SAGraderPRIVACY POLICY

General Overview

The Idea Works Inc. is the creator and operator of the on-line website and educational service, SAGrader™ (www.sagrader.com). Because it is an educational tool that is used to collect students' academic work and assign grades, we follow FERPA (Federal Education Rights and Privacy Act) regulations. We go a step beyond FERPA regulations and take your privacy very seriously. We go beyond most expectations and treat your information with some of the highest security protocols and standards used by banks and government. The details of the data we collect, how we use and store it, and our security are detailed in the following sections. At least one publicly funded, Research I, AAU university/universities has formally audited our privacy and security protocols and policies and have found them to either meet or exceed their requirements.

Information We Collect

When a student creates an account on SAGrader™, certain information is collected, including: the student’s name, email address, student ID number specific to their institution, school, college, or university. This information is only accessible to authorized Idea Works personnel to help students troubleshoot problems accessing their account, assist them in registering for courses in SAGrader™, and other customer support services. When a student contacts SAGrader™ customer support, all communications are considered private and confidential. Students submit their work in SAGrader™ for feedback and to receive a grade given by the program. The submissions are stored securely, and are also only accessible when customer support is requested.

In addition to the information described above, SAGrader.com sets cookies and gathers information about how you're viewing the website. This may include your IP address, your browser information, and what type of operating system you are using to view or interact with the website. This information is treated just like your grades, and is kept secure and safe. We never sell or share your information with anyone besides our corporate partners listed below. We collect this information to learn more about how our customers use the website, and how we can make it better to fit their needs.

Security and Sharing

  • “Information” shall be defined as the information gathered during the creation of an SAGrader™ account, including: names, email addresses, student ID numbers, and passwords; it also includes the grades and feedback generated by SAGrader™, the students works and submissions to their assignments in SAGrader™, their Challenges, and any responses to questionnaires or surveys issued by Idea Works.
  • Because of FERPA regulations, we are unable to discuss the details of the academic work submitted through SAGrader™ via phone, email, or fax. If a student has problems with his/her grade, etc, students should contact their instructor in the method they feel most comfortable with. The instructor may contact us on your behalf about the grade, submission, etc and discuss it with authorized personnel.
  • Sometimes, FERPA regulations at colleges and universities allow students to complete a form that gives their parents or guardians the privilege of communicating on behalf of the student about grades and work. However, since we are not affiliated directly with any college or university, we cannot accept these forms as valid documents to discuss these grades. As mentioned in the previous section, we do not discuss grades or submissions even with students. Students, parents, and guardians must discuss those subjects with the instructor of the class directly, rather than contacting Idea Works about it.
  • Under no circumstances does Idea Works sell your contact information (name, email address, student ID number, institutional affiliation, etc) to anyone.
  • The only information that is shared outside of Idea Works is the information shared with instructors for the purpose of keeping a grade book. Instructors can download their grade books for their SAGrader™ sections which include a student’s name, email address, student ID number, and grade for each of their assignments. This function is only available to the instructor who has authorized access and administration over the student’s section in SAGrader™.​

Internal Use of Data

Idea Works reserves the right to use anonymized data for research and development purposes, or to enforce our Terms of Acceptable Use (to see our Terms of Acceptable Use, please go to www.ideaworks.com/sagrader/termsofuse).

Idea Works will use user information (name and email address) to inform users, typically in the form of email, of:

  • Updates to our customer support
  • Reminders of upcoming due dates
  • Changes to Privacy and Acceptable Use Policies

Or to request the users to complete questionnaires or surveys

The data we use for research is anonymized. That is, it is grades and submissions that are completely stripped of all identifying information. The data we use for research is still treated with the same security protocols detailed in the Security section below.

Idea Works may share this anonymized data with our partner companies, including only the following companies:

  • Veritacit, Inc. (Saint Louis, Missouri) www.veritacit.com
  • Grey Cat Systems (Saint Louis, MO | Rockford, IL) www.greycat.xyz

Idea Works requires these partner companies to treat the data we share with them with the same security protocols detailed in the Security section below.​

Academic Research

Some instructors are authorized to use your data for academic research. However, they are only allowed to do so if an Institutional Review Board (IRB) at their institution, school, college, or university has approved their research project. Further, instructors are only permitted to use the data if and only if they ask for a student’s permission to participate in the research. Idea Works is exempt from the paragraph above. Since it is a private company, we typically do not seek IRB approval or need to ask for your permission to participate in our research. However, the data we use for research is completely anonymized and is not able to be identified with any student.​

Security

SAGrader™ uses the latest bank-grade encryption and two-factor authentication for development and administration purposes to ensure your grades and submissions are only accessible to authorized personnel, you, and your instructor. Idea Works is proud that there has never been a breach of security, even though there have been attempts by hackers to access the system. Our system uses security protocols inspired by those used by government organizations and national security institutions to make sure your grades, submissions, payment information, and any identifiable information is never accessed by unauthorized persons. We regularly perform backups of SAGrader™, which are stored on secure servers in undisclosed locations owned by Idea Works. We always have at least one software developer on-call 24/7 to respond to any system issues, whether it be a simple performance issue, or a full-on crisis. The Idea Works, Inc. is committed to keep SAGrader™ running efficiently, securely, and smoothly at all times.

If you receive an email or other form of communication that seems to be from Idea Works, or SAGrader™ but looks suspicious (that is, it doesn’t looks like it is really from us), please forward that communication by email to [email protected] or mail it to PO Box 39271, Saint Louis, Missouri 63139.​

Purging of Identifiable Information

SAGrader™ is required to keep users’ information (including identifiable information, as well as grades and submissions) for a period of time determined by the policies of the institution, school, college, or university at which the user is a student. After that period of time has expired (typically between 1-5 years), any identifiable information is purged from all of our records including backups. Information such as submissions, survey and questionnaire responses are retained, however, all identifying information is completely and securely purged from our systems, records, and servers.

End of Privacy Policy, effective September 2016. © 1981-2018, The Idea Works, Inc. All Rights Reserved.