Privacy Policy

    ATHENA’S HOMESCHOOL ACADEMY,
    a division of ATHENA’S ADVANCED ACADEMY, INC.,
    PRIVACY AND COOKIE POLICY

    Our Policy
    Welcome to our Athena’s Homeschool Academy website. Athena’s Homeschool Academy is an organization offering services, including online courses, for homeschooled students. Athena’s Homeschool Academy is a division of Athena’s Advanced Academy, Inc. (“Athena’s”) and is governed by its privacy and cookie policy. This Policy sets forth Athena’s policy with respect to the information collected from visitors and users of Athena’s Services.

    Policy Purpose
    The privacy of Athena’s Advanced Academy, Inc. (“Athena’s”) and thus Athena’s Homeschool Academy users is very important and we are committed to protecting that privacy. This Privacy Policy explains the manner in which Athena’s collects personal data and personal information (“Personal Data/Information”) from Users and the purpose for that collection. We uphold the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) set by the FTC in the United States. By visiting Athena’s or submitting your Personal Data/Information, you accept the terms described in this Privacy Policy.

    For purposes of this Policy, the term “User” means any entity, school, educational institution, adult, or student– either directly or through the parent or legal guardian if the student is under 18 years of age.

    Operator Information
    Athena’s is an online organization that offers and provides mid-elementary to high school courses to a community of learners. Athena’s collects and securely stores participants’ Personal Data/Information (described below) through the Athena’s website and online services directly from children and parents. Athena’s Advanced Academy is hosted in the United States.

    Athena’s Homeschool Academy
    c/o Athena’s Advanced Academy, Inc.
    PO Box 577892
    Modesto, CA 95357
    Phone: (513) 443-8333
    Email:
    Email:

    As previously mentioned, for purposes of this Privacy Policy, the term “User” means any entity, school, educational institution, adult, or student– either directly or through the parent or legal guardian if the student is under 18 years of age.

    Personal Data/Information Collected by Athena’s Advanced Academy
    Athena’s collects “Personal Data/Information” from Users to provide Athena’s Services. Athena’s collects Personal Data/Information such as first and last names, year of birth, gender, postal addresses, email addresses, and information included in messages to Athena’s personnel and community, when voluntarily submitted by adults, parents, or legal guardians. Athena’s collects Personal Data/Information directly and voluntarily from its students that may contain personal or identifying information such as information voluntarily provided in the User’s profile, messages sent, assignment submissions, photographs, audio files, or video files when participating in the Services. We receive and securely store any information that parents or students choose to enter through Athena’s, including any submissions that Users make or provide on or through Athena’s. Although Users cannot post personal data publicly on the Athena’s Services, Athena’s cannot control what Users post and share online. We encourage Users and User parents and legal guardians to keep an open dialogue about best Internet practices and adhere to the rules outlined in Athena’s Classrooms and Parent/Student Handbook.

    Any User that would like to participate in the services at Athena’s (“Services”) must register with AthenasHomeschool.com or AthenasAcademy.com. If the User is under 18 years of age, a parent or a legal guardian of that User must first register at AthenasHomeschool.com or AthenasAcademy.com and remit payment for requested Services for the User. Payment is required for the use of the Services at Athena’s. A method of payment, including billing address, will be collected by a third-party service such as PayPal. When Users participate in the Services, AthenasAcademy.com and its classroom subdomain (https://athenasacademy.blackboardclassroom.com/) will automatically collect information about User’s patterns of usage, IP address, browser type, order history, participation in promotions, session data, access times, and other information relating to usage, choices, and preferences. Athena’s uses this information to maintain operations and service quality. Such third parties do not have any rights to use Personal Data/Information beyond what is necessary to assist Athena’s provide Services.

    By voluntarily providing us with Personal Data/Information, Users are consenting to Athena’s use of it in accordance with Athena’s Policies. Users providing Personal Data/Information to our Services acknowledge and agree that such Personal Information/Data may be transferred from the Users’ current location to the offices and servers of Athena’s and the authorized third parties referred to herein.

    Athena’s may use your Personal Data/Information to contact you in the future to tell you about services we believe will be of interest to you. If we do so, each communication (e.g. our newsletter) we send you will contain instructions permitting you to “opt-out” of receiving future information. In addition, if at any time you wish not to receive any future communications or you wish to have your name deleted from our mailing lists, please contact us at or . Please note that we will continue to contact you via email to respond to requests and provide our Services.

    Passively Collected Data
    When Users interact with Athena’s website and classroom subdomain (as described above), Athena’s websites receive and store certain data automatically. Athena’s may store such passively collected data itself or such information may be included in Athena’s databases, official third parties, or service providers. For example, we may use such information and pool it with other information to track the total number of visitors to our Athena’s, the number of students enrolled in a course, and other patterns of usage as described below.

    How Athena’s will Use the Information Collected from You

    • Name: The User’s name, pseudonym, or username will be used to customize the User’s participation in the Services. In addition, Athena’s may send information to the User at the mailing address provided.
    • Email Address: Email addresses are used mainly for communication between students, parents, and instructors as well as for setting up a private profile for each User. We may use the email address as an additional means of communicating with Users about Athena’s, including through our newsletter.
    • Date of Birth: If provided, we will use a User’s age to improve the Services. Such information will be combined with other Users’ information in an anonymous manner and will not include any information that could be used to identify a specific User.
    • Gender: We will use a User’s gender to improve the Services and personalize the Users’ experience such as addressing the User using their desired pronoun.
    • Mailing/Billing Address: If provided, a User’s mailing address may be used to allow Athena’s to mail material related to Athena’s.
    • Other Uses of Personal Data/Information may include:
      • Athena’s uses third party vendors and service providers to perform certain functions on our behalf. For example, billing addresses will be collected by a third-party service such as PayPal to process payment required for the Services.
      • Correspondence with students, parents, and instructors.
      • If required by law and as may be required by Athena’s third-party educational service providers such as Athena’s webinar provider.

    Other Examples of  Usage of Your Personal Data and Other Information 

    • Provide Services and a personalized experience to Users.
    • Improve Services and enhance at User experience Athena’s.
    • Fulfill an obligation under law or contract.
    • Comply with a subpoena or law enforcement.
    • Fulfill a contract that does not violate this Privacy Policy.
    • Process payments.
    • Communicate with Users, including marketing information.
    • Analyze usage at Athena’s.

    Cookies at Athena’s
    In operating Athena’s, we and third parties that provide certain functionality to our Services at Athena’s may use a technology called “cookies.” A cookie is a small file of information saved by your web browser on your computer when you visit the web to help your device work efficiently. They are unique to your account or your browser and are used to “remember” you. Every time you go back to the same webpage on a website, your browser retrieves and sends the file to the website’s server. Cookies cannot read, access, or modify any other data on your computer.

    Our cookies help provide additional functionality to Athena’s Services and help us analyze usage at Athena’s more accurately. Users have a variety of tools to control or opt out of cookie usage on their web browsers. Be sure to search for instructions on how to disable cookies on your preferred browsers. Please remember many of Athena’s Services may not function properly with cookies disabled for our websites. Learn more about cookies at http://www.allaboutcookies.org/.

    Types of Cookies used at Athena’s
    Athena’s routinely uses cookies on our website (https://athenashomeschool.com/), our classroom website (https://athenasacademy.blackboardclassroom.com/), and third-party Services. More information about the cookies used on our website platforms can be found at: WordPress and Blackboard.

    Types of cookies we use for our websites and Services include:

    • Necessary cookies: These cookies are required for you to be able to use some important features at Athena’s, such as logging in. These cookies don’t collect any personal information. Instead, these cookies help us authenticate you and keep you signed in.
    • Preferences and settings cookies: These cookies help personalize your experience in our courses such as storing which language you prefer.
    • Security cookies: These cookies support our security features and help us detect malicious activities.
    • Analytics cookies: These cookies are used to track the use and performance of our website and services. Athena’s uses third-party cookies such as Google Analytics to gather information about activities and performance to help us analyze and improve our services.
    • Social Sharing: Athena’s websites include buttons containing cookies linked to our social media services such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Users’ interactions with those websites is governed by their respective policies. Please refer to their policy statements to understand how they use your information.
    • Marketing: Athena’s also uses third-party cookies from services such as Google Analytics, Facebook Business, and Twitter Ads. These companies have their own policies. Please refer to their policy statements to understand how they use your information.

    Remember, you can instruct your browser to indicate when a cookie is being sent or refuse all cookies. Please note: If you do not accept cookies, you may not be able to use some or all of our Services.

    Do Not Track
    Do Not Track is a browser setting preference you can set in most web browser to prevent you from being tracked across the web. Turning on Do Not Track through your web browser lets websites know that you don’t want to be tracked from site to site. Search how to enable or disable tracking in your web browser settings or preferences. We treat the data of everyone who comes to our site in accordance with this Policy, whatever their Do Not Track setting. To learn more about Do Not Track visit: https://allaboutdnt.com.

    Athena’s Storage
    Your Personal Data/Information may be transferred to and maintained on computers located outside of your state, province, country, or other governmental jurisdiction where data protections laws may differ than those from your jurisdiction. Athena’s will transfer and process the Personal Data/Information in the United States.

    Consent
    In order to use and/or access the Services, the User will be asked to submit certain personal data/information about the User and to authorize Athena’s to use that information in a limited capacity.

    Parental or Legal Guardian Consent:
    Athena’s obtains verifiable parental or legal guardian consent before collecting Personal Data from Users under the age of 18. Athena’s requires Users provide credit card information in order to pay and be enrolled in an Athena’s course. Parents or legal guardians of Users under the age of 18, are required to review Athena’s FAQ, Handbook, and Policies, and electronically sign agreement to consent to Athena’s FAQ, Handbook, and Policies. Users under the age of 18 will not be allowed to use Athena’s Services without parental consent.

    Opting-Out of Providing the Requested Information
    The information we request from the User is required for the User to participate in the Services unless noted. At any time, the User, either directly or through the parent or legal guardian if the student is under 18 years of age, may revoke the consent to participate in Athena’s Services, have deleted the User’s Personal Data/Information, and/or refuse to allow Athena’s to further collect the User’s Personal Data/Information. If the User does any of the foregoing, the User will either not be able to participate in the Services or the Services will be limited as a request to delete records may lead to a termination of an account and other services.

    To opt out of providing Personal Data/Information, Users, either directly or through the parent or legal guardian if the student is under 18 years of age, must submit a written request by email to or . Parents or legal guardians may find more information about parental consent on Athena’s Direct Notice to Parents and Legal Guardians.

    Choices and Controls:
    Users (including parents and legal guardians of Users under the age of 18) may update the User’s profile information by logging into their corresponding account. To request access to, change, or delete the personal information, Users must submit a written request by email to or Admin@AthenasAcademy. A valid request to delete personal information will be accommodated within a reasonable time. In addition to the foregoing, we will exercise commercially reasonable efforts to delete personal information belonging to Users when it is no longer needed for the purpose for which it was collected. Please find more information about parental choices and controls in our Direct Notice to Parents and Legal Guardians.

    Reviewing and Changing Your Information
    The User may review and modify profile information or information submitted while participating in the Services at any time by accessing AthenasHomeschool.com and AthenasAcademy.com or its classroom subdomain (https://athenasacademy.blackboardclassroom.com/) with the User’s login information and password.

    Security: Protecting Your Information
    No data transmission over the Internet can be guaranteed to be 100% secure. Consequently, we cannot ensure the ultimate security of any Personal Data/Information the User transmits to us. As such, the User, does so at their own risk. Athena’s has multiple security measures in place to protect the loss, misuse or alteration of information under our control (such as HTTPS). We will do everything we reasonably can to prevent security breaches and to assist authorities should any breaches occur. Should a breach occur, we will notify suitable authorities. We do not accept liability for disclosures beyond our reasonable control. We will also notify you if there is a threat to your rights or interests. Data/Information will be kept indefinitely. We encourage Users to be diligent and proactive about Internet security.

    You are also responsible for helping to protect the security of your account credentials. For instance, never give out your password, and safeguard your user name, password, and personal credentials when you are using the Services, so that other people will not have access to your Personal Data/Information. Furthermore, you are responsible for maintaining the security of any personal computing device on which you utilize the Services.

    If you have an account with Athena’s, you must keep your username and password secret.

    The User and Third Parties
    Except as provided in this Privacy Policy, Athena’s will not disclose the Personal Data/Information that it obtains from the User to third parties without the User’s consent, or where we believe, in good faith, that the law requires us to disclose the information. Athena’s will not sell any Personal Data/Information that it collects to third parties outside of Athena’s or to unsolicited third-parties. Athena’s may disclose information that we collect from Users to create User profiles or add functionality to our Services with third-party educational services such as the classroom site and webinar service.

    The classroom subdomain (https://athenasacademy.blackboardclassroom.com/) and webinar service are maintained by Blackboard. Blackboard maintains their own Privacy Policy. For more information about Blackboard, Inc.’s Policies, please visit: https://help.blackboard.com/Privacy_Statement

    Third Party – Minecraft™ – Optional
    Athena’s is not compensated by Minecraft™. Any interaction of a student and/or their parent with Minecraft™ is solely at their own discretion and risk.

    Webinar Recordings
    As described in the FAQ webpages on Athena’s, Athena’s records the course webinars via our webinar provider. The webinar recordings are made available to course Users, the course instructor, and Athena’s administration. We utilize reasonable means to limit the ability to create copies of or share the webinar recordings. While we expect instructors and permitted Users to abide by our standards of conduct, please note we cannot control or monitor what Instructors and Users ultimately do with webinar recordings and disclaim all responsibility in that regard.

    Social Media
    Although Athena’s Social Media sites are linked on the Athena’s websites, newsletters, and promotional materials, use of social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram is purely optional. It is up to the User to decide whether or not to engage with Social Media content. Athena’s shall not have any liability or responsibility for the privacy practices of Social Media companies.

    Accuracy of Data
    Athena’s will make every reasonable effort to keep Users’ Personal Data/Information accurate and up-to-date, and Athena’s will provide you with mechanisms to correct, amend, delete, or limit the use of your Personal Data/Information. As appropriate, this amended Personal Data/Information will be transmitted to those parties to which we are permitted to disclose your information. Having accurate Personal Data/Information about Users enables Athena’s to provide the best possible service.

    Other Terms and Conditions
    Users access to and use of Athena’s Services is subject to the Terms of Service as described in Athena’s FAQs, Handbook, and Policies.

    Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act
    For the parents or legal guardians of Users under the age of 18: The United States Congress passed a law called the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998 (COPPA), designed to protect children’s privacy during use of the Internet. Athena’s has implemented practices consistent with the guidelines provided by the Federal Trade Commission to date. User’s parent or legal guardian must consent to share information about the User. Parents or legal guardians enrolling their child in Athena’s agree that Athena’s may receive Personal Data/Information from children under the age of 13 to provide Athena’s Services to them. Athena’s does not share children’s personally identifiable information with third parties without written consent from the parent or legal guardian. If you are a parent or legal guardian of a user under 13 you may, at any time, revoke your consent to allow your student to use the Services, refuse to allow Athena’s to further use or collect your child’s Personal Data/Information, or direct Athena’s to delete all identifiable information regarding your child that you have provided. To do so, please contact us at the contact information on this webpage. However, if you do any of the foregoing, your child will not be able to use the Services at Athena’s. To the extent that Athena’s collects, uses, or discloses Personal Data/Information from children under the age of 13, it is done in strict accordance with this Privacy Policy and for the sole purpose of providing Services to the User. Click the following links if you would like more information about COPPA or How to Protect Your Child’s Privacy,

    Internet Safety
    We are committed to providing appropriate content to our Users. The content on AthenasHomeschool.com, AthenasAcademy.com, and its classroom subdomain (https://athenasacademy.blackboardclassroom.com/) are appropriate for general audiences unless otherwise noted. Our Services provide links to external Web sites and resources that are not maintained by Athena’s. The external resource links, including videos, are reviewed for appropriateness before being linked to Athena’s Services. However, content on Web sites changes. Athena’s encourages parents and legal guardians to preview third-party content. Athena’s is not responsible for the content or privacy practices of these Web sites and resources.

    Amendments
    Athena’s reserves the right to modify this Policy at any time. Athena’s will announce changes to this policy in the weekly newsletter and on the website. Users should review and revisit this policy regularly. Users agree to the terms of this Policy.

    Use for new purposes
    Athena’s may use your personal information for reasons not described in this Policy where permitted by law and the reason is compatible with the purpose for which we collected it.

    Retention
    Personal Data and Information will be kept for as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements, as well as a reasonable period thereafter. For example, we keep account information for as long as the account is active, and for a reasonable period thereafter to ease reactivation if you choose to reactivate your account.

    Your rights
    You may ask us to take the following actions in relation to your personal information that we hold:

    • Opt-out: If at any time you wish not to receive any future communications or you wish to have your name deleted from our mailing lists, please contact us at or . Please note that we will continue to contact you via email to respond to requests and provide our Services.

    You can submit these requests by email to: Admin@AthenasHomeschool or . We may request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity and process your request. Applicable law may require or permit us to decline your request. If we decline your request, we will tell you why, subject to legal restrictions.

    Please note, if the User does any of the foregoing, the User will either not be able to participate in the Services or the Services will be limited. If you would like to submit a complaint about our use of your personal information or response to your requests regarding your personal information, you may contact us as described in Athena’s Policy or submit a complaint to the data protection regulator in your jurisdiction. You can find your data protection regulator here.

    Other
    If Athena’s or any of its assets is acquired by a third party, personally identifiable information and other data acquired by Athena’s may be one of the assets transferred.

    Contact Us
    If you have any questions about Athena’s Advanced Academy’s and subsequently Athena’s Homeschool Academy’s Policies, please contact us at or or send mail to the address above.

    Last updated: May 5, 2022