🦣 Ice Age Explorer

Privacy Policy & Data Compliance Statement

Last Updated: December 2024

Overview

Ice Age Explorer is an educational Earth Science game developed for classroom use at EarthScienceIsCool.com. This document outlines our commitment to student privacy and compliance with applicable laws and regulations.

Data Collection Summary

Identity Verification

To ensure students can only submit scores under their own username, a PIN-based verification system is used:

• Each student receives a unique 4-digit PIN from their teacher
• The PIN is required only on first score submission
• After verification, the device is trusted for future submissions
• Teachers can reset verification or regenerate PINs if needed
• This prevents students from submitting scores under another student's name

Data Access & Visibility

Data Type	Student Access	Teacher/Admin Access	Public Access
Own Scores	✓ Yes	✓ Yes	✗ No
Other Students' Scores	✗ No	✓ Yes	✗ No
Student Usernames List	✗ No	✓ Yes	✗ No

FERPA Compliance

The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) protects the privacy of student education records. Ice Age Explorer complies with FERPA through the following measures:

• Minimal Data Collection: Only username and game scores are stored—no personally identifiable information (PII) beyond what is necessary for the educational purpose.
• No Third-Party Sharing: Student data is never shared with, sold to, or accessible by third parties.
• School Control: All data is stored on school-controlled servers within the district's infrastructure.
• Legitimate Educational Interest: The application serves a direct educational purpose aligned with the NYS Earth Science curriculum (ESSRT 2024).
• Student Privacy: Students can only view their own scores; they cannot see other students' data.

NYS Education Law 2-d Compliance

New York State Education Law Section 2-d establishes standards for protecting student data. This application meets these requirements:

• Data Minimization: Only essential data for educational function is collected.
• Data Security: Application runs on school-controlled, secure servers with HTTPS encryption.
• No Commercial Use: Student data is never used for commercial purposes, advertising, or marketing.
• Parental Rights: Parents/guardians may request information about their child's data by contacting the school.
• Breach Notification: District protocols will be followed in the unlikely event of a data breach.

NYS Web 2.0 Guidelines Compliance

This application follows the New York State Education Department's guidelines for Web 2.0 tools in education:

• Educational Purpose: Directly supports Earth Science curriculum standards.
• Age Appropriate: Content designed for middle/high school Earth Science students.
• No Student Accounts on External Services: No third-party accounts required; authentication uses school usernames only.
• District Hosted: Application runs entirely on district-controlled infrastructure.
• No Advertising: Application contains no advertisements or commercial content.

Data Storage & Security

• Location: All data stored locally on district servers (earthscience.bcsdk12.org)
• Encryption: HTTPS/TLS encryption for all data transmission
• Access Control: Administrative functions protected by password authentication
• No Cloud Storage: No data is transmitted to or stored on external cloud services

Data Retention

Game scores and usernames are retained for the current academic year to support educational assessment. Data may be cleared at the end of each school year or unit at teacher discretion.

Student Rights

Students have the right to:

• View their own game scores and progress
• Request correction of inaccurate data
• Request deletion of their data through their teacher

Parent/Guardian Rights

Parents and guardians have the right to:

• Inspect their child's data stored in the application
• Request correction or deletion of their child's data
• Receive information about the application's data practices

To exercise these rights, please contact your child's Earth Science teacher or school administrator.

Technical Specifications

Specification	Details
Hosting	District-owned server (EarthScienceIsCool.com)
Domain	earthscience.bcsdk12.org
Protocol	HTTPS (encrypted)
Database	SQLite (local file storage)
Third-Party Services	None
Cookies	Local storage only (game state)
Analytics	None