Khan Academy Privacy Policy
Updated: June 17th 2021
Khan Academy Privacy Principles
Our Privacy Policy is fueled by our commitment to these Privacy Principles:
- We’re deeply committed to creating a safe and secure online environment for you.
- We do not sell your personal information to third parties. We established Khan Academy as a nonprofit organization so that our mission of education and your trust will not be in conflict with a for-profit motive.
- We strive to provide you with access to and control over the information you give us, and we take the protection of your information very seriously.
- We take extra precautions for our younger learners as described in our Children’s Privacy Notice, including restricting child accounts to automatically block features that would allow a child to post or disclose personal information.
- We do not display advertising on Khan Academy. Our mission is to provide you with a world class education, not to sell you products.
Overview
Khan Academy, Inc. (“Khan Academy”, “our”, “us”, or “we”) is a US-based charitable nonprofit organization. As a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, we use the information we collect to provide you with a better experience and fulfill our mission of providing a free, world-class education for anyone, anywhere. We established ourselves as a nonprofit organization so that a for-profit motive will not interfere with our mission of providing a trusted educational resource.
We are committed to protecting your privacy. We understand how important privacy is to you, and we are committed to protecting your privacy and to creating a safe and secure environment for learners of all ages. This Privacy Policy explains how information is collected, used, shared, and protected by Khan Academy when you use (or access) our website at www.khanacademy.org, our mobile application, and online service (collectively, our “Service”). Our Khan Academy Kids mobile application is governed by a different privacy policy.
Note: For each section in this Privacy Policy, you can view the general privacy practices at the beginning of the section, and see more information by reviewing “Learn More” for the relevant section.
Use by Children and Students
For specific information about how we collect, use, and process personal information when providing the Service to schools, school districts, and teachers, please review the School and Student Use.
Our Children’s Privacy Notice describes how we collect, use, and process personal information from children under 13.
Collection of information
We collect information in the following ways, depending on your use of the Service and your account settings:
- We collect information from you directly, such as when you create an account, communicate with us, participate in activities, events or surveys, or otherwise provide information during your use of the Service.
- We may collect information from others, such as your parent, teacher, or School, or third parties (meaning organizations outside of Khan Academy), such as third party applications that you use to connect to the Service.
- We collect some information automatically, such as information about your use of the Service and the devices you use to access the Service. We may use cookies, web beacons, and similar technologies to collect information as explained in our Cookie Notice.
Examples of information we may collect includes:
- Account registration information (username, birthdate, and email)
- Information about your browser or device, and general location
- Information you choose to include in your profile or post in public areas of the Service
- Information you may provide in connection with specific features or special programs
- Non-personal information which may be linked to your personal information, including Information about your use of our Service
Additional information about our collection of Child and student data is provided in our Children’s Privacy Notice and Schools and Student Use. Further information about how Khan Academy collects your information is provided under “Learn More”.
Learn More |
Use of information
Khan Academy uses information collected for the purposes of:
- providing the Service
- personalizing your experience
- communicating with you about your account and our Service (including responding to inquiries and sharing information about new features and offerings that may be of interest)
- enabling your participation in special programs that we may offer in partnerships with third parties (if you choose to participate in such special programs)
- understanding and improving our Service, and developing new or improved educational offerings
We may also use de-identified or aggregated information for product development, research, analytics and other purposes, including for the purpose of analyzing, improving or marketing our Service, for demonstrating the impact of our Service, or conducting educational research.
Learn More |
Sharing and disclosure of information
Khan Academy takes great care to protect the personal information you provide to us. We do not sell your personal information to third parties. This section explains circumstances in which we may share personal information with third parties.
We may share personal information:
- with other users of our Service, if you use features that enable you to share your information with (or make it accessible to) others.
- with Vendors, consultants and other service providers working on our behalf
- with other users that are associated with your account, such as a parent, teacher or coach.
- with your school, if you are using our Service for school purposes (please see Schools and Student Use for more information).
- with your consent (including third party applications that you choose to use, such as complementary services or an Authentication Service). If you choose to use a third-party application or service, the use of your information by the third party will be governed by that party’s privacy policy.
- in connection with business transfers (due to mergers and acquisitions).
- for compliance purposes, such as when reasonably necessary to protect the security and safety of our users or Service, or when permitted by law.
We may also share de-identified or aggregated information that does not reasonably identify any individual.
Learn More |
Sponsorship and Advertising
As a nonprofit organization, Khan Academy relies on our sponsors, donors, and other contributors to provide funding necessary to provide the free Service to our users. From time to time, we permit third parties to sponsor content displayed on our Service.
- For example, for-profit organizations may wish to sponsor all content related to a particular educational topic, such as astronomy or biology.
- Sponsored content will always be labeled (e.g., “Sponsored by ___”).
- Khan Academy does not share any of your personal information with these sponsors without your consent. We do not provide these sponsors with the ability to track or collect information about our site visitors or users.
Khan Academy does not display third party advertisements on our Service. We may, from time to time, incorporate content or link to content provided by third parties that may be of interest to you and relevant to the educational context of our Service. Some of these materials or websites may include branding or advertisements as permitted by the third party owner or operator. For more information, please review Links to third parties.
Please note that we use our best efforts and take multiple steps to avoid the collection of information for targeted advertising purposes when we believe the Service is being used by Students or Children.
- For example, we take steps to inhibit third party advertising networks from collecting information for targeted advertising purposes on webpages with child-directed content or when a Student or Child User logs into the Service.
- Khan Academy uses the available privacy functionality in YouTube to display video content on YouTube (see additional information under “Learn More”).
Please review our Children’s Privacy Notice for more information.
Learn More |
Transparency and your choice
We take privacy very seriously. We strive to put you in control of the choices and decisions regarding your personal information.
We understand that your personal information is important to you, and that is why you have choices in how your personal information is used and shared. We want you to have access to your personal information, so that you can help keep it as accurate as possible.
For example, you can choose whether to create an account (or use the Service without registering). If you register for an account, you can:
- Limit optional information you provide
- Choose whether you wish to share personal information with (and use) third party services
- Choose whether to add a coach to your account
- Choose whether you wish to receive optional email
- Update, correct, and delete your account information through your account settings
In some cases, administrative controls for accounts used in a school setting, including the ability to modify or delete the account, are held by the school. For more information, please review our Children’s Privacy Notice and Schools and Student Use.
Learn More |
Your account settings
We want you to have access to your information, so that you can help keep it as accurate as possible. If you register and provide Khan Academy with information, you may update, correct, or delete your account and information at any time by reviewing your profile information and preferences on your account settings page.
Parents (not Children) can modify or delete Child User accounts, as described in our Children’s Privacy Notice. Parents or school users who request to modify or delete School Accounts may be directed to the School.
Further information about how you can access, update, correct, or delete your account in the account settings is provided under “Learn More”.
Learn More |
Security of your personal information
Khan Academy is committed to securing your personal information.
Some of the ways in which we protect your personal information include:
- We encrypt your personal information when it is stored at rest
- We protect your personal information with encryption during transmission over the public Internet
- We use reasonable organizational and technical safeguards designed to help protect the privacy and security of your personal information
Some of the ways in which we encourage you to protect your personal information include:
- We encourage you to create a username that does not reveal your identity
- We encourage you to create (and keep) a strong password
- We encourage you to be thoughtful about what you post and continue to learn about online safety
We use reasonable safeguards to protect our Service and your personal information, but no security measures are perfect.
Learn More |
Links to Third Parties
The Service may link to and may be linked by websites operated by other entities or individuals. If we include links to third parties and you click on that link, you will be leaving Khan Academy and the privacy policy of that third party applies. Similarly, if you see a link to Khan Academy on a third party website, then the privacy policy of that third party applies.
- For example:
- If you click on a link to College Board, then you will go to College Board’s website and College Board’s privacy policy applies.
- If you are on the Khan Academy Instagram page, the privacy policy of Instagram applies to that Khan Academy Instagram page.
- This Khan Academy Privacy Policy does not apply to (and we cannot control the activities of) such other third party websites.
- You should consult the privacy policies of those third party websites.
Changes to this Privacy Policy
Khan Academy may modify or revise this Privacy Policy from time to time. Khan Academy will notify users of any changes to our Privacy Policy by posting the revised Privacy Policy with an updated date of revision on our Service. If we change this Policy in a material manner, we will do our best to notify you of the changes by posting a notice on our website. We recommend that you review the Privacy Policy each time you visit the Service to stay informed of our privacy practices.
We will not make any material changes to our Privacy Policy that relate to the collection or use of Student Personal Data without first giving notice to the School and providing a choice before Student Personal Data are used in a materially different manner than was disclosed when the information was collected.
Contact Khan Academy
Please contact Khan Academy with any questions or comments.
By email: our Privacy team
By mail: Khan Academy, PO Box 1630, Mountain View, CA 94042
You may also wish to visit the Khan Academy Help Center and Common Questions and Resources page, which hosts useful FAQs and information that you may find helpful.
Schools and Student Use
This School and Student Use notice supplements our Privacy Policy in connection with school use. Khan Academy is a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing free educational content. We strive to implement best practices to protect the privacy of all of our student and non-student users, alike. We have implemented additional controls and procedures for schools, school districts and teachers (collectively referred to as “Schools”) when they use the Service for educational purposes. When the Service is used as part of the School’s educational program, the personal information related to the School’s student users (“School Users”) may include information defined as “education records” by the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (“FERPA”) or other information protected by similar state student data privacy laws. We refer to this information as “Student Personal Data”.
Our commitment:We are proud supporters of the Student Privacy Pledge. Our collection and use of Student Personal Data is governed by our contracts with Schools, by our Privacy Policy, and by applicable privacy laws. For example, we work with Schools to protect Student Personal Data consistent with FERPA and, for School Users under 13, the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (“COPPA”). If you have any questions about reviewing, modifying, or deleting the personal information of a School User, please contact your School directly.
Creation of School Accounts: Please note that in order for School User accounts to be associated with a School and recognized as School Accounts (as defined in our Terms of Service), the accounts must be created by or at the direction of a School, using a school email address and associated with a School’s class on the Service. For example, a School Account is created when:
- a teacher creates the user name, login and password to establish School User accounts and creates a class on the Service
- a teacher rosters a class using Google Classroom, Clever, or similar single sign-on service for School use
- an account is created by a School User at the direction of a School, using a School email address and associated with a School’s class on the Service
- accounts are created pursuant to a separate contract between Khan Academy and the school district (or educational agency) specifying that the accounts are School Accounts
In cases where we do not have a separate contract with a School district or educational agency, we may require notification that the accounts are used for school purposes in order to recognize them as School Accounts. If you are a School, please contact our School Partnerships Team to learn more about how to ensure that student accounts are set up and managed as School Accounts.
Please review “Learn More” to see more information about:
- Some of the specific ways that we use and protect Student Personal Data
- How we share and disclose Student Personal Data
- No Targeted Advertising
- How we retain and delete Student Personal Data
- Questions about Student Personal Data
Learn More |
Children’s Privacy Notice
This privacy notice supplements our Privacy Policy and provides additional information about how we collect, use and share personal information from children under the age of 13 (a “Child” or “Children”).
Khan Academy is committed to Children’s privacy.
Protecting the privacy of Children is especially important to Khan Academy. For that reason, we created certain features designed to help protect personal information relating to Children (“Child Users”). When a Child creates an account, we seek the consent of a parent or legal guardian (“Parent”) for that account. When Khan Academy is used by a School in an educational setting, we rely on the School to provide the requisite consent, on behalf of the Parent, for Khan Academy to collect information from a School User under the age of 13.
Please review “Learn More” for more information about:
- How Children can use and register for our Service
- Restrictions placed on Accounts for Child Users
- Information collected and how the information is used
- Information disclosed
- No Third Party Tracking and No Targeted Advertising
- Choice: Access, Modify and Delete Child Accounts
Learn More |
Donor information
This Donor information notice supplements our Privacy Policy in connection with donors. If you donate to Khan Academy and do not donate anonymously, we obtain information such as your name, email address, and mailing address. If you donate using our online form, our payment processor will also collect your credit or debit card number or other payment information. Please note that information collected by these payment processors is subject to their own privacy policy.
We may use donor information to communicate with you about your contribution and to send fundraising updates and information regarding the advancement of our mission.
We do not share personally identifiable donor information except with your consent or as required by law.
If you have registered for an account with us, then you may update your preferences in your account settings to opt out of donor emails. If you do not have an account with us, then you may opt out by clicking the unsubscribe link on the donor email message or responding back to the email asking to be removed. Please note that if you have previously unsubscribed but subsequently donate (or attend a donor event), then we may send you follow up communications regarding your support of our mission.
Learn More |
Applicant information
This Applicant information notice supplements our Privacy Policy in connection with applicants. If you apply for a job with Khan Academy via an online application or recruiting site, we will obtain the information you choose to provide in your application for that purpose. For example, we collect professional or employment-related information that typically includes details regarding your employment history, experience, and qualifications; as well as education information, including degrees obtained and academic records.
Regional information
This Regional information notice supplements our Privacy Policy. In certain regions, you may have certain additional rights. This may include the right to request access or to update or review your information, request that it be deleted or anonymized, or object to or restrict Khan Academy using it for certain purposes.
If you wish to exercise a right, please Contact Khan Academy. Our ability to respond to specific requests may be limited by applicable law and the functionality of our Service.
International Data Transfer : Our Service is operated and managed on servers located within the United States. If you choose to use our Service from Europe or other regions of the world with laws governing data collection and use that differ from United States law, then you acknowledge that Khan Academy will transfer, store, and process your personal information to the United States for the purpose of performing the Service according to our contract (e.g., our Terms of Service) and for any other purpose for which you provide explicit, informed consent.
Learn More |