Privacy Statement

This Privacy Statement is incorporated in, and subject to, the Terms of Use and Service for The Story of America platform. Please refer to those terms for definitions of words with initial capital letters that are not otherwise defined in this Privacy Statement. The Story of America encourages you to read this Privacy Statement carefully.

For purposes of this Privacy Statement, references to “You” or “Your” mean (i) you in your individual capacity, (ii) your company, which may be a school or school district, and (iii) students, employees, representatives and agents of Your school or school district that are registered with The Story of America and that have a valid security identification and password to access and use the Resources (collectively the “Authorized Users”).

As noted in the Terms of Use, The Story of America provides its customers with a range of educational resources, including, but not limited to, The Story of America’s interactive educational-based applications (collectively the “Licensed Applications”), The Story of America’s Internet Web site (the “Web Site”), currently located at www.thestoryofamerica.us, account information regarding the Licensed Applications and the Web Site, materials and documentation available from the Web Site, and news and information about The Story of America, the Licensed Applications, and the Web Site. Any and all of the foregoing resources, together with any other resources made available by The Story of America, are collectively referred to as the “Resources”.

What Personally Identifiable Information Is Collected by The Story of America?
“Personally Identifiable Information” generally refers to any data that could potentially identify a specific individual. While You have access to the Resources, The Story of America may collect the following Personally Identifiable Information about You:

  • Your first and last name
  • Teachers and administrators only – Your contact information, such as email addresses, mailing addresses, and phone numbers
  • Your school and school district
  • Any identification numbers issued by Your school and/or Your school district to You, including teacher numbers, administrator numbers, and student numbers
  • Security information, such as usernames, passwords, and password hints
  • Browser information, such as browser version, IP address, and the presence of various plug-ins and tools
  • Students only – “Demographic Data,” such as gender, race, special-education status, socio-economic status, and English language learner status, but only to the extent provided by Your school or Your school district
  • Resource-related responses submitted by You, including, but not limited to responses to interactive activities and assessments
  • Resource use behavior, such as pages visited, downloads, or searches requested; and
  • Resource use results, but only to the extent that such results identify one or more (i) students, (ii) teachers, (iii) classrooms within an identified school, (iv) grades within an identified school or school district or (v) schools (collectively “Identifiable Use Results”). Identifiable Use Results do not include Resource use results for school districts or for geographic regions that do not identify a specific school.

Personally Identifiable Information does not include “De-identified Information,” which is any data or information that cannot be traced back to an individual (except for Identifiable Use Results, as defined above).

How Is Personally Identifiable Information Used and/or Disclosed?
The Story of America does not sell Personally Identifiable Information to any affiliated entity of The Story of America or any third-party, nor does it use such information for any sort of behavioral advertising. However, The Story of America may use and disclose Personally Identifiable Information for a range of educational, compliance and quality assurance purposes.

The Story of America may disclose Personally Identifiable Information to the following individuals or entities under the following circumstances:

  1. To The Story of America’s employees who need to access the Personally Identifiable Information to perform their jobs;
  2. To third parties, including contractors, vendors, and service providers, that assist with the production, implementation or servicing of the Resources, but only after receiving satisfactory assurances from each third-party that its data privacy and security protections are at least as stringent as those of The Story of America;
  3. To Authorized Users as determined by each school or school district at issue. Generally, but subject to determination by the school at issue or the school district at issue,
  • a teacher may only see the Personally Identifiable Information of the students in the teacher’s classroom,
  • a principal may only see the Personally Identifiable Information of those students and teachers in the principal’s school, and
  • a school district-level administrator may only see the Personally Identifiable Information of those students and teachers in the administrator’s school district;
  1. To third parties, and solely for educational purposes, when The Story of America has the consent of the school or school district at issue, including Identifiable Use Results that identify specific individual students if The Story of America has received a written acknowledgement from the school or school district that it has obtained the student’s consent to such disclosure;
  2. When The Story of America believes that sharing Personally Identifiable Information is reasonably necessary in order to (i) protect or defend the legal rights, interests, property, safety, or security of The Story of America, its employees or contractors, or the public, (ii) protect or defend against, or otherwise address, fraud, security, or technical issues, (iii) comply with, or respond to a law, regulation, legal request, legal process, legal requirement, judicial proceeding, or court order, or (iv) investigate a possible crime, such as fraud or identity theft;
  3. In connection with an actual or potential sale, purchase, acquisition, merger, reorganization, bankruptcy, liquidation, dissolution, or similar transaction or proceeding of or involving The Story of America, but only to the extent that the purchasing, acquiring or successor entity agrees to implement data privacy and security protections with respect to Personally Identifiable Information that are at least as stringent as those of The Story of America.

The Story of America is permitted to use and/or disclose Personally Identifiable Information about You when The Story of America has Your consent. The Story of America does not need Your consent to use De-identified Information.

Can I Access or Change My Personally Identifiable Information?

Each school and/or school district is permitted via functionality made available by the Resources to determine what Personally Identifiable Information (if any) is accessible by Authorized Users and to which Authorized Users in particular. In certain circumstances, a school and/or school district may be entitled to permit one or more Authorized Users to change Personally Identifiable Information. Any requests by Students or parents to access and/or change Personally Identifiable Information must be made to the school and/or school district in the first instance, and these entities will maintain a record of all such access and amendment requests and of any actual changes made. To the extent that a student and/or parent makes a direct request to The Story of America to access and/or amend Personally Identifiable Information, The Story of America will forward that request to the school and/or school district for response.

Data Retention

Unless required by law to maintain certain information for a longer period of time, The Story of America retains Personally Identifiable Information only for as long as a student’s school and/or school district maintains a subscription with The Story of America to one or more of the Resources. Once a subscription to a particular Resource is cancelled or

terminated, The Story of America will, within a reasonable period of time, delete all Personally Identifiable Information associated with that Resource. However, The Story of America may continue to retain, on a de-identified basis, any and all information that was submitted to or through that Resource.

Data Security

The Story of America implements and maintains a range of reasonable measures designed to protect Personally Identifiable Information from unauthorized access, use, disclosure, alteration, or destruction. However, no internet-based service can be 100% safe from potential security breaches, and thus The Story of America cannot guarantee that Personally Identifiable Information will never be accessed, used, or disclosed in a manner that is inconsistent with this Policy.

Links to Other Websites

This Policy applies only to The Story of America’s Resources. The Resources may contain links to websites operated by third parties. The Story of America does not control these third-party websites and is not responsible for their data practices. Any information you provide to third-party websites, or that is collected by them as a result of your use of their websites, will be subject to the terms of those websites’ privacy policies, which may differ from The Story of America’s Privacy Policy. You should review the privacy policies and terms of use of any third-party websites you use to ensure that you understand their policies and practices.

Changes to This Privacy Policy

The Story of America reserves the right to change this Policy at any time and for any reason. If The Story of America makes any substantial changes to this Policy, The Story of America will notify the relevant school and/or school district, which in turn will have the responsibility to notify Authorized Users. The use of the Resources after a change to this Policy implies acceptance of the changes.

Contact Information

If you have any questions about this Policy or The Story of America’s data practices, please contact us at the following:

The Today Foundation
8150 North Central Expressway
Suite 1900 – South Tower
Dallas, TX 75206

[email protected]

(214) 585-5412



This privacy policy is effective as of May 1, 2023.

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