We are committed to protecting the privacy of student records in WebAssign. In order to provide secure, accurate, and efficient service, WebAssign must gather certain types of information about its users. This privacy statement provides an overview of the terms and conditions surrounding the use of this information and discloses our information gathering and dissemination practices. Please review the statement in full to better understand how the information you provide to WebAssign will be employed.

Brief Summary

• WebAssign is committed to protecting the privacy of its users.
• WebAssign will not violate the privacy rights of students as established by federal law.
• All student personal information is stored in a special way so that no unauthorized individuals have access to the data.
• Login information (username, institution name, and password) is encrypted before being sent over the Internet.
• WebAssign uses Internet "cookies" to identify users while they are logged into the WebAssign system. Once a user logs out of WebAssign, the cookie is deleted. You may use WebAssign without accepting Internet cookies, but you will be required to reenter your login information frequently.
• WebAssign gathers and analyzes information about our users as a group in order to continue to improve the WebAssign service. This information never identifies a specific user.
• WebAssign will not give, sell, rent, loan, or otherwise disclose your personal information, except when we have your permission, are required to by law, or have a reasonable need to protect the rights, property, or personal safety of WebAssign, its users, or the public.
• In no event will WebAssign violate the federal privacy rights of students as established by the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA).

Full-text Version

WebAssign is an online delivery, grading, and assessment service available to instructors for homework, quizzes, and tests through paid subscription for specified classes and time durations. The purpose of WebAssign is to provide instructors with a secure, accessible platform to assess student performance and comprehension and assign grades.

Students provide their username, institution name, and password when logging on to the service to complete assignments. The login information is required to determine which assignment should be delivered and who should receive credit for the submission. All login information is sent from your computer to our server as encrypted data.

Student usernames are provided to WebAssign by an instructor, the institution name is determined by WebAssign, and the password is initially provided by the instructor. You should change your password before starting to use WebAssign to prevent unauthorized access to your assignments.

An instructor using WebAssign uploads a class roster that includes the student's full name, username, initial password, student number (optional), and e-mail address (optional). Your instructor uses this information to identify and communicate with you about your assignments.

Student records in WebAssign are intended for use by the student and the student's course instructor in compliance with existing laws regarding privacy of grades. Your instructors have access to your submissions and the associated time and IP address. All student personal information is stored on servers at a location designed specifically to ensure that no unauthorized individuals have access to the server or its data.

WebAssign may use "cookies" to identify a user. A cookie is a data file that a web site writes and sends to your computer when you visit the site. WebAssign uses a cookie as a convenience to you. You do not need to accept them. If your browser is set to disable cookies, you may have to log back in to WebAssign when you return from another web site. Our cookie file contains an encrypted version of your username and school. This information is used to identify who you are when you make a request to WebAssign. If you allow your browser to accept WebAssign cookies, a cookie is set and trusted when you return to WebAssign after visiting an external site. After you log out of WebAssign, the cookie is deleted.

The use of student records in WebAssign beyond the purposes of providing assessment falls under the discretion of the instructor. WebAssign recommends prior disclosure by the instructor to their students of any other intended uses, such as research.

WebAssign administrative responsibilities include "access to" but not "publication of" student records in individually identifiable ways. WebAssign administration accesses student records for backup, internal maintenance, improvement of the service, and technical support for instructors. If WebAssign accesses student records, it is to troubleshoot the system or to respond to an instructor's question. We do not divulge student information. Rather, we strive to ascertain whether authorized persons are able to access the information correctly and to inform instructors how to access it.

WebAssign gathers information about its users collectively and automatically logs IP addresses, session sources, and other data that track access to the WebAssign site. We analyze these logs to better understand aggregate behavior and to monitor system performance. The logs are analyzed to ascertain the overall aggregate trends they reveal about our users, but not as a means of tracking the behavior of individual users outside our site. This information is used for the purposes of improving WebAssign or expanding its capabilities.

WebAssign may use aggregate information to determine the demographics of our users and to distribute statistics and general marketplace information about WebAssign. These demographics will always represent aggregate information and will not identify a specific user.

WebAssign will not give, sell, rent, loan, or otherwise disclose to any third parties the personal information you supply, except when we have your permission or when we believe in good faith that disclosure is reasonably necessary to (1) comply with a legal process, (2) enforce the terms of use, (3) respond to claims that any content on WebAssign.net violates the rights of third parties, or (4) protect the rights, property, or personal safety of WebAssign, its users, or the public.

WebAssign posts any changes to this privacy statement at http://webassign.net.

In no event will WebAssign violate the federal privacy rights of students as established by the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) at 20 U.S.C. 1232g and 34 C.F.R. part 99.

If you have any questions regarding this privacy statement, please email us or write to:

WebAssign
1730 Varsity Drive, Suite 200
Raleigh, NC 27606