Effective Date: July 01, 2026
ABOUT OER PROJECT
The OER Project (“OER”) is a non-commercial venture offering free, high-quality educational curricula by Big History Project, LLC via two sites: 1) multiple social studies courses that cover world history, big history, and climate change topics to teachers and students in an online classroom format at OERProject.com, and 2) a course for curious-minded, life-long learners through this Big History Project site (“Site”). This Privacy Policy describes the privacy practices we follow when collecting and using information about you Site., which will vary from those found on our OER Project school curriculum site designed for classroom use. This policy specifically refers to the Big History Project (also referred to herein as “BHP”) course designed for adults and lifelong learners.
PRIVACY PRINCIPLES
We understand that online privacy is important to you and are committed to protecting your privacy. The practices stated in this Privacy Policy are guided by the following principles:
- Our commitment to creating a safe and secure online learning experience for you.
- Our commitment to use your personal information solely to enable and enhance our ability to offer free educational content to you, rather than using it for commercial profit.
- Our commitment to giving you access and control over the information you provide to us.
PRIVACY NOTIFICATION
We ask that you please read this Privacy Policy before using the Site. It describes what information we gather from you and others who visit or use the Site, how we use that information, and what we do to protect it. When you access or use the Site, certain information, including personal information, may be collected, transferred, processed, stored, and in certain circumstances, disclosed as described in this Privacy Policy. BY VISITING OR USING OUR SITE, YOU EXPRESSLY CONSENT TO THESE INFORMATION HANDLING PRACTICES.
This Privacy Policy is part of and incorporated into the Terms of Use governing your use of the Site. Capitalized terms used but not defined in this Privacy Policy have the definitions provided in the Terms of Use. Parts of the Terms of Use affect this Privacy Policy, so unless you have already done so, please review the Terms prior to using the Site. IF YOU DO NOT AGREE WITH THIS POLICY OR OUR TERMS OF USE, PLEASE DO NOT USE THE SITE.
IF YOU ARE A PARENT, GUARDIAN OR TEACHER AND YOU PROVIDE CONSENT FOR A STUDENT TO USE THE SITE, YOU ARE BOUND BY THIS PRIVACY POLICY AND OUR TERMS OF USE IN RESPECT TO SUCH STUDENT’S USE OF THE SITE.
Please be aware that BHP’s services and systems are housed on servers in the United States, and the information we collect (including through cookies) is processed and stored in the United States, which may not offer the same level of privacy protection as the country where you reside or are a citizen. BY USING THE SITE AND PROVIDING INFORMATION TO US, YOU CONSENT TO THE TRANSFER TO AND PROCESSING OF THE INFORMATION IN THE UNITED STATES.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. THE INFORMATION WE COLLECT
We collect the following information, including personal information, from users which is used to enable, support, and improve the Site.
1.1 Personally Identifiable Information. When you visit the Site you can complete the modules without submitting personal information about yourself. At the end of the five chapters, you can choose to input your personal information which allows you to download your certificate of completion and presents you the opportunity to secure a special gift from OER Project, if you are a US resident 18 years of age or older. The information we collect will or may include:
- Your name, email address, password and other profile information you provide to us when registering for an account,
- Your educational institution affiliation, which may include the course subjects or grade levels you teach,
- Your shipping address if you are electing to receive a small token of gratitude from OER Project for the completion of the Big History Project course
- Certain usage and device information (described in 1.2, below), to the extent it is linked in our log files to your personally identifiable information.
Our collection of this information allows us to establish, maintain and support your user account on the Site, and communicate with you in accordance with our Terms of Use.
1.2 Automatically Collected Usage and Device Information: Like most other websites, we and our third-party vendors and partners (See the “Third-Party Analytics Tools” section below) automatically collect technical usage and related data when our account users access the Site, read our emails, or otherwise engage with us and our Services. This information is collected through tracking technologies like cookies, pixels, web beacons and similar technologies, which identify data about your device or its software, such as your IP address, browser type, Internet Service Provider (ISP), device type, operating system, platform type and other such information. If you access our Site from a mobile device, we may collect unique identification numbers associated with your device, mobile carrier, device type, model and manufacturer, mobile device operating system brand and model. We also collect data about the way you use our Site, for example, the pages you visit, the links you click, and how frequently you visit the Site. We use the information we gather through these technologies to improve our ability to diagnose and fix technical problems, continuously improve the Site, to provide a better user experience to you, and to promote the Site. For example, it allows us to ‘remember’ information so a user will not have to re-enter it during subsequent visits and to keep track of your course progress so that the page content displayed upon your return remains consistent with your progression through the material.
1.3 Third-Party Analytics Tools: We collect analytics data using third-party analytics tools such as Adobe Analytics and Google Analytics, to help us measure traffic and usage trends on the site. You can learn more about Adobe’s privacy practices at https://www.adobe.com/in/privacy/policy.html and view its currently available opt-out options at https://www.adobe.com/in/privacy/opt-out.html. You can learn more about Google’s privacy practices at https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=en and view its currently available opt-out options at https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.
1.4 Limits On Third-Party Tracking; Do Not Track Signals: The data that we receive through pixels and other tracking technologies allows us to effectively promote the Site and, and to optimize external advertisements about the Site that appear on third-party websites. Although we do our best to honor the privacy preferences of our users, we are not able to respond to ‘Do Not Track’ signals from your browser at this time.
1.5 Location Information. We do not collect precise geolocation data from you or your device, but may collect and use information about your general location (such as any state or country of residence supplied by you when setting up your user profile) or infer your approximate location based on your IP address in order to track our general website usage or to tailor any pertinent aspects of your user or educational experience to your region.
1.6 Other Collection Practices. From time to time, we seek feedback from users using t the Site. Participation in surveys is optional, with participant responses collected in an anonymized fashion.
2. YOUR CHOICE AND OPTIONS RELATING TO OUR COLLECTION
3.1 You Can Choose Not to Provide Personal Information. You may always decline to provide your personal information to us. Registration is not required to access the online content
3.2 You May Decline Other Requests. We use personal information of our users as needed for the purposes for which it was collected or where you have consented to our use of such information. If you do not wish to provide information to us or do not wish to consent to the uses described in this Privacy Policy, please do use the Site or supply the requested information to us.
3.3 Online Tracking Choices. Most browsers are initially set up to accept cookies, but you can reset your browser to refuse all cookies or to indicate when a cookie is being sent. However, some features and services may not function properly if your cookies are disabled.
3.4 Location Information. You may be able to change the settings on your computer or mobile device to prevent it from providing us with any location data, such as your IP address from which we may infer your general location.
3. SAFETY AND INFORMATION SECURITY MEASURES
4.1 We use certain physical, managerial, and technical safeguards designed to preserve the security of the personal data you choose to share with the Site. This, however, does not guarantee that your information may not be accessed, disclosed, altered, or destroyed by any breach of our physical, technical or managerial safeguards. In the event that any information under our control is compromised as a result of a breach of security, we will take reasonable steps to investigate the situation and will notify you, as appropriate, in accordance with pertinent laws and regulations.
4.2 Personally identifiable information collected by the Site is stored in operating environments that are safeguarded against access by the public and protected from access internally by physical and technical security measures. While these measures are helpful to safeguard your personal information after we receive it, no transmission of data over the internet can be guaranteed to be 100% secure.
4. HOW WE USE YOUR INFORMATION
5.1 General. We may use your personally identifiable information for the purpose of communicating with you about the Big History Project and/or OER Project; to operate, manage, improve and conduct analysis relating to the Site; to prevent fraud or abuse, to address technical and security issues and to otherwise protect users; and to improve the Site; to send your token of participation; to provide you with a download link for your completion certificate. We will not use your personally identifiable information for commercial purposes, such as to advertise or market products or services to you either on or off the Site. We do, however, encourage Users to take advantage of our educational content, all of which is offered free of charge, and encourage their feedback on the learning experience we offer on the Site. This allows us to improve the educational content and overall usability of the Site over time.
5.2 Account-related Emails. We may send you emails about the Site and/or the OER Project Site and your account. For example, when you register, you will receive a welcome email. If our Site is temporarily unavailable, we may also send you an email notice. If you do not wish to receive these emails, you have the option to unsubscribe from our emails or cancel your account.
5.3 Non-Personally Identifiable Information. We may use non-personally identifiable information, such as anonymized and/or aggregated website usage data, in any manner that does not identify individual users for the purpose of improving the operation and management of the Site and to better understand our website usage patterns. Any non-personally identifiable information that is combined with personally identifiable information will be treated by us as personally identifiable information.
5.4 Advertising. We do not use the personally identifiable information of our users to display any targeted advertising on the Site.
5. OUR INFORMATION SHARING PRACTICES
As a non-commercial venture, BHP has no interest in using your personal information for the purpose of generating a profit. Accordingly, we will not sell or rent your personal information to third parties. We share user information, including any personal information, in the circumstances as categorized below.
6.1 Interest-Based Advertising. We do not display any targeted advertising on the Site. However, we will or may use third-party advertising services, such as Facebook, to display external ad content promoting the availability of the Site generally, based on interest profiles aligning with current Teacher users.
6.2 Site and Services. We may disclose your non-personally identifiable information to an affiliated person or third-party service providers assisting us in the operation, management, improvement, research and analysis of the Site, and the creation of related educational offerings. Affiliated persons or our third-party service providers may augment, extend, and combine this non-personally identifiable information with data from additional third-party sources in order to assist us with the above. In some instances, these third parties may be colleges, universities or companies that help us review, grade or evaluate student submissions, review grader quality and consistency, or develop and improve other aspects of the Site. Use of information by affiliated persons, teachers and third-party service providers will be subject to this Privacy Policy or an agreement that is at least as restrictive as this Privacy Policy.
6.3 Legal Requirements. We reserve the right to disclose all information collected via the Site, internally or by third parties, for any lawful purpose or to prevent harm to us or others. For example, and without limitation, in our discretion we may disclose information to government regulators, law enforcement authorities or alleged victims of identity theft. We will notify the affected party (e.g. Student User or Teacher) in the event of a government or legal request for their information.
6.4 Organizational Transitions. If we should ever transfer or restructure the operational ownership of the Site, such as through a merger with another entity or a reorganization of all or a part of our operational responsibilities or assets, we may disclose, transfer, assign our rights, and/or delegate our duties to your personally identifiable information without notice and consent, including to prospective or actual recipient entities. Should this occur, we will require any third party receiving your personally identifiable information under this subsection to be contractually required to provide the same level of privacy compliance as provided by us under this Privacy Policy.
6.5 Disclaimer. We cannot ensure that all of your personally identifiable information will never be disclosed in ways not otherwise described in this Policy. For example, we may be required to disclose personal information to the government or third parties under certain circumstances, third parties may unlawfully intercept or access transmissions or private communications, or users may abuse or misuse your personal information that they collect from the Site. Even with the most rigorous information security standards, no transmission of data over the internet can be 100% secure.
6. EXTERNAL LINKS
The Site contains links to other sites. Any links to third-party external websites that BHP providesare vetted for age-appropriate content. However, we are not responsible for any of the content of other linked websites. We are also not responsible for the privacy practices and the terms and conditions of use for any external websites. The linked sites may collect personally identifiable information from you that is not subject to our control. The data collection practices of linked sites will be governed by that site's privacy policy.
7. CALIFORNIA SHINE THE LIGHT LAW
California Civil Code Section 1798.83 permits California residents to request and obtain from us once a year, free of charge, a list of the third parties to whom we have disclosed personal information (as defined under that statute) of that California resident, for direct marketing purposes in the preceding calendar year and the categories of personal information that was disclosed to them. If you are a California resident and you wish to make such a request, you may contact us by using the contact information in the "Privacy Questions" section at the bottom of this Privacy Policy.
8. ACCESSING AND UPDATING YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION
We do not review for accuracy or update your information regularly, but encourage you to access, review and update your personal information at any time. To request a copy of your personal information and data or for assistance regarding canceling your account, or deleting your personal information, contact us at: help@bighistoryproject.com. We will respond to your request as soon as reasonably possible after verifying your authority to make such requests. Your requests for personal information deletion are subject to Section 5.5 and we will delete your personal information within a reasonable time.
9. CHANGES TO THIS PRIVACY POLICY
Because our privacy practices and privacy law necessarily evolve over time, BHP reserves the right to revise this Privacy Policy from time to time in our sole discretion, upon notice to you such as by posting updated Privacy Policy on the Site, sending you an email to your account email, or by any other reasonable means. You should periodically review this Privacy Policy to ensure that you are familiar with the most current version. Your continued use of the Site after the Effective Date posted above will constitute your acceptance of the updated Privacy Policy.
10. PRIVACY QUESTIONS
If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or other matters that relate to it, you may contact us by sending an email to: help@bighistoryproject.com.