Privacy and Student Data FAQs

MyOpenMath's Services (including MyOpenMath.com and WAMAP.org) are designed for use by higher-ed students, K-12 students, teachers, and professors.

The goal of this page is to respond to frequently asked questions about our policies regarding privacy, student work, advertising, and various regulations like COPPA and FERPA. Please note that this is just an overview, and that usage of our services is governed by our Terms of Service, our Privacy Policy, and our Student Data Privacy Statement.

Q. Why are you changing your policies?

A. We are updating our policies to better reflect and clarify our existing committment to the security and privacy of student data. We are also updating them to reflect the change in structure from MyOpenMath becoming a non-profit organization, and our committment to keeping the service free while opening the door for a future Contributing Partner model.

Q. How is your service free? Are you making money from advertising?

A. No! MyOpenMath is a non-profit, mostly run by math instructors who volunteer their time. Operation expenses are covered through a combination of corporate sponsors and Contributing Partner Schools who opt to support a site they depend on. We will never profit from advertising to students or selling data about students. Specifically, we pledge that:

• We will never allow third-party advertising on our student-facing websites.
• We will never sell data collected on our student-facing websites, or allow third parties to collect data to be used for targeted advertising on MyOpenMath or anywhere else.

These promises will live on, even in the case that we’re purchased or go bankrupt.

Q. Do you comply with COPPA?

A. Yes. The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) is a federal law designed to protect the privacy of children under 13 years of age.

First, self-study courses on MyOpenMath are not directed at children under 13. We do not intend for children under 13 to use those services. If you believe that we have accidentally collected personal information from a child under 13 without the consent of a parent, guardian, or school, let us know at [email protected] and we will remove that information as soon as possible.

Our instructor-led service is intended for use by students, including students under the age of 13. Usage requires an enrollment key provided by a teacher. Teachers are expected to have appropriate permissions before directing any student to use MyOpenMath, including students under 13. Once a school or teacher has provided consent for MyOpenMath to collect a student’s personal information, MyOpenMath protects that student’s privacy as required by COPPA. Please see our Student Data Privacy Statement for more details.

Q. Do you comply with FERPA?

A. Yes. The Family Education Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), is a federal law that protects the privacy of student educational records. Unlike COPPA, which applies to all online operators, FERPA regulates an educational institution’s use of student data. Here is how our product policies can help those institutions meet their obligations under FERPA.

We assume that all work in instructor-led courses in MyOpenMath has been assigned by a teacher or school for academic purposes. We don’t own any personal information collected through MyOpenMath – that work is owned by the teacher and school. Parents and students have rights under FERPA to access that work. Note that only a teacher or school can ask MyOpenMath to delete work done on MyOpenMath. Please see our Student Data Privacy Statement for more details.

Q. How do you protect the privacy of student data you share with third parties?

A. We work hard to protect your data while it’s in transit and once it’s stored. All of our sites and services use Secure Socket Layer Encryption (SSL) to transfer your data. We only share and store your data with trusted services that are also committed to security. We maintain a list of those services here:

https://github.com/myopenmath/policies/blob/master/third-party-services.md

We try our hardest to keep this list up to date, but we may add or subtract service providers at any time. Please contact us at [email protected] to confirm our most up to date list of service providers at any given time.

Q. How will I know if you update your policies?

A. We make it easy to see any changes we make to our policies. We host our Terms of Service, Privacy Policy, Student Data Privacy Statement, and List of Third Party Services in a public github repository at https://github.com/myopenmath/policies. These FAQs are also hosted there.

As a result, you can see both the current version of each document and a complete history of changes. In addition, we will prominently post a notice on our websites if we make any major changes to any of these policy documents. We will not necessarily notify you for small changes (e.g. modifications to the list of Third Party Services). However, you can subscribe to notifications from the github repository if you’re interested in being updated on every change. (Instructions.) You can also sign up to receive notices of upcoming changes to this and other policies by joining our Notices Google Group.

These FAQs were last updated March 29, 2020.

Q. What if I have other questions?

A. If you have any questions about any of our policies, just send us an e-mail at [email protected].