This Privacy Notice explains how Vernier collects and treats information through vernier.com, vernier.science, and other websites and online channels we own or operate (the “Website”). By accessing the Website, you consent to our privacy practices described in this Privacy Notice. This Privacy Notice is governed by and part of our Website Terms of Use. Capitalized terms not defined herein have the meaning given them in the Website Terms of Use. If you do not agree with this Privacy Notice, do not access the Website.

Please note that this Privacy Notice applies to the Website only. Our Applications and Platform are governed by their own privacy notices, not this one.

Questions? If you have questions about this Privacy Notice, please contact us at info@vernier.com or toll-free at 1-888-837-6437.

Children’s Privacy

This Website is intended to market Vernier’s Applications, Platform, and other products, services, and solutions to educators, school districts, schools, and other legal entities (in each case, a “School”). The Website is not meant for use by children. Vernier does not knowingly collect Personal Information from children under the age of 16. Please contact info@vernier.com if you believe we have received information from a child under 16 or any unauthorized information. 

Personal Information

As used in this Privacy Notice, “Personal Information,” means any information that identifies, relates to, describes, is reasonably capable of being associated with, or could reasonably be linked, directly or indirectly, with a particular consumer or household. Personal Information is described within various categories, for example:

• Identifiers (e.g., name, email, telephone number, address, username); 

• Sensitive Personal Information (e.g., government identification number; precise geolocation; racial or ethnic origin; religious beliefs; health information; contents of messages when we are not the recipient; in some cases, information about a known child);

• Legally protected information (e.g., race, citizenship, marital status, sex);

• Employment-related information (e.g., current or past employment);

• Non-public educational information, including information protected under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (20 U.S.C. § 1232g, 34 C.F.R. Part 99);

• Biometrics (e.g., DNA, face/voice prints, health data) and audio, electronic, visual, thermal, or olfactory information;

• Commercial information (e.g., products or services purchased, obtained, or considered, or other purchasing or consuming histories or tendencies); 

• Internet or other similar activity (e.g., browsing history; content interactions); and

• Inferences drawn from Personal Information to create a profile about preferences, characteristics, trends, predispositions, behavior, attitudes, intelligence, and aptitudes. 

Not all information about you is legally protected as Personal Information. Depending on where you live, publicly available information, aggregated information (meaning data summaries or reports with Personal Information removed), employment-related information, or anonymized information that cannot be linked back to you as an individual may not qualify as “Personal Information.” 

Collection and Use of Personal Information

Vernier collects Personal Information with your consent, with a legitimate interest, or as authorized or required by law. We only collect, use, retain, and disclose Personal Information as adequate and relevant to provide the Website and the services you request through the Website or for other purposes that we disclose to you and are compatible with the context of how we collected your Personal Information. 

During the preceding 12 months, we have collected Personal Information through the Website in the categories of identifiers, employment-related information, commercial information, and internet or similar activity. Vernier collects this information as follows:

• When you use the Website, with your consent—On the Website, you may submit identifiers like your name, email, and phone number via our online form to request information about our Applications, Platform, or other products, services, or solutions (collectively, our “Solutions”), sign up for our mailing list, or request a demo of a Solution. If you are a School or educator with an account on the Website, we will collect commercial information like your order history and resources downloads, as well as any information you choose to submit to Vernier or our online forum. We use this information to fill orders and market our products and services to you according to your communication preferences. If you provide the name and address of your School, we will use this information to fill out electronic forms and notify you about workshops near your location.
• When you request customer support, with your consent. If you call Vernier for customer support, we will collect additional information as needed to answer your questions. We use this information to provide the customer support you request.

• Automatically from your Website visit, with a legitimate interest Vernier uses Google Analytics™ to better understand how our Website is used. We collect technical information from your device like the date and time of your visit, browser type, and operating system, and aggregate information regarding Website pages and content accessed. Please read our Cookie Policy for more information about how we use cookies. We collect this information to achieve our legitimate interest in providing and improving the user experience on the Website. 
• From software publishers or other third parties, with a legitimate interest—Vernier collects professional contact information for educators and key personnel at Schools from other software publishers and other third parties like marketing companies, professional associations, and educational resource companies. These third parties collect this information according to their own privacy practices, over which Vernier has no control. We may combine this information with Personal Information we previously collected about the educator or the School. Vernier uses this information to offer customer support and to market our Solutions to Schools in accordance with applicable law. You have the right to opt out of Vernier’s marketing communications at any time as instructed under Controlling Your Personal Information.

In addition to the specific uses described above, Vernier might also use your Personal Information to (a) monitor your compliance with any of your agreements with us; (b) protect your privacy and enforce this Privacy Notice; (c) if we believe it is necessary, to identify, contact, or bring legal action against persons or entities who may be causing injury to you, to us, or to others; (d) comply with a law, regulation, legal process, or court order; or (e) fulfill any other purpose to which you consent.

Retention of Personal Information

It is Vernier’s policy to collect the minimum Personal Information necessary and retain that information for the minimum period necessary to achieve our business purposes. Here are examples of our retention periods for certain types of data:

• If you have an account on our Website, we will retain your Personal Information associated with your account as long as your account remains active.
• Data collected via Google Analytics is retained for 26 months to analyze Website usage trends.
• Our server maintains an activity log, including IP addresses, and stores that data for one year to protect against security incidents.

Vernier regularly reviews and deletes or deidentifies unnecessary data.

Disclosing Personal Information

Vernier will only disclose Personal Information to trusted third parties as described in this section, with your permission, or as required by law. In the preceding 12 months, Vernier has disclosed Personal Information in the categories of (a) identifiers; (b) employment-related information; (c) commercial information; and (d) internet and similar activity for a business purpose. We may disclose this information to the following recipients:

• Our Service Providers—Vernier’s third-party service providers (e.g., data hosting companies, analytics services, fraud prevention vendors, and payment processors) may have access to your Personal Information to fulfill their contractual obligations to us. The type of information disclose to a service provider will depend on the service that they provide to Vernier. We prohibit our service providers from selling or disclosing Personal Information, and we require all service providers to maintain confidentiality standards and appropriate technical and organizational measures to ensure the security of your Personal Information
• Other Third Parties, as permitted by applicable law, for example: if we go through a business transition (e.g., merger, acquisition, or sale of a portion of our assets); to comply with a legal requirement or a court order; when we believe it is appropriate in order to take action regarding illegal activities or prevent fraud or harm to any person; to exercise or defend our legal claims; or for any other reason with your consent.
• Law enforcement, and other governmental agencies, at our sole discretion in connection with an investigation of any matter that is illegal or that could expose Vernier or our affiliates or subsidiaries to liability.
• Aggregated and De-Identified Information—Vernier reserves the right to disclose aggregated, anonymized, or de-identified information about any individuals with non-affiliated entities for research, product development, marketing, or other purposes, without restriction.

Controlling Your Personal Information

Vernier provides you with these options to directly control how we collect and use your Personal Information through the Website:  

• Your Account—You have the option to access, correct or update, or delete the Personal Information associated with your account on the Website at any time. If you require assistance, please contact privacy@vernier.com. 
• Device Settings—You can control the data we collect automatically by adjusting your device settings, such as blocking cookies or installing a third-party plugin to control how cookies interact with your device. 
• Texting Consent. If you provide Vernier with your wireless number, you consent to Vernier sending you text messages for informational or marketing purposes. The number of texts we send you will be based on your circumstances and requests. You can unsubscribe from text messages by replying STOP or UNSUBSCRIBE to any of these text messages. Messaging and data charges may apply to any text message you receive or send. Please contact your wireless carrier if you have questions about messaging or data charges.
• Marketing Communications—If you provide Vernier with your email address and inquire about our Solutions, we may send you marketing emails in compliance with applicable law. As part of our policy to provide you total privacy, you may opt out of receiving marketing communications from Vernier at any time by clicking the “Unsubscribe” button contained in any email or by sending a request to privacy@vernier.com.
• Do Not Track—Do Not Track signals are signals sent through a browser informing us that you do not want to be tracked. Currently, our systems do not recognize browser “do-not-track” requests. You may, however, disable certain tracking as discussed below.

Your Privacy Rights

Depending on where you live or are located, you may have certain rights over your
Personal Information that we collect and retain. This section provides notices of privacy rights under predominant privacy laws applicable in the United States, EEA, UK, and Canada. Additionally, Australia, as well as many countries within the continents of Africa, South America, and Asia, have enacted comprehensive consumer privacy laws offering a broad spectrum of consumer rights over their Personal Information. To exercise your rights or ask questions about this Privacy Policy, you can submit a verifiable privacy request by email to privacy@vernier.com or by phone at 888.837.6437.

U.S. Privacy Rights

In the United States, consumer privacy is governed by federal privacy laws covering specific industries or data uses and state privacy laws providing with general consumer privacy rights. This section provides informational notices for the more than a dozen U.S. state privacy laws that provide consumer privacy rights and require companies to inform consumers about those rights. Residents of states offering privacy protections (each a “Consumer”) may have some or all of the following rights:

• Right to Correct. You have the right to correct inaccurate Personal Information about you that is on our systems. To do so, login to your account to update your Personal Information and save your changes or send us a privacy request at privacy@vernier.com or by phone at 888.837.6437.
• Right to Delete. You have the right to request that we delete any of your Personal Information that we collected and retained, with certain exceptions. You can request that we delete your Personal Information by submitting a privacy request. In response, we may permanently delete, deidentify, or aggregate your Personal Information.
• Right to Access. You have the right to request that we provide you with access to specific pieces of Personal Information we have collected about you. In some cases, the data available in response to this request may be limited to the preceding 12 months. To access your data, login to your account where you can view or download it. If you need support, email privacy@vernier.com or call 888.837.6437. Please note that we may be prohibited by law from disclosing certain pieces of Personal Information that would create a substantial, articulable, and unreasonable risk to the security of the information, our business systems, or your account.
• No selling or sharing Personal Information—Some jurisdictions entitle consumers to opt out of the sale or sharing of their Personal Information or targeted advertising practices. Vernier does not sell your Personal Information or share your Personal Information with third parties for cross-contextual behavioral advertising purposes. If this changes in the future, we will update this Privacy Notice and provide you with a method to opt out.
• Limited use and disclosure of sensitive Personal Information—Vernier does not seek to collect sensitive Personal Information about anyone, and in no case will we use or disclose sensitive Personal Information for the purpose of inferring characteristics about a consumer. If this ever changes in the future, we will update this Privacy Notice and provide you with methods to limit use and disclosure of sensitive Personal Information.
• No profiling. Vernier does not use any form of automated processing of Personal Information to evaluate, analyze, or predict your performance, preferences, choices, or behavior. If this changes in the future, we will update this Privacy Notice and provide you with an option to opt-out or prevent profiling.
• Right to Disclosure. You may have the right to request that we disclose information to you about our collection and use of your Personal Information, such as: (a) the categories of Personal Information we have collected about you; (b) the categories of sources for the Personal Information we have collected about you; (c) our business purpose for collecting or selling that Personal Information; (d) the categories of third parties with whom we disclose that Personal Information; and (e) if we sold or shared your Personal Information under the CCPA, two separate lists stating: (i) sales or sharing, identifying the Personal Information categories that each category of recipient purchased; and (ii) disclosures for a business purpose, identifying the Personal Information categories that each category of recipient obtained. Note that under California and certain other states’ privacy laws, Vernier is only required to respond to two disclosure requests within a 12-month period.
• Right to non-discrimination. We will not discriminate against you for exercising any of your privacy rights. If you are a resident of the State of California, we will not (a) deny you goods or services, (b) charge you different prices or rates for goods or services, (c) provide you a different level or quality of goods or services, (d) retaliate against you as an employee, applicant for employment, or independent contractor; or (e) suggest that you may receive a different price or rate for goods or services or a different level or quality of goods or services, because you exercised your statutory right unless permitted by law.
• California’s Shine the Light Act. If you are a resident of the State of California, note that California’s Shine the Light Act (Civil Code sections 1798.83-1798.84) entitles California consumers to request certain disclosures regarding Personal Information sharing with affiliates and/or third parties for marketing purposes.
• Health Data Rights—Vernier does not collect any health data through the Website. Some laws entitle consumers to certain details about health data collected about them, including (a) confirmation of whether the entity collects, shares, or sells the consumer’s health data and access that data, including a list of all third parties and affiliates with whom the entity has shared or sold the health data and a method to contact those third parties, (b) a method to withdraw consent related to use of health data, and (c) the right to have their health data be deleted.

Canadian Privacy Rights

This section provides supplemental information in compliance with Canada’s Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (“PIPEDA”). This section applies solely to residents of Canada where PIPEDA applies (“Canadian Consumers”). PIPEDA gives Canadian Consumers specific rights regarding Personal Information offering details on an identifiable person without the inclusion of name, title, telephone number, and business address of an employee of a business or organization. The following paragraphs describe PIPEDA rights and explain how to exercise those rights.

• Right to know why we collect, use, and distribute the Personal Information we process. We have set the required notices in this Privacy Notice. We may provide you with additional notices about other ways we process your Personal
  Information, such as by sending you a notice via email or by other means of communication.
• Right to expect us to collect, use, or disclose Personal Information responsibly and not for any other purpose other than which you consented. We set your expectations in this Privacy Notice and collect express or implied consent at various stages of collection or processing. If we collect or use your Personal Information based on your consent, we will also notify you of any changes and will request your further consent as needed. You may withdraw your consent at any time with reasonable notice via email.
• Right to accuracy of your Personal Information. We take steps to reasonably ensure that your Personal Information we are using is accurate. In most cases, we rely on you to ensure that your information is current, complete, and accurate. We provide methods for you to correct, update, and delete inaccurate Personal Information in your account, and we will provide you with reasonable assistance to ensure that your Personal Information is accurate in our systems and with our service providers.
• Right to access your Personal Information. Upon written request and identity authentication, we will provide you with your Personal Information under our control, information about the ways in which that information is being used and a description of the individuals and organizations to whom that information has been disclosed. We will make the information available within 30 days or provide written notice where additional time is required to fulfil the
  request. If limited by law or potential infringement on another’s privacy rights, we may not be able to provide access to some or all of the Personal Information you request. We will notify you in writing if we must refuse an access request and we will document the reasons for refusal and outline further steps that are available to you.

EEA and UK Privacy Rights

This section is provided to comply with the General Data Protection Regulations and its counterpart regulation applicable to residents of the United Kingdom (“GDPR”). This section applies solely to residents of the EEA and the United Kingdom (“Data Subjects”). Vernier collects and processes Personal Information of Data Subjects either as a controller when marketing our Services through the Website or as processor to the School using our Services. If you are a Data Subject, you have the following rights in relation to the Personal Information we hold about you:

• Right to know how we process your Personal Information. We have set the required notices in this Privacy Notice. We may provide you with additional notices about other ways we process your Personal Information, such as by sending you a notice via email or by other means of communication.
• Right to access your Personal Information. Upon request, we will provide you with a copy of your Personal Information, along with details about the types of Personal Information we process, why we process it, and any third parties we work with to collect Personal Information on our behalf. We may have one or more legally valid reasons to refuse your request in whole or in part, for example, to protect the rights of other individuals.
• Right to restrict processing of your Personal Information. You can request that we restrict the processing of your Personal Information if: (a) the data is inaccurate; (b) the processing is unlawful; (c) we no longer need the Personal
  Information; or (d) you exercise your right to object.
• Right to rectify your Personal Information. If you become aware that the Personal Information that we hold about you is incorrect, or if your information changes, please inform us and we will update our records.
• Right to data portability. In some circumstances, we are required to provide your Personal Information to another organization at your request and in a structured, commonly used machine-readable format, so that the other organization can read and use it.
• Right to erasure or the “right to be forgotten”. Upon your request, and in certain circumstances and where we are required to do so by law, we are required to delete or anonymize your Personal Information. This right is not absolute, and we may be entitled to retain and process your Personal Information despite your request. If you make this request, we balance certain legal, contractual, and business interests against your right to request the deletion of your Personal Information.
• Right to object to certain processing of your Personal Information. Upon your request, and in certain circumstances and where we are required to do so by law, we will limit our processing of your Personal Information as you request.
• Right to not be subject to Automated Decision-Making. Vernier does not use automated decision-making (“ADM”) to provide our Services. If this changes in the future, we will update this posting to describe our use of ADM and your options to exercise your right to not be subject to ADM.
• Right to Complain. If you are a resident of the EEA and you believe we are unlawfully processing your Personal Information, you also have the right to complain to your local data protection supervisory authority. If you are a resident in Switzerland, you have the right to complain to the Swiss data protection authorities.
• Supplemental Notice for France. If you are a Data Subject residing in  France, you have the right to provide Vernier with general or specific instructions for the retention, deletion, and communication of your Personal Information after your death. The specific instructions are only valid for the processing activities mentioned therein and the processing of these instructions is subject to your specific consent. You may amend or revoke your instructions at any time. You may designate a person responsible for the implementation of your instructions. This person will be informed of your instructions in the event of your death and be entitled to request their implementation from us. In the absence of designation or, unless otherwise provided for, in the event of the death of the designated person, their heirs will have the right to be informed of 
  your instructions and to request their implementation from us. To issue
  instructions, contact privacy@vernier.com.

Notice for Mexico

This Privacy Notice is available in Spanish upon request. In case of dispute, the Spanish version of this Privacy Notice shall prevail. The type of Personal Information we use, purpose of processing, and cookie information is listed above in this Privacy Notice. In general, we do not require your consent to transfer your Personal Information. By using the Services and providing us with your Personal Information, you agree to the data transfers detailed in this Privacy Notice that require your consent. The above descriptions of privacy rights to access, rectification, erasure, and object apply to residents of Mexico, as does the right to restrict processing to storage only (which includes the limitation to the use and disclosure of your Personal
Information), and advertising. You also have the right to revoke the consent that you have provided us to process your Personal Information. To exercise any of your rights, contact privacy@vernier.com.

Privacy Requests

If you wish to exercise your rights under your applicable privacy laws, or if you want to express concerns, lodge a complaint, or request information, please submit a verifiable Consumer Privacy Request or email privacy@vernier.com or by phone at 888.837.6437. 

Vernier can fulfill a Consumer Privacy Request when we have sufficient information to verify that the requester is the person or an authorized representative of the person about whom we have collected Personal Information, and to properly understand, evaluate, and respond to the request. We do not charge a fee to process or respond to a verifiable request unless we have legal grounds to do so. If we determine that the request warrants a fee, we will tell you why we made that decision and provide you with a cost estimate before completing your request. We endeavor to respond to Consumer Privacy Requests in accordance with the requirements of the law applicable to your jurisdiction. If we do not fulfill your request within the legally required timeline, please email privacy@vernier.com.

Data Security

Vernier employs reasonable and appropriate security procedures and practices to help protect your Personal Information from unauthorized or illegal access, destruction, use, modification, or disclosure. The Website is designed with data security in mind to continuously protect your data and our systems. Our security measures are appropriate to the volume, scope, and nature of the Personal Information processed and designed to meet our duty of care with respect to your Personal Information. Vernier maintains internal policies to govern the collection, processing, and handling of data, and reserves data access only for those employees who require such access to perform their job functions. We educate our employees about the importance of confidentiality and privacy through standard operating procedures. We also ensure that our employees, contractors, and agents responsible for handling privacy inquiries are informed of applicable privacy law requirements and we restrict access to those who need that information to process it. Anyone with this access is subject to strict contractual confidentiality obligations and may be disciplined or terminated if they fail to meet these obligations. 

Please note, however, that no transmission of data over the Internet is 100% secure, and we cannot guarantee that unauthorized third parties will not defeat our security measures or use your Personal Information for improper purposes. If you create an account on the Website, you are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your username and password. We encourage you to take steps to protect against unauthorized access to your account and device by choosing a robust password and signing off after each session. Vernier is not responsible for any lost, stolen, or compromised passwords, or for any activity on your account via unauthorized activity.

Cross-Border Data Transfers

Vernier is a United States company using technical infrastructure in the United States and other countries to provide the Website. If you access the Website from outside the United States, please be aware that your Personal Information may be transferred to, processed, stored, and used in the United States or other jurisdictions. When your information is moved from your home country to another country, the laws and rules governing your Personal Information may be different from those of your home country. For example, if your information is in the United States, it may be accessed by government authorities under United States law. 

Vernier is committed to transferring Personal Information using a lawful data transfer mechanism. However, you are solely responsible for determining whether your use of the Website complies with applicable laws. By allowing us to collect Personal Information about you, you consent to the transfer and processing of your Personal Information as described in this section.

Third-Party Platforms and Social Media

Software and services that Vernier distributes or promotes, but did not develop, is governed by the respective software developer’s privacy notice, and Vernier has no control over their privacy practices. We may provide links to third-party websites or platforms or allow you to link to our Solutions from social media. Vernier offers this as a convenience, but we are not responsible for and have no ability to control the privacy and data collection, use, and disclosure practices of any third party. When you click on links that take you to external websites or platforms, you will be subject to their privacy notices and practices and not ours. You are encouraged to review and understand the privacy notices of such websites or platforms before submitting any information.

Changes to this Privacy Notice

Vernier reserves the right to amend this Privacy Notice at any time by updating this posting without notice and revising the effective date. All changes are effective immediately when posted and apply to all access to and use of our Solutions. Your continued use of our Solutions following the posting of changes constitutes your acceptance of such changes.