Privacy Policy

Welcome to the website of the Well-Trained Mind Academy (“the WTMA Site”). The WTMA Site is operated by Well-Trained Mind Academy (“WTMA” or “we”) as a portal where you can register your child for the online courses and other services that we offer (“Courses”). This privacy policy explains our practices regarding collection, use, and disclosure of personally identifying information that you may provide to us through the WTMA Site and other information that we may collect passively as you use the WTMA Site.

The personally identifying information we collect on the WTMA Site

When you register on behalf of your child:

  • On the account creation and payment pages, we ask you for your first and last name, complete street address, email address, phone number, and credit card information.
  • On the student information and account creation pages, we ask you for the first name, last name and birth date of each child of yours who will be taking Courses. We also ask for proof of the student’s birthdate. This documentation is stored on our vendor’s secure server until our registration team has verified the validity of the document, and then the file is immediately deleted.
  • When you “subscribe to our newsletter,” we ask you for your first and last name, email address, and phone number.
  • If you contact us or email us without having registered or subscribed to the notification list, we will have your email address and whatever other personally identifying information you include in the email.

Use of the personally identifying information that we collect on the WTMA Site

  • Registration. We use the personally identifying information you provide through the registration process to register your child for the Courses you have chosen and to bill you for those Courses. (We forward your credit card and billing information to our credit card processor. We do not store any credit card information on our servers.)
  • Email notifications. If you are the parent of an enrolled student (an “Enrolled Parent”) or if you subscribe to our notification list, we will use the email address that you have provided to send you notifications about new Courses, new sections of Courses, registration deadlines, special offers, and other information that is relevant to your registering your child for Courses.
  • Mailings. If you are an Enrolled Parent, we may use your name and street address to send you mailings about new Courses, new sections of Courses, registration deadlines, special offers, and other information that is relevant to your registering your child for Courses.
  • Responding to requests. We will use your phone number to contact you if you ask us to contact you by phone.
  • “Contact us” responses. If you contact us or email us without having registered or subscribed to the notification list, someone will respond and then archive your conversation on our secure email and helpdesk platforms.

Disclosure of personally identifying information to third parties

  • Blackboard. We will disclose the full name and email address of your child that you provided to us to Blackboard, which provides the software through which we provide the Courses. Blackboard will treat that personally identifying information according to its own privacy policy.
  • Online Classrooms: Student’s profile names, profile pictures, voices, and video images are available to all live students as students use the interactive features of Blackboard, which is an expected part of class. These may also be made available to delayed students watching on recordings. Your student’s use of the system implies your consent to these features under these circumstances.
  • Communication. If you are an Enrolled Parent, we store your email address on our Student Information System provider's server and also share it with our marketing provider, who sends out email notifications. If you are not an Enrolled Parent, but you ask to receive notifications, we will only forward your email address to our third-party email marketing provider and not store it on our servers.
  • Agents and Contractors. We may provide your personally identifying information to other service providers who work on our behalf or help us to operate the WTMA Site and the different activities that we conduct through and in connection with the WTMA Site. Examples of such service providers include vendors and suppliers that provide us with technology, services, and/or content for analyzing the operation of the WTMA Site, provide advertising and marketing assistance, and provide customer service. These service providers’ access to your personally identifying information is limited to the information reasonably necessary to perform their limited functions.
  • Disclosure for Legal Reasons.
    • We may disclose your personally identifiable information to protect the safety, rights, or property of the public, any person, or WTMA; to investigate, prevent, or otherwise address suspected fraud, harassment or other violations of any law, rule or regulation or our Terms of Use; to detect, prevent or otherwise address security or technical issues; or as we believe is required by law, regulation, or legal process.
    • If we engage in a merger, acquisition, disposition, change of control, bankruptcy, dissolution, reorganization, or similar transaction or proceeding, or otherwise transfer the operations of the WTMA Site that relates to your personally identifying information, we will transfer your personally identifying information to the successor entity.
  • Rights of California Residents. If you are a California resident, and you want to find out the names of any information brokers or any other third parties with whom we share your personally identifying information under California Privacy (Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code § 22575 et seq.), send a request to [email protected] and within thirty days we will provide you with that information.

Cookies and the information they collect

  • What cookies are. A cookie is a small data file that a website transfers to a user’s hard drive when a user visits the website. A cookie file can contain information such as a unique ID that the site uses to track the pages visited, and is a standard method of registering website user preferences. These preferences are stored in a file on your computer’s hard disk drive.
  • What they do. Cookies make it easier for you to use the WTMA Site by enabling you to access your information when you “sign in” to your account, to make purchases and move uninterrupted between site areas.
  • How you can control them. You can set your browser to accept all cookies, to reject cookies, or to notify you whenever a cookie is offered so that you can decide each time whether to accept it. Rejecting a cookie, however, may preclude you from using, or may negatively affect the display or function of, the WTMA Site or certain areas or features of the WTMA Site. To learn more about cookies, including how to enable cookies, change your browser settings and find and delete cookies on your hard drive, please refer to your web browser’s help menus or visit allaboutcookies.org.

How cookies are used on the WTMA Site

  • Site analysis. We use Google® Analytics and Facebook® Analytics to recognize and count the number of visitors to the WTMA Site and to see how visitors move around the WTMA Site when they’re using it. Cookies allow us to provide you with customized content, keep track of preferences you specify while visiting the WTMA Site, conduct general analysis and research, and identify purchases that you make in response to our advertising.
    • If you do not want your data collected with Google Analytics, you can install the Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on. This add-on instructs the Google Analytics JavaScript (ga.js, analytics.js, and dc.js) running on websites to prohibit sending information to Google Analytics. To opt out of Google Analytics, visit the Google Analytics opt-out page and install the add-on for your browser. For more details on installing and uninstalling the add-on, please see the relevant help resources for your specific browser. Updates to your browser or operating system may affect the functionality of the opt-out add-on. You can learn about managing add-ons for Chrome here.
  • Interest-based advertising.
    • If you visit the WTMA Site as a result of a search on Google®, Yahoo®. or another search engine, that search engine may serve you ads for other home-based education products and services when you are on other websites with their networks.
    • We also use Google® remarketing tags, which are a kind of cookie, to advertise to users who have visited the WTMA Site even when they are not on the WTMA Site and when they are not using a search engine to look for us. For example, if you have visited the WTMA Site in the last thirty days, you could be on an auto parts website and you might see an ad for the Well-Trained Mind Academy, just because you previously visited the WTMA Site.
    • You can choose to limit this kind of behavioral advertising by Google by going to https://adssettings.google.com and opting out of interest-based ads on Google. To opt out from a list of vendors in addition to Google, go to http://www.aboutads.info/choices/. After you opt out, you will still see advertisements when you are online, but the advertising may not be as relevant to your interests. If you change your computer, change your browser, or delete your cookies, you will need to renew your opt-out.

Web beacons and the information they collect

  • We may also use an application known as a “web beacon.” A web beacon is an electronic file that usually consists of a single-pixel image that is used in combination with a cookie or cookies. A web beacon can be placed on a web page or in an email to transmit information, which could include personally identifying information. We use a web beacon for Facebook® that allows us to advertise on Facebook to people who have visited the WTMA Site.

How web beacons are used on the WTMA Site

  • If you are on the WTMA Site when the Facebook web beacon is running, and then we run a “like” campaign on Facebook when you are on Facebook, you will see a “Like us” ad for the Well-Trained Mind Academy. We also may use web beacons to assist in tracking and analyzing advertising effectiveness, verify purchases made on the WTMA Site, count and recognize site visitors, and personalize your experience.

“Do Not Track” Signals

  • With some browsers, it is possible for a user to activate a “Do Not Track” signal, to indicate that the user does not want to be tracked across the websites that the user visits.
  • The WTMA Site does not respond to Do Not Track signals. In other words, if you have activated a Do Not Track signal in your own browser, the WTMA Site will not take any action to block tracking by Google, its affiliates, or anyone else of your activity on the WTMA Site.

Management of your personally identifying information on the WTMA Site

  • To keep your personally identifying information accurate, current, and complete, you can log in to your own account at www.wtmacademy.com, and follow the instructions to access your parent or student account. You can also contact:

Well Trained Mind Academy
Attn: Web Identity Security
18001 The Glebe Lane
Charles City, VA 23030

Security

  • We use SSL certificates to protect your personal information as you transmit it from your computer to the WTMA Site and to protect your information from loss, misuse, and unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration, or destruction. We also use a software program to stop certain kinds of attacks. But no Internet transmission is ever 100% secure or error-free. In particular, email sent to or from the WTMA Site may not be secure. Be careful about sending us any confidential information, and keep secure any passwords, ID numbers, or other special access features that you use on the WTMA Site.
  • We will retain your personally identifying information for the period necessary to fulfill the purposes outlined in this privacy policy or our data retention policies unless a longer retention period is required by law.
  • The WTMA Site may contain links or references to other sites in addition to the ones we have already mentioned. Please be aware that we do not control such other sites and that, in any case, this privacy policy does not apply to those sites. We encourage you to read the privacy policy of every site you visit.

Changes to this Privacy Policy

  • If this privacy policy changes, the revised policy will be posted here. Please check back periodically, and especially before you provide any personally identifying information.
  • This privacy policy was last updated on February 15, 2022.