Is Seesaw GDPR-Compliant?

In brick and mortar classrooms, students have to be and feel safe. That translates to the online classroom environment, as well. To ensure online safety, the EU General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR, was introduced to strengthen the rights of individuals on the internet. Online classrooms are required to fit the bill.

So, does Seesaw comply with GDPR?

Seesaw Is GDPR-Compliant

Yes, Seesaw complies with the rules and regulations dictated by GDPR.

Seesaw will never sell your data, and they don’t do advertising. The content that you add to the platform is your content, and Seesaw doesn’t own it. All student work on Seesaw is private to each classroom.

From the very beginning, the principles of privacy have been at the core of Seesaw’s mission. The goal was to provide a safe online learning experience, by design and by default.

To achieve this, Seesaw has put a variety of options and tools in place. Seesaw did this to protect the integrity of students, teachers, and involved families. Thanks to the proper GDPR compliance from the beginning, Seesaw remains a platform that cherishes privacy and online safety.

But what tools and options are we talking about here?

Control Tools

Seesaw allows its users to update their account settings whenever they wish to do so. That includes correcting, deleting, as well as completing individual account information at any point in time.

The journals that the students create are at their disposal. The students can export their journals from their accounts to their computers whenever they please.

Every Seesaw user can delete their account at any point in time. If the user doesn’t access the account for 60 days, it, as well as any involved data, will be permanently deleted.

Parental consent tools are also there. Parents have to approve if the teachers wish to use Seesaw in their classrooms. Naturally, Seesaw uses no personal data in its advertising efforts and the platform, and the owners/developers do not sell the user data.

Transparency

Under GDPR, online services have to guarantee a certain degree of transparency. If you want to learn what kind of data the platform collects, as well as how it uses the gathered data, you can find all relevant information in their Privacy Policy.

If you want to learn more about Seesaw’s privacy commitments to its users, check out their Privacy Principles.

Seesaw also vouches that it announces to all users any substantial changes regarding the platform’s privacy practices. However, should you choose not to agree with new terms, the terms that you’ve previously accepted will continue to apply.

To top things off, transparency-wise, you can contact the Seesaw privacy team at privacy@seesaw.me.

Additional GDPR Requirements

Seesaw has also carefully reviewed the contracts that they have with third-party vendors to ensure GDPR compliance.

Each Seesaw employee, additionally, has received security training focused on GDPR.

Seesaw has also made sure that their subject data that pertains to government access and deletion request procedures are put in place properly.

Seesaw has also made an effort to appoint a Data Protection Officer and implement a process for Data Protection Impact Assessment.

GDPR and Personal Data Storage

Personal data storage is a relevant subject when it comes to online classrooms. You may be wondering whether the GDPR requires that the personal data storage space is within the confines of the EU. The answer here is no. Moreover, the GDPR has no specific requirements for data transfer outside the EU. These requirements, however, are similar to the EU law that’s already in place. Seesaw is fully compliant with this law.

Seesaw is also in compliance with Privacy Shield, which pertains to the collection, retention, and use of personal information of EU members. Privacy Shield is an agreement between the US and the EU that allows personal data transfer between the two parties.

With that said, Seesaw features an option to store data outside the confines of the US. This optional service is available for Seesaw for Schools.

Teacher-Related Responsibilities

The responsibilities of a teacher are perhaps the essential aspect of Seesaw’s GDPR compliance. If a child is under 16, the teacher has to get parental consent to review and process their personal data. As a rule of thumb, the teachers and educational facilities use school-wide Seesaw consents for this.

Seesaw Online Security

Every platform needs to implement safety protocols to secure a safe environment for people’s information.

For this, Seesaw utilizes TLS 1.2 security on the network level. This protocol ensures that journal content, as well as all account information, is securely transmitted.

PBKDF2 is used to salt and hash the passwords.

Seesaw and GDPR

Seesaw has done everything to ensure absolute GDPR compliance. From their Privacy Policy, all the way to their security protocols, Seesaw is a safe environment for students, parents, and teachers.

Have you reviewed the Seesaw Privacy Policy? What do you think of their GDPR compliance? Based on the information presented in this article, would you use Seesaw? Feel free to join the discussion in the comments below.