Accessing PayPal
1. Accuracy and Availability of Classwork Zoom
3. Free Offers
1. Specifically Regarding Student Information
4. Permissions Required by the Extension (and Why)
5. When We Share Information to Third Parties
6. Security
7. How to Access, Change, or Delete Account Information
11. Specific terms for EU users
12. Changes to our Privacy Policy
13. Contact Us
Effective Date: February 22, 2023
I care very much about the accuracy of Classwork Zoom, and I personally rely on it with my own classes, but of course it’s possible that something could go wrong which would affect the accuracy of the data, including problems on the Google end or on my end or somewhere in between. You know your students better than I do—if you see results from Classwork Zoom that don’t make sense to you, do what you can to verify them.
When everything is working perfectly, Classwork Zoom provides information about editing activity in the files and documents attached to the assignments you choose, as well as identifying the accounts used to do the editing. Classwork Zoom can’t tell who is actually using an account when edits are made—for example, if a student hands their computer to someone else during group work, it may seem later that only one student did the work when in fact it was done by others as well. And if Classwork Zoom shows no work being done, this does not prove that the student in question isn’t doing something else productive, which may include working in a separate document which they intend to add to the assignment in Google Classroom. Classwork Zoom just reports details about edits to documents currently attached to assignments in Classroom, and it’s up to you to interpret the information that it provides.
While I am very motivated to fix any problems that may come up, I can’t guarantee that the methods I use to get data today will be available tomorrow, especially since Classwork Zoom depends on a system that I don’t own (Google), and they can change their products whenever and however they like without my permission.
I can’t guarantee that nothing will go wrong, but I can tell you that I care a lot about things going right, and that I will do what I can to make that happen as consistently as possible. At this time there is no dedicated tech support for Classwork Zoom. If I become aware of any problems, I will inform users as needed and work to get issues fixed as quickly as my time and budget allow.
Classwork Zoom is structured around Google Classroom assignments with the understanding that one user will use the extension with a number of classes and students that a single, normal human can teach on their own. If usage for a single account clearly exceeds that limit or still somehow manages to tax the server enough to risk the financial stability of my business model, I reserve the right to discontinue service to that account and/or the related domain.
The payment model for Classwork Zoom is monthly or yearly subscriptions which can be made by individual teachers or by schools and districts for their teachers. I reserve the right to change the price at any time, but a change in price will only take effect for current subscribers after their subscriptions expire.
There should be one subscription for each teacher whose Google Classroom classes are viewed with Classwork Zoom. By "teacher," I mean the person who actually teaches the class, not just a person who is assigned the role of teacher in Classroom. To say it plainly, if one subscribed user uses Classwork Zoom to view the classes of other teachers who do not have subscriptions, that is a violation of these terms, and I reserve the right to discontinue service to that user, school, and/or district.
Free offers are given and may be rescinded entirely at my discretion. I'm a helper by nature, and if I give something to you for free, of course there may be some eventual benefit for me, but that's not certain, and I still enjoy helping people either way. If I give something for free and then I stop offering it sooner than I said I would, that means I really, really had to, and there's a very high chance that I feel terrible. But I wouldn't do it without a very good reason.
A free offer has no effect on existing subscriptions. For example, if a user bought a subscription, and then their school got free access to Classwork Zoom for the same period of time, that user's subscription will continue parallel with the free access of their coworkers. If you think that sounds horribly unfair... yeah, I get that. It's not that I don't agree—I just can't prioritize coding that kind of exception at the moment, and under the circumstances I hope you'll just be happy for others.
I’m going to do my best to say things here in a way that won’t make your eyes glaze over, at least not as much as they would with the average Privacy Policy before the new EU rules about giving users control over their data. The traditional Privacy Policy would be a 10 on the involuntary nap scale because of massive amounts of legalese, and I’m aiming for no more than a 4.
So let’s go...
In this Privacy Policy, if I use words like “I”, “me”, or “my”, I’m speaking as myself, Eric Burton, the designer and founder of Classwork Zoom.
If I use words like “we”, “us”, or “our”, I’m talking about myself AND anyone I’ve contracted to help build, maintain, and update Classwork Zoom.
If I use words like “you” or “your”, I’m talking to and about the user, who is most likely YOU :)
When I say “the extension,” I’m talking about Classwork Zoom, which is a Chrome extension.
By using Classwork Zoom, you are saying it’s okay for us to collect, use, and (as allowed and/or legally required) share the information about you that you share with us. Any types of situations in which your information might be shared will be described here.
If you don’t want to provide the information that we’re collecting, you shouldn’t use Classwork Zoom. Or if you provided it and now want to take it back, you can easily cancel your account and delete all of your information (except userid and payment records) on the My Account page.
If you don’t want to provide access to student information, I completely respect your decision. But in that case, Classwork Zoom will be unable to build timelines of student work in Google Classroom assignments. Providing Google Classroom assignment information to the extension is sort of like putting gas in the car—it's fine if you don't, but then don’t expect it to take you anywhere.
If you are concerned about the privacy of your student data, as you absolutely should be, I hope and believe you will be quite reassured by the details I provide and the legally binding promises I make in the section below called “Specifically Regarding Student Information.”
If you choose to subscribe to Classwork Zoom, I will keep payment records for a matter of years for tax reasons, as well as a minimum amount of information necessary to determine who is actually a new user so I can offer trial periods to new users and not to people who deleted their accounts when their trials expired.
If you choose to use Classwork Zoom, that means you’re agreeing to all of this in a legally binding way.
IF YOU CARE, then read carefully so you know what you’re agreeing to. If you see something you can’t deal with, get out of this site as fast as you can, and don’t come back till it’s changed or you feel better about it for some reason.
IF YOU DON’T CARE, then you’re not reading this anyway, but you have still magically agreed to it. If you’re not reading this, I take that as a sign of trust. Thanks—I’ll do my best to be worthy of it :)
This Privacy Policy and the Terms of Service together are my promise to you about how things will work with you, me, and Classwork Zoom. If you don’t see what you’re looking for here, look in the Terms of Service. If you don’t see it there, either, please contact me ASAP with the contact info you’ll find further down in this policy—I’m definitely interested to hear what’s on your mind.
In this Privacy Policy, when I talk about “Personal Information” I mean information that by itself or combined with other information can be used to easily identify, contact, or locate a person (like name, address, email address, or phone number, etc). If I take information about a lot of users and put it together so no one user can be easily identified (for example, if I make a report on how often people use Classwork Zoom in the morning vs. the afternoon), or if I delete or effectively hide identifying information so others couldn’t easily identify a specific person, I’m not considering that to be personal information.
We meet all requirements of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA).
We don’t share or sell student information of any kind, personal or otherwise. We have no interest in student information and do not seek to benefit from it.
For information about the very limited scope of files accessed by the extension, please see "Permissions Required by the Extension (And Why)."
We don’t store student information of any kind, personal or otherwise, during the normal functioning of the extension.
We transfer information securely. Before we send securely encrypted revision history data to a server for processing, the extension de-identifies student work by replacing student names, student user IDs, and even document titles with strings of random characters, and when it is returned, the extension switches them back for display in the timeline.
If you encounter a problem with the extension, then in the process of debugging we may temporarily store unprocessed student revision history data which contains student names and scraps of readable text in the middle of thousands of lines of human-unreadable code. I assure you that no one else even wants this data, but if they ever did, we would never share it.
In the process of debugging and improving the extension, it is sometimes very helpful to receive screenshots, screencasts, or other communication from you which may unavoidably include students' personally identifiable information. If we are exposed to personally identifiable student information in this or any other context...
Once student work is processed in the normal operation of the extension and sent back to the user’s computer for display on the timeline, there is no trace of the data left on our server. We have no need to retain it. Our focus is not your student information -- it's making that information visible to YOU in a way that helps you with your students. As soon as you close a timeline tab that displays the assignments you selected, any processed or unprocessed timeline information is completely gone -- from the server, from your computer, from the universe. To see it again you have to start the process over.
We collect information, including personal information, when you:
register with and log in to our website
use our services, and
communicate with us
The personal information that we collect can be viewed and downloaded in the My Account page.
We also collect information, such as anonymous usage statistics, by using cookies, server logs, etc. while you use Classwork Zoom.
A. Payment Information. When you make any payments for Classwork Zoom services, that naturally involves passing to the payment service whatever information is needed to make the payment. You probably knew that, but now I told you, too.
B. Using Classwork Zoom services. Any personal information you submit while using Classwork Zoom may be collected. We wouldn’t bother putting it in the form if we weren’t planning on saving it and/or using it either to serve you directly or to learn more about how and by whom our services are being used so we can better serve everyone.
C. Messages. When you message us directly or through the feedback form for any reason, those messages, like regular ones, land in an inbox somewhere and keep existing with whatever information you put in them.
D. When you submit a review on the site, that is of course stored as well, including whatever personal information you may have chosen to share. On the My Account page you have the option to hide your review, make it publicly viewable, or delete it. Even if you list it as public, it may not be displayed on the site—I’ll be moderating reviews.
E. Cookies, Automatic Data Collection, and Related Technologies. As you use Classwork Zoom, we may use automatic data collection technologies to collect information about your usage of the extension and your equipment, like:
Functions you performed with Classwork Zoom (opening the extension, building a timeline, etc.); whether there were any errors; information about your computer and Internet connection, including your operating system, and browser type.
Here are some ways that we may collect information:
Cookies (aka “browser cookies”). A cookie is a small text file stored on your computer that can be used to keep track of things like whether you’ve seen a welcome message after first installing Classwork Zoom. We may use both session cookies (that disappear as soon as you close your browser) and persistent cookies (that stay on your computer unless you go into your browser settings and delete them). Cookies are tiny, and they can make things more convenient or sometimes do things like help with security. We use one cookie that protects our site from a particular hack called a “cross-site request forgery”. You can set your browser to refuse all or some browser cookies or to alert you when cookies are being sent, but if you refuse to accept cookies you will see the cookie request banner on every page, and we will be exposed to the hack I mentioned above. Unless you have done something to block cookies, we will use them when you Classwork Zoom or move around the Classwork Zoom site.
Web Beacons. Pages of the website and parts of the extension may contain small electronic files known as web beacons (also referred to as clear gifs, pixel tags, and single-pixel gifs) provided and monitored by Google to see how often each page or function is used. I'm talking about Google Analytics. Our setup of Google Analytics does not track individuals, so if you visited a page 100 times, we would only know that it had been visited 100 times—we would not know that the visits were from a single person, which of course means that we also wouldn't have the slightest idea who that person was. We're just seeing how much traffic and usage we're getting.
If you wish to view or even download your user information, you can do so from the My Account page.
NOTE: We do not knowingly collect or wish to collect personal information from anyone under age 16. If you are under age 16 and reading this, you are in the wrong place. If you have created an account, please delete it immediately.
We use information collected from you to…
Maintain and update Classwork Zoom, including using information for troubleshooting
Fulfill your requests for services, information, or features
Communicate with you about your account by responding to your questions or concerns
Send you administrative messages, information about changes to Classwork Zoom, and updates to the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy
Ask for feedback about Classwork Zoom
Better understand how users use Classwork Zoom so that we can make it even better or possibly develop entirely new tools
Email you or show in-app messages about new products that I design (you can opt out of this in your Settings page)
Accept and record payments
Communicate with you about your subscription
Manage your account preferences and build your profile and registration information
Prevent fraud and abuse
If legally required, share information (so far we have never been legally required to share information, but if we were, we would)
We may remove personally identifying information from your records and use the result for analysis, examples, or anything else legal, and it won’t affect you because the records won’t be identifiable as yours.
Google provides a limited list of permissions that developers can use when an app needs access to perform different functions. Here are all the Google permissions required by Classwork Zoom with full explanations of how they are used and why they are requested:
"View your Google Classroom classes."
This is used to build a list of your classes so you can choose which one to view in the timeline.
"View your Google Classroom class rosters."
This allows the extension to include members of the selected class in the timeline and also to alert you when someone outside of that class has edited a student's work.
"View course work and grades for students in the Google Classroom classes you teach or administer."
This is used to build a list of your assignments for the class you've selected so you can choose which assignment(s) to show in the timeline. It also allows the extension to know which students were given an assignment and alert you when a document has been edited by a student to whom it was not assigned.
"See and download all your Google Drive files."
This is the one that you’re probably here to read about, and I completely understand your concern.
I’ll start by saying this: Classwork Zoom does not need OR use “all your Google Drive files.” The ONLY things Classwork Zoom accesses in your Drive are files associated with assignments that YOU select in the extension. That’s it. Nothing else.
I would love to have a much more specific permission like “View and process student work in Google Classroom assignments,” but that permission doesn’t exist. At this point, it seems that if an extension needs to access *any* Google Drive files, the only available permission is this terrifying one that grants access to *all* Google Drive files.
I don't actually agree with using the word “permission” in this case because no one who checks this box genuinely intends to give Classwork Zoom permission to access everything. If anyone really believed that was going to happen, they would not agree.
In reality anyone who checks the box expects and intends for Classwork Zoom to access only what is needed to perform its function. And in reality Classwork Zoom strictly adheres to that very expectation.
It’s sort of like when someone gives their car keys to a mechanic. By giving the keys, they are technically giving the mechanic access to drive the car to the beach, but they are definitely not giving permission for that to happen. And if the mechanic drives it to the beach, the owner could have them arrested because it’s understood that this is a drastic abuse of the access they were given.
Everyone knows that when you give a mechanic access to your car, fixing the car is normal use, and driving it to the beach is abuse. But apps can do anything, so what is "normal use" for apps? No worries -- in this section, I have legally defined a very limited scope of access as normal use for Classwork Zoom and anything outside of that as abuse which would make me vulnerable to legal action for any violation.
"View your calendars."
This allows the extension to access the calendar associated with each of your Google Classroom classes. When you grant this permission, you will see orange at the top of the timeline when there is an event in the calendar for the class that is being displayed. If you add the class meeting times to that calendar, this visual indicator of events makes it easier to see when work happened during or outside of class (personally, I find this really handy, and I'm told other teachers do, too).
Third Party Business Partners, Service Providers, Contractors or Agents. If you subscribe to Classwork Zoom, that requires you to use Stripe. We make that payment option available, you click and are taken to Stripe, and later, Stripe tells us you paid.
That's the only third party we directly interact with regarding your data.
To be clear, we don't share your students' information with any third parties, either (see "Specifically Regarding Student Information").
Analytics and Data Enrichment Services. Our Google Analytics settings do not allow tracking of individuals, anonymously or otherwise, and we do not share personally identifiable information with any analytics or data enrichment services.
Marketing. We do not rent, sell, or share personal information about you with other people or companies for marketing purposes.
As Required By Law and Similar Disclosure. We may access, preserve, and share your Personal Information or other account information if we believe doing so is required to (a) comply with law enforcement requests and legal process, like a court order or subpoena; (b) respond to your requests; or (c) protect your, our, or others’ rights, property, or safety.
Merger, Sale, or Other Asset Transfers. If Classwork Zoom merges with another company, I sell it, or in some other way it leaves my hands, then I will notify you so that you can decide whether to stay with Classwork Zoom. It is very easy to leave and delete records of your activity from the site, if you wish. At the time of a merge, sale, or transfer, then, if you are still a member, your information will be transferred unless there is some legal reason it should not. The use of your Personal Information following any of these events will be governed by the provisions of this Privacy Policy in effect at the time the applicable Personal Information was collected.
Consent. We may also disclose your personal information with your permission. I don't foresee a situation where we'd want to do that.
We work to make sure that your information is treated securely and that we keep all security promises that we make in this Privacy Policy. Please be aware, however, that no information system can be guaranteed to be 100% secure, so we cannot guarantee the absolute security of your information. There are also a lot of ways information can be stolen when you send it over networks that aren’t secure even before the information gets to us, and we can’t take responsibility for every step of that journey. If you have reason to believe that there is a security issue on our end, please contact us either through the feedback form at the bottom of any page or directly using the contact information in section 11 at the very end of this policy.
Leaving Classwork Zoom is easy—just go to the My Account page and look for the button. Two clicks, and it’s over. If instead you want to change your information, many options are adjustable right on that page. If you want to update something on that page which is not editable, there’s probably a reason it’s not editable, but you can always ask me to update it for you, and we’ll see how that conversation goes. Bottom line, if you really don’t like something that is stored there, you have the power to delete your account. If you just want to view your information, it’s all there on the My Account page, and you can even download it. Really transparent and really convenient.
If you choose to delete your account, I will still keep some information for business purposes.
In certain sections of the Services, we may include links to external websites or applications (for example, Facebook and Twitter). These websites and applications are governed by their own privacy policies or information collection practices, which may be very different from ours. If that is something you’re concerned about, go check out their privacy policies and information collection practices.
Classwork Zoom is hosted and revision history data is processed on servers in Germany. If you are an EU citizen traveling outside of Europe, your data will be transmitted outside the EU. If you’re within the EU, odds are that it will be transmitted within the EU all the way to your computer, but either way, the server is in the EU.
California residents have the right to receive, once a year from us: a) information identifying any third party company(ies) to whom we may have disclosed (within the previous calendar year) your Personal Information for that company's direct marketing purposes; and b) a description of the categories of Personal Information disclosed. If you are a California resident and wish to obtain such information, submit a request to us using the contact information provided in section 11 at the end of this policy with "Request for California Privacy Information" in the subject line and the body of your message. Only information required to be disclosed by law will be included in our response.
We do not recognize or respond to browser-initiated Do Not Track signals. Instead, we rely completely on a visitor’s response to the cookie prompt that is shown immediately when they arrive at our site, the analytics options available in the Settings page, and their answers to questions about the granting of permissions within Google’s apps and the Terms of Service, which cover any tracking issues that might be expressed in the use of a Do Not Track signal and may actually contradict the signal. If you choose not to allow cookies, we will respect that choice, but you will be asked about cookies whenever you visit the site (because we won’t be storing a cookie to tell us that we already asked you about cookies). And if you do not agree to the Terms of Service, there’s no value in coming to the site at all.
The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) (EU) 2016/679 is a regulation in EU law on data protection and privacy for all individuals within the European Union. It also addresses the export of personal data outside the EU. The GDPR aims primarily to give control to citizens and residents over their personal data and to simplify the regulatory environment for international business by unifying the regulation within the EU. It is enforceable since 25 May 2018. The GDPR replaces the 1995 Data Protection Directive.
I appointed https://GDPR-Rep.eu as the European representative for Classwork Zoom according to Art 27 GDPR. If you want to make use of your GDPR data privacy rights, please visit: https://gdpr-rep.eu/q/14715038
To contact GDPR-Rep.eu by postal mail, use the address below (and mention GDPR-REP ID: 14715038).
GDPR-Rep.eu
Maetzler Rechtsanwalts GmbH & Co KG
Attorneys at Law
c/o Classwork Zoom LLC
Schellinggasse 3/10, 1010 Vienna, Austria
To know more about what categories of data we collect and how we use the information we collect, please see sections 1 and 2 of this Privacy Policy.
We can legally process users’ data because they are required to agree to our Terms of Service when they join Classwork Zoom.
We store information about users and revision history data is processed on servers located in Germany. The information will travel between these servers and to whatever device(s) you’re using. Just based on the design of the Internet it's hard to guarantee that no info will pass outside of the EU when you are physically within the EU, but it seems very unlikely. Of course, if you use the extension when you are outside of the EU, it will be transferring data outside the EU.
Classwork Zoom uses a variety of third party service providers to help us provide services related to our services. We hold Data Processing Agreements (DPA) in place with all the third party services that guarantee that adequate safeguards are put in place with respect to the protection of such Personal Data as required by EU’s GDPR Data Protection policies. We do not sell personal information to third parties.
The people who provide us with any personal data have the following rights:
a. Right of access: Users of Classwork Zoom have easy access to data that we store about them (just go to the My Account page). This does not include payment information, but you can access your payment history on Stripe, and the My Account page displays current subscription status.
b. Right to rectification of information: If you find that any of the information we have stored is inaccurate, and you’re unable to update it yourself, you can ask us to change it for you using the feedback form at the bottom of any page, and I’ll make sure it’s done within a reasonable time, keeping in mind that it will probably be me making the change, and I tend to have a lot on my plate.
c. Right to erasure (to be forgotten): You can erase all records that I don't have a legitimate business purpose for keeping. Which means you can easily delete your account from the My Account page, but I have a legitimate business purpose for keeping...
But your usage history and review (if you left one) will be erased, and I foresee no need to access the list of former users unless they later access the site or there are legal / tax issues to deal with. If a user doesn't want me to access those things after deleting their account, that makes two of us.
d. Right to restriction of processing: When you exercise this right, all I'm allowed to do with your data is store it. That's all I do with it, anyway. I mean, I look at usage logs very closely to make sure everything is going well and track down any problems, but that's not processing. And I don't provide your data in any form to any third parties. The only third party we connect with is Stripe, we don't give your data to Stripe -- you do.
e. Right to data portability: If you want any and all data that we have about you, just go to your My Account page to view and/or download it in multiple formats.
f. Right to object: You can always object to the processing of your personal data. This should be unnecessary since you can...
Update much of your information and even delete your entire account on the My Account page.
If for some reason this option doesn’t meet your needs, look to the end of this policy for contact info.
Posting of Revised Privacy Policy. This Privacy Policy may change over time as regulations are updated and practices evolve at Classwork Zoom. The effective date at the top shows the last time this Privacy Policy was updated. If I change the terms of this Privacy Policy, I will post a notification to users based on their subscription settings. If you keep using Classwork Zoom after any policy changes, I interpret that to mean that you accept the changes and are agreeing to them. If, on the other hand, you stop using Classwork Zoom after an update of the Privacy Policy, I take that to mean you have not agreed and are not legally bound by the updated terms of the Privacy Policy. Any revised Privacy Policy will supersede all previous privacy policies.
Questions regarding this Privacy Policy should be directed to me through the contact info below (once you prove that you're not a robot):