Privacy policy

LAST UPDATED: April 15, 2024

We take your privacy and personal information seriously. Please read the following to learn more about our Privacy Policy. By using or accessing the brightwheel Services in any manner, you acknowledge the practices and policies outlined in this Privacy Policy. Remember that your use of brightwheel’s Services is at all times subject to the Terms of Use, which incorporates this Privacy Policy. 

What does this Privacy Policy cover?

This Privacy Policy covers our treatment of personal information defined under applicable privacy laws (“Personal Information”) that we process when you are accessing or using brighthweel’s websites, apps, platforms, or other online or offline offerings, including Experience Early Learning branded curriculum tools (the “Services”). 

California Supplemental Notice. If you are a resident of California, click here to review our Supplemental Notice for California Residents.

An Important Note. This Privacy Policy does not apply to any of the Personal Information that we process on behalf of our customers (schools and school administrators) through their use of our Services (“Customer Data”). Our customers’ respective privacy policies govern their collection and use of Customer Data. Our processing of Customer Data is governed by the contracts that we have in place with our customers, not this Privacy Policy. Any questions or requests relating to Customer Data e.g., requests to delete information about your child on the brightwheel platform should be directed to our customer i.e., your child’s school or school administrator. 

Will brightwheel ever change this Privacy Policy?

We’re constantly trying to improve our Services, so we may need to change this Privacy Policy from time to time in our sole discretion. If we make material changes to this Privacy Policy, we will do our best to alert you to changes by placing a notice on mybrightwheel.com, by sending you an email, and/or by some other means. Please note that if we aren’t able to send a notification or if you’ve opted not to receive legal notice emails from us (or you haven’t provided us with your email address), you are still responsible for reading and understanding the changes. If you use the Services after any changes to the Privacy Policy have been posted, that means you agree to all of the changes. 

Children’s Information. The Services are not directed to children under 16 (or other age as required by local law), and we do not knowingly collect Personal Information from children If you believe that a child has provided us with Personal Information without your consent, please contact us at info@mybrightwheel.com.

What Information does brightwheel collect?

Information You Provide to Us:

We receive any information you knowingly provide to us. 

  • Account Information. Through the registration process and/or through your account settings, we may collect Personal Information such as your name, email address, phone number, and third-party account credentials (for example, your log-in credentials for Facebook or other third party sites). 
  • Your Communications with Us. We may communicate with you if you’ve provided us the means to do so. For example, if you’ve given us your email address, we may send you promotional email offers on behalf of other businesses, or email you about your use of the Services. Also, we may receive a confirmation when you open an email from us. This confirmation helps us make our communications with you more interesting and improve our services. 
  • Surveys. We may contact you to participate in surveys. If you decide to participate, we may collect Personal Information from you in connection with the survey.
  • Interactive Features. We and others who use our Services may collect personal information that you submit or make available through our interactive features (e.g., commenting functionalities, forums, blogs, and social media pages). Any information you provide using the public sharing features of the Services will be considered “public,” unless otherwise required by applicable law, and is not subject to the privacy protections referenced herein.
  • Conferences, Trade Shows, and Other Events. We may collect Personal Information from individuals when we attend or host conferences, trade shows, and other events. 
  • Business Development and Strategic Partnerships. We may collect Personal Information from individuals and third parties to assess and pursue potential business opportunities. 
  • Job Applications. We may post job openings and opportunities on our Services. If you respond to one of these postings, we may collect your Personal Information, such as your application, CV, cover letter, and/or any other information you provide to us.

Information Collected Automatically:

  • Personal Information Collected Automatically. Whenever you interact with our Services, we automatically receive and record information on our server logs from your browser or device, which may include your IP address, device identification, the type of browser and/or device you’re using to access our Services, and the page or feature you requested. 
  • Use of Technologies. Through cookies, pixel tags and other technologies (“Technologies”) that we and third parties place on your browser or device, we, as well as our third party providers of Technologies, may collect information about your online activity through your use of our Services and/or after you leave our Services.  

Information Collected From Other Sources:

  • Third-Party Services and Sources. We may obtain Personal Information about you from other sources, including through third-party services and organizations.  For example, if you access our Services through a third-party application, we may collect Personal Information about you from that third-party application that you have made available via your privacy settings. For example, if you choose to connect your brightwheel account to your bank with Plaid, we may receive information about your purchases and transactions through Plaid.  
  • Referrals and Sharing Features. Our Services may offer various tools and functionalities that allow you to provide Personal Information about your friends through our referral service. Our referral services may also allow you to forward or share certain content with a friend or colleague, such as an email inviting your friend to use our Services. Please only share with us contact information of people with whom you have a relationship (e.g., relative, friend, neighbor, or co-worker).

How does brightwheel use Personal Information?

We use your Personal Information for a variety of business purposes, including to provide our Services, for administrative purposes, and to market our products and Services, as described below.

  1. Provide Our Services

    2. We use your Personal Information to fulfill our contract with you and provide you with our Services, such as:

    • Managing your information and accounts;
    • Providing access to certain areas, functionalities, and features of our Services;
    • Answering requests for customer or technical support;
    • Communicating with you about your account, activities on our Services, and policy changes;
    • Processing applications if you apply for a job we post on our Services; and
    • Allowing you to register for events.
  2. Administrative Purposes

    3. We use your Personal Information for various administrative purposes, such as:

    • Pursuing our legitimate interests such as direct marketing, research and development (including marketing research), network and information security, and fraud prevention;
    • Detecting security incidents, protecting against malicious, deceptive, fraudulent or illegal activity, and prosecuting those responsible for that activity;
    • Measuring interest and engagement in our Services;
    • Improving, upgrading, or enhancing our Services; 
    • Developing new products and services;
    • Ensuring internal quality control and safety;
    • Authenticating and verifying individual identities, including requests to exercise your rights under this Privacy Policy;
    • Debugging to identify and repair errors with our Services;
    • Auditing relating to interactions, transactions, and other compliance activities;
    • Sharing Personal Information with third parties as needed to provide the Services;
    • Enforcing our agreements and policies; and
    • Carrying out activities that are required to comply with our legal obligations.
  3. Marketing and Advertising our Products and Services

    4. We may use Personal Information to tailor and provide you with content and advertisements. We may provide you with these materials as permitted by applicable law.

    Some of the ways we may market to you include email campaigns, phone calls, custom audiences advertising, and “personalized advertising” or “targeted advertising,” including through cross-device tracking.

    If you have any questions about our marketing practices, you may contact us at any time at info@mybrightwheel.com.

  4. With Your Consent

    5. We may use Personal Information for other purposes that are clearly disclosed to you at the time you provide Personal Information or with your consent.

  5. Other Purposes

    6. We also use your Personal Information for other purposes as requested by you or as permitted by applicable law.

    • De-identified and Aggregated Information. We may use Personal Information to create de-identified and/or aggregated information, such as demographic information, information about how you use the Services, information about the device from which you access our Services, or other analyses we create. De-identified and/or aggregated information is not Personal Information, and we may use, disclose, and retain such information as permitted by applicable laws including, but not limited to, for research, analysis, analytics, and any other legally permissible purposes.

brightwheel’s Disclosures of Personal Information We may share your Personal Information with third parties as described in this section:

Business Partners: In certain situations, businesses or third party websites may sell or provide products or services to you through or in connection with the Services (either alone or jointly with us).

Affiliates: We may share your Personal Information with our corporate affiliates.

Service Providers: We employ other companies and people to perform tasks on our behalf and need to share your information with them to provide products or services to you; for example, we may use a payment processing company to receive and process your credit card transactions for us. Examples of service providers we may use include:

  • Google Analytics. For more information about how Google uses your Personal Information (including for its own purposes, e.g., for profiling or linking it to other data), please visit Google Analytics’ Privacy Policy. To learn more about how to opt-out of Google Analytics’ use of your information, please click here.
  • LinkedIn Analytics. For more information about how LinkedIn uses your Personal Information, please visit LinkedIn Analytics’ Privacy Policy. To learn more about how to opt-out of LinkedIn’s use of your information, please click here.

Other Users or Third Parties You Share or Interact With: Our Services may allow you to share personal information or interact with other users and third parties (including individuals and third parties who do not use our Services and the general public). For instance, if you choose to use the Gusto integration, you acknowledge and agree that you are directing brightwheel to share your personal information with Gusto. Your access or use of third party websites or third party services is subject to the third party’s terms and conditions and privacy policy, not brightwheel’s.

Advertising Partners: Phone numbers we collect will not be shared with third parties for their marketing purposes. However, we may share your Personal Information with third-party advertising partners via the use of Technologies as described in this section. These third-party advertising partners may set Technologies and other tracking tools on our Services to collect information regarding your activities and your device (e.g., your IP address, cookie identifiers, page(s) visited, location, time of day). These advertising partners may use this information (and similar information collected from other services) for purposes of delivering personalized advertisements to you when you visit digital properties within their networks. This practice is commonly referred to as “interest-based advertising”, “personalized advertising”, or “targeted advertising.”

Business Transfers: We may choose to buy or sell assets, and may share and/or transfer customer information in connection with the evaluation of and entry into such transactions. Also, if we (or our assets) are acquired, or if we go out of business, enter bankruptcy, or go through some other change of control, Personal Information could be one of the assets transferred to or acquired by a third party.

Protection of Company and Others: We reserve the right to access, read, preserve, and disclose any information that we  believe is necessary to comply with law or court order; enforce or apply our Terms of Use and other agreements; or protect the rights, property, or safety of Company, our employees, our users, or others.

Is Personal Information about me secure?

Your account is protected by a password for your privacy and security. You are responsible for preventing unauthorized access to your account and Personal Information by selecting and protecting your password appropriately.

What Personal Information can I access?

Through your account settings, you may access, and, in some cases, edit or delete the information you’ve provided to us, such as email, password, and contact information. The information you can view, update, and delete may change as the Services change. If you have any questions about viewing or updating information we have on file about you, please contact us at info@mybrightwheel.com.

International transfers of Personal Information

All Personal Information processed by us may be transferred, processed, and stored anywhere in the world, including, but not limited to, the United States or other countries, which may have data protection laws that are different from the laws where you live. 

If we transfer Personal Information which originates in the European Economic Area, Switzerland, and/or the United Kingdom to a country that has not been found to provide an adequate level of protection under applicable data protection laws, one of the safeguards we may use to support such transfer is the EU Standard Contractual Clauses. 

For more information about the safeguards we use for international transfers of your Personal Information, please contact us at info@mybrightwheel.com. 

How long will you store my Personal Information?

We store the Personal Information we collect as described in this Privacy Policy for as long as you use our Services, or as necessary to fulfill the purpose(s) for which it was collected, provide our Services, resolve disputes, establish legal defenses, conduct audits, pursue legitimate business purposes, enforce our agreements, and comply with applicable laws.  

To determine the appropriate retention period for Personal Information, we may consider applicable legal requirements, the amount, nature, and sensitivity of the Personal Information, certain risk factors, the purposes for which we process your Personal Information, and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means.

What rights do I have? 

In accordance with applicable law, you may have the right to:

  • Confirm Whether We Are Processing Your Personal Information (the right to know); 
  • Access to and Portability of Your Personal Information, including: (i) obtaining access to or a copy of your Personal Information; and (ii) receiving an electronic copy of Personal Information that you have provided to us, or asking us to send that information to another company in a structured, commonly used, and machine readable format (also known as the “right of data portability”);
  • Request Correction of your Personal Information where it is inaccurate or incomplete. In some cases, we may provide self-service tools that enable you to update your Personal Information;
  • Request Deletion of your Personal Information; 
  • Request to Opt-Out of Certain Processing Activities including, as applicable, if we process your Personal Information for “targeted advertising” (as “targeted advertising” is defined by applicable privacy laws),  if we “sell” your Personal Information (as “sell” is defined by applicable privacy laws), or if we engage in “profiling” in furtherance of certain “decisions that produce legal or similarly significant effects” concerning you (as such terms are defined by applicable privacy laws); 
  • Request Restriction of or Object to our processing of your Personal Information; 
  • Withdraw your Consent to our processing of your Personal Information. Please note that your withdrawal will only take effect for future processing, and will not affect the lawfulness of processing before the withdrawal; and
  • Appeal our Decision to decline to process your request. 

If you would like to exercise any of these rights, please contact us at info@mybrightwheel.com. We will process such requests in accordance with applicable laws.

If applicable laws grant you an appeal right and you would like to appeal our decision with respect to your request, you may do so by informing us of this and providing us with information supporting your appeal. 

What privacy choices do I have?

The privacy choices you may have about your Personal Information are determined by applicable law and are described below. 

  • Email Communications. If you receive an unwanted email from us, you can use the unsubscribe link found at the bottom of the email to opt out of receiving future emails. Note that you will continue to receive transaction-related emails regarding products or Services you have requested. We may also send you certain non-promotional communications regarding us and our Services, and you will not be able to opt out of those communications (e.g., communications regarding our Services or updates to our Terms of Use or this Privacy Policy). 
  • Text Messages. If you receive an unwanted text message from us, you may opt out of receiving future text messages from us by following the instructions in the text message you have received from us or by otherwise contacting us at info@mybrightwheel.com. 
  • Phone Calls. If you receive unwanted phone calls from us, you may opt out of receiving future phone calls from us by following the instructions which may be available on the call or by otherwise contacting us at info@mybrightwheel.com.
  • “Do Not Track.” Do Not Track (“DNT”) is a privacy preference that users can set in certain web browsers. Please note that we do not respond to or honor DNT signals or similar mechanisms transmitted by web browsers.
  • Cookies and Personalized Advertising. You may stop or restrict the placement of Technologies on your device or remove them by adjusting your preferences as your browser or device permits. However, if you adjust your preferences, our Services may not work properly. Please note that cookie-based opt-outs are not effective on mobile applications. However, you may opt-out of personalized advertisements on some mobile applications by following the instructions for Android, iOS, and others.

The online advertising industry also provides websites from which you may opt out of receiving targeted ads from data partners and other advertising partners that participate in self-regulatory programs. You can access these and learn more about targeted advertising and consumer choice and privacy by visiting the Network Advertising Initiative, the Digital Advertising Alliance, the European Digital Advertising Alliance, and the Digital Advertising Alliance of Canada. 

Please note you must separately opt out in each browser and on each device. 

What if I have questions about this policy?

Brightwheel is the controller of the Personal Information we process under this Privacy Policy. 

If you have any questions or concerns regarding our privacy practices, or to exercise your rights as detailed in this Privacy Policy, please send us a detailed message to info@mybrightwheel.com.