Terms of Service
Children's Privacy Policy

Privacy Policy

We made the Bitsbox service so people like you could create projects, share ideas, and build a community. To make this happen, we collect some information for our users. We understand how important privacy is to our community, especially kids and parents. We wrote this privacy policy to explain what information we collect, how we use it, and what we're doing to keep it safe. If you have any questions regarding this privacy policy, you can contact us at help@bitsbox.com.

Please do not share personal contact information, such as your name, physical address, email address, phone number, or anything else that can be used to make contact outside of the Bitsbox website. Please report projects, comments, or forum posts that contain this kind of information so we can remove it, and please remind the author of our policy.

We may work with partners, such as resellers, in connection with the Bitsbox service. Those partners may separately collect personal information from you, and their collection, use, disclosure, and protection of your personal information is subject to their privacy policies.

What information does Bitsbox collect about me?

Coding Account Information: In order to save app projects, you need to make an account. During account creation, we ask you for a username or email address (or your parent or guardian's email address if you are under 13 years old), or you may use a Google account (such as school created accounts) regardless of age. Once an account is created, we optionally allow you to tell us your first name, age, and gender. We ask that you select a username that does not disclose your real name or other information that could identify you. Other users who you share apps with can see your first name, but not your age, gender, Google account information, or email address.

Subscription Account Information: If you choose to purchase a monthly subscription to the Bitsbox service, we will require you to create a subscription account. This account is separate from any coding accounts. During subscription account creation, we ask you for email address, contact information, payment information, and shipping information. We may also receive this subscription account information from third parties from whom you purchase a subscription to the Bitsbox service, such as Cratejoy, Amazon and certain resellers. We use third party services for payment processing. Bitsbox does not have access to your credit card number or financial account passwords. Rather, all such information is provided directly to our third party processor, currently Stripe, Inc., whose use of your personal information is governed by their privacy policy, which may be viewed at https://stripe.com/us/privacy.

User-generated Content: All of your Bitsbox projects, comments, and forum posts are stored on the Bitsbox servers. Because we are responsible for moderation, we have access to all content stored on the Bitsbox website, including unshared projects.

Usage Information: When you use the Bitsbox service, our servers will automatically store a limited amount of information about how you use the website. This information includes a number that identifies your computer (the IP address), which pages you visited, and what browser you are using.

Google Analytics: We also collect some data on where you click and which parts of the site you visit using Google Analytics. This "click data" helps us figure out ways to improve the website. Information collected and processed by Google Analytics includes the user's IP address, network location, and geographic location. Google Analytics acquires all its information directly from the user, by installing a cookie (see below) on your computer, if you have enabled JavaScript. Bitsbox does not share any information it collects with Google, and Google does not collect any personal identifying information about you.

Cookies: When you log in, the Bitsbox website asks your browser to put an http "cookie" on your computer. The cookie is actually a small text file that our site can send to your browser for storage on your computer. This allows the website to remember that you are logged in when you go to a different page.

How does Bitsbox use my information?

• We collect age and gender data so that we know who is using our website.
• If you forget your password, we will ask you to give us your email address so that we can send you a new password.
• We will use your email address to respond to messages you send us or to communicate with you about the Bitsbox service or your account.
• We may send out occasional email updates about the Bitsbox service to the confirmed email address on your account. Bitsbox will never sell or share your email address without your permission. You can unsubscribe from these updates by clicking the unsubscribe link found at the bottom of the email.
• If we detect repeated abusive behavior from your account, IP address, or email address, we may share your account name, IP address, and the time and content of the abusive behavior with the IP address owner (such as a school or internet service provided).

How does Bitsbox share my information?

• We may use de-identified location, age, gender, and usage data in research studies intended to improve our understanding of how people learn with the Bitsbox service. The results of this research are shared with educators and researchers through conferences, journals, and other publications.
• We may disclose some of the information we collect to third-party service providers that help us manage communications to and from the Bitsbox website and improve website performance. We are satisfied that these service providers have privacy policies that restrict them from further disclosing any of your information.
• We may also from time to time contract with third-party vendors to serve ads to our customers on our behalf across the internet or to send mailings to customers whom we think may be interested in our products or services. To do this, the vendors will collect anonymous information about your visits to our website and your interaction with our products and services. This anonymous information is collected through the use of a cookie or pixel tag - industry standard technology used by most major websites. No personally identifiable information is collected in this process. Our vendors may also pool the anonymous information that they collect with other sources of information not collected during your visit to our website, which may include your name and mailing address, for purposes of determining whether you might be interested in receiving a catalog. If you do not wish for cookies or pixel tags to be placed on your computer, most commercially available web browsers permit you to prevent that from taking place. 
• We may disclose your personal information to professional advisors, such as lawyers, bankers, auditors and insurers, where necessary in the course of the professional services that they render to us.
• We may sell, transfer or otherwise share some or all of our business or assets, including your personal information, in connection with a business transaction (or potential business transaction) such as a corporate divestiture, merger, consolidation, acquisition, reorganization or sale of assets, or in the event of bankruptcy or dissolution.
• Other than as described above, we will never share personally identifiable information about you with any other person, company, or organization, except:
  • As required or appropriate to comply with our obligations under the law, lawful requests, and legal process, such as to respond to subpoenas or requests from government authorities.
  • To: (a) protect our, your or others’ rights, privacy, safety or property (including by making and defending legal claims); (b) enforce the terms and conditions that govern the Service; and (c) protect, investigate and deter against fraudulent, harmful, unauthorized, unethical or illegal activity
  • With our corporate parent, subsidiaries, and affiliates, for purposes consistent with this Privacy Policy.
  • For technical reasons, if we are required to transfer the data on our servers to another location or organization.

How does Bitsbox protect my information?

Bitsbox has in place physical and electronic procedures to protect the information we collect on the Bitsbox website. We strictly limit individual access to the Bitsbox servers and the data we store on them. However, as effective as these measures are, no security system is impenetrable. We cannot completely guarantee the security of our database, nor can we guarantee that the information you supply will not be intercepted while being transmitted to us over the Internet.

Children Under 13

Bitsbox welcome users of all ages. For specific information of how we treat the information of children under the age of 13, please see our Children’s Privacy Policy located at https://bitsbox.com/childrensprivacy.html.

Notifications of Changes to the Privacy Policy

We review our security measures and Privacy Policy on a periodic basis, and we may modify our policies as appropriate. We may also change or update our Privacy Policy if we add new services or features. If we make any changes to our privacy practices, we will amend this Privacy Policy accordingly and post the amended policy on the Bitsbox website and update the Last Updated date above. We encourage you to review our Privacy Policy on a regular basis.

Your Choices

In this section, we describe the rights and choices available to all users.

Access or Update Your Information. If you have registered for an account with us, you may review and update certain personal information in your account profile by logging into the account.

Opt out of marketing communications. You may opt out of marketing-related emails by following the opt-out or unsubscribe instructions at the bottom of the email, or by contacting us at help@bitsbox.com. You may continue to receive service-related and other non-marketing emails.

Cookies & Browser Web Storage. We may allow service providers and other third parties to use cookies and similar technologies to track your browsing activity over time and across the Service and third party websites. Most browsers let you remove or reject cookies. To do this, follow the instructions in your browser settings. Many browsers accept cookies by default until you change your settings. Please note that if you set your browser to disable cookies, the website may not work properly. Similarly, your browser settings may allow you to clear your browser web storage.

Do Not Track. Some Internet browsers may be configured to send “Do Not Track” signals to the online services that you visit. We currently do not respond to “Do Not Track” or similar signals. To find out more about “Do Not Track,” please visit http://www.allaboutdnt.com.

Choosing not to share your personal information. Where we are required by law to collect your personal information, or where we need your personal information in order to provide our services to you, if you do not provide this information when requested (or you later ask to delete it), we may not be able to provide you with our services. We will tell you what information you must provide to receive the services by designating it as required at the time of collection or through other appropriate means.