The Big Picture
Company is deeply committed to the privacy and security of students
and the families, educators, and mentors supporting them. Big
Picture Online (BPO) was designed with school and family privacy
concerns foremost in our minds. By nature, BPO tools are also
intended to enable students and those supporting them to interact,
view, and share materials. This makes sound privacy policies all
the more important.
All users of BPO are required to have
a unique account and login. We do, therefore, collect personally
identifiable information – and you have the right to know
how we collect it, why, and how it is used. Please review our
privacy statement and contact us with any questions, suggestions
or concerns.
The Big Picture Company
17 Gordon Ave., Suite 104
Providence, RI 02905
Phone: (401) 781-1873
Fax: (401) 781-1874
Contact: Joe Battaglia
Email: jbattaglia@bigpicture.org
Big Picture Online, www.bigpictureonline.org,
was created by The Big Picture Company and Kids Energy, as a collaborative
effort. The site is owned and operated by The Big Picture Company.
Kids Energy maintains the site and manages technical support.
BPO is a web-based application that allows
students to post work online. It then allows other supporting
adults – advisors, parents, mentors, administrators, etc.
– to access to that work. Adults and students can also share
news, events, materials, and other resources, or participate in
online forums and other community features.
The system allows staff at The Big Picture
Company or in schools to collect personally identifiable information
for several purposes:
• Set up a new account for a user and establish the rights
and permissions that user has in the system.
• Post news or an event, along with relevant contact information.
• Provide email or desk-based support – information
on how to get started or
• Contact users about features or information in which they
have expressed and/or for routine administrative and software
support matters (e.g., newsletters, billing, changes in service
status, new feature announcements, voluntary surveys).
• Monitor Big Picture Online usage to improve site features,
navigation, content, and user support.
In order to carry out these activities,
Big Picture or school staff may collect the following personally
identifiable information:
• Name
• Email
• School or organization name
• Mailing address
• Phone
• Fax
• Grade level and classes
• School or organization address
• School district
We may collect this information via on-
and offline forms.
The Big Picture Company and site manager Kids Energy, Inc. will
never give out, trade, sell, or otherwise distribute or disclose
any personal information you provide unless it is to: a) comply
with a court order or other legal process; (b) take precautions
against legal liability or damage to the security and integrity
of our website, and/or (c) enforce our Terms of Use. No other
third party may collect or view your personal information via
our site.
We may, however, share aggregate statistics
related to content and site usage (i.e., favorite materials, topic
most searched, number of subscribers from California); for example,
in funding proposals or foundation reports. This aggregate data
will never be linked to personal information.
The Big Picture Company is fully compliant
with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998 (COPPA).
For more information about COPPA, please visit Kidz
Privacy.
Under the Act, parental consent is a prerequisite
for collecting, using, or disclosing personal information from
children under 13. A parent may at any time refuse to permit the
Big Picture Company to use a student’s personal information,
maintain it in retrievable form, or collect any further personal
information from that child. Schools may, and in the case of Big
Picture Online do, act as parents' agents or as intermediaries
in this notice and consent process.
Parents may login using their child's
username and password to review and change account information.
They may also request that staff at their child’s school
do so. School staff can then login, find that particular student's
account, and make any changes or updates requested.
A student account profile may include
first and last name, username and password, and email address.
We work with each new subscribing school to create student accounts
so that they are consistent with the school’s own student
information policies (i.e., aliases and anonymous identifiers
instead of student names, first names only, school selected or
automatically generated usernames and passwords, etc.). The Big
Picture Company will never condition a student's use of the site
based on student information provided or not provided.
BPO includes features that allow students
to post their work on the web in the form of typed text entries
and uploaded files. Currently, BPO does not include chat rooms
for users. Student and adult user can post to forums. They have
the option to create forums only for classroom or school use or
they can participate in forums that are open to all users of BPO.
We require that all users adhere to our Terms of Use, including
all terms related to online privacy, the Family
Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), and their own
school’s Acceptable Use Policy (AUP).
Students and other users may request help
from Big Picture Company staff via email or phone. Big Picture
staff will involve the student’s teacher or other school
staff member in resolving the issue. Staff will not ask for a
student’s personally identifiable information unless a parent
or school staff member gives permission. We will delete any personal
information received from a student, limit our response to only
the help needed, and will delete student messages once we address
the specific question or issue.
The Big Picture Company may occasionally
feature student stories on the site, in newsletters, or in other
publications. In this case, we ask that parents sign a release
form granting us permission to use their child's information (name,
school, city and state) publicly.
We may send account holders and new subscribers
email messages to verify login and subscription information. We
may also send messages to help users make the most of Big Picture
Online. User communication may include: newsletters, tips and
support news, and ‘check-in’ messages. To opt out
of any or all communication, users can email Joe Battaglia at
The Big Picture Company: jbattaglia@bigpicture.org
The Big Picture Company may also send
newsletters and/or information about BPO to other contacts that
have expressed an interest. Non-subscriber contacts may opt out
of these messages by emailing
jbattaglia@bigpicture.org or by checking the "unsubscribe"
box at the bottom of messages.
We will not communicate directly with
students unless they initiate a specific help request.
Password Protection
BPO users have a unique account and must have a valid username
and password to login. Login provides access to an account profile
and areas, features, and other information appropriate to your
status, rights, and permissions (student, principal, parent, etc.).
For example:
• An advisor can see his or her students’ online
‘portfolio’ of work. The advisor has also ‘edit
and review’ rights – he or she can edit or remove
student work.
• A student may only view his or her work or materials shared
to them.
• A parent can only see his or her student’s work.
• Principals and other school administrators can add and
view account information for any user at their school(s).
• An advisor at one school can create a forum for advisors
at all schools. Other advisors may then post to that forum. Students
would not have access to this forum.
Users should always logout of BPO when done
and close your browser window. BPO also has a “timeout”
feature that will automatically log a user out after an hour of
inactivity. This is to protect your information, especially in
public settings like school computer labs.
Tracking
BPO has built-in tracking and reporting features that count user
activity – for example, the number of files uploaded, learning
plans created, or internships completed. This information displays
to users. We use the information to: 1) improve features, navigation,
content, and support 2) evaluate BPO, and 3) provide aggregate
information to current and potential funders.
Cookies
A cookie is a piece of data a web operator stores on your computer
and uses to collect information about you and your web use behavior.
BPO only uses temporary session (or transient) cookies, which
are stored in temporary memory and erased when you close your
web browser. Unlike stored (or persistent) cookies, session cookies
do not collect information from your computer or other personally
identifiable information. Your information is collected and stored
in your online profile.
Clear Gifs (Web Beacons or Web Bugs)
A clear gif is a tiny, transparent graphic with a unique identifier,
similar in function to cookies. They are used to track the online
movements, IP address, browser type and other information about
web users. We do not use clear gifs inside BPO. We may use them
in email correspondence to track open or click-through rates.
Log Files
Like many web sites, we keep a log of IP addresses, browser types
and other access information to help us administer our site, troubleshoot
problems, and track aggregate movement and use. We currently use
server-based IIS utilities and coding software to do this. We
may also use other tools like WebTrends to do this.
Data Security
BPO servers are hosted offsite, at a
professionally managed and secure hosting site. We back up databases
regularly. Information you store on our servers is protected and
will not be lost once posted.
External Links
BPO contains links to other reputable
web sites – including educational resources. Any user may
post an external resource and share it to a common library (the
Knowledge Exchange). Users are asked to carefully select and screen
sites and materials to make sure they are appropriate for BPO
users. School administrators are asked to monitor posts made by
users at their schools. The Big Picture Company is not responsible
for the content and privacy practices of these sites. However,
we reserve the right to remove objectionable materials or links.
Third Parties
We may form partnerships, sponsorships,
or other relationships to provide you with additional features
and services or to secure resources to further develop BPO. New
partners, sponsors, or co-sponsors will not be able view nor access
your personally identifiable information from our site, nor solicit
you as a result of information you’ve as a BPO user. We
may promote co-sponsor or partner opportunities on site pages.
We will not display commercial advertising.
Content Sharing
Big Picture Online is an educational web
application designed to promote successful learning activities.
As a subscriber, you can post and share content – great
learning activities, resources and web sites, forum messages,
etc.
The Big Picture Company monitors content
shared to the “network” (all schools), to multiple
schools, or to groups of users across schools. We reserve the
right to remove inappropriate or outdated content. We ask that
school administrators do the same for content shared between users
at their school.
Updates and Changes to this Privacy Policy
The Big Picture Company may update this
Privacy Statement periodically. We will post a message prominently
on the Privacy Statement page of our web site summarizing the
change and rationale for it.
If we materially change what data we collect
and how we use it, we will notify schools and individual subscribers
by email. If we change how we handle student data, or if we add
features that require additional information from students, we
will notify the administrator at each school. Any such feature
would be designed with school input. With any change, we will
clearly indicate how users can unsubscribe themselves and their
students from BPO.
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