Privacy Policy

This is the privacy policy of the Micro:bit Educational Foundation. It defines how we deal with your information across all our services.

We value the privacy of all our users. It is our intention that anyone interacting with the Micro:bit Educational Foundation and it's services will never have to disclose more information than is required for that specific interaction.

Children

Although we have users of all ages, the BBC micro:bit and the resources provided on this website are designed for 8-12 years old (and the people who teach them). We consult with children and their educators on a regular basis to help the Foundation design new products, data collection and processing policies.

GDPR

The Foundation is based in the UK and subject to GDPR legislation from the 25 May 2018. The Foundation is registered with the Information Commissions office.

No cookies or analytics

microbit.org and tech.microbit.org are completely static web sites. They do not make use of cookies, browser based analytics or make requests to any third-party web site without you explicitly clicking a link (see Third party web sites section). However, some of our subdomains such as give.microbit.org, makecode.microbit.org and support.microbit.org may use cookies or analytics. Please see the Third party web sites section for more information.

Server logs

Websites like microbit.org need web servers to process all the HTTP requests coming from browsers. Web servers make a note of every request or error in logs. A human or a computer can read these logs and determine

• Which page and feature of the website is being requested
• The time and date of the request
• The IP making the request
• The HTTP request code and the response the websever gave (e.g 404 for an error)
• The browser and build version that made the HTTP request
• The operating system and version of the machine making the request

The Foundation web team may look at these internal server logs to fix errors (such as the server being slow or a page being broken). We may use these logs if we think the website is under attack.

We process the data from these logs using analytics software. This assumes that the data isn’t being faked. The software processes the data, essentially counting up all the types of requests. The processed data allows the Foundation to know how the website is being used (popularity of pages or browsers) and from the IP address, we can determine which country or region is making the request.

We never combine this data with any data from any other system. So we never know how you use the website with your unique data provided to the Foundation in 3rd party systems. We also do not use this data to show you content based on a location. (So a student in Edinburgh UK has the same experience as someone in San Paulo, Brazil).

We purge logs to save space and to secure the data on a regular basis.

The Python Editor

The editor at python.microbit.org is hosted and maintained by the Foundation and is subject to this policy. This includes the use of server logs (as stated above).

Third party web sites

Web sites operated by a third party on our behalf may collect information about you for the purpose of providing you the service. These include:

• The makecode.microbit.org editor, provided by Microsoft. Read their privacy statement and their Student Pledge.
• The support.microbit.org knowledgebase and support site, provided by Freshdesk collects your email address, meta data associated with your device (Operating system and browser version) and any information you provide as part of a support ticket. They also store a password if you choose to create an account. Read their privacy policy.
• Content and editors hosted at microbit.co.uk, provided by the BBC. Read their privacy policy.
• We use MailChimp to manage our newsletters and they use cookies. Read their privacy policy.
• Our translation system, provided by Crowdin. Read their privacy policy.
• Our public repositories hosted on Github. Read their privacy statement.
• We use Slack as a hub for our developer community. Read their privacy policy.
• We previously linked to give.microbit.org page, maintained by Kitronik (which required cookies). Please contact support if you have any questions. Kitronik privacy policy is available here.
• We make use of Youtube for publishing our support videos and we use the youtube-nocookie flag to avoid tracking on the site. Use of Youtube is subject to Google's privacy policy.
• We collect survey information via Jotform. For more information read Jotform’s Privacy Policy.
• We may link to content provided by third parties.

We highlight external links using this icon: These links point to a different website and may open in a new tab.

Third party apps

Mobile and desktop applications operated by a third party on our behalf may collect information about you for the purpose of providing you the service and are subject to their respective app store policies. These include:

• The Android App, provided by Samsung and hosted in Google's Play Store. Read Samsung's privacy policy and read Google's privacy policy
• The iOS app, provided by Insight Resources is subject to this policy and hosted Apple's iTunes store. Read Apple's privacy policy
• The Windows App, provided by Microsoft is hosted on the Microsoft App store and subject to their privacy statement and their Student Pledge

Deleting user accounts and personal data

If you wish to remove your data from any of these systems, please follow the respective instructions. For anything not listed, please open a support ticket

• microbit.co.uk including legacy editors
• Unsubscribe from all Foundation communications sent via mailchimp
• Github

Public Platforms

The Foundation is active on a range of public platforms including GitHub, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Slack, and follow their privacy policies. We treat these forums as public. For example, if you say something on Twitter in a public message we might quote you on Facebook, and we might talk to you on Slack about a GitHub pull request.

We may make use of:

• Twitter Ads, which complies with Twitter's privacy policy.
• Facebook Ads (which complies with Facebook's Privacy Policy) and the Facebook Pixel. The Facebook Pixel is a bit of code that's used on some of the third-party sites we use (Mailchimp, Jotform) to help us reach the right people with our Facebook Ads and to help us know they're working. We don't use it on microbit.org at all.
• LinkedIn Ads, which complies with LinkedIn's Privacy Policy.
• Social Media Management platforms like Hootsuite (Hootsuite's Privacy Policy) and Sprout Social (Sprout Social's Privacy Policy).

to manage our Social Media communications.

We occasionally use third-party Social Media Analytics tools in conjunction with our social media accounts to assist in monitoring reporting metrics (Reach, Impressions, Engagement). For example, we use TweetReach (Read TweetReach's Privacy Policy), a tool from a company subject to the terms of being an Official Partner of Twitter.

The Global Challenge

The Micro:bit Educational Foundation will only ever use your personal details that you sent with your Global Challenge entry for the competition. Entries will be shared with partner organisations for judging purposes. These partners are listed on the website microbit.org/global-challenge. Winners details will also be shared with the Micro:bit Educational Foundation’s appointed travel company in order to arrange the finale event trip.

We will only collect children’s personal data (names) if parental consent is given on the entry form.

All personal details collected in competition entries will be deleted on 8th February 2019. Some third-party websites (such as MailChimp) require a few days to process this request and all personal details will be deleted at the first opportunity after 8th February 2019.

Competition entries will be collected via Jotform. For more information on Jotform’s Privacy Policy: https://www.jotform.com/privacy/

Competition entries will be held on Dropbox. For more information on Dropbox’s Privacy Policy: https://www.dropbox.com/privacy

To have your entry and personal data deleted at any time during the competition, please contact info@microbit.org

Questions, complaints or queries

The Foundation is a small, growing organisation. We are always looking to be better. Especially when collecting and using personal information for any individual. For this reason, we take any complaints and suggestions for improvements very seriously. Please contact us if you require any further information.