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Privacy Policy

TVO owns and operates mPower for students through both educators in the classroom ("Educators") and student caregivers outside the classroom, including parents, guardians, tutors, babysitters and others providing care and education to student users ("Caregivers").

Privacy is an important issue — to you and to us.

TVO is committed to respecting the confidentiality of all of mPower users' personal information and to making mPower a safe online and secure learning tool for students.

What Information We Collect

Students can be registered for mPower in two ways, in the classroom through their Educator, or outside the classroom through their Caregiver. Registration is done on the TVO mPower website. Once registered, Educators and Caregivers are then able to register their students as sub-registrants under them. The same student can be registered by both an Educator and a Caregiver. The student accounts are not personally identifiable and are not linked.

  1. When an Educator and Caregiver register for mPower we collect and store the following pieces of information from the Educator or Caregiver ("Educator/Caregiver Information"):
    1. First Name;
    2. Last Name; and
    3. Email Address (must be a School Board address for Educator).

      In addition, we collect and store the following pieces of information for Educators:
    4. Board/District Name;
    5. School Name
    6. Role
  2. A student is registered for mPower either through their Educator or Caregiver. When a student is registered we collect and store the following pieces of information for the student ("Student Information"):
    1. First Name;
    2. First Initial of Last Name; and
    3. Grade Level.
  3. This Educator/Caregiver and Student Information is collected to validate registrations of Educators and Caregivers (not students) and to support operation of the site and for the purposes set out below. During the registration process, Educators and Caregivers will be asked to create a password. Their username will be their email address given. The students will be given usernames (based on their First name and First Initial of their last name) and passwords by TVO. Student’s ‘First Name’ and ‘First Initial of Last Name’ are not publicly disclosed, but will be visible to Educators and other Students sub-registered in the same class, Caregivers and the other Students sub-registered under the Caregiver, and to certain TVO personnel and contractors necessary in providing and maintaining the mPower service.
  4. TVO does not collect any ‘personal information’ in respect of students nor does it collect any other information to personally identify a student, such as an Ontario Education Number (OEN.)
  5. Only the Educator or Caregiver for the student knows what student is connected to the student username. Certain TVO personnel and contractors necessary in providing and maintaining the mPower service may have access to information linking a ‘student username’ to an Educator or Caregiver. But, even in this instance, they will not be able to identify the student or have access to any personal information of the student.
  6. TVO collects and stores the following information about student usage of the mPower;
    1. The last four times the student played each game
    2. The first time the student played each game (the "Diagnostic" play through)
    3. The number of ‘hints’ the student used with each play through mentioned above

      This information is collected for all students, but is only available to Educators. Caregivers are restricted to the last time the student logged into mPower and the last game they played.

  7. Students can elect to take screenshots of gameplay or upload images and provide written comments to share with Educators and other students in the same class.
  8. Additional information is collected to improve the quality of the mPower service and to manage content delivery. For example, this student usage information helps us to: make decisions about the educational appropriateness of a specific mPower game; make decisions about the browsers and platforms mPower supports; and identify other technical infrastructure requirements. We may also use this student usage information to create new related educational material. This information is reported in an anonymous way and in aggregate to protect the identity of the individual Student.

How We Use Your Information

  1. We only collect and use personal information necessary to carrying out the mPower services. We will not disclose, sell, release or rent any personal information to any other third parties, companies or people, unless we explicitly state otherwise and obtain your consent or unless required by law.
  2. Aggregated (non-personal) information, including data and trends, may be provided to other parties in support of the educational goals and objectives of mPower and TVO.
  3. TVO will use Educator and Caregiver email addresses in order to contact them to present them with information relevant to their and their students’ use of the mPower service (e.g. news, site updates, account maintenance). Educators and Caregivers may choose to opt out of communications, but will still be contacted for matters that affect the availability and operation of the service.
  4. Any personal information received by TVO is stored in a secure location and only accessible and retained for as long as it is necessary to fulfill the purposes for which it is collected. Such information is normally destroyed once TVO determines that it is no longer necessary to retain such personal information and such destruction takes place within sixty (60) days from such determination.
  5. Only TVO employees in the course of performing their duties and third parties contracted to provide services to TVO who require access to personal information in order to discharge these duties or perform these services are granted access to such personal information. TVO only conducts business with reputable third parties whose privacy practices are in keeping with TVO's own standards, and who agree to be bound by confidentiality provisions.
  6. Where an Educator, Caregiver or a student abuses the Terms of Use, TVO reserve the right to discontinue providing the mPower service to the Educator, Caregiver and student, as appropriate, and may close, terminate, or disable the such person’s account. TVO will contact the Educator and Caregiver directly via the email address provided and the student via the email address of their Educator or Caregiver to notify that person of the closure, termination, or disablement of their account.
  7. When an Educator, Caregiver or student is registered and signs in to their account, all information is protected by industry standard encryption technology.
  8. We reserve the right to disclose any collected information, personal or otherwise, to the Ministry of Education, or any appropriate law enforcement agency, local children’s aid society, or other appropriate entity in urgent situations affecting health or safety or where such disclosure may be legally required.

Security

  1. When the disclosure of personal information is required for the use or operation of the mPower service, any transfer of such information (for instance, during the registration process) is made via a secure connection, conducted within a firewall and therefore secure from outside probes, and, to the extent it is maintained by TVO, resides on TVO's secure servers.
  2. These servers perform standard logging which permits the collection of information on ISPs and the type of browser and operating system used. Logging also allows TVO to track generic information regarding total accesses to our site.

Cookies

  1. TVO uses session and persistent cookies on its websites. Session cookies are data files temporarily installed in users' browsers to help them navigate the site. Persistent cookies, computer files stored on hard drives, are used to help measure traffic to the site. Cookies are used to enable TVO to compile statistics, and not to collect information of a personal nature. While users may disable or remove cookies, doing so may make it impossible to fully access TVO's websites.
  2. No personal information is ever stored in a cookie, even if your name, telephone number or e-mail address was entered on other parts of the website. TVO does not sell information collected by cookies on its websites or use the information for commerce-related purposes.
  3. The following details explain how and when TVO might use cookies: As you explore a TVO website, a cookie will be set on your computer which will record your IP address. This will tell us which pages you visit and the amount of time spent on each page. This helps us at TVO identify new and repeat visitors and tells us how long visitors spend on our Websites and which pages receive the most traffic. This tracking is to enhance your experience by allowing customization and an easier access to the items on the TVO website you enjoy.
  4. Cookie technology is employed on our games to make the website more interactive and ensures personally identifiable information is not collected during game play. Unless the game is associated with a contest the user wishes to enter or the game is associated with the mPower math suite of games, personally identifiable information will not be required to play. (Refer above for TVO's policy regarding contests). As we do not require login information on most of our pages, cookie technology is the only method we use to track your preferences and are only identifiable on one computer. This means a user cannot see the activities he or she may have created on another computer. If cookies are deleted, the information will be lost. Also, if a computer is updated with new operating software, cookie information will be deleted.

Contact Us

TVO ensures that mPower users and others about whom personal information may be collected have a means of accessing their personal information. If you wish to determine whether TVO holds any personal information about you and/or wish to access that information, call 416.484.2665 if in the Toronto area or toll-free at 1.800.463.6886 and ask to speak with TVO's Privacy Law Officer. Alternatively, you can send written correspondence by e-mail to [email protected] or by mail to Attn: TVO Privacy Officer, Legal Services & Business Affairs, TVO, 2180 Yonge Street, Box 200, Station Q, Toronto, Ontario, M4T 2T1.

TVO reserves the right to amend the Privacy Policy from time to time at our sole discretion. TVO mPower users and School Boards will be informed of any such amendments through the Website or by email. The effective date of any change will be clearly marked.

This Privacy Policy was last revised on November 11, 2021.