When we founded Artsonia back in 2000, the internet was a wild frontier. People could post anything and everything about themselves, and it was extremely exciting as a founder of a business (as a reminder, this was 4 years BEFORE Facebook even started.) Schools and teachers were excited about new functionality and the idea of being “published” on the Internet was extremely thrilling for students.

Fast forward almost 20 years, and a lot has changed. Many of the technical hurdles of Internet access in schools and smart phones to post student artwork have made the process of creating and managing an online student art gallery much simpler. However, now that there are numerous choices of online services and apps for teachers to use within the classroom, schools and teachers are facing a new challenge: protecting student data and ensuring student interactions with technology are safe and compliant with laws and regulations.

At Artsonia, student privacy and security is of utmost importance to us. Since we provide our service to thousands of schools and receive millions of student artworks each year, protecting and maintaining the safety and security of our student data is critical.

Please see our Privacy Principles below, as well as our Privacy Policy and Terms of Service, to understand how we protect and manage student, parent and teacher information.

Cheers, and welcome to our community!

- Jim and Eric (Co-Founders of Artsonia)

Here are the guiding principles that help us protect teacher, parent and student information:

• We don't own the content you provide – children, parents and schools do.
• We will never sell or rent user personal information, and we only share personal information with a limited set of subprocessors necessary to provide our services.
• We do NOT use or allow third-party advertisers on our service.
• Personal information collected from children is never used or disclosed for third-party advertising on or off our service.
• Personal information collected from children is never used for any behaviorally-targeted advertising to children by us or any third parties.
• We collect the minimal amount of information from children necessary to use our service.
• We use security industry best practices to protect your personal information.
• We are transparent about our practices, so that you can make meaningful choices about how your information is used, and will notify you if things change.
• We have been certified COPPA compliant by iKeepsafe and participate in the iKeepsafe Safe Harbor program.
• We fully support schools' FERPA requirements and have been reviewed and approved by iKeepsafe for having policies and practices that are compliant with the federal mandates for FERPA.
• We are a proud signatory of the Student Privacy Pledge intended to safeguard student privacy regarding the collection, maintenance, and use of student personal information.
• Artsonia is consistently chosen as a TOP 10 choice from Common Sense Media for apps and websites in the Ed Tech category, including Student Portfolios, Elementary Art, 1-to-1 iPad apps for Learning, and Distance Learning.

Artsonia is certified COPPA compliant by iKeepSafe, an FTC-approved COPPA Safe Harbor Organization. For information on how consumers can ask questions or file complaints related to COPPA, please email COPPAPrivacy@ikeepsafe.org.

Please see our Help Desk for answers to common questions on Privacy and how Artsonia works.

If you have any additional questions or concerns, please contact us via email at privacy@artsonia.com or via postal mail at:

Artsonia
ATTN: Privacy
1350 Tri-State Pkwy Suite 106
Gurnee, IL 60031