Privacy Policy

4.0 30/06/2021

Cornerstones Education Ltd is committed to protecting your privacy and is the sole user of the information collected on this website. Information is collected and processed in accordance with the UK data protection and privacy laws, including but not limited to the Data Protection Act 2018 and the UK GDPR. This privacy statement explains what personal data we collect through our interactions with you, and how we use that data.

This statement applies to all who visit our websites, and customers that use our services and products.

Note

If you are using Cornerstones Education Ltd products:

purchased by an organisation, you are affiliated with (such as a school or local authority);
using an email address provided by an organisation you are affiliated with;

the owner of the domain (e.g. the school or local authority) associated with your email address may:

control and administer your Cornerstones Online services account and access and process your data, including the contents of your communications and files.

What information do we collect?
How do we use your information?
How to access and control your personal data
How long do we keep your information for?
Analytics, Cookies and Embedded content from other websites

Download a copy of our ISO 27001:2013 certificate here.

Our terms and conditions also make reference to what happens to your data (Section 15), and what your responsibilities are as part of your contract with us (Section 12)

What information do we collect?

We collect information to ensure that you have efficient service and access to our products.

Some of this data is provided by you directly, such as when you register to receive free samples, contact our office with an enquiry, place an order online for one of our products or services, or register for Cornerstones Online.

Information is also gathered by recording how you interact with our websites, through the use of cookies, error reports and usage data from your browser or software running your device including LockLizard.This data does not include any special categories of information.

We also collect information about your school either from you directly or through publicly available sources such as open government databases, your school website or other data in the public domain.

If you use our online assessment tracking system, we collect information about your pupils. This information is always obtained either directly from yourself or via the application Wonde. This information may include, at your discretion, special categories of data, e.g. race, ethnic origin and health information.

The data we collect depends on the context of your interactions with Cornerstones Education Ltd, the products and services you use and the choices you make, including your privacy settings. Data we collect can include the following:

Name and contact data – We collect your first name, last name, email address, skype address if shared and contact number.
School contact data – We collect the address, phone number, email address and DFE number.
Payment data – Payment instrument number (such as credit card number), security code (associated with your payment instrument number).

Device and usage data

Product use data – We collect data about what you download; this includes all documents on Cornerstones Online Device, connectivity and configuration data – We collect data about your device and the network you use to connect to our products. It includes data about the browser you are using to access our products and the time, date and IP address you are accessing materials from.
Error reports and performance data – We collect data about the performance of our websites and any problems you experience with them. This data helps us diagnose problems and improve our services.
Favourites – We collect data about your favourite projects. This allows you to quickly access them when you log in.

We also collect information you provide to us and the content of messages you send to us, such as feedback, questions and information you provide for customer support. When you contact us via phone, all conversations with Cornerstones Education Ltd are monitored and recorded for security and training purposes. These recordings are kept for 6 months on a secure server based in our South Yorkshire office.

We protect data obtained according to the practices described in this statement, plus any additional restrictions imposed by the source of the data.

How do we use the information?

Cornerstones Education Ltd uses the data we collect for:

Processing your order.
Providing you with access to the products and services you have purchased.
Customer support.
Keeping you updated with any important information.
Emailing you with information about other products and services that we think may be of interest to you.
Improving our products and services.

We use your data to provide and improve the products and services that we offer and perform essential business operations. This includes using Cornerstones Online Platforms, maintaining and improving the performance of our products, developing new features, conducting research and providing customer support.

Examples of such include:

Processing your order and providing you with access to the products and services you have purchased – We use data to carry out your transactions, provide you with an account for any of our Online Platforms and to provide a valid licence to access your materials.
Customer support – We use data to diagnose and resolve problems and to provide guidance and support for schools using our materials.
Keeping you updated with any important information – We use the data we collect to communicate with you. We may contact you by phone, email or other means to inform you that your subscription is due to expire, update you with any information regarding an open support query, notify you of any changes to our platform, or tell you of any action you need to take regarding your Cornerstones Online account.
Emailing you with information about other products and services that we think may be of interest to you – With your explicit permission, we would use your data to send you information from time to time that we think may be of interest to you.
Improving our products and services – We analyse any data that we collect regarding the performance of our systems that will enable us to operate, protect and make informed decisions about future products and services, security of data and improvement of current service.

Cornerstones does not own, control or direct the use of any of the personal data stored. Your information is stored on EU servers, and any pupil information is held in data centres in the UK.

Cornerstones will only process data with consent from the customer for a specified purpose, e.g. contractual support. At the end of the support call, access will be restricted once more. This information is only processed by our staff who receive regular security training.

Under the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR), the lawful bases we rely on for processing this information are:

Your consent. You are able to remove your consent at any time. You can do this by contacting dataprotection@cornerstoneseducation.co.uk.
We have a contractual obligation.
We have a legitimate interest.

Personally Identifiable Information

Cornerstones will not share any personally identifiable information with any other organisation or 3rd party.

Non-Personally Identifiable Information

Cornerstones may share non-personally identifiable information (such as website usage data, number of clicks and browser types) with interested third parties to help us understand the usage patterns and improve our services.

How to access and control your personal data

Under data protection law, you have the right to view, amend and delete your personal data online for all Cornerstones Education Ltd products and services including:

Your right of access – You have the right to ask us for copies of your personal information. If you have an account on this site or have submitted any information, you can request to receive an exported file of the personal data we hold about you, including any data you have provided to us. Your Cornerstones Online account allows you to view your personal data online.
Your right to rectification – You have the right to ask us to rectify personal information you think is inaccurate. You also have the right to ask us to complete information you think is incomplete. Your right to erasure – You have the right to ask us to erase your personal information in certain circumstances. This does not include any data we are obliged to keep for administrative, legal, or security purposes.
Your right to restriction of processing – You have the right to ask us to restrict the processing of your personal information in certain circumstances.
Your right to object to processing – You have the right to object to the processing of your personal information in certain circumstances.
Your right to data portability – You have the right to ask that we transfer the personal information you gave us to another organisation, or to you, in certain circumstances.

You are not required to pay any charge for exercising your rights. If you make a request, we have one month to respond to you. To make a change to your information, request that your information is erased, or to request all or part of the information that we hold about you (Subject Access Request), you can contact dataprotection@cornerstoneseducation.co.uk.

Please note that any changes will be reflected in active user databases within 30 days of receiving your request.

We may retain all information you submit for backups, archiving, prevention of fraud and abuse, analytics, the satisfaction of legal obligations, or where we otherwise reasonably believe that we have a legitimate reason to do so.

How long do we keep your information for?

We only retain the personal data collected from a user for as long as the user’s account is active, or as long as we need it to fulfil the purposes for which we have initially collected it unless otherwise required by law.

Following termination of your contract, your information will be deleted from our systems after 6 months.

Analytics, Cookies and Embedded content from other websites

Cookies

Cornerstones Education Ltd uses cookies (small text files placed on your device) and similar technologies to provide online services and to help collect data.

Cookies allow us, among other things, to store your preferences and settings; enable you to sign-in; provide interest-based advertising; combat fraud; and, analyse how our websites and online services are performing.

Some of the cookies we commonly use are listed below. This list is not exhaustive, but it is intended to illustrate the main reasons we typically set cookies. If you visit one of our websites, the site may set some or all of the following cookies:

_ga, _gat, _gtag_xxx, _gid – Used for Google analytics tracking.
wordpress_logged_in_xxx, wordpress_sec_xxx – Used for login functionality
woocommerce_cart_hash, woocommerce_items_in_cart – Used to store the user’s basket on the shop
CSRF_TOKEN, LS_CSRF_TOKEN – Used for Live Chat support.
zabUserId, zabVisitID, ZabHMBucket – Used by Zoho Pagesense to collect information about how visitors use our website
_fbp – Used by Facebook to deliver our advertising to people who have already visited our website

In addition to the cookies we set when you visit our websites, third parties may also set cookies when you visit our sites. In some cases, that is because we have hired a third party to provide services on our behalf, such as site analytics.

Most web browsers automatically accept cookies but provide controls that allow you to block or delete them.

For example, in Google Chrome, you can block or delete cookies by clicking Settings > Privacy and Security.

Instructions for blocking or deleting cookies in other browsers may be available in each browser’s privacy or help documentation.

Note: Certain features of Cornerstones Online depends on cookies. Please be aware that if you choose to block cookies, you may not be able to sign in or use those features, and preferences that are dependent on cookies may be lost. If you choose to delete cookies, settings and preferences controlled by those cookies will be deleted and may need to be recreated.

Embedded content

Embedded content from other websites Articles on this site may include embedded content (e.g. videos, images, articles, etc.). Embedded content from other websites behaves in the exact same way as if the visitor has visited the other website.

These websites may collect data about you, use cookies, embed additional third-party tracking, and monitor your interaction with that embedded content, including tracking your interaction with the embedded content if you have an account and are logged in to that website.

Our Use of Web Beacons and Analytics Services

Cornerstones Education Ltd web pages may contain electronic images known as web beacons (also called singlepixel gifs) that we use to help deliver cookies on our websites and to count users who have visited our websites. We also include web beacons in our promotional email messages or newsletters to determine whether you open and act on them.

In addition to placing web beacons on our own websites, we sometimes work with other companies to place our web beacons on their websites or in their advertisements. This helps us develop statistics on how often clicking on an advertisement on a website results in a purchase or other action on the advertiser’s website.

Web beacons or similar technologies from third-party analytics providers, help us compile aggregated statistics about the effectiveness of our promotional campaigns or other operations. These technologies enable the analytics providers to set or read their own cookies or other identifiers on your device, through which they can collect information about your online activities across applications, websites or other products.

However, we prohibit these analytics providers from using web beacons on our sites to collect or access information that directly identifies you (such as your name or email address). You can opt-out of data collection or use by some of these analytics providers by clicking the following link:

Google Analytics: tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout (requires you to install a browser add-on)

Version control

2.1 – 01/03/2019 – Added new cookies, ZabUserID, ZabVisitID, ZabHMBucket, _fbp

3.0 – 13/09/2019 – Added reference to third party transfer of data (Wonde)

4.0 – 30/06/2021 – Added legal basis for processing, corrected typo and updated cookies