete such Data as soon as possible, subject to our obligations under applicable law. If you believe that we have gathered Data from a person under 13 in contravention of this policy, please contact us at legal@masterycoding.com.

INFORMATION WE COLLECT AND HOW WE USE IT

In the course of our relationship with you, we gather different categories of Data.  We always have a lawful basis for gathering the Data, but that lawful basis might be different for different categories. Regardless, we never use the Data for any purpose other than the purpose for which we gathered the Data in the first place, unless we get your explicit consent.  This section of our Privacy Policy describes the categories of Data we collect, the lawful basis for collecting that Data, and the uses we make of each category of Data.  

A.  Registration Data  

1.     Data Description:  Registration Data consists of the name, email address, student ID number, and other contact information you provide us using the Services, both when you register your account and thereafter.  Registration Data also includes your username, client type, and membership end date, if any.  

2.    Lawful Basis for Processing:  Our lawful basis for processing Registration Data is our contract with you.  We can only provide certain of the Services to you if we have the Registration Data, so we need to store and access that Registration Data during the term of our contract.  Even when the Registration Data is not critically necessary to the provision of the Services, we may still process that Registration Data to facilitate our contractual interactions with you.

3.    How We Use It and Who We Share It With:  Registration Data is accessible generally only to us and to you. In limited circumstances, we may share your Registration Data with our service providers, which parties help us provide the Services and are under obligations to protect the confidentiality of your Registration Data. We use it only to provide the Services to you.  At times, we will share the Registration Data with third parties at your request or to fulfill requests that you make of us.  We may use your Registration Data to offer goods or services to you, but only on an opt-in basis after getting your specific consent.  

4.   Research:  We periodically engage with third-party research institutions, such as universities, to study the efficacy of our programs.  In those cases, we will share Registration Data with such institutions, but when we do so, it will be for the sole purpose of conducting that research, and we will always have an agreement in place with the institution that requires them to protect the confidentiality of the Registration Data we provide them.

B.  Engagement Data

1.     Data Description:  Engagement Data consists of all the information you input or record using the Services, other than the Registration Data and any Usage Data.

2.    Lawful Basis for Processing:  Our lawful basis for processing Engagement Data is (1)our contract with you, (2) our obligation to provide you with the Services, and(3) our legitimate interest in improving our Services based on the Engagement Data we receive from you.  

3.    How We Use It and Who We Share It With: Your Engagement Data is accessible generally only to us, to you, and where it relates directly to a party who either provides services to you or receives services from you, to that party, in which case that party will be obligated to protect the confidentiality of your Engagement Data. In limited circumstances, we may share your Engagement Data with our service providers, which parties help us provide the Services and are under obligations to protect the confidentiality of your Engagement Data.  We may use Engagement Data as provided in the Acceptable Use Policy. Both during the term of our agreement with you and thereafter, we may also convert Engagement Data to De-Identified Data for our use in our sole discretion.  To the extent we are required to delete any Engagement Data about you, we may still retain De-Identified Data that may have originated as your Engagement Data.

C.  Usage Data

1.     Data Description:  Usage Data consists of the following and similar information:

  • Information about your interactions with the Services, most commonly our website, which includes the date and time of any requests you make.  This also may include details of your use of Third-Party Applications and any advertising you receive via the Services.
  • The timing of the information you post to the Services including messages you send and/or receive via the Services and your interactions with our customer service team, but not including the content of those interactions and messages, which would be included as Engagement Data. 
  • Adjustments you make to the default state of the Services, such as custom settings.
  • Technical data which may include URL information, cookie data, your IP address, the types of devices you are using to access or connect to the Services, unique device IDs, device attributes, network connection type (e.g. WiFi, 4G, LTE, Bluetooth) and provider, network and device performance, browser type, language, information enabling digital rights management, operating system, and application version.
  • Motion-generated or orientation-generated mobile sensor data (e.g. accelerometer or gyroscope), if any, required for the purposes of providing specific features of the Services to you.

2.    Lawful Basis for Processing:  Our lawful basis for processing Usage Data is (1) our contract with you, (2) our obligation to provide you with the Services, and (3)our legitimate interest in improving our Services based on the Usage Data we receive from you.  

3.    How We Use It and Who We Share It With:  Usage Data is accessible to us, to you and to limited third parties that we use to provide and improve the Services. If we share your Usage Data with a third party, that party will be obligated to protect the confidentiality of your Usage Data.  We may use Usage Data to make improvements to the Services.  We may also convert Usage Data to De-Identified Data that belongs solely to us.  To the extent we are required to delete any Usage Data about you, we may still retain De-Identified Data that may have originated as your Usage Data.

D.  Payment Data

1.     Data Description: Payment Data is only collected when your use of the Services is subject to the payment of a fee or other charge. Payment Data is the information necessary for us to process your payments for the Services. Payment Data will vary depending on the payment method you use but will likely include information such as:

  • Name;
  • Date of birth;
  • Certain credit card information used to reference a credit card; (Please note that we use a third-party provider to collect credit card information. The third party’s collection tool is layered over our Services, so your credit card information never hits our system at all. Further, we only use payment processors that are PCI compliant.)
  • Address and postal code; and
  • Mobile phone number

2.      Lawful Basis for Processing: Our lawful basis for processing Payment Data is (1)our contract with you and (2) our legitimate interest in improving our Services based on the Payment Data we receive from you.

3.       How We Use It and Who We Share It With: We only use Payment Data to facilitate payment, and we only communicate it to those parties who are strictly necessary for that purpose.

SPECIFIC INTERACTIONS

A.  Current and Potential Employees

We often use the services of third parties to help us recruit new employees and independent contractors and to manage our interactions with current employees and independent contractors.  We do our best to contractually ensure that these third-party service providers comply with the policies we have adopted. However, we can’t guarantee their compliance in every case.

Our lawful basis for processing Data about potential and current employees and independent contractors is our contract with them and our legitimate interest in processing that Data, both to facilitate the formation of a formal relationship and to manage that relationship once it is formed.  We only use employment Data for the direct purpose of the employment or independent contractor relationship, and we cease using it as soon as that relationship ends. However, we may keep and process that Data after the relationship ends when we are required to do so by applicable law or to preserve legal claims that may arise.

B.  Website Users

Users of our website who do not engage us to provide the Services are subject to the Terms of Service posted at https://masterycoding.com/terms .  Although you may not be required to affirmatively click “I Accept” on those terms, your use of our website will be governed by those terms.

C.  Teachers and Administrators

Teachers and administrators may use the Services to provide training and assistance to students.  Those teachers and administrators and the school entities for whom they work are solely responsible for the use of the Data they receive while using the Services and the Data they upload to the Services.  We are not responsible for any breach of these terms or of applicable law, including but not limited to, the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act (20 U.S.C. § 1232g; 34 CFR Part 99) ("FERPA"), by any teacher, administrator, or school entity.

SHARING YOUR INFORMATION

SHARING YOUR INFORMATION

Except where a specific limitation is noted above, and in all cases to exclude data profiles obtained thru our learning platform, in particular teachers and students, we may share your Data as follows:

  1. At Your Instruction. If you request us to make your Data available to a third party, and such request furthers the purposes of our Services, we will do so.
  2. Sharing with Vendors and Service Providers. In certain cases, we use the services of third-party vendors and service providers to assist us in providing the Services, including sending emails to our members, conducting member surveys, processing transactions or performing statistical analysis of our Services.  We may share your Data with such vendors and service providers solely for that purpose, and we will require those parties to abide by our privacy policies or privacy policies substantially in consonance with ours, including prohibitions from retaining, sharing, storing or using this information for any other purposes.
  3. Third-Party Offers. We do not allow other companies to offer you their products and services, including offers through our Services, co-branded pages hosted by the third parties, or via email. Whether or not you decide to participate in any such offers is up to you. If you purchase a product or service on a co-branded page, or via a third-party offer on our Services that requires you to submit financial and personal information, you are also consenting to our delivery of this information to that party. The offer will notify you if any financial or personally identifiable information will be shared. Such third party will be authorized to use this information in keeping with our contractual relationship with them and in accordance with their own privacy policy and information practices. We do not control these third parties and you agree that we are not liable for their acts, or any failure to act on their part.
  4. Third-Party Advertising. We do not use aggregated, statistical information to describe our membership and to establish advertising and other business relationships with third parties. We will not serve you with targeted advertisements based on your personal or profile information, and we do not provide any of this personal or profile information to an advertiser or any third party with the exception of those uses expressly requested by the client.
  5. Third-Party Ad Servers. We do not allow third-party ad servers or ad networks to display advertisements on the Services and do not allow any third party to place a persistent cookie on your computer or use other similar technologies. Doing this allows them to recognize your computer each time they send you an online advertisement. In this way, ad networks may compile information about where you, or others who are using your computer, saw their advertisements and determine which ads are clicked on. This information allows an ad network to deliver targeted advertisements that they believe will be of most interest to you.
  6. Internet Service Providers. We do not share your Data, such as your email address or name, back to your internet service provider.  
  7. Business Transitions. In the event that we go through a business transition, such as a merger, acquisition, liquidation or sale of all or a portion of our assets, the information we have about you will, in most instances, be part of the assets transferred. We reserve the right to transfer that information in connection with such transactions without notice to you.  We will not obtain your consent for such a transfer.
  8. Legal Disclosure. We may disclose your Information if required to do so by law or in the good faith belief that such action is necessary to conform to applicable law, comply with a judicial proceeding, court order or legal process served on us, protect and defend our rights or property, or investigate, prevent or take action regarding illegal activities, suspected fraud, situations involving potential threats to the physical safety of any person, or violations of our terms of service.
  9. Publicly Disclosed Data. Certain items of Data are always publicly available, such as your username, people who follow your playlists, and the playlists you follow.

If we ever plan to use any Data in the future for any other purposes not identified above and we do not have a separate lawful basis for that processing, we will only do so after obtaining your specific consent. 

Further, we do not sell your Data for any purpose.


TECHNOLOGIES WE USE

The technologies we use for automatic Data collection may include the following:

  • Cookies (or browser cookies).  A cookie is a small file placed on the hard drive of your computer. You may refuse to accept browser cookies by activating the appropriate setting on your browser. However, if you select this setting you may be unable to access certain parts of our Services. Unless you have adjusted your browser setting so that it will refuse cookies, our system will issue cookies when you direct your browser to our Services.
  • Flash Cookies. Certain features of our Services may use local stored objects (or Flash cookies) to collect and store information about your preferences and navigation to, from and on our Services. Flash cookies are not managed by the same browser settings as are used for browser cookies.
  • Web Beacons. Pages of the Services and our emails may contain small electronic files known as web beacons (also referred to as clear gifs. pixel tags and single-pixel gifs) that permit the Company, for example, to count users who have visited those pages or opened an email and for other related website statistics (for example, recording the popularity of certain website content and verifying system and server integrity).
  • Widgets. We may use technologies such as widgets or APIs to display parts of our Services on sites that are operated by our business partners.
  • Other Technologies. We may also use device identifiers, local storage, HTML modifiers, and different types of caching to help us understand the devices and users who access the Services. Those methods include device identifiers that are either hardware-based or software-based, persistent or non-persistent, and which may identify either a device or a software module within a device (such as a web browser).

"Do Not Track" Options

Your web browser(s) may offer a "Do Not Track" option, which allows the individual to signal to operators of websites and web applications and services (including behavioral advertising services) that he or she does not wish such operators to track certain of his or her online activities over time and across different websites. Our Services do not support Do Not Track requests at this time, which means that we may collect information about your online activity both while you are using the Services and after your use of the Services.

YOUR RIGHTS REGARDING OUR USE AND DISCLOSURE OF YOUR DATA

Under applicable data protection, privacy, and other laws, you may have certain rights related to your access and control of your Data. Such rights may include the following:

  1. The right to access, correct, update, or request deletion of your Data.
  2. The right to object to processing or restrict the processing of your Data (Please note that if you exercise this right, it may limit or eliminate our ability to provide you the Services).
  3. The right to request portability of your Data.
  4. The right to opt-out of marketing communications we send you. You can exercise this right by clicking the "Unsubscribe" or "Opt-Out" link found in these communications.
  5. The right to not be subject to a decision based solely on automated processing, including profiling, known as Automatic Decision Making. Please note that we currently do not employ any Automatic Decision-Making processes in providing the Services.
  6. The right to submit a complaint to any applicable regulatory authority about our processing activities.
  7. The right to opt-out of us sharing (as defined in the CPRA) your Data, including for direct marketing purposes, subject to certain legal exceptions.
  8. The right to limit use, disclosure, and restrict sensitive personal information (as defined in the CPRA).

We may use additional processes to verify your identity before we reveal or delete any of your Data, including two-factor or two-step authentication measures to ensure we can identify you.

This list may not include all of your rights under applicable laws. If you believe you have additional rights, please contact us using the methods in this Privacy Policy.

Further, although we currently do not process Data without consent, if we at any time in the future process Data without your express consent, you may opt-out or withdraw consent at any time.

Please note that exercising any of the above rights may limit or eliminate our ability to provide you the Services. If so, we may terminate the Services due to such requests.

We will try to comply with your request(s) as soon as reasonably practicable and at the very least as required under applicable law. Upon receipt of your written request, we will provide you with a copy of your information, although in certain limited circumstances we may not be able to make all relevant information available to you, such as where that information also pertains to another user. In such circumstances we will provide reasons for the denial to you upon request.

Please also note that if you do opt-out of receiving marketing-related emails from us, we may still send you messages for administrative or other purposes directly relating to your use of the Services, and you cannot opt-out from receiving those messages while continuing to use the Services.

Further, you may opt-out or disable certain functions on your particular device, preventing us from collecting Data. For example, you may disable geolocation or GPS functionality on your mobile device or disable push notifications. If you disable such features, your ability to use and access the Services may be limited.

To exercise any of these rights, or if you have any questions about our processing of your Data, please contact us at legal@masterycoding.com or at our toll-free number.

A.  Privacy for EU/UK Residents

The Regulation (EU) 2016/679 (General Data Protection Regulation) made effective in Europe on May 25, 2018 (“GDPR”) requires that we clearly describe to data subjects the data we collect and how we use that data. This Privacy Policy does that and if you have any questions for us regarding our data collection, please contact us at legal@masterycoding.com.We comply with the GDPR requirements to the extent they apply to us.

We are based in the United States. By accessing or using the Services or otherwise providing information to us, you understand that your information will be subject to processing, transfer, and storage in and to the United States.

Due to the nature of our Services, we typically act as a "Controller" as defined under the GDPR. If you believe that this role should be defined differently, please contact us at legal@masterycoding.com.

Pursuant to the GDPR, residents of the EU (and the EEA, as applicable) have the right to obtain our confirmation of whether we maintain personal information relating to them in the United States. If you are a resident of Europe, upon request from you, we will provide you with access to the Data that we hold about you. Please contact us if you have any questions.

Further, if you are a resident of the United Kingdom ("UK"), to the extent the GDPR as incorporated into UK law pursuant to s.3 of the European Union (Withdrawal Act) 2018 (as amended, the "UK GDPR") is different than the GDPR, we will follow all supplemental requirements under the UK GDPR and you have all rights as a UK citizen under the UK GDPR.

B.  Privacy for California Residents

California adopted the California Consumer Privacy Act (“CCPA”), which took effect at the beginning of 2020 and has now adopted the California Privacy Rights Act ("CPRA"), portions of which take effect January 1, 2022. We comply with the requirements of the CCPA and CPRA to the extent they apply to us.  

If you are a California resident, you may request to exercise your rights for any Data we have processed in the 12 months prior to your request. Such request covers any categories, sources, purposes, and, if applicable, third parties to whom we share the Data. Further, you can exercise any of your rights free of discrimination, for example, we cannot increase the price of the Services or decrease the quality of the Services because you exercise your rights.

Due to the nature of our Services, we typically act as a "business" as defined under the CCPA and CPRA. If you believe that this role should be defined differently, please contact us at legal@masterycoding.

For more information, please direct your questions to us at legal@masterycoding.com.

C. Privacy for Other Jurisdictions

We strive to comply with all data protection and privacy laws in applicable jurisdictions, to the extent such laws apply to us and our Services. We strive to be transparent about our data processing activities and have disclosed our practices throughout this Privacy Policy. If you have any questions about your rights under any applicable data protection and privacy laws, please contact us legal@masterycoding.com.

SECURITY

The security of your Data is important to us. We use commercially reasonable efforts to store and maintain your Data in a secure environment. We take technical, contractual, administrative, and physical security steps designed to protect Data that you provide to us. We have implemented procedures designed to limit the dissemination of your Data to only such designated staff as are reasonably necessary to carry out the stated purposes we have communicated to you.

THIRD-PARTY POLICIES

You may be able to access third-party websites and other tools and services or products via a link, or via our other tools. The privacy policies of these third parties are not under our control and may differ from ours. The use of any Data that you may provide to any third parties will be governed by the privacy policy of such third party or by your independent agreement with such third party, as the case may be. If you have any doubts about the privacy of the information you are providing to a third party, we recommend that you contact that third party directly for more information or to review its privacy policy.

This Privacy Policy does not address, and we are not responsible for, the privacy, information or other practices of any third parties, including any third party operating any offering, site or other products and Services used in connection with the Services.  The inclusion of a link does not imply endorsement of the linked site or service by us or by our affiliates.

DATA RETENTION

We will keep your information for as long as it remains necessary for the identified purpose or as required by law, which may extend beyond the termination of our relationship with you. We may retain certain data as necessary to prevent fraud or future abuse, or for legitimate business purposes, such as analysis of De-Identified Data, account recovery, or if required by law. All retained information will remain subject to the terms of this Privacy Policy. Please note that if you request that your information be removed from our databases, it may not be possible to completely delete all of your information due to technological and legal constraints.

AMENDMENT OF THIS PRIVACY POLICY

We reserve the right to change this Privacy Policy at any time. If we decide to change this Privacy Policy in the future, we will post or provide appropriate notice. Unless stated otherwise, our current Privacy Policy applies to all Data that we have about you and your account. The date on which the latest update was made is indicated at the top of this document. We recommend that you print a copy of this Privacy Policy for your reference and revisit this policy from time to time to ensure you are aware of any changes. Your continued use of the Services signifies your acceptance of any changes.

CONTACT US

You can help by keeping us informed of any changes such as a change of your personal contact information. If you would like to access your information, if you have any questions, comments or suggestions of if you find any errors in our information about you, please contact us atlegal@masterycoding.com. If you have a complaint concerning our compliance with applicable privacy laws, we will investigate your complaint and if it is justified, we will take appropriate measures.