Pimsleur Learning Platform Student/Organization Privacy Policy

Updated and Effective Date: October 30, 2023

You use the Pimsleur Language Learning Platform (“Platform”) as authorized and instructed by your school or sponsoring organization. This Privacy Policy applies only to collection of information from teachers, administrators, and/or students through the Platform, which is operated by Pimsleur, an imprint of Simon & Schuster Audio, a division of Simon & Schuster, LLC (collectively, "Pimsleur"), including through any related websites, applications, or other interactive features that post a link to this Privacy Policy, (collectively, the “Platform”). This Privacy Policy also applies to any information Pimsleur collects offline in connection with use of the Platform.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

OVERVIEW

The Platform may be provided to users through agreements we have with a school, learning institution, school district, or state or local board of education (“School”). The Platform may also be provided to users by non-school sponsoring organizations, such as private associations, youth groups, or similar education-driven organizations (“Sponsoring Organization”). The Platform is made available to administrators, teachers, students and others authorized by the Schools or Sponsoring Organizations, who have been provided Codes or Seats (as specified in the School Access Agreement or Organization Access Agreement, and collectively referred to herein as “Tokens”) by the Schools or Sponsoring Organization (or by us at the School’s or Sponsoring Organization’s request). When using the Platform, teachers or administrators may also provide certain information to us about their students who participate in the Platform, such as when redeeming a Token and creating an account on a student’s behalf. We may also disclose information to the Schools or Sponsoring Organizations pursuant to our agreements with the Schools or Sponsoring Organizations. We collect, process, disclose, and store information in order to provide learning services through the Platform and on behalf of Schools or Sponsoring Organizations and only in the ways permitted by the applicable agreement.

We set forth our overall privacy practices below, however please note that we have certain more restrictive privacy practices for users younger than the age of 13, which are set forth under the section titled “Information for Parents of Child Users”. To the extent there is any conflict between our general privacy practices and the section titled for “Information for Parents of Child Users”, the section directed to Children controls.

INFORMATION COLLECTION

We may collect information from you directly, automatically when you visit the Platform, and sometimes from third parties, such as your teacher or administrator. Some of this information may be considered “personal information” or “personal data”, some of which may be considered “sensitive”, under various applicable laws. We consider information that identifies you as a specific, identified individual (such as your name and email address) to be personal information. We will also treat additional information, including IP addresses and cookie identifiers, as “personal information” where required by applicable law. Note that we may de-identify personal information so that it is non-personal, such as aggregating or converting it to a code, sometimes using a function commonly known as “hash”. We maintain and use de-identified data without attempting to re-identify it, except where permitted by applicable law, such as to determine whether our de-identification processes satisfy legal requirements.We will treat de-identified information as non-personal to the fullest extent allowed by applicable law. If we combine non-personal information with personal information, then we will treat the combined information as personal information under this Privacy Policy.

INFORMATION YOU PROVIDE DIRECTLY TO PIMSLEUR

Pimsleur may ask you to provide information to us directly, including personal information, demographic information (e.g., your age, gender, or zip code), or other information relevant to your use of the Platform. When you register for the Platform, we will also ask you to provide a user name and password.

The Platform may provide you the opportunity to participate and post content through interactive features and through other communication functionality. You may choose, through such features or otherwise, to submit or post questions, free-form answers, comments, suggestions or other content (collectively, "Course Content"). Course Content may include photos, videos or voice recordings you choose to post to our Platform or provide to us by granting access to your camera or microphone while using interactive features of our Platform.

When using the Platform, it may be possible for you to purchase additional Pimsleur courses or to try free courses, but note that you are not authorized to do so unless it is in connection with another School course and authorized by your School. If you do decide to make a purchase or try a free course through the Platform, it must be made through an account with a third party (such as Apple or Google), and you must agree to log-in with a separate, personal Pimsleur account in order to use the additional course. Students must only do so using the account of a parent or guardian and with the account holder’s consent. Additional courses entered on your own cannot be associated with your School account and information collected for these additional courses will be governed by our main Privacy Policy.

INFORMATION COLLECTED AUTOMATICALLY

In addition to any personal information that you choose to submit to the Platform, we and our third-party service providers may use a variety of technologies that automatically or passively collect certain information whenever you visit or interact with the Platform ("Usage Information"). Usage Information may include the browser and operating system you are using, all of the areas within our Platform that you visit, the time of day you visited the Platform, and the length of your stay on certain courses or pages, among other information. We may use Usage Information for a variety of operational purposes, including enhancing or otherwise improving the Platform and our products and services. In addition, we automatically collect your IP address or other unique identifier (“Device Identifier”) for any computer, mobile phone or other device you may use to access the Platform. A Device Identifier is a number that is automatically assigned to your device used to access the Platform, and our servers identify your device by its Device Identifier. We may be able to collect or infer your approximate location through information we collect, such as IP address.

The technologies that may be used to collect Usage Information include the following:

Cookies. A cookie is a data file placed on your computer or other device when you visit the Platform or otherwise access our online content. Cookies may be used for many purposes, including, without limitation, remembering you and your preferences and tracking your visits to our web pages. We use both session and persistent cookies (which remains on your computer after the browser has been closed).

You may set up your computer to reject cookies by the privacy settings for your web browser although, in that case, you may not be able to use some of the features on our Platform. For further information on cookies visit www.allaboutcookies.org.

Web Beacons. We may use web beacons (small graphic images or other web programming code, also known as "1x1 GIFs" or "clear GIFs") and similar technologies on our Platform and within our communications to you. Web beacons can recognize certain types of information on your computer such as cookies, the time and date a page is viewed, and a description of the page where the web beacon is placed. Web beacons or similar technologies may be used for a number of purposes, including, without limitation, to count visitors to the Platform, to monitor how users navigate the Platform, to count how many e-mails that were sent were actually opened or links were actually viewed and to improve your experience on the Platform. Our web beacons may collect some contact information (for example, the email address associated with an email message that contains a web beacon).

Embedded Scripts. An embedded script is programming code that is designed to collect information about your interactions with the Platform, such as the links you click on. The code is temporarily downloaded onto your device from our web server or a third party service provider, is active only while you are connected to the Platform, and is deactivated or deleted thereafter.

Local Storage. Local storage allows data about your browser or device to be stored locally on your browser or device and includes HTML5 local storage and browser cache.

SDKs. SDKs (also known as “software development kits”) are blocks of code, typically provided by our partners, that may be installed in our applications. SDKs may help us understand how you interact with our applications and may collect information about the device and network you use to access our applications, such as the advertising ID associated with your device or information about how you interact with our applications.

In addition, we may use a variety of other technologies that collect similar information for security and fraud detection purposes.

INFORMATION WE RECEIVE FROM SCHOOLS AND SPONSORING ORGANIZATIONS

We may receive information about you from Schools or Sponsoring Organizations. For example, the School or Sponsoring Organization may provide us your name and email address to set up an account on your behalf and/or so that we may contact you, such as to send you Tokens. If you want to amend, remove, modify, or access information submitted to the Platform by a School or Sponsoring Organization, please contact your School or Sponsoring Organization.

The information we collect is subject to this Privacy Policy. The information collected and stored by a School or Sponsoring Organization remains subject to the School or Sponsoring Organization’s privacy practices.

HOW WE USE YOUR INFORMATION

Pimsleur may use information it collects, including personal information and Usage Information, as set forth in this Privacy Policy, including, without limitation, to: (1) allow you to participate in the Platform, provide information you have requested, provide services in accordance with our agreements with a School or Sponsoring Organization, or to provide related customer service; (2) process your registration, including verifying information you provide is active and valid; (3) contact you with regard to your use of the Platform or similar administrative communications, including changes to the policies governing the Platform; (4) for internal purposes, such as to improve the Platform or our products and services and to comply with regulatory and legal obligations; and (5) for purposes disclosed at the time you provide your personal information or otherwise with your consent.

HOW WE MAY SHARE THE INFORMATION COLLECTED

Pimsleur may share non-personal information, such as aggregate user statistics, de-identified or hashed information, and Usage Information, with third parties, unless prohibited by applicable law or our agreement with a School or Sponsoring Organization. Pimsleur does not share your personal information with unaffiliated third parties for their own marketing purposes.

We may share the information we have collected about you as described in this Privacy Policy, including:

SCHOOLS AND SPONSORING ORGANIZATIONS: As discussed above, we provide the Platform through agreements with Schools. Accordingly, Schools and Sponsoring Organizations (and those who obtain authorized access from the Schools and Sponsoring Organizations) have access to all of the information we collect via registration and the Platform from users associated with that School or Sponsoring Organization. If directed by your School or Sponsoring Organization, we will share information with their service providers or otherwise on their behalf.

COMPANIES PROVIDING SERVICES ON OUR BEHALF: We may provide service providers with access to user information, including personal information, in order for them to perform certain services on behalf of the Platform or Pimsleur, such as data analytics, sending communications on our or a School or Sponsoring Organization’s behalf, or performing other administrative services.

ADMINISTRATIVE AND LEGAL REASONS: We may transfer and disclose user information, including personal information, to third parties: (i) in the event we are required to respond to subpoenas or other legal process or if in our opinion such disclosure is required by law; (ii) at the request of governmental authorities conducting an investigation; or (iii) to protect and/or defend the Terms of Use or other policies applicable to the Platform or to protect the personal safety, rights, property or security of Pimsleur or any individual. We may also use Device Identifiers, including IP addresses, to identify users, and may do so in cooperation with copyright owners, Internet service providers, wireless service providers or law enforcement agencies in our discretion.

BUSINESS TRANSFERS: We may share personal information and other user information with our affiliated entities, primarily for business and operational purposes. Pimsleur also reserves the right to disclose and transfer all information related to the Platform, including personal information: (i) to a subsequent owner, co-owner or operator of the Platform or one of our databases; or (ii) in connection with a corporate merger, consolidation, restructuring, bankruptcy, the sale of certain of our ownership interests, assets, or both, or other company change, including, without limitation, during the course of any due diligence process.

THIRD-PARTY ANALYTICS SERVICES: We may work with analytics providers to provide us with information regarding the use of our Platform. These third parties may set and access their own tracking technologies on your devices (including cookies and web beacons), and they may otherwise collect or have access to information about you, including Usage Information.

YOUR CHOICES

Pimsleur reserves the right to send you certain communications relating to your account or use of the Platform and you are not able to opt-out of these transactional account messages.

When you access the Platform through our application, we may send push notifications to your device. You may opt-out of receiving these at any time by turning push notifications off in your device settings.

SECURITY

Pimsleur takes commercially reasonable steps to help protect and secure personal information. However, please remember that no data storage or data transmission over the Internet, or by other means, can be guaranteed to be 100% secure. Thus, while we strive to protect your personal data, Pimsleur cannot ensure or warrant the security of any information you transmit to us. Therefore, you understand, acknowledge, and agree that you transmit certain personal information to the Platform at your own risk.

THIRD PARTY LINKS OR CONTENT

The Platform may contain links to other web sites and online content that Pimsleur does not control. For example, you may have the ability to make in-app purchases through an authorized account with a third party (such as Apple or Google). Those transactions are governed by the applicable third party’s policies and your agreements with those third parties.

CONSENT TO TRANSFER OF DATA

We operate the Platform from the United States. If you are located in the European Union, Canada or elsewhere outside the United States, please be aware that information we collect will be transferred to and processed in the United States or other jurisdictions. By using the Platform, or providing us with any information, you fully understand and unambiguously consent to this transfer, processing and storage of your information in the United States and other jurisdictions, where the privacy laws may not be as comprehensive as those in the country where you reside and/or are a citizen.

INFORMATION FOR PARENTS OF CHILDREN

Pimsleur works with Schools who provide Pimsleur consent to collect information from users younger than the age of 13 pursuant to COPPA. Pimsleur does not otherwise knowingly collect information from users younger than the age of 13 through the Platform. If a Sponsoring Organization provides access to the Platform to any users younger than 13, they will obtain appropriate parental or legal guardian consent.

The following terms are applicable to users younger than the age of 13 (“Children” or “Child Users”) who access the Platform, whether through a School or Sponsoring Organization. The Platform only collects personal information from users younger than the age of 13 in connection with a School or Sponsoring Organization Agreement as set forth below. We set forth our general privacy practices above. To the extent there is any conflict between our general privacy practices and this section, this section controls.

Information We Collect from Children

Users register for the Platform using a School or Sponsoring Organization-provided Tokens, and during registration Pimsleur also may ask a Child User to provide their name and e-mail address associated with the Child User’s School or Sponsoring Organization and to create an account with a user-name and password. We and our third-party service providers may also collect certain Usage Information, including the unique student code, IP address or other Device Identifier, session token, online status/presence, basic usage data, and referrer information.

We also collect information regarding the Child User’s interaction with the Platform, such as their registered courses, lesson progress, including where a Child User left off on their courses.

Note that your School or Sponsoring Organization may also provide information about your Child User, such as name, classroom, or teacher.

How Do We Use Information Collected from Child Users?

The Platform may use information collected from Children solely for the purpose that it was provided and for internal purposes, including the following:

To allow the Child User to participate in the Platform and to provide services in accordance with our agreements with a School;

To contact the Child User through push notifications where turned on within the Platform and, in some cases, through the Child User’s School email address if needed to follow up on technical issues with the Platform and/or application;

To protect the security or integrity of the Platform; take precautions against liability; respond to judicial process; or provide information to law enforcement agencies or for an investigation on a matter related to public safety;

For internal purposes, such as to improve the Platform or our products and services and to comply with regulatory and legal obligations.

When We Disclose Information Collected from Child Users

SCHOOLS AND SPONSORING ORGANIZATIONS: As discussed above, we provide the Platform to Children only through agreements with Schools or Sponsoring Organizations and on behalf of those Schools or Sponsoring Organizations. Accordingly, Schools or Sponsoring Organizations (and those who obtain authorized access from the Schools) have access to all of the information we collect via registration and the Platform from Child Users associated with that School or Sponsoring Organization.

SERVICE PROVIDERS: We may share information with service providers who provide support for the internal operations of the Platform and who do not disclose or use the personal information for any other purpose. These service providers provide support services, such as hosting the Platform and operating its features, or performing other administrative services. Pimsleur may provide these companies with access to so that they can perform services on our behalf. Pimsleur takes reasonable steps to release personal information collected from Children only to service providers and third parties who are capable of and have agreed to maintain the confidentiality and security of that information.

ADMINISTRATIVE AND LEGAL REASONS: We may disclose personal information about Children to third parties when necessary to protect the security or integrity of the Platform; take precautions against liability; respond to judicial process; or provide information to law enforcement agencies or for an investigation on a matter related to public safety.

How Pimsleur Protects Information Collected from Child Users

We take commercially reasonable measures to help protect and secure personal information in compliance with applicable laws and regulations and in accordance with our agreements with Schools or Sponsoring Organizations.

Rights Parents Have With Regard to Information Collected About Child Users

Parents have the right to review personal information collected about a Child User, to request that deletion of personal information collected and retained about a Child User, and to request that the Platform make no further collection of personal information from a Child User. Please contact your Child’s School or Sponsoring Organization to make any of these requests.

Simon & Schuster, LLC is the operator of this Platform and questions regarding this Privacy Policy and the collection or use of personal information from Children should be directed to:

Simon & Schuster, LLC
ATTN: School Data Privacy Administrator/Legal Department
1230 Avenue of the Americas, 17th Floor,
New York, NY, USA 10020-8510. Telephone number: 212-698-7000
Email address: schoolprivacyadministrator@simonandschuster.com

CHANGES TO OUR POLICY

To the extent allowed by applicable law and our agreement with your School or Sponsoring Organization, Pimsleur may update this Privacy Policy at any time. Any changes will be effective upon posting, unless otherwise indicated. Your continued use of the Platform after the effective date of the revised Privacy Policy (or other act as specified in the revised Privacy Policy) will constitute your consent to those changes to the fullest extent allowed by applicable law. In the event that there are material changes to the way we treat your personal information, we will provide notice through the Platform and may also notify you in other ways, such as by email, in our discretion. However, we will not make material changes to how we treat previously collected personal information without first giving you the chance to consent (opt-in or opt-out consent for adults and prior parental or legal guardian consent for Children), if required by law. Note, however, that you may need to consent to our new Privacy Policy in order to continue to use the Platform.

DATA SUBJECT RIGHTS FOR CALIFORNIA AND OTHER VISITORS

Pimsleur primarily collects personal information from Platform users as a service provider on behalf of and only in the ways permitted by the applicable agreement with Schools or Sponsoring Organizations. Pimsleur does not sell information collected through the Platform.

If you use the Platform through an agreement with a School or Sponsoring Organization and would like to submit a data privacy request under the laws of California, Virginia, Canada, or as otherwise available under applicable laws in your place of residence, please direct your request to your School or Sponsoring Organization administrator.

If you have any questions, you may contact schoolprivacyadministrator@simonandschuster.com.

If you are a parent or legal guardian who has purchased access to the Platform directly, please see our Pimsleur Privacy Policy available at: /privacy-policy/, for rights you may have and how to exercise those rights.

CONTACT INFORMATION

If you have questions or comments about this Privacy Policy or our practices you may contact us by e-mail at schoolprivacyadministrator@simonandschuster.com.

You may also contact the school data privacy administrator at:
Simon & Schuster, LLC
ATTN: School Data Privacy Administrator/Legal Department
1230 Avenue of the Americas, 17th Floor
New York, NY, USA 10020-8510