Privacy Policy

At Otus, we are serious about protecting your privacy and the privacy of your children. Our Privacy Policy explains how information about you is collected, protected, used, and shared by Otus LLC (“Otus,” “we” or “us”). This Privacy Policy explains how we collect and process your personal information. This Privacy Policy also addresses certain questions that you may have regarding the privacy and security of collected data. This Privacy Policy is addressed to individuals with whom we interact, including students enrolled in courses available through the Services (as hereafter defined), Students’ parents, teachers, professors, and other educators (collectively, “Educators”), visitors or users of our websites, applications, or online products and services, current and prospective customers, management and personnel of corporate customers and vendors, and other recipients of our products and services (collectively, “the Services”). If we make changes, we will notify you by revising the date of the policy and, in some cases, provide you with additional notice (such as by adding a statement to our homepage or sending you a notification). We encourage you to review the Privacy Policy whenever you access the Services to stay informed about our information practices and the ways you can help protect your privacy.

When you use the Services, Otus may receive personal information from minors, including a child under thirteen (13) years of age. We only collect and process personal information through the Services from a child under thirteen (13) years of age in the event the Student’s school, school district, and/or Educator has obtained verifiable parental consent from the parent or legal guardian of such Student to use and disclose such Student’s personal information in connection with the Services, and such school or Educator has affirmed the same by agreeing to Otus’ Terms of Service, which is available at https://otus.com/terms-conditions, and Data Processing Addendum, which is available at [___], and incorporated herein by reference.

Information We Collect

Information You Provide To Us

We receive and store information you submit to us while using the Services. This information may include, but is not limited to, the following:

  • Identifiers, including information submitted during registration, such as name, address, username, email address, profile picture, school affiliation, age, grade level and names of classes taught or attended;
  • Non-public education information, including education records, such as:
    • any documents that you upload, create, or complete using the Services, such as items you add to your bookshelf, as well as notes, flags, and assessments (including tests, quizzes, assignments, and papers) that you create or complete; and
    • information that Educators provide about Students, including evaluations, grades and test results, attendance, notes and feedback, and any other information provided by the Educator about a Student.
  • Information about parents and legal guardians provided by Educators or Students, including name, address, relationship to Students, email address, and phone number;
  • Any other information uploaded to or entered into the Services; and
  • If you use our referral service to tell someone about Otus, we will collect such person’s name, email address and any other information you provide us.

Information Collected Automatically

We use cookies in a range of ways to improve your experience using our Services. We may automatically collect certain information when you use the Services, navigate our website or use the browser on our mobile application, including through cookies, web beacons and other technologies, such as your IP address, cookie information, and the page you requested. We also record the details of your activity and the number and frequency of visitors to our Services, including your location when accessing the Services. For example, we receive and store information about whether you access the Services from a school, home, or other location. We use various technologies to collect web browsing information, and this may include sending cookies to your computer or tablet. Such cookies include strictly necessary cookies, performance cookies, functional cookies, and targeting cookies. For example, we may use analytics cookies to generate and analyze statistics about your use of the Services, functionality and performance data, and functional cookies to improve and customize your experience with the Services. We may also use marketing cookies to collect aggregate information about our users. The information collected for these purposes (including your IP address and other information collected by automated means) may be disclosed to or collected directly by our third-party web analytics service providers, such as Google Analytics. 

Cookies are small data files stored on your hard drive or in device memory that help us to improve our services and your experience, understand which areas and features of our Services are popular, and count visits. Web beacons are electronic images that may be used in our services or emails and that help deliver cookies, count visits, understand usage and campaign effectiveness, and determine whether an email has been opened and acted upon. Most web browsers are set to accept cookies by default. If you prefer, you can opt-out of cookies in your browser by selecting remove or reject browser cookies; however, please note that the Services may perform or function in a degraded manner. 

Our Services may also automatically draw inferences based on your personal information, such as a user’s intelligence based upon such user’s responses to certain curricula.

“Do Not Track” Request

Our Services currently do not respond to “do not track” or similar signals.

How We Use Information

We use your personal information to: provide, maintain, personalize, and improve our Services; to notify you or respond to your comments, questions, and requests; to provide troubleshooting and customer services, including technical support; to evaluate or conduct a merger, divestiture, restructuring, reorganization, dissolution, or other sale or transfer of some or all of our assets, whether as a going concern or as part of bankruptcy, liquidation, or similar proceeding, in which personal information held by us about our consumers is among the assets transferred; to enforce the Terms of Services and to detect and protect against error, fraud, and other unauthorized or illegal activities; as otherwise permitted by applicable law; and for any other legitimate business purpose for which the information was collected. If you are an Educator, we may use your personal information to send you marketing and product communications to the email address you provide or by other means. If you are a Student, we will not use your email address to contact or communicate with you. We use information collected by automated means for analytical, customization and Service improvement purposes, and so that we can make the Services appealing and relevant to as many users as possible. However, we intend to process the minimum amount of personal information necessary to fulfill the purposes for which it was collected and any legal or contractual requirements with respect to such information.

How We Share Information

We do not sell or rent your personal information that is collected through our Services. Our Services are designed to facilitate the sharing of certain information among Educators, Students, schools, parents and guardians. For example, Educators may use the Services to share information with Students, with parents and guardians or with other Educators within their school or school district

In addition, certain material posted to the Services by Educators may be shared with the broader Otus community, which includes Educators outside of your school district. This information includes, but is not limited to, bookshelf documents (including online resources and original material prepared by you) and assessments (including tests, quizzes, and assignments, but not Student information). When sharing these documents, Educators’ user profiles, including Educators’ screen names and email addresses, may also be shared with the Otus community. If you are a Student, your Educator may use the Services to facilitate the sharing of your information with others in your class or with your parent or guardian.

Under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act 1974 (“FERPA”), schools are required, in some circumstances, to provide parents and guardians with the right to inspect and review the education records of their children and to obtain the verifiable parental consent of the parents or guardians of the Student (or the consent of the student, if such student is eighteen (18) years of age or older or attending an institution of postsecondary education) prior to disclosing personal information about the Student that is contained in the Student’s education records.

By installing, accessing or using the Services, you represent and warrant that (a) you have read and understand our Privacy Policy and the ways in which Otus collects, uses, and shares information about you and others in connection with your access to and use of the Services; (b) if you are a Student, you understand that your parent or guardian can view all of the information within or associated with your account and use of the Services, including, without limitation, any messages and other communications between you and your Educator and the grades you received on assignments and other assessments; and (c) the school or Educator, as applicable, has obtained the verifiable parental consent of the parent or guardian of the Student (or, if eligible, the consent of the Student) authorizing the collection, use and disclosure of such Student’s personal information, as set forth in this Privacy Policy, and in accordance with FERPA and any other applicable laws or regulations.

We may also release personal information if we believe disclosure is in accordance with any applicable law, regulation or legal process, or as otherwise required by any applicable law, rule or regulation. It may also be released if we believe your actions are inconsistent with our Terms of Service or other policies, or to protect the rights, property and safety of Otus, its users or others.

User Privacy and Advertising Policy

At Otus, we prioritize the privacy and security of our users’ information, and we do not use your personal information for third-party advertising purposes. Below are ways Otus is committed to data protection when it comes to advertising practices:

  • Otus does not sell or rent your information to third parties.
  • Otus does not share personal information for third-party marketing.
  • Data is not collected by third parties for their own purposes.
  • User information is not used to track and target advertisements on other third-party websites or services.

Service Providers

We may share information with vendors, contractors, consultants, and other service providers who access such information to carry out work on our behalf.

Aggregate Information

We reserve the right to share aggregated information gathered from our user base (without personally identifiable information about individual users) or de-personalized individual information (with names and other personally identifying characteristics removed) with our affiliates and partners. Given the nature of this information, there are no restrictions under this Privacy Policy upon the right of Otus to aggregate or de-personalize your personal information.

How We Protect Information

Otus takes reasonable measures to help protect information about you from loss, theft, misuse and unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration, and destruction. Otus supports single sign-on (SSO) via multiple identity providers commonly used by school districts such as Google, Microsoft, Clever, and Classlink. Otus also supports native email/password authentication. You may help protect against unauthorized access to your account and personal information or your Student’s personal information by selecting and protecting the password associated with your identity provider system or native Otus account appropriately.

Your Choices

General Account Information

Otus accounts are created in one of three ways.

  1. Integration with school district systems: Student, teacher, and district administrator accounts are created via integrations with school information systems and identity provider systems. For accounts created via these integration methods, updates, corrections or deletion of  profile and other information must be made by contacting the district and removing from the source system. 
  2. Non-integrated district administrator accounts: Otus supports creating district administrator accounts on behalf of district personnel. Changes to these accounts may require Otus to support personnel to make changes on the user's behalf and further may require written approval in some cases.
  3. Self registration of family accounts: Updates or corrections to profile information can be made by editing the user profile information. Deletion of the account can be requested and will be honored per the Otus Retention policy.

Children’s Information

If you are the parent or guardian of a child under 13 and would like to request that personal information regarding your child be updated or deleted, or if you’d like to revoke your consent to contacting your child by the Services and processing of their personal information, please contact us at support@otus.com. We will respond to a request made pursuant to this section within 30 days of our receipt of such request, or as promptly as possible.

Retention

We will store personal information for as long as is necessary to fulfill the purposes for which it was collected, as detailed herein or in any transaction specific document. In some circumstances we may store personal information for longer periods of time, for instance where we are required to do so in accordance with legal, regulatory, tax, or accounting requirements. We may retain cached or archived copies of personal information about you and content stored with Otus only as needed for educational purposes by an authorized user and as may be retained by our disaster recovery archival systems until the ordinary course destruction thereof. 

What are my rights? Who can I contact with additional questions, concerns or to exercise certain rights with respect to my personal information?

Depending on your state or jurisdiction of residence, you, or, on your behalf, your parent or legal guardian, may have certain privacy rights with respect to your personal information. These rights may include, without limitation, (i) the right to know about the personal information Otus collects about you and how it is used and shared; (ii) subject to certain exceptions, the right to delete personal information collected from you; (iii) the right to opt-out of the sale or sharing of your personal information; (iv) the right to non-discrimination for exercising your privacy rights; (v) the right to correct inaccurate personal information that Otus has about you; (vi) the right to limit the use and disclosure of sensitive personal information collected about you; (vii) the right to data portability; (viii) the right to object, opt-out or restrict processing your personal information; (ix) the right not to be subjected to a decision affecting you which is solely based on processing by automatic means.

All Users:

If you would like to exercise any of your privacy rights, or have questions or concerns about how we use your personal information, please contact our Privacy Officer at:

  1. Email: support@otus.com
  2. Postal Mail: Otus LLC, Attn: Legal, 900 North Michigan Avenue, Suite 1600, Chicago, IL 60611

Please be sure to include your full name, postal address, and e-mail address. Please also describe your concern so we can better help you. Subject to legal and other permissible considerations, we will make every reasonable effort to honor your request promptly or inform you if we require further information in order to fulfill your request. We may not always fully address your request, for example, if it would impact the duty of confidentiality we owe to others, or if we are legally entitled to deal with the request in a different way.

California Users:

California’s “Shine the Light” law (Civil Code Section § 1798.83) permits users of our Platform that are California residents to request certain information regarding our disclosure of your Information to third parties for their direct marketing purposes. To make such a request, please send an email to support@otus.com or write us at: Otus LLC, Attn: Legal, 900 North Michigan Avenue, Suite 1600, Chicago, IL 60611. 

Nevada Users:

Nevada provides its residents with a limited right to opt-out of certain personal information sales. Residents who wish to exercise their sale opt-out rights may submit a request to this designated address: Otus LLC, Attn: Legal, 900 North Michigan Avenue, Suite 1600, Chicago, IL 60611.  However, please know we do not currently sell data triggering Nevada’s opt-out requirements.

International Users:

Our Services are hosted and operated in the United States and intended for use by only United States residents. By using our Services, you are consenting to the transfer of your Information to the United States. If you are accessing the Services from outside of the United States, please be advised that United States’ law may not offer the same privacy protections as the laws of your jurisdiction. However, it is our intent to observe and honor all of your rights provided the General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”), or other applicable law. To inquire further, please send an email to support@otus.com or write us at: Otus LLC, Attn: Legal, 900 North Michigan Avenue, Suite 1600, Chicago, IL 60611.

Changes & Updates to this Policy

If we intend to use or disclose personal information in any way materially different than what we say in this Privacy Policy, we will make reasonable efforts to let you know about this change via email sent to the email address on file associated with your account. If we make any changes to this Privacy Policy, we will change the “Revised” date hereof.

Revised: February 5, 2025