Children Privacy Policy
General Provisions
Effective as of :January 01 2025
Welcome to World English Academy, an online educational service made available by World English Academy Inc. (“we,” “us,” or “our”) through our website at https://www.World English Academy.com/kids-english-course. This Children’s Privacy Policy describes our practices involving the online collection, use, and disclosure of personal information from children in connection with their use of World English Academy.
World English Academy will handle personal information collected from children as described in this Children’s Privacy Policy. Please note, however, that some portions of World English Academy, such as the sign-up pages, direct notice to parents, and credit card payment pages, as well as the separate general-audience World English Academy website and mobile application, are directed to parents of children and other adults. Any personal information we collect through these non-child-directed World English Academy services and pages will be treated in accordance with the general-audience World English Academy Privacy Policy, which can be accessed here: https://www.worldenglishacademy.com/privacy-policy.
We are committed to complying with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (“COPPA”) and other applicable privacy laws. As discussed below, we obtain consent from a parent or legal guardian where required by applicable law before collecting, using, and/or disclosing personal information from a child through their use of World English Academy. We encourage parents to take an active role in protecting their children’s privacy and online experience at all times.
We can be contacted here or at:
World English Academy Inc.
12020 Sunrise Valley Drive, Suite 100
Reston, VA, USA
We provide important information for individuals located in the European Economic Area, United Kingdom, and California below.
What Information Do We Collect from Children?
For a child to access and use World English Academy, a parent or legal guardian must log the child into a sub-account created and maintained through the account of the parent or legal guardian. Prior to logging a child into World English Academy, the parent or legal guardian is required to provide the child’s first name, age, and English language proficiency level. Upon creation of the sub-account, the parent or legal guardian also must consent to the collection of personal information from the child.
Tutoring activity data including:
the child’s progress and performance data generated based on the child’s interaction with World English Academy Site.
video records of the child’s sessions with tutors, as well as messages between the child and the tutor. World English Academy captures this so that World English Academy administrators can review and communicate with the child about his or her English learning progress.
A World English Academy user ID, which is an internal number that we use to track information associated with the account and the child’s activity.
Persistent identifiers, including cookies, IP addresses, MAC addresses, and data associated with web beacons, which we use to provide and improve World English Academy, for error logging, for analytics, and to collect usage information and information about the child’s browser, software and operating system, device type, and similar information. Like many websites, World English Academy does not currently respond to “do not track” browser headers. However, you can take steps to limit cookie tracking by erasing cookies from the child’s computer or other device and by setting the child’s browser to block all cookies or warn the child before a cookie is stored. However, if you choose to block or delete cookies, certain features of World English Academy may not operate correctly.
We will not ask for more personal information from children than is reasonably necessary for children to participate in World English Academy. Further, although children interact directly with tutors, we do not allow children to have the option or ability to make personal information more publicly available through World English Academy.
How Do We Use the Information We Collect from Children?
For the purposes for which the child provided the information, including, for example, to monitor the child’s educational progress, to provide parents and legal guardians with information and reports about the child’s performance, and to create and maintain the sub-account for the child. We also use the collected information as necessary to provide the features and functionality of World English Academy to children.
To personalize the content that children see based on personal characteristics or preferences.
To analyze and draw insights based on your child’s use of World English Academy. We use this information for a range of internal purposes, such as error logging, security, helping us improve World English Academy, and developing new products and services.
To comply with our legal obligations or as permitted by law;
We may combine children’s personal information collected through World English Academy with other information that we or third parties collect about children in other contexts—such as our communications with parents or legal guardians via email or phone, or customer service records related to a child’s user account.
How and to Whom Do We Disclose Information from Children?
We may disclose the personal information that we collect from children as described below.
Affiliates and subsidiaries. We may disclose your information to World English Academy affiliates and subsidiaries.
With Parents or Legal Guardians. A child’s account will be associated with the parent or legal guardian’s account, such that the parent or legal guardian can view and monitor his or her child’s progress. A parent or legal guardian can also access video recordings of his or her child’s lesson with tutors.
Tutors. Children can schedule and take lessons with tutors through video chat sessions. When a child engages in a video chat session with a tutor, the tutor will receive the child’s first name and any other personal information your child shares. The tutor, through his or her own tutor account, will be able to review the child’s learning progress and offer feedback. Children also can communicate directly with tutors outside a video chat session on World English Academy, such as through direct messages.
Service Providers. We may use third-party service providers, contractors or agents to assist us in making World English Academy available or to help us improve World English Academy. For example, we use a service provider to provide the video connection for the children’s tutoring sessions, and we use database hosting and data storage providers. Such service providers may collect data themselves or obtain access to the personal information we collect from children to assist us in achieving the purposes discussed above in the section entitled “How Do We Use the Information We Collect from Children.”
Professional advisors. We may disclose your personal information to professional advisors, such as lawyers, bankers, auditors and insurers, where necessary in the course of the professional services that they render to us.
Aggregated and De-Identified Information. We may report aggregated, anonymous data relating to activity on World English Academy to third parties or the general public. By way of example only, this may include the provision of reports regarding child engagement with World English Academy and/or English-learning progress for such purposes as educational research, to evaluate the educational benefit of using World English Academy, to improve World English Academy, or to show the efficacy and usage when marketing World English Academy. Such aggregated, anonymous data will not contain any children’s personal information, including persistent identifiers.
Business Transaction. In the event of a transaction, such as a merger, sale of capital stock or assets, reorganization, capital investment, consolidation, or similar transaction (or the due diligence in contemplation thereof) involving World English Academy, the information we possess, including personal information collected from children, shall be transferred as a corporate asset to the acquiring entity. We will notify parents or legal guardians via email and/or post a prominent notice on World English Academy of any change in ownership or uses of children’s personal information, as well as any choices available to the parent or legal guardian regarding the children’s personal information.
Legal. We will use and disclose children’s personal information where we, in good faith, believe that the law or legal process (such as a court order, search warrant, or subpoena) requires us to do so or in other circumstances where we believe it is necessary to protect the rights, property, or personal safety of World English Academy, our users, and/or third parties.
We may disclose aggregated, de-identified data relating to activity on World English Academy with third parties or the general public. By way of example only, this may include the provision of reports regarding child engagement with World English Academy and/or English learning progress for such purposes as educational research, to evaluate the educational benefit of using World English Academy, to improve World English Academy, or to show the efficacy and usage when marketing World English Academy. Such aggregated, de-identified data will not contain personal information collected from children.
Parental Rights to Review, Delete, and Control Their Child’s Personal Information
When a child’s account is first opened, we obtain consent from a parent or legal guardian to the collection, use, and disclosure of personal information from children as described in this Children’s Privacy Policy. We also encourage parents or legal guardians to log in to their child’s account to view the child’s activities and progress. Parents or legal guardians may also contact the World English Academy to review the type of information collected from children or to change their consent to the collection, use, and disclosure of their child’s personal information. Parents or legal guardians may also ask us at any time to stop collecting personal information from their child and request that we delete any information we have already collected. However, such requests may result in termination of the child’s access to and use of World English Academy.
To contact us about these parental rights, please send us a request here or contact us at:
World English Academy Inc.
12020 Sunrise Valley Drive, Suite 100
Reston, VA, USA
In any correspondence, please include the parent or legal guardian’s email address and the child’s name. To protect children’s privacy and security, we will take reasonable steps to verify a parent or legal guardian’s identity before granting access to any children’s personal information.
Security
We implement security measures to protect the information we collect from the World English Academy. It is important that you protect and maintain the security of your account credentials and notify us immediately of any unauthorized use of your account. Please understand that no data transmission over the Internet can be guaranteed to be 100% secure. Consequently, we cannot ensure or warrant the security of any information you transmit to us.
Data Retention
Absent a request to delete data, we keep your information until we determine it is no longer necessary to fulfill the purpose for which the information was collected. The length of time for which we retain information depends on the purposes for which we collected and use it and your choices, after which time we may delete and/or aggregate it. We may also retain and use this information as necessary to comply with our legal obligations, resolve disputes, and enforce our agreements.
Personal information collected from children may remain in our backup servers for a reasonable period from the date of any deletion request, after which it will be deleted and cannot be restored. As discussed above, a parent may request to delete personal information collected from his or her child at any time during the period of the subscription or after the subscription ends.
In the event we discover that we have collected information from a child in a manner inconsistent with legal requirements, we will either delete the information or seek parent or guardian consent for that collection.
Consent to Transfer
Our computer systems are currently based in the United States, so your personal information will be processed by us in the United States, where data protection and privacy regulations may not offer the same level of protection as in other parts of the world. By using World English Academy, you agree to this Children’s Privacy Policy and you consent to the transfer of all such information to the United States, which may not offer a level of protection equivalent to that required in the European Union, United Kingdom, or certain other countries, and to the processing of that information as described in this Children’s Privacy Policy.
Children’s Privacy
The World English Academy Kids Education contains content appropriate for children, including those under the age of 13 in the United States or 16 in all other jurisdictions (“children”), and may collect personal information directly from children. For more information about our distinct practices concerning collection, use, and disclosure of children’s personal information in connection with the World English Academy Kids Site, please see our Children’s Privacy Policy. Our general-audience Services are not directed to children. If you become aware that your child has provided us with personal information through the Services, please contact us here. We do not knowingly collect personal information from children through the Services, other than through World English Academy Kids. If we become aware that a child has provided us with personal information, we will take steps to remove that information as required by applicable law and terminate the applicable account.
Third-Party Websites
World English Academy may link to third-party websites from companies other than World English Academy, such as to relevant online resources. We are not responsible for the privacy practices or content of such other websites. If you have any questions about how these other websites use your information, you should review their policies and contact them directly. We are not responsible for the actions of third parties.
Additional Regional Disclosures
As explained in Section 4 above, parents have rights to review, delete, and control their child’s personal information. Certain regions in which we operate require us to make additional disclosures regarding our privacy practices.
European Economic Area, United Kingdom, Turkey, Korea, and Brazil
The laws of some jurisdictions such as the laws of the European Union require data controllers to tell you about the legal ground that they rely on for using, sharing, or disclosing your information. We are the data controller of the personal information covered by this Children’s Privacy Policy. To the extent those laws apply, our legal grounds are as follows:
Contractual Commitments: We may use or disclose information to honor our contractual commitments to you (e.g. to comply with our User Agreement, which you accept by browsing or otherwise using World English Academy).
With Your Consent: Where required by law, and in some other cases, we use or disclose information on the basis of your consent.
Legitimate Interests: In many cases, we use or disclose information on the ground that it furthers our legitimate business interests in ways that are not overridden by the interests or fundamental rights and freedoms of the affected individuals, such as customer service, analyzing and improving our business, providing security for World English Academy, preventing fraud, and managing legal issues.
Legal Compliance: We need to use and disclose information in certain ways to comply with our legal obligations.
You and your child may have the following rights, under certain circumstances. To exercise any of your rights please send us a request here. Your local laws may permit you to request that we:
Provide access to and/or a copy of certain information we hold about your child
Prevent the processing of your information for direct marketing purposes (including any direct marketing processing based on profiling)
Update or rectify information which is out of date or incorrect
Delete certain information that we are holding about your child
Oppose,cancel or restrict the way that we process and disclose certain information
Transfer your child’s information to a third-party provider of services
Revoke your consent for the processing of your child’s information
We will consider all requests and provide our response within the time period stated by applicable law. Please note, however, that certain information may be exempt from such requests in some circumstances, which may include if we need to keep processing your information for our legitimate interests or to comply with a legal obligation. We may request that you provide us with information necessary to confirm your identity before responding to your request as required or permitted by applicable law.
If you have unresolved concerns, you may lodge a complaint with your local data protection authority. However, we encourage you to contact us first, and we will do our best to resolve your concern.
California Notice at Collection
Categories of information we collect
California law requires us to disclose information regarding the categories of personal information that we have collected about California consumers, the categories of sources from which the information was collected, the business or commercial purposes (as those terms are defined by applicable law) for which the information was collected, and the categories of parties with whom we disclose personal information. Section 1 above describes the information we collect from and about you, Section 2 describes the purposes for which we use this information, and Section 3 describes when and to whom we disclose data. The CCPA requires us to list the personal information we collect by category along with the purposes of its use and the unaffiliated parties to which it is disclosed.
| Categories of personal information (see Section 1 above for more information) | Purposes of use (see Section 2 above for more information) | Categories of other parties to whom we disclose the information for business and operational purposes (see Section 3 above for more information) |
|---|---|---|
| Identifiers Such as name and other account information | For the purposes for which the child provided the information To provide the features and functionality of World English Academy To personalize content To analyze and draw insights about World English Academy | Affiliates and subsidiaries Parents or legal guardians Tutors Service providers Professional advisors Business transfers Entities for legal and security purposes |
| Internet or other network or device activity Such as an IP address, unique device identifiers, advertising and app identifiers, browsing history, or other usage data or persistent identifiers | For the purposes for which the child provided the information To provide the features and functionality of World English Academy To personalize content To analyze and draw insights about World English Academy | Affiliates and subsidiaries Service providers Professional advisors Business transfers Entities for legal and security purposes Others with your consent |
| General location information Such as your general location inferred from an IP address | For the purposes for which the child provided the information To provide the features and functionality of World English Academy To personalize content To analyze and draw insights about World English Academy | Affiliates and subsidiaries Service providers Professional advisors Business transfers Entities for legal and security purposes Others with your consent |
| Audio or visual information Such as tutoring activity data | For the purposes for which the child provided the information To provide the features and functionality of World English Academy To personalize content To analyze and draw insights about World English Academy | Affiliates and subsidiaries Parents or legal guardians Tutors Service providers Professional advisors Business transfers Entities for legal and security purposes |
| Protected classification and demographic information Such as information from our users that reveals information related to protected classifications, such as ethnicity or nationality | For the purposes for which the child provided the information To provide the features and functionality of World English Academy To personalize content | Affiliates and subsidiaries Service providers Professional advisors Business transfers Entities for legal and security purposes Others with your consent |
| Other information any other information you provide to us that directly or indirectly identifies you, such as information you include in emails or other communications to us | Purposes of use will depend on the additional information you provide | Disclosure will depend on the additional information you provide |
| Other information (any other information you provide to us that directly or indirectly identifies you, such as information you include in emails or other communications to us) | Purposes of use will depend on the additional information you provide | Disclosure will depend on the additional information you provide |
Some of the categories of personal information above may also be “sensitive personal information” under the CCPA. We may collect the following types of “sensitive personal information”: (1) account log-in and password or other credentials allowing access to your World English Academy account; and (2) information you may voluntarily provide that may reveal race/ethnic origin or other protected classifications.
We collect the categories of personal information identified above from the child, the child’s parent or through the child’s use of the Services.
Your Child’s CCPA Rights
California residents may have certain rights. California law may permit the parent of a child to request that we:
Provide you the categories of personal information we have collected or disclosed about the child; the categories of sources of such information; the business or commercial purpose for collecting, “selling,” or “sharing” the personal information of your child; the categories of third parties to whom we disclose or “sell,” or with whom we “share,” personal information of your child; and the categories of personal information we “sell” or “share.”
Provide access to and/or a copy of certain information we hold about the child.
Delete certain information we have about the child.
Correct inaccurate personal information we maintain about the child.
Parents may have the right to receive information about the financial incentives that we offer to you, if any. Parents also have the right to not be discriminated against (as provided for in applicable law) for exercising certain rights. Certain information may be exempt from such requests under applicable law. We need certain types of information so that we can provide the Services. If you ask us to delete it, you or your child may no longer be able to access or use the Services.
If you would like to exercise any of these rights on behalf of your child, please submit a request at support@worldenglishacademy.com. You will be required to verify your identity before we fulfill your request. If you have an online account with us, logging into your account will serve to verify your identity and request, although we may request additional information if we believe your account has been compromised. If you do not have an account with us, or if we have reason to suspect that the security of your account is compromised, we will request additional information from you to match with our existing records to verify your identity, depending on the nature of the request and the sensitivity of the information sought.
You can also designate an authorized agent to make a request on your child’s behalf. To do so, you must provide us with written authorization or a power of attorney, signed by you, for the agent to act on your child’s behalf. You will still need to verify your identity directly with us.
The CCPA also allows you to limit the use or disclosure of your “sensitive personal information” (as defined in the CCPA) if your sensitive personal information is used for certain purposes. Please note that we do not use or disclose sensitive personal information other than for purposes for which you cannot opt out under the CCPA.
Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information. California residents may opt out of the “sale” or “sharing” of their personal information, as those terms are defined by the CCPA. The World English Academy does not “sell” or “share” personal information collected from children.
California Do-Not Track Disclosure
World English Academy does not currently recognize or respond to browser-initiated Do-Not-Track signals, as the Internet industry is currently still working on Do-Not-Track standards, implementations and solutions.
California Shine the Light Disclosure
California Civil Code Section 1798.83 permits customers of World English Academy who are California residents to request certain information, once per year, regarding our disclosure of their personal information (as defined by California law) to third parties for their own direct marketing purposes, or in the alternative, that we provide a cost-free means for consumers to opt out of any such sharing. We do not currently share personal information with third parties for their own direct marketing purposes.
Effective Date and Changes to this Policy
This Children’s Privacy Policy is current as of the Effective Date set forth above. We may update this Children’s Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes in World English Academy or our information processing practices. When we make any changes to our practices under this Children’s Privacy Policy, we will change the Effective Date. If we make a material change to this Children’s Privacy Policy, we will make reasonable efforts, taking into account available technology, to ensure that a parent receives direct notice of the changes to our practices.
Questions or Comments
For questions or comments regarding this Children’s Privacy Policy, please contact us here or:
California Civil Code Section 1798.83 permits customers of World English Academy who are California residents to request certain information, once per year, regarding our disclosure of their personal information (as defined by California law) to third parties for their own direct marketing purposes, or in the alternative, that we provide a cost-free means for consumers to opt out of any such sharing. We do not currently share personal information with third parties for their own direct marketing purposes.
World English Academy Inc.
12020 Sunrise Valley Drive, Suite 100
Reston, VA, USA
+1(415) 830-5109
support@worldenglishacademy.com