This Privacy Policy tells you what kinds of information we collect from our users, and what we will and will not do with that information.

Because Connected is a social / sharing utility, information may be made available to other users of the system. In fact, some features require this. Your privacy settings let you decide which kinds of information will be shared. If you are a parent, you can change these settings for your children under 13 (some settings also affect those between 13 and 17).

Connected has users under the age of 13, and therefore comes under the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), a US federal law that requires us to provide certain specific information in this Privacy Policy. However, these provisions apply to all of our users regardless of age.

Contact Information

Currently Connected is the only company that collects or maintains personal information from children through the Connected website and associated services. The Connected contact information is:

Connected Information Systems
Chief Privacy Officer
1420 East Roseville Parkway
Suite 140325
Roseville, CA 95661
Telephone: 916-273-3314
Email: privacy@connected.info

Personal Information Collected

Connected collects the following information, either from the user or from an associated school. While COPPA technically applies only to information we gather directly from users, we assume that all personal information about our school-age users is subject to COPPA regardless of how we obtained it.

    * Complete name
    * Nickname(s)
    * Address
    * Telephone number(s)
    * Gender
    * Age
    * Grade in school
    * Class enrollment
    * Activity memberships (sports teams, band, drama, clubs, afterschool activities etc.)
    * Calendar information (appointments)
    * Connected-internal username, nickname, and/or messaging address

Information is collected in several ways:

    * From an associated school’s computer system
    * Actively from the user at registration time
    * Actively from the user via the user’s own groups, calendar items, blog entries, or other created material
    * Indirectly from other users when they include the user in groups, calendar items, or other shared features
    * Passively via site “cookies” and other internal identifying information

How Information Is Used

We use the user’s name, nickname, grade in school, class enrollment, activity memberships, and Connected-internal information in the following ways:

    * To fulfill actions requested by the user
    * To enable teachers and school administrators to communicate with the student
    * To enable users to discover each other in the system
    * To enable sharing of calendars, assignments, groups, blogs, and other social activities

Other information is usually kept private for our use in supporting the service, troubleshooting problems, and so on.

COPPA - Participating in Certain Activities on our Service

Under COPPA, for each activity or function on our service, we cannot require a user to give us any more information than the minimum necessary for us to provide that function.  Connected abides by this policy. As new features are brought online, participation in them may require the collection, use, and/or disclosure to third parties of information beyond the types specifically listed in this privacy policy as written now, but Connected will continue to meet all requirements of this Privacy Policy and COPPA.

Third Parties

Connected does not share information with anyone not associated with the Connected service, except when required to by proper legal process (for example, Connected will cooperate with criminal investigations in the United States).

Connected is designed to share information among users, who in turn choose which other users they will share details with. A user (or an underage user’s parent) can restrict this information sharing in the Privacy Settings. Other users are individuals; Connected does not allow businesses to become users. Our user agreement does not require users to keep confidential the personal information they obtain about other users.

If Connected obtains information about a user who is under 18 from a school, that information will be shared with teachers, administrators, and other education-related employees of that school who are also users of Connected, regardless of the sharing restrictions set by the user or user’s parent, in order to fulfill the school’s educational mission.