Terms, Conditions, Privacy, and Security
Terms and Conditions
Agreement with Terms of Service: This agreement (“Agreement”) sets forth the terms and conditions that apply to you (“User”, “Instructor”, “Student”, “School”, “Content Provider”, “Software Developer”, or “Parent”) to access the FLEX Education system (“FLEX system “) by Equip Education Ministries, Inc. By using the FLEX system, you agree to the following Terms of Service.DISCLAIMERS AND LIMITATION OF LIABILITY: THE WEBSITE IS PROVIDED “AS IS” AND “AS AVAILABLE”. USE OF THE WEBSITE IS AT YOUR OWN RISK. THE WEBSITE MAY BE TEMPORARILY UNAVAILABLE AT TIMES FOR MAINTENANCE AND UPGRADES WITHOUT NOTICE. FLEX MAY CHANGE OR DISCONTINUE ANY ASPECT OF THE WEBSITE WITHOUT NOTICE, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO FEATURES AND BROWSER REQUIREMENTS. FLEX MAY CHANGE FEES; SUCH CHANGES ARE EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY UPON NOTICE. BY USING THE WEBSITE, YOU EXPRESSLY AGREE HEREIN THAT FLEX SHALL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY DAMAGES INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO DAMAGES RESULTING FROM USE OF THE WEBSITE, INACCURACIES, LOSS OR CORRUPTION OF DATA, UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS, UNAVAILABILITY, INACCESSIBILITY, OR CHANGES TO THE WEBSITE, AND THAT FLEX SHALL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY CONTENT OR LINKS POSTED OR EMAILED BY YOURSELF OR OTHER USERS.Legal Use: You may not use the FLEX system for any unlawful activities. You agree to use the FLEX system only for its stated purpose. You agree not to intentionally damage or overburden the FLEX system.Publishing Educational Content: You agree that any content you publish within the FLEX system must be appropriate for education (K-12, college, or professional), and that you are the legal copyright holder or You have express permission from the copyright holder for any content that You publish. FLEX may block or delete any content deemed inappropriate or in violation of copyright laws.Proprietary Rights, Copyrights & Trademarks: You agree not to duplicate, modify, or reverse engineer any portion of the FLEX system. “FLEX” and “FLEX Education” and the corresponding logos are trademarks of Equip Education Ministries, Inc.Family Educational Rights & Privacy Act (FERPA): U.S. Federal law requires certain student information to be kept private. The FLEX system is fully compliant with all requirements of FERPA under the “school official” exception (CFR)§99.31(a)(1), because your data is in your direct control and ownership, and used only for legitimate educational interests and functions that the School’s own employees normally perform. FERPA does not require parental consent for such use. The FLEX system does not and shall not share any personally identifiable information (PII) with any third party, or use it for non-educational purposes (spam, targeted ads), except when a School or Instructor initiates or enables their own student data (directory information) to be sent to a third party to integrate with other applications. The FLEX system has several security features to protect the privacy of student data. You agree that the FLEX system shall not be liable if Schools or Instructors neglect to use these security features properly. See the Privacy section of this document for more details.Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA): Schools or Instructors may optionally use the FLEX system to collect personal information from Students, such as email addresses and phone numbers. U.S. Federal law requires that Schools or Instructors obtain parents’ consent before collecting personal information online from Students under the age of 13. (This law does not apply to student information entered by Schools or Instructors; it applies only when the Student enters their own information online.) You agree that FLEX shall not be liable for how Schools or Instructors collect and use Students’ personal information.European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR): This law applies only to the European Union. While FLEX complies with best practices for privacy and data protection, it does not comply with all logistic provisions of the GDPR. You agree that FLEX shall not be liable for how Schools or Instructors collect and use personal data.Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA): Student health records that are posted to FLEX are protected under FERPA as education records. HIPAA Privacy Rule at 45 CFR § 160.103 states “Protected health information excludes individually identifiable health information: (i) In education records covered by the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, as amended, 20 U.S.C. 1232g”.Text Messages: Users may opt-in to receive text message alerts for grades, absences, messages, etc. Message and data rates may apply. FLEX is not liable for users entering incorrect phone numbers. Wireless carriers are not liable for lost or undelivered text messages.User License: Payment of a license fee grants you a non-exclusive, non-assignable license to access the FLEX system. You must keep your password confidential.Refund Policy: All sales are final. Please use the free trial period to try the FLEX system before making a purchase.Termination: Your access to the FLEX system may be terminated if you violate the Terms of Service, allow your account to expire, or fail to pay for your license. Your access may be terminated if there is reason to believe you provided false personal information or are posing as someone else.Restricted Access & Data Storage: Your data may be deleted after your account expires and you do not login for 120 days. It is your responsibility to keep your own archival records (such as printouts or exported data files). If your data exceeds storage limitations you may be asked to delete some of it, or FLEX may delete some of it with advance notice. FLEX may delete any data that violates the Terms of Service. Your access may be limited or denied if you exceed bandwidth limitations.Comments & Submissions: FLEX welcomes comments and suggestions. Anything you submit or communicate to FLEX becomes the property of FLEX and may be quoted and published unless you explicitly request otherwise in advance.Controlling Law: This Agreement shall be construed in accordance with the laws of the State of Florida, without regard to its conflict of law provisions. Any cause of action of any nature arising out this Agreement shall be brought in Broward County, Florida.Amendments: These Terms of Service and Privacy Policy may be amended occasionally with or without notice. Any revisions are effective immediately once posted on the FLEX system. Your continued use of the FLEX system shall indicate your acceptance of the revision.Contact: If you have any questions about the Terms of Service or the Privacy Policy, or to report a violation of the Terms of Service, please contact us.
Privacy PolicyStudent & Parent Personal Information: FLEX stores Student and Parent information, including names, email addresses, phone numbers, ID numbers, and grades. Instructors and School staff may enable parts of their own student data to be sent to a third-party for integration with other educational apps. Aside from that, the FLEX system does not and shall not share any personal information with third parties. The Instructor or School may optionally require Students and Parents to enter personal information on the FLEX system, including email addresses and phone numbers. If the Student is under 13, the Instructor or School must get the Parent’s consent as required by the U.S. Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). Alternatively, the Instructor or School may enter the Student’s personal information from school records. Under our Terms of Service, the Instructor or School may use this information only for educational purposes. The Instructor also enters the Student’s grades and personal comments. This information is available only to the Instructor and other staff at the same school district, depending on the permission settings set by the School or Instructor. Students and Parents may also see their own information, but not of other Students. Personal information may be seen by FLEX support staff when you ask for technical support. The FLEX system uses password protection, security codes, and encryption to prevent anyone else from accessing personal information. To ensure privacy, Students and Parents must keep their passwords confidential and logout when done.Family Educational Rights & Privacy Act (FERPA): U.S. Federal law requires certain student information to be kept private. FLEX is fully compliant with all requirements of FERPA under the “school official” exception (CFR)§99.31(a)(1), because your data is in your direct control and ownership, and used only for legitimate educational interests and functions that the School’s own employees normally perform. FERPA does not require parental consent for such use. FLEX does not and shall not share any personally identifiable information (PII) with any third party, or use it for non-educational purposes (spam, targeted ads), except when a School or Instructor initiates or enables their own student data (directory information) to be sent to a third party to integrate with other applications. FLEX has several security features to protect the privacy of student data. You agree that FLEX shall not be liable if Schools or Instructors neglect to use these security features properly.European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR): This law applies only to the European Union. While FLEX complies with best practices for privacy and data protection, it does not comply with all logistic provisions of the GDPR. You are solely responsible for how you collect and use personal data on students, parents, and staff.Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA): Student health records that are posted to FLEX are protected under FERPA as education records. HIPAA Privacy Rule at 45 CFR § 160.103 states “Protected health information excludes individually identifiable health information: (i) In education records covered by the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, as amended, 20 U.S.C. 1232g”.Staff Personal Information: Instructors, School staff, and Content Providers are required to give some personal information on the FLEX system, including name, email address, school name and location, and optionally phone number. Some of this information is made available to Students and Parents when they login, but Staff may optionally hide their email address and phone number. Other Staff at the same school may see personal information, but they never see passwords. (If you do not want other staff to see your data, create your own fake school.) Staff information may be seen by FLEX support staff when you ask for technical support. The FLEX system uses password protection and encryption to prevent anyone else from accessing Staff accounts. Staff users must keep their passwords confidential and logout when done using the FLEX system to ensure their privacy and the privacy of their Students and Parents.Financial Information: If you pay online, your credit card number is sent to WePay as a third party to process online payments, in accordance with their Privacy Policy posted at WePay.com. The FLEX system is fully PCI compliant. We do not store your credit card number.Curriculum: Any original content you enter in the FLEX system remains your intellectual property with full rights. Curriculum is kept private, with strict security measures to block hackers. Your students see your curriculum only if you put it online for them. Other people cannot see your curriculum unless you explicitly share it with other Instructors or share it within the FLEX system. The author of any published curriculum may write a copyright notice to give permission or restrict Instructors from modifying or redistributing their content.Unsolicited Email (Spam): FLEX sends email to Instructors and School staff for security alerts and confirmations. All other notices and promotions are usually communicated through the FLEX system when you login, but they may be sent in email on occasion. FLEX does not contact Students and Parents except if needed to service an account.Third Parties: FLEX does not share any information with third parties except as described above or as required by law, or to enforce the Terms of Service, to protect the rights of others, or to protect the legal rights of FLEX.Advertisements: FLEX does not contain any third-party ads, targeted or otherwise.Data Ownership & Deletion: You are the owner of your data. Your data is deleted automatically after you discontinue your account. Normally this occurs after several months (some users change their minds), but upon request we will delete your data immediately.Notification of Breach: If a data breach occurs, we will notify you if your account was potentially affected, explaining what data was exposed and to whom. We will post a notice in your Inbox within 24 hours after a breach is discovered and patched.Cookies & Log Files: Like most websites, the FLEX system uses Cookies and Log Files. In addition to the information you provide voluntarily, all websites can identify your computer’s operating system, browser, IP address, internet service provider (ISP), city location, and the webpage that linked you to the FLEX system. If you reject or disable cookies, some features of the FLEX system may not function.How We Use Your Data: Your data is used only for school-related purposes. We may analyze non-personal usage data to improve the features and show announcements relevant to the features you use. We use cookies and IP addresses for security, mostly to detect potentially unauthorized access to accounts. We do not use third-party ads.Data Location: Our servers are located in the United States.Amendments: This Privacy Policy may be amended occasionally with or without notice. Any revisions are effective immediately once posted on Flexeducation.org. Your continued use of the FLEX system shall indicate your acceptance of the revision. In the event FLEX is acquired, merged, or sold in part to another company, your personal information would likely be among the assets transferred. You will be notified in advance of any such change.Contact: If you have any questions about the Privacy Policy, or to report a violation of the Terms of Service, please contact us.
Security
FLEX has several security measures to ensure your data is kept secure and private.