Terms & Policies

– Terms of Use

– Privacy Policy

– Cookie Policy

Terms of Use

Last Updated: December 18, 2023.

I. Introduction

Terms of Use

For prior versions, please click here.

I. Introduction

These Terms of Use form an agreement (“Agreement”) between you and the Buck Institute for Education doing business as PBLWorks (hereinafter, “PBLWorks”, “us”, “we”, or “our”), and it outlines important terms that you will agree to as a result of your using websites located at: pblworks.org and/or my.pblworks.org via your computer or mobile device, including any PBLWorks mobile application (hereinafter collectively referred to in the singular as “the Site”).

When you visit our Site or create an account to access PBLWorks.org (“PBLWorks”), you will have access to certain resources and services, including, but not limited to, the creation of educational projects or plans using PBLWorks supplied modules or content, access to online educational sessions, the option to participate in online interactions, share educational projects or educational plans with a community of users, and in some instances, obtain educational credit (hereinafter, collectively the “Services”).

In addition to your agreement to be bound by this Agreement, you also agree to be bound by PBLWorks’s corresponding Privacy Policy and Cookie Policy, the terms of which are incorporated by reference.

Please read the rules contained in this Agreement carefully. By visiting the Site, and/or downloading, using or registering to use our Services, you agree to comply with these rules.

II. Changes to the Agreement

We will make changes to this Agreement from time to time. Any material changes will take effect immediately for new users and upon the expiration of thirty days after notification for current users. Any use of the Site, resources or Services after the 30-day notice period constitutes your acceptance of any change. Unless explicitly stated otherwise, any new features that augment the current Services, including the release of new Services, shall be subject to this Agreement.

III. Account Registration and Fees

1. User Accounts

The Site allows for the creation of accounts (known as “User Accounts”). The creation of a User Account will allow you to access different services and features on the Site. Access to some services and features require payment of an annual subscription fee, which is non-refundable.

1. Personal Information Provided

In order to create a User Account, you must provide certain Personal Information as defined in the Privacy Policy portion of this Agreement. All Personal Information will be subject to the terms of our Privacy Policy.

You agree and represent that all Personal Information provided by you at the time of registration is accurate and up-to-date. You may not impersonate, imitate or pretend to be somebody else when registering and/or setting up a User Account. If you provide any Personal Information that is untrue or inaccurate, not current, or incomplete, or if PBLWorks suspects that your Personal Information is untrue, inaccurate, or incomplete, then PBLWorks may, in its sole discretion, suspend, terminate, or refuse future access to the Services or your User Account.

If any of your User Account information changes or if you have reason to believe that your User Account is no longer secure, you must update your account by using the appropriate update mechanism on the Site, if available. PBLWorks is not responsible for any unauthorized use of your User Account. If you believe there has been unauthorized use of your User Account, you must notify PBLWorks immediately. You are responsible and liable for any conduct on the Site under your User Account.

Only the individual assigned to the User Account is permitted to use the password protected Services within PBLWorks. If you loan or disclose your user name and password or otherwise knowingly or unknowingly allow unauthorized access to the Services we reserve the right to terminate access to the Services or your User Account.

1. Inactive Accounts

Upon non-payment of subscription fees when due, your User Account will be downgraded to an account that does not have access to any of the paid portions of the Site or Services.

In the event that a user fails to renew its annual subscription payment and the User Account is downgraded, PBLWorks will preserve the User Generated Content associated with that User Account for either a commercially reasonable time or a period of three years (at its option) during which time the user will be able to access the content for review and download. There is no guarantee that PBLWorks owned content will remain the same or will be preserved as the PBLWorks content appeared at the time that an account has been downgraded.

IV. Intellectual Property Ownership

PBLWorks owns, or is the licensee to, all right, title and interest in and to the Site and all PBLWorks created materials and PBLWorks created content associated with the Services or its products such as PBLWorks Project Forms and Rubrics ("Materials"), including all rights under patent, copyright, trade secret, trademark, or unfair competition law, and any and all other proprietary rights, including all applications, renewals, extensions and restorations thereof.

The trademarks appearing on the Site are owned by PBLWorks or are trademarks of their respective owners and our reference to them does not imply or indicate any approval or endorsement by their owners unless such approval or endorsement by their owners is expressly made.

By accessing the Materials, utilizing the Services or visiting the Site you agree that you will not violate any of PBLWorks’s intellectual property rights. You will not distribute, film, record (including through the use of transcription applications or artificial intelligence tools), circulate, copy, cause to be copied, or otherwise replicate the Materials for use other than within the Services or Site, or as otherwise set forth herein. You will not create any works that incorporate the Materials except as expressly permitted in Section V of this Agreement or as outlined on the Site. You may use the Materials only for your own personal, non-commercial use. You acknowledge that you do not acquire any ownership rights by downloading the Materials.

You will not copy, modify, adapt, translate, publish, reproduce, decompile, reverse-engineer, disassemble or otherwise attempt to derive source code from the Site and you will not remove, obscure, or alter PBLWorks’s copyright notice or any copyright notice fixed by a third party content owner, trademarks or other proprietary rights notices that may be affixed to or contained within the Site.

1. Third Party Video Content

While much of the video content on the Site is created and owned by PBLWorks, some third party video content is used and displayed on the Site under license to PBLWorks. If you see a video on our site, don’t assume that our limited license to you as outlined in Section VI will apply. To the extent possible, all third party content has been identified as such.

1. Creative Commons Licenses

Select material on the Site is designated with a specific Creative Commons License and you may use that material as provided in the applicable Creative Commons License. Learn more about the different types of licenses, license deeds and license code by visiting http://creativecommons.org/licenses/. For any work not designated as free to use under a creative commons license, contact PBLWorks as outlined in Section XXI to seek written permission to use such works.

V. PBLWorks Project Forms and Rubrics and User Generated Content

As part of the Services, PBLWorks will provide the user with access to various type of content, including but not limited to, projects, project forms, strategy guides, modules, rubrics, student handouts and/or online product planners created and owned by PBLWorks (“PBLWorks Project Forms and Rubrics”). Subject to the terms of Section IV, users may download and use these PBLWorks Project Forms and Rubrics “as is” for their own personal use OR users may: (i) create certain desired changes to tailor his or her own project to his or her own needs using PBLWorks’s Project Forms and Rubrics; or (ii) create their own projects using the Project Forms and Rubrics as only a guide for their own personal use.

1. User Generated Content

The PBLWorks Project Forms and Rubrics contain blanks or spaces that a user can “fill in” with their own content. The content that a user “fills in” or otherwise adds to the PBLWorks Project Forms and Rubrics shall be considered “User Generated Content.” PBLWorks will not claim ownership to such User Generated Content.

You represent and warrant that you own or have a license, right or other type of permission to use and exploit such User Generated Content in all manner contemplated herein. You agree to indemnify and hold PBLWorks, and its affiliates and assigns harmless from any demands, loss, liability, claims or expenses, and attorney’s fees made against us by any third party arising out of or in connection with your User Generated Content.

1. Permitted Uses of User Projects

Once a user creates a project, he or she may either: (i) save and use these projects within PBLWorks; (ii) share their projects or plans saved within PBLWorks with other users; or (iii) download his or her own project to their own personal computers or other desired location for his or her own personal use.

• Sharing Projects Within PBLWorks

PBLWorks encourages users to create and share their projects and to engage with the community of other users of its Services. Users will also be allowed to display, transmit and/or exchange information, ideas, opinions, photographs, images, video, creative works or other information, messages, transmissions or material with each other within PBLWorks.org and with PBLWorks about the shared projects or plans.

• Downloading Projects and BIE Project Forms and Rubrics

PBLWorks allows users to download the projects that he or she creates onto his or her own computer or other similar location for their own personal use. If the downloaded projects include PBLWorks Project Forms and Rubrics or if the user’s projects were created using the PBLWorks Project Forms and Rubrics as a guide, the user may NOT sell or otherwise use the downloaded project for any commercial purpose.

VI. Grant of Limited Licenses

Subject to your compliance with this Agreement, including the terms of Section IV, PBLWorks grants you a non-exclusive, non-transferrable, royalty-free, revocable, world-wide limited license, subject to certain limitations outlined herein, to use the Materials and to access and use the Site and Services using a Web browser.

The user hereby grants to PBLWorks, a non-exclusive, royalty-free, irrevocable, world-wide license in and to your User Generated Content. Such license of your User Generated Content will allow PBLWorks to use, reproduce, transmit, copy, exhibit, display, print, publish, and otherwise use the User Generated Content.

VII. Site Availability and Updates

While PBLWorks strives to ensure that the Site and the Services are available as close to 99% of the time as possible, it cannot guarantee that the Site and the Services will be available for use at any given time.

PBLWorks acknowledges that it may need to perform maintenance activities for the Site and the Services as may be necessary or appropriate from time to time, including bug fixes, software updates, feature updates, and the addition of new PBLWorks forms, modules, and rubrics. In most instances, there will be no interruption to the functionality of the Site or Services.

If PBLWorks reasonably determines that maintenance activities will require an unavailability or outage of the Services or the Site for an excess of 3 consecutive business days, PBLWorks will provide a notice of scheduled downtime on the Site at least one week before the scheduled outage.

PBLWorks will use commercially reasonable efforts to perform routine scheduled maintenance during non-business hours. In the event that the Site or the Services are unavailable due to technical reasons, force majeure, or for scheduled maintenance or downtime, PBLWorks shall use commercially reasonable efforts to ensure that such downtime will be as minimal as possible.

VIII. DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY AND LIMITATION OF LIABILITY

YOU ACKNOWLEDGE THAT YOU ARE USING THE SITE AND SERVICES AT YOUR OWN RISK. THE SITE AND SERVICES ARE PROVIDED "AS IS", PBLWORKS AND ITS AFFILIATES AND ASSIGNS HEREBY EXPRESSLY DISCLAIM ANY AND ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS AND IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO ANY WARRANTIES OF ACCURACY, RELIABILITY, TITLE, MERCHANTABILITY, NON-INFRINGEMENT, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE OR ANY OTHER WARRANTY, CONDITION, GUARANTEE OR REPRESENTATION, WHETHER ORAL, IN WRITING, OR IN ELECTRONIC FORM, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE ACCURACY OR COMPLETENESS OF ANY INFORMATION CONTAINED THEREIN OR PROVIDED BY THE SITE OR SERVICES. SUBJECT TO SECTION VII ABOVE, PBLWORKS AND ITS AFFILIATES AND ASSIGNS DO NOT REPRESENT OR WARRANT THAT ACCESS TO THE SITE OR SERVICES WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED OR THAT THERE WILL BE NO FAILURES, ERRORS OR OMISSIONS OR LOSS OF TRANSMITTED INFORMATION, OR THAT NO VIRUSES WILL BE TRANSMITTED VIA THE SITE OR SERVICES. PBLWORKS ITS AFFILIATES AND ASSIGNS SHALL NOT BE LIABLE TO YOU OR ANY THIRD PARTIES FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES ALLEGEDLY SUSTAINED ARISING OUT OF THIS AGREEMENT, THE PROVISION OF THE SERVICES VIA THE SITE OR OTHERWISE, THE SALE OR PURCHASE OF ANY GOODS OR MERCHANDISE, YOUR ACCESS TO OR INABILITY TO ACCESS THE SITE OR SERVICES, INCLUDING FOR VIRUSES ALLEGED TO HAVE BEEN OBTAINED FROM THE SITE OR SERVICES, YOUR USE OF OR RELIANCE ON THE SITE OR ANY OF THE SERVICES, MERCHANDISE, INFORMATION OR MATERIALS AVAILABLE ON THE SITE, REGARDLESS OF THE TYPE OF CLAIM OR THE NATURE OF THE CAUSE OF ACTION, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. SOME STATES DO NOT ALLOW THE EXCLUSION OF IMPLIED WARRANTIES OR THE LIMITATION OR EXCLUSION OF LIABILITY FOR INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES, SO THE ABOVE EXCLUSIONS OR LIMITATIONS MAY NOT APPLY TO YOU. YOU MAY ALSO HAVE OTHER RIGHTS THAT VARY FROM STATE TO STATE. YOU HEREBY AGREE TO RELEASE PBLWORKS ITS AFFILIATES AND ASSIGNS FROM CLAIMS, DEMANDS AND DAMAGES (ACTUAL AND CONSEQUENTIAL) OF EVERY KIND AND NATURE, KNOWN AND UNKNOWN, SUSPECTED AND UNSUSPECTED, DISCLOSED AND UNDISCLOSED (COLLECTIVELY, "CLAIMS"), ARISING OUT OF OR IN ANY WAY CONNECTED WITH YOUR USE OF THE SITE OR THE SERVICES.

IX. INDEMNIFICATION

YOU WILL INDEMNIFY AND HOLD HARMLESS PBLWORKS, ITS AFFILIATES AND ASSIGNS, SUBSIDIARIES, OFFICERS, DIRECTORS, SHAREHOLDERS, AGENTS AND EMPLOYEES, FROM ANY CLAIM MADE BY ANY THIRD PARTY DUE TO OR ARISING DIRECTLY OR INDIRECTLY OUT OF YOUR CONDUCT OR IN CONNECTION WITH YOUR USE OF THIS SITE AND SERVICES, ANY ALLEGED VIOLATION OF THIS AGREEMENT, AND ANY ALLEGED VIOLATION OF ANY APPLICABLE LAW OR REGULATION. PBLWORKS RESERVES THE RIGHT, AT ITS OWN EXPENSE, TO ASSUME THE EXCLUSIVE DEFENSE AND CONTROL OF ANY MATTER SUBJECT TO INDEMNIFICATION BY YOU, BUT DOING SO WILL NOT EXCUSE YOUR INDEMNITY OBLIGATIONS.

X. Rules of Usage

You may not provide to or post any User Generated Content on or through the Site any graphics, text, photographs, images, video, audio or other material that constitutes junk mail, spam, advertising, and/or commercial offers. You may not repeat the same posting multiple times in a day or week. You agree not to use any obscene, indecent, or offensive language or to provide to or post on or through the Site any graphics, text, photographs, images, video, audio or other material that is defamatory, abusive, bullying, harassing, racist, hateful, or violent.

You may not provide to or post any User Generated Content on or through the Site any graphics, text, photographs, images, video, audio or other material that is encrypted, invades anyone’s privacy, or illustrates, references or encourages conduct that would constitute a criminal offense, give rise to civil liability, or that otherwise violates any local, state, federal, national or international law or regulation (e.g., drug use, solicitation of sex).

User Generated Content does not reflect the views of PBLWorks. PBLWorks does not have any obligation whatsoever to monitor, edit, or review any User Generated Content on the Site. PBLWorks will fully cooperate with any law enforcement authorities or court order requesting or directing it to disclose the identity of anyone posting any such information or materials.

XI. Use by Minors and Children Under 13 Prohibited

The Site and the Services are directed to adults. They are not directed to minors or children under the age of 13. We comply with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act and do not permit registration by and will not knowingly collect personally identifiable information from anyone under 13. This requirement will be posted wherever we collect data within the Site, such as during the registration process.

XII. FERPA

PBLWorks complies with the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 (FERPA), which is a federal law that protects the privacy of student education records. While users are free to upload student programs or projects as part of their own User Generated Content, it is solely the user’s responsibility to ensure that there is no personally identifiable information about any student contained therein.

IN THE EVENT THAT YOU UPLOAD ANY STUDENT PROGRAMS, WORK SAMPLES, IMAGES, PROJECT MATERIALS OR PROJECTS, YOU AGREE TO INDEMNIFY AND HOLD HARMLESS PBLWorks, AS WELL AS ITS AFFILIATES AND ASSIGNS, FROM ANY CLAIM ARISING OUT OF THE UPLOADING OF ANY STUDENT PROGRAMS, WORK SAMPLES, IMAGES, PROJECT MATERIALS OR PROJECTS.

In the event that there is personal information about a student included as part of any User Generated Content, PBLWorks reserves the right to remove the content immediately and without notice to the user.

In the event that you notice the inclusion of any personal information that you believe may be that of a student under the age of 18 and in violation of FERPA, we ask that you notify PBLWorks by sending a description of where the personal information is located on the site to the email provided in Section XXI below.

XIII. Third Party Web sites

As part of the offered Services, you will be able to access third party sites, which provide their own services and content. We do not control those third-party services and content.  We encourage you to carefully review the terms and conditions of use of any such third party sites or applications.

In particular, PBLWorks uses Google’s Application Programming Interface (API) services to enable a feature that allows users to access and copy certain folders and files from certain authorized materials in the PBLW Google Drive cloud storage.  This “Folder Copy” tool and PBLWorks' use of and transfer to any other app of user information received from Google APIs will adhere to the Google API Service User Data Policy, including the Limited Use Requirements.

PBLWorks' policies and procedures define requirements that prohibit the unauthorized use of data within our services. We are committed to maintaining the security and privacy of your user data. We encourage users to reference our Privacy Policy for information on our privacy policies regarding the use of PBLWorks Services and any third party materials or services.

XIV. Purchases

You may also elect to purchase items from third party Web sites accessed through the Site. At no time does PBLWorks act as an agent for such a sale. PBLWorks does not and will not process or retain any of your credit card information associated with any purchase from a third party site. Transactions for the sales of any such item shall be between the user and the third party seller, distributor, or manufacturer without any involvement of PBLWorks or its third party service providers. You agree that PBLWorks is not responsible, and shall have no liability to you, with respect to merchandise or products, featured or mentioned on third party sites. PBLWorks does not warrant any of the merchandise or products featured or mentioned on third party sites.

XV. Coursework with Universities or other Academic Institutions

While the coursework of any courses you are enrolled in will be available through the Site, the terms and conditions of any academic credit offered are governed by a separate third-party university and all terms of use associated with the website for that particular university or other academic institution, as well as all intellectual property ownership rules and guidelines for that university or other academic institution shall apply.

XVI. Notice of Infringement Claims

PBLWorks respects the intellectual property of others, and we ask our users to do the same. PBLWorks has designated an agent to receive Notices of Infringement with the U.S. Copyright Office in conformity with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (“DMCA”). That agent’s contact information is reproduced below. If you believe that your intellectual property has been copied in a way that constitutes copyright infringement, or that your trademarks or other intellectual property rights have been otherwise violated, please contact PBLWorks as outlined below with the following information in a written notice in writing or electronically:

1. A description of the copyrighted work or other intellectual property that you claim has been infringed;
2. A description of where the material that you claim is infringing is located on the Site, with enough detail that we may find it on the Site;
3. Your address, telephone number and e-mail address;
4. A statement by you that you have a good faith belief that the disputed use is not authorized by the copyright or intellectual property owner, its agent, or the law;
5. A statement by you under penalty of perjury that the information in your notice is accurate and that you are the copyright or intellectual property owner or are authorized to act on the copyright or intellectual property owner's behalf;
6. An electronic or physical signature of the person authorized to act on behalf of the owner of the copyright or other intellectual property interest.

Please note that, because of security concerns, attachments cannot be accepted. Accordingly, any notification of infringement submitted electronically with an attachment will not be received or processed.

Please direct the information to:

Buck Institute for Education
Attn: Privacy Policy
3 Hamilton Landing
Suite 220
Novato, CA 94949
Email: [email protected]

XVII. Suspension of Access to the Site

PBLWorks has the right to terminate and/or suspend your ability to access the Site and the Services for any or no reason, without notice.

XVIII. Arbitration

You agree to arbitrate all Disputes between you and PBLWorks, its affiliates and assigns, except disputes relating to PBLWorks’s intellectual property rights. The term “Disputes” means any action or other controversy between you and PBLWorks concerning the Site, the Services or this Agreement, whether in contract, tort, warranty, statute or regulation, or other legal or equitable basis.

In the event of a Dispute, you much send written notice detailing the Dispute to PBLWorks at the address specified in Section XXI to determine whether the Dispute can be resolved immediately. If the Dispute cannot be resolved, you and PBLWorks shall settle the Dispute by binding arbitration before a neutral arbitrator in San Francisco, California whose decision will be binding except for a limited right of appeal under the U.S. Federal Arbitration Act. Arbitration will be administered by the American Arbitration Association under its Commercial Arbitration Rules and its Supplementary Procedures for Consumer Related Disputes. Each party shall bear its own costs.

XIX. Severability

If any provision of this Agreement shall be unlawful, void, or for any reason unenforceable, then that provision shall be deemed severable from these terms and shall not affect the validity and enforceability of any remaining provisions.

XX. Waiver

No waiver of any provision of these terms by us shall be deemed a further or continuing waiver of such provision or any other provision, and our failure to assert any right or provisions under these terms shall not constitute a waiver of such right or provision.

XXI. Contact BIE

Please direct any inquiries or complaints as outlined in this Agreement to the below address:

Buck Institute for Education
Attn: Privacy Policy
3 Hamilton Landing
Suite 220
Novato, CA 94949
Email: [email protected]

If you do not agree to the above terms and conditions, you are forbidden from utilizing the Site or registering for the Services.

Privacy Policy

Last Updated: March 24, 2023.

I. INTRODUCTION

The Buck Institute for Education, doing business as PBLWorks (collectively “PBLWorks“, “we”, “us” or “our”) offers products, services, tools, and research designed to build the capacity of K-12 teachers to design and facilitate quality Project Based Learning (“products and services”). We deliver our products and services, in part, by gathering information about our customers and how they use our offerings so that we can better understand more about you and your Project Based Learning needs. 

When you interact with us, you trust us with your Personal Data. We want to keep that trust by being transparent about our privacy practices - including how and why we collect, use, store and share your Personal Data. We also want you to understand the choices you have for your Personal Data under various privacy regulations around the world. 

To make this Privacy Notice easier to understand, we have provided a summary to the left-hand side of each section.  We also encourage you to contact us (see “How to Contact Us” below) if you have any questions or concerns.

II. SCOPE OF THIS PRIVACY NOTICE

This Privacy Notice applies to Individuals, anywhere in the world, who interact with us or who use PBLWorks products or services.

PBL Works is a California-based organization that has endeavored to reflect our local governing laws as well as global privacy and information practices.  We apply these to policies, procedures and to your interactions with our websites, physical facilities and our products and services. Please remember that our Terms of Use may also govern your use of our products and services.

PBLWorks may process the Personal Data of customers, partners, vendors, employees, applicants, visitors, or other individuals who are affiliated or seeking an affiliation with PBLWorks (“Individuals”). This Privacy Notice applies to these Individuals regardless of their geographic location during their interactions with PBLWorks.

III. YOUR RIGHTS AND PREFERENCES

PBLWorks allows you to exercise your privacy rights and manage how we use your information.

PBLWorks supports Project Based Learning products and services to individuals in many different countries from its base of operations in the State of California in the United States.  As such, while we comply with our local governing law, we have adopted a global view on privacy with the intent of providing our customers with strong privacy rights regardless of where they may reside or interact with us. We have attempted to recognize and implement high standards for privacy rights compliance and our use of terminology in this Privacy Notice should be interpreted to reflect that intent. 

Our Privacy Notice sets out the privacy principles and procedures we adhere to globally, but other laws may apply to you based on the country or region in which you are located or from which you are interacting with PBLWorks.  You should consult your local data privacy laws for any additional privacy terms that may be relevant to your specific country or region. Privacy and data laws in different countries and regions around the world give individuals certain rights in relation to their Personal Data. We conduct our privacy practices according to this Privacy Notice and the relevant laws of the countries or regions in which we interact with you. 

PBLWorks encourages you to Contact Us to learn more about your privacy rights and how we collect and use your Personal Data.

PBLWorks United States (US) – California Privacy Considerations

In addition to the terms of our global Privacy Notice, the following additional privacy and data protection measures (“California Privacy Terms”) apply to the processing by PBLWorks of Personal Information related to some categories of individuals and households located in the State of California.

We include this additional information to comply with the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 (“CCPA”) and any terms defined in the CCPA have the same meaning when used in this section.  These California Privacy Terms do not apply to personal information that is exempt from the CCPA.

Collection, Use, and Disclosure of California Personal Information: 

During the 12 months leading up to the effective date of this Privacy Notice, PBLWorks collected the information described below from and about California residents. Please see that section for more detail, but this information generally falls into the categories listed in the chart below, to the extent it is personally identifiable. The chart below also indicates the categories of third parties to whom we disclosed the data during the 12 months leading up to the effective date of this Privacy Notice.

During the 12 months leading up to the effective date of this Privacy Notice, PBLWorks has not sold Personal Information.

CCPA Right to Access or Delete Personal Information:

If you are a California resident, California law also may permit you to request that we:

• Provide you the categories of personal information we have collected or disclosed about you in the last twelve months; the categories of sources of such information; the business or commercial purpose for collecting or selling your personal information; and the categories of third parties with whom we shared personal information.
• Provide access to and/or a copy of certain information we hold about you.
• Delete certain information we have about you.

Certain information is exempt from such requests under applicable law.

To request to exercise any of these rights and receive the fastest response, please email us at [email protected].  For security and legal reasons, PBLWorks will not accept requests that require us to access third-party websites or services. We reserve the right to take steps verify your identity to our satisfaction before responding to your request, which may include, depending the type of request you are making, the sensitivity of any data you are requesting, and the nature of your relationship with us: verifying your name, asking you to click on a link that we send to your email address, requesting that you login to an account you maintain with us, or requesting that you provide us with information about our relationship that only you are likely to have.

You also have certain rights under the CCPA not to be subject to certain negative consequences for exercising CCPA rights.

Requests Made by Agents:

If you are an agent making a request on behalf of a consumer, we reserve the right to take steps to verify that you are authorized to make that request, which may include requiring you to provide us with written proof such as a notarized authentication letter or a power of attorney.  We also may require the consumer to verify their identity directly with us.  

Because opt-out requests for sales made through cookies and related technology must be performed from each browser that is used to access our products and services, it is easiest for the consumer to perform such opt-outs themselves.  However, if a consumer wishes for an agent to perform browser-based requests on their behalf, the consumer may arrange for the agent to use the consumer’s browser to make such requests.  We are not responsible for the security risks of this or any other arrangements that a consumer may have with an agent.  For clarity, this is not permission for any user to share their login credentials with an agent or any third party.  Such sharing is prohibited and is not required for an agent to make requests under our Privacy Notice.

Contacting Us with your Privacy Concerns:
Email is the fastest and most-preferred way to reach us with your data management or privacy related questions and concerns. You may contact us as indicated in Section 12 below.  

III. TYPES OF INFORMATION WE COLLECT

We collect information that relates to you and your interactions with PBLWorks.

A. Personal Data You Provide.

When you interact with us, we may collect information that can be used to identify you (“Personal Data”), such as: 

• Your first and last name
• Email address
• Physical address
• Zip code
• Phone number
• Password
• User ID
• State of employment
• Name of school district 
• School district location (city and state)
• Grade level
• Academic subject area
• Geographic location 
• Demographic information provided by you at your option (such as language preference, gender, and age, and, if applicable, content preferences and personalization information, including, but not limited to a profile picture. 
• Providing us with some Personal Data may be required in order for you to interact with us or to use our products and services.
• You may be invited to provide additional Personal Data to personalize your interactions with us and your use of our products and services.
• If you work at PBLWorks or are applying to work at PBLWorks, Personal Data will be required in order for you to apply for, be considered for and maintain employment with PBLWorks. Our employment application process, employment policies and practices, Employment Privacy Notice, and Employee Handbook provide additional information regarding our privacy practices for employment matters.

B. Personal Data from Third Parties.

• If you interact with PBLWorks through a third party, we may receive Personal Data from that third party when you have consented for them to share it with us.
• We may use third party services to supplement, validate or increase the accuracy of Personal Data that you give to PBLWorks.
• The Personal Data that you share with third parties is not controlled by PBLWorks or covered by our privacy practices. We encourage you to review third party policies and privacy settings so that you understand how the Personal Data you share with them may be used or shared with others.

C. Automatic Functional Information. We may automatically collect some usage information when you interact with us. For instance, we use cookies and other tracking technologies to automatically collect technical information, such as URL, cookie data, IP address, device type, unique device IDs, device attributes, network connection type (e.g. WiFi, 3G, LTE, Bluetooth) and provider, network and device performance, browser type, language, operating system, and products and services information.

D. Derived Information. PBLWorks may use information we have about you to draw inferences and we may then use those inferences to gain a more complete understanding of your preferences. We use preference data in order to offer you potential choices, make recommendations, or to alert you to products or services that may be of interest to you.

E. Children’s Information. PBLWorks sites and services are directed to adults, not children.  We comply with children’s privacy laws including the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act, and do not permit registration by and will not knowingly collect Personal Data from anyone under the age of 16. This requirement will be posted wherever we collect data, such as during the registration process.

In the event that any Personal Data about any student is uploaded or input into the site or is used in connection with the products and services, we will immediately remove any such information and to the extent possible, delete it from our servers.  We reserve the right to create a hard copy of any such information, as may be necessary. 

IV. HOW WE USE YOUR INFORMATION

We use your Personal Data to develop and provide our products and services to you, and to personalize, improve and promote our interactions with you.

We do not sell or share your Personal Data with third parties for their commercial use without your consent.

We will only process your Personal Data as permitted by applicable law and our policies. 

Unless we specifically disclose otherwise, you understand that we may use any of your collected Personal Data for any of the purposes described in this Notice (as permitted by applicable law), including:

A. For Account Registration and Servicing.

• We may use your Personal Data to create, maintain, supplement, service, change or delete your account with us.
• If you have a customer account with us, we may collect certain Personal Data for security purposes in order to verify your authorized access to your accounts with us.
• We may use your Personal Data to resolve customer service questions you may have about our products and services and to follow up with you about your experience.

B. To Communicate with You.
We may use your Personal Data to communicate with you about our products and services and to share offers for third party products and services that we think you may find useful.

C. To Improve and Develop New Products and Services.

• We may use your Personal Data to personalize your interactions and experiences with us.
• We may use your Personal Data to improve the quality of and to develop new products and services.
• We may use any information you give to us in surveys or other forms of feedback.
• We may combine your information with that from other customers in order to better understand our products and services and how we may improve them.

D. To Provide Our Products and Services and Operate Our Business.

• We may use your information to operate our business, including fulfilling your requests, providing you with technical or customer support, and to help us protect our products and services, including to combat fraud and protect your information.
• We may conduct research using your information alone or in combination with that of other customers. When we share that research outside of PBLWorks for research, academic, marketing and/or promotional purposes, we do so in an aggregated or deidentified way such that no individual person or household is identifiable.

E. No Sale of Your Information.

• PBLWorks does not sell and has not within the past 12 months sold the Personal Data we collect, process or store about Individuals.
• We also do not permit our authorized third party partners to sell the Personal Data we collect, process, store or share about Individuals.

V. HOW WE SHARE YOUR INFORMATION

We will only share your information as we have described in this Privacy Notice, and in specific circumstances. 
This sharing does not include selling, renting, using or otherwise disclosing your information for commercial purposes.

A. Third Party Service Providers. We may share your information, including Personal Data, with third party service providers who we contract with to help us provide our products and services and operate our business, including fulfilling your requests, providing you with technical or customer support, and helping us protect our products and services, including to combat fraud and protect your information. These third parties are required to maintain the confidentiality of information we provide to them, only act on our behalf and under our instructions, and only use the information for purposes of the product or service they are providing to PBLWorks.

B. Information Sharing Between PBLWorks Entities. This Privacy Notice applies to all of your interactions with PBLWorks regardless of geography, meaning that your information is shared with and among our affiliated entities. Except where prohibited by law, regulation, or a contractual obligation, we share your information across PBLWorks to support our business operations, to enhance your experiences with our products and services, to improve your interactions with us, and to help detect and prevent fraud. When we share information between PBLWorks entities, we do so with your consent and/or under one or more Intercompany Agreements that incorporate the Standard Contractual Clauses set forth by the European Commission under the GDPR and adequate technological and data minimization and localization measures to safeguard data during collection, processing and transfer between our PBLWorks entities.

C. Following the Law and Protecting PBLWorks. We may share your information with courts, law enforcement or regulatory agencies, or other government bodies when we have a good faith belief we are required or permitted to do so by applicable law, regulation, or legal process. We may also disclose your information if we believe it is appropriate to enforce our Terms of Use, to protect the rights, property or safety of PBLWorks and our products and services, or to protect or assist others as required by law or contract.

D. Credit Reporting. We may share information about your creditworthiness with credit bureaus, consumer reporting agencies, and card associations. Late payments, missed payments, or other defaults on your account may be reflected in your credit report and consumer report. We may also share your information with other companies, lawyers, credit bureaus, agents, government agencies, and card associations in connection with issues related to fraud, credit, or debt collection.

E. Sale of Our Business. If we sell, merge, or transfer any part of our business, information about you may be shared, sold or transferred as part of that transaction. We may also share your information with current or future corporate parents, subsidiaries or affiliates.

F. De-identified or Aggregated Data. We may de-identify or aggregate your information, alone or in combination with other individuals’ information, and share such de-identified or aggregated information freely.

G. With your Consent. Other than as set out above, we may also share your information for other purposes with your consent or at your direction.

VI. DATA TRANSFERS AND PRIVACY SHIELD

Where permitted by applicable law, we may transfer, process or store your Personal Data in any country or region where we have facilities, business operations, or in which we engage service providers. By using our site or our products and services, you consent to the transfer of your Personal Data to, and the processing and storage of your Personal Data in, countries outside of your country of residence or the point of collection.

Some countries may have data protection laws that are different from the laws of your country. However, PBLWorks has taken appropriate safeguards to require that your Personal Data remains protected when it is being transferred, processed and stored.

For transfers of Personal Data from the European Union (“EU”), the European Economic Area (“EEA”), the United Kingdom (“UK”), or Switzerland (“CH”) to jurisdictions that have been not recognized as having laws that provide an adequate level of protection, PBLWorks relies on legal mechanisms such as the European Commission approved Standard Contractual Clauses or your consent (in limited circumstances) for such transfers. For a copy of the Clauses, you may contact us as described below.

Please contact us to learn more about your rights with respect to data transfers and to request access to, limit the use of, or limit the disclosure of, your Personal Data. If you make a request that involves Personal Data, you will need to provide certain authentication and verification information in order for us to respond to your request.

VII. CONNECTING WITH THIRD PARTIES

VIII. MANAGING YOUR DATA AND PRIVACY.

You have a choice about the use of information that identifies you, marketing communications you receive from us, and our use of cookies and other tracking technologies.
You can review and change your information or deactivate your account in your account settings, but we may retain certain information.
While you have the right to select whether you receive promotional messages, you may still receive other non-promotional messages from us.

A. Managing Marketing Communications From Us.

We will honor your choices when it comes to receiving marketing communications from us. If you have received marketing communications from us that you no longer wish to receive, you may:

• Contact Us to manage your data and adjust your preferences regarding your Personal Data and your interactions with us.
• Click the "unsubscribe" link in communications (i.e. emails, newsletters) you received from us.
• Adjust your preferences in your PBLWorks account settings.
• For SMS messages, reply "STOP" or follow the instructions in the message or settings to discontinue the communications.
• If you are receiving push notifications from us to your mobile device and no longer wish to receive these types of communications, you may turn them off at the device level.
• Remember that even if you choose not to receive marketing communications from us, we will continue to send you mandatory service or transactional communications.

B. Updating Your Personal Data.
You may access, update, change, correct or request deletion of your Personal Data by contacting  us at [email protected].

C. Cookies and Similar Tracking Technologies. 
We may use and allow others to use cookies, web beacons, pixels, local shared objects, device identifiers, and other similar technologies (“Cookies”) to collect information about you. Cookies contain information which enable us to identify you so you do not have to re-enter certain information each time you visit our websites (such as your language or location choice), keep track of which of our webpages you view, and provide you a better overall experience using our websites. We also use third-party services to help us measure the effectiveness of our websites. These service providers may place cookies on your device to help us analyze the traffic on our website and better meet our customers' needs.  The service providers may also use the data for other purposes, such as improving their own services and delivering customized advertisements on other websites. 

You have control over some of the data we collect from Cookies and how we use it. You can decide whether or not to accept Cookies and there are several ways to manage Cookies, including through your internet browser’s settings, third-party browser plug-ins or add-ons, applications designed to manage Cookies, and “opt out” choices. However, blocking Cookies can prevent our website from working properly for your best user experience and, therefore, we recommend that you allow Cookies for our website.

To manage your Cookie settings, you may want to review your browser settings.  All major internet browsers include settings which manage Cookies and you can typically learn more by consulting your browser’s “help” section. There are also many third-party browser plug-ins, add-ons and applications that are designed to help you manage Cookies. We encourage you to review them carefully to select reputable offerings. 

Please note that even if you elect not to enable Cookies or interest-based advertising, you may still receive advertisements, they just won't be tailored to your interests. Also, if you elect to receive Cookies and later delete your Cookies, use a different browser or buy a new computer, you may need to renew your choices.

D. Do Not Track. 
Like most other companies, we are not currently configured to respond to browser "Do Not Track" signals because, at this time, no formal "Do Not Track" standard has been adopted. If and when standards are established, we may reassess how to respond to these signals.

E. Social Media Features. 
PBLWorks or our authorized third parties may use social media features to gather certain information about you. These features may collect your IP address, log which page you are visiting, and may set a cookie to enable the feature to function properly. Your interactions with these social media features are governed by the privacy policies and practices of the providing company.

IX. DATA RETENTION AND YOUR ACCESS RIGHTS

You may have the right to exercise certain data protection rights, including the right to request the deletion of, amendment of or access to your information.
These rights may depend on the country or region in which you are resident.
You may always contact your local data protection authority regarding the use of your information.
PBLWorks will not discriminate against you for
exercising your privacy rights.

A. Data Retention. 
PBLWorks retains and uses your information in accordance with and as permitted by applicable law and regulations:

• We will retain your information as long as necessary to serve you, to maintain your account for as long as your account is active, or as otherwise needed to operate our business.
• When you close your account, we may continue to communicate with you about our products and services, give you important business updates that may affect you, and let you know about products and services that may interest you, unless you have elected to not receive marketing communications from us.
• We may also continue to use some of your information for business purposes and to improve our offerings or in some cases to develop new ones.
• We will retain and use your information as required by applicable regulations and PBLWorks's records and information management policies to comply with our legal and reporting obligations, resolve disputes, enforce our agreements, complete any outstanding transactions and for the detection and prevention of fraud.

B. Responses from PBLWorks.
We respond to all requests from individuals regarding the exercise of their data protection rights in accordance with applicable data protection laws. Your data protection rights may vary depending on the country or region in which you are located, but generally include:

• Accessing, correcting, updating, or requesting deletion of your information;
• Objecting to or asking us to restrict the processing of your information;
• Requesting the portability of your information and providing same in a timely manner and at no charge;
• Electing whether or not to receive newsletters and marketing communications from us;
• Withdrawing your consent at any time for us to collect or process your information (noting that such withdrawal will not affect the lawfulness of any processing that we conducted prior to your withdrawal, nor will it affect otherwise lawful processing).

C. Data Controller. 
PBLWorks is considered to be a “controller” of your information under data privacy regulations. Other entities may also act as controllers of your information and you should contact them if you have any questions about how they use your information.

X. SECURITY OF YOUR INFORMATION

We provide reasonable and appropriate security measures in connection with securing Personal Data we collect.

Keeping your Personal Data safe is important to us. At PBLWorks we:

• Work to update our security practices to implement accepted best methods to protect your Personal Data and review our security procedures carefully.
• Comply with applicable laws and security standards.
• Securely transmit your sensitive Personal Data.
• Train applicable employees and contractors on data privacy and require them to safeguard your data.
• Transmit, store, protect, and access all cardholder information in compliance with the Payment Card Industry’s Data Security Standards.

XI. CHANGES TO OUR PRIVACY NOTICE.

We may make changes to our Privacy Notice or our supporting privacy procedures at any time.

From time to time we may change or update this Privacy Notice. We reserve the right to make changes or updates at any time and without prior notice to you.

If we make material changes to the way we process your Personal Data, we will provide you notice by posting the most current version of this Privacy Notice on our websites and we may also advise you of changes via our products and services information, or by other communication channels, such as by email, newsletters or community post. Please review any changes carefully.

If you object to any changes and no longer wish to use our products and services, you may close your accounts and cease use of our products and services. All changes to our Privacy Notice are effective immediately upon posting and your continued interaction with us or your use of our products and services after we have posted an updated Privacy Notice shall constitute your consent to all changes.

XII. HOW TO CONTACT US.

If you have questions or comments about this Privacy Notice or your privacy rights, you may contact us by email, telephone or direct mail.
Via Email: [email protected]
Telephone: (415) 883-0122
Via Direct Mail: 
Buck Institute for Education dba PBLWorks
Attn: Privacy Policy
3 Hamilton Landing
Suite 220
Novato, CA 94949

Cookie Policy

Last Updated: March 24, 2023.

I. Use of Cookies

When you access the Services, we collect certain technical information in order to analyze the usage of Site and Services, as well as to provide a more personalized experience, manage advertising, and obtain information about our user base as a whole.

A cookie is a file containing an identifier (a string of letters and numbers) that is sent by a web server to a web browser and is stored by the browser. The identifier is then sent back to the server each time the browser requests a page from the server.

Cookies may be either “persistent” cookies or “session” cookies. A persistent cookie will be stored by a web browser and will remain valid until its set expiration date, unless deleted by the user before the expiration date; a session cookie, on the other hand, will expire at the end of the user session, when the web browser is closed.

Cookies do not typically contain any information that personally identifies a user, but Personal Information that we store about you may be linked to the information stored in and obtained from cookies.

We may use cookies for:

• a. Authentication: for our shopping cart, to remember users’ settings (e.g. language preference), for authentication.
• b. Status: to help us to determine if you are logged into our Site.
• c. Personalization: to store information about your preferences and to personalize the Site for you.
• d. Security: as an element of the security measures used to protect user accounts, including preventing fraudulent use of login credentials, and to protect our Site and Services generally.
• e. Analysis: to help us to analyze the use and performance of our Site and Services.

II. Cookies used by our service providers

Our service providers use cookies and those cookies may be stored on your computer when you visit our Site.

We use Google Analytics to analyze the use of our Site. Google Analytics gathers information about the Site use by means of cookies. The information gathered relating to our Site is used to create reports about the use of our Site.

III. Managing cookies

Most browsers allow you to refuse to accept cookies and to delete cookies. The methods for doing so vary from browser to browser, and from version to version.

You can set your web browser to warn you about attempts to place cookies on your computer or device or limit the type of cookies you allow. If you disable cookies, you may lose some of the features and functionality of the Site.

Blocking all cookies will have a negative impact upon the usability of many websites. If you block cookies, you will not be able to use all the features on our Site.