Great Minds US Privacy Policy

We're updating the US Privacy Notice for our website, effective September 3, 2026 for existing users and immediately for new users. By continuing, you acknowledge these changes.

If you are a parent/guardian of a student user, please review our Digital Platform Privacy Policy 

Updated and Effective: August 3, 2026

This US Privacy Notice (the "Privacy Policy") applies to any websites, software, applications, or interactive features or online services, owned and operated by Great Minds PBC (hereinafter "Great Minds," "we" or "us") that post a link to or include this Privacy Policy, including the Melissa & Lori Love Literacy podcast (collectively, our "Sites"). This Privacy Policy also applies to any information we collect offline in connection with use of the Sites.

Please read this Privacy Policy carefully. Please review our Terms of Service, which also applies to your use of the Sites. By accessing, visiting, using, interacting, or submitting information to the Sites, you agree to the practices described in this Privacy Policy.

Note that this Privacy Policy applies to visitors to our Sites ("Visitors"), which may include teachers, or representatives of schools, learning institutions, school districts, state or local board of education or other sponsoring organizations ("Schools") that use our Sites.

Great Minds also operates an access-controlled, digital platform (the "Digital Platform") that we make available pursuant to a separate agreement with schools and school districts (the "School Contract"). This Privacy Policy does not apply to information collected through the Digital Platform.

When we provide access to the Digital Platform through a School Contract, we collect, process, disclose, and store information on behalf of Schools and only in the ways permitted by the applicable School Contract. By directing students to the Digital Platform, Schools consent on their behalf to our collection, use, and sharing of their information in accordance with our Digital Platform Privacy Policy. To the extent there is any conflict between our general privacy practices and our privacy practices with regard to Children, the Digital Platform Privacy Policy controls.

Our Sites are general audience websites and are NOT intended for use by end users under the age of 18 ("Children" and each, a "Child"). However, our Digital Platform may be used by students under the age of 18 who are authorized and instructed to access and use our Digital Platform by their School, including Children, for whom we have certain more restrictive practices. To understand our privacy practices with regard to student users, including Children younger than age 13, please review our Digital Platform Privacy Policy.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. Information We Collect
2. How Does Great Minds Use The Information Collected?
3. When Does Great Minds Share Information?
4. Third Party Advertising and Analytics Companies and Similar Third Parties
5. Security
6. Third Party Links or Content
7. What Are Your Choices About Your Information?
8. Changes to This Privacy Policy
9. Contact Us
10. Notice to California Residents

1. Information We Collect

Great Minds collects information about you directly through our Sites, automatically when you visit the Sites, and sometimes from third parties. Some of this information may be considered "personal information" or "personal data", some of which may be "sensitive", under various applicable laws. We consider information that identifies you as a specific, identified individual (such as your name and email address) to be personal information. We will also treat additional information, including IP addresses and cookie identifiers, as "personal information" where required by applicable law. Note that we may de-identify or pseudonymized personal information so that it is non-personal, such as aggregating or converting it to a code, sometimes using a function commonly known as "hash". We maintain and use de-identified data without attempting to re-identify it, except where permitted by applicable law, such as to determine whether our de-identification processes satisfy legal requirements. We will treat de-identified and pseudonymized information as non-personal to the fullest extent allowed by applicable law. If we combine non-personal information with personal information, then we will treat the combined information as personal information under this Privacy Policy.

Information You Provide Directly

Visitors may provide certain information directly to the Sites, such as when you contact us for information about our products, or when you sign-up for our email mailing list. You may provide us with your information, including: first name, last name, School or district email, work phone number, School, School district, primary role, state, curriculum interest, and any other information you voluntarily provide to us.

We may also ask you for feedback about usage of various products and services as well as satisfaction with those products and services.

Information We Collect Automatically

We and our third-party business partners may use a variety of technologies that automatically or passively collect certain information when you visit or interact with our Sites ("Usage Information"). Usage Information may include your browser types and versions and operating system you are using, search terms and results within the Sites and all areas of the Sites that you visit, date and time you visit the Sites, the length of your stay on certain courses or pages and your language settings, among other information. In addition, we automatically collect your IP address or other unique identifier ("Device Identifier") for any computer, mobile phone or other device you may use to access the Sites. A Device Identifier is a number that is automatically assigned to your device used to access the Sites, and our servers identify your device by its Device Identifier. We may be able to collect or infer your approximate location through information we collect, such as IP address.

Many browsers and devices allow you to block the transmission of automatically collected information, such as your IP address, or to block the installation of cookies. You may choose to enable these options. However, enabling these options may prevent you from using many of the core features and functions available on our Sites.

The technologies that may be used to collect Usage Information include the following:

Cookies. When you use our Sites, Great Minds may store data in "cookies" or similar technology on your devices, which are data files placed on your computer or other device when you visit the Sites or otherwise access our online content. We use both session and persistent cookies (which remains on your computer after the browser has been closed). Great Minds may use cookies for many purposes, including, without limitation, to collect information about how you use our Sites (including to track the pages you've visited), to remember you and your settings and your preferences, and to show you personalized content based on information we have collected or inferred about you, such as your school district and your interest in types of content we may offer. This information allows us to customize your Great Minds experience so that your visit is as relevant and as valuable to you as possible.

For more information on cookies, visit http://www.allaboutcookies.org.

Web Tags. We may use web tags (small graphic images or other web programming code, also known as "1x1 GIFs" or "clear GIFs" or "pixels" or "beacons") and similar technologies on our Sites and within our communications to you. Web tags can recognize certain types of information on your computer such as cookies, the time and date a page is viewed, and a description of the page where the web beacon is placed. Web tags or similar technologies may be used for a number of purposes by us and our third party providers, including, without limitation, to count visitors to the Sites, to monitor how users navigate the Sites, to count how many e-mails that were sent were actually opened or links were actually viewed, to improve your experience on the Sites, or for marketing and targeted advertising purposes. Our web tags may collect some contact information (for example, the email address associated with an email message that contains a web tags).

Embedded Scripts. An embedded script is programming code that is designed to collect information about your interactions with the Sites, such as the links you click on. The code is temporarily downloaded onto your device from our web server or a third-party service provider, is active only while you are connected to the Sites, and is deactivated or deleted thereafter.

Session Replay Technology. Great Minds may record through session replay technology your interactions with the Sites, such as what pages you visit on the Sites, how long you visit those pages, and any links you click or information you provide. We use this information for our internal business purposes, such as for website analytics, to improve the Sites and our products and services, and to address functionality issues.

In addition, we may use a variety of other technologies that collect similar information for security and fraud detection purposes.

Information We Receive From Schools

We may receive information about you from Schools or from third parties as directed by Schools or made available through Schools. For example, a School—as a prospective customer—may provide us your name and email address so that we may contact you, such as to send you information about our services.

Your School is responsible for providing you notice of its own privacy policy(ies) that apply to the personal information we collect from or receive about you and your students through the Great Minds Digital Platforms on behalf of the School. If you have questions on whether any alternative or supplemental terms apply to the collection, use, and sharing of your information, please contact your School.

Social Media Features

The Sites may permit you to interact with a third party platform (such as Google, Facebook, Instagram, X, LinkedIn, YouTube, or Pinterest) and the Sites, for example "liking" or "sharing" content from the Sites, posting your social media posts to the Sites, including a hashtag associated with us in your social media post. Also, both we and the third party may have access to certain information about you and your use of the Sites and the third-party service. These third-party social networking companies may collect information about your visit to our Sites through the Social Media Features we have integrated into the Sites. Note that through the Social Media Features, these third-party social networking companies may be able to collect certain information about your visits to the Sites regardless of whether or not you affirmatively interact with the Social Media Features and whether or not you are logged into (or have) an account with the social networking company.

If you use Social Media Features, your interaction and personal information may be publicly disclosed on the Sites and on the third-party platform. If others give us access to their profile, page, or other content on a third party platform, we may also receive information about you if it is accessible through that content. Your use of Social Media Features is subject to the Terms of Service for the Sites.

The information we collect in connection with Social Media Features is subject to this Privacy Policy; the information the third-party platform collects is subject to the third party's privacy practices (including whether the third party shares information with us, the types of information shared, and your choices about what is visible to others on the third-party platform).

Information We Receive From Other Third Parties

We may receive certain information about you from third parties. If you are on another website and agree to receive information from us, that site will forward your information to us so that we may contact you. We may validate or supplement that information with the information we collect with outside records from other third parties, such as public databases, publicly available social media or other web pages, joint marketing partners, and third parties who enhance the information we have about you. We use this information to respond to your requests, tailor content, offer you products or services that we believe may interest you, enhance our products and services, and for other business purposes. The information collected and stored by third parties is subject solely to the third party's privacy practices.

2. How Does Great Minds Use the Information Collected?

Great Minds may use the information it collects for a number of purposes, including:

• To allow you to access and participate in the Sites, including by providing information you have requested;
• To provide customer service;
• To contact you with regard to your use of the Sites or similar administrative communications, including changes to the policies governing the Sites;
• To provide information, open educational (or similar) resources provided at no cost to you, promotional materials, quotes, offers, updates, and changes regarding our products and services;
• To tailor the content and advertising we display to you or others, on the Sites or elsewhere, as well as communications we send to you, and to analyze trends and statistics regarding use of the Sites;
• To analyze the performance and functioning of the Sites, including to test, correct, improve, or enhance our content, applications, features and services;
• To develop new applications, products, features, and services;
• To research how users interact with the Sites, conduct surveys, and perform other market research;
• To manage Great Minds' everyday business needs, such as administration and improvement of our Sites and related services;
• For other internal business and legal purposes, including investigation of information security and information asset protection-related incidents and to protect against fraud or other potentially illegal activities, to enforce our Terms of Service, to comply with all applicable laws and regulations and Great Minds' corporate reporting obligations, and to enforce Great Minds' agreements; and
• For other purposes described to you at the time of collection or otherwise with your consent or as consistent with this Privacy Policy.

3. When Does Great Minds Share Information?

Great Minds may share non-personal information, such as aggregate user statistics, de-identified or pseudonymized or hashed information (such as hashed email addresses), and Usage Information, with third parties in our discretion, including for targeted advertising purposes, unless prohibited by applicable law or contract. For example, Great Minds may provide other businesses and members of the public, aggregated statistical data showing general usage patterns and statistics about our Sites, interactions, and transactions, or otherwise share non-personal information in its discretion, including for targeted advertising purposes.

Great Minds does not share your personal information with unaffiliated third parties for their own direct marketing purposes without your consent. If you do consent, you may withdraw your consent to further data sharing at any time.

We may share the information we have collected about you (including personal information) in the circumstances described below or elsewhere in this Privacy Policy as disclosed at the time you provide information, or otherwise with your consent.

Subsidiaries and Affiliates

Great Minds may share personal or other information among Great Minds companies such as subsidiaries and affiliates, including for marketing purposes.

Companies Providing Services on our Behalf

Great Minds may share your information with third parties who perform services and functions on our behalf to support our interactions with you including, for example, by fulfilling information requests, providing necessary technical services, or communicating with you. However, all such third parties have no independent rights to your information and are prohibited from using your information in any way that contradicts Great Minds' privacy policy. Our third-party service providers may be located in the U.S. or other foreign jurisdictions.

When You Agree to Receive Information from Third Parties or Direct That We Share Your Information

We may share information when you direct us to do so. For example, you may be presented with an opportunity to receive marketing offers from a third party or you may engage with Social Media Features or other third-party application or feature, through which information about you is shared. Please note that we are not responsible for the privacy practices of third parties. If you later decide that you no longer want to receive communications from a third party, you will need to contact that third party directly.

Business and Legal Purposes

We may share user information, including personal information, to third parties, including, but not limited to, for the following purposes: enforce our Terms of Service; protect Great Minds' property, services and legal rights; prevent physical harm to the persons or property of others; prevent fraud or potentially illegal activities against Great Minds and others; support auditing, compliance, and corporate governance functions; test, correct, and improve our content, applications, and services; develop new applications, products, and services; analyze teaching and learning preferences; ; comply with subpoenas, court orders, or similar legal processes, including from law enforcement agencies, regulators and courts; comply with any and all applicable laws; and we may also use Device Identifiers, including IP addresses, to identify users, and may do so in cooperation with copyright owners, Internet service providers, wireless service providers or law enforcement agencies in our discretion.

Business Transfers

Great Minds may also share personal or other information in the event of an acquisition, reorganization or merger of Great Minds or its assets, including, without limitation, during the course of any due diligence process, Great Minds reserves the right to disclose and transfer all information related to the Sites, including personal information.

4. Third-Party Advertising and Analytics Companies and Similar Third Parties

Great Minds works with third parties, such as analytics companies, network advertisers, ad agencies, and others who provide us with information about the Sites, users, and our advertisements, and who serve our advertisements elsewhere online. We and our third-party business partners collect certain information about your visits to and activity on our Sites and other websites and services, and may use this information to target advertising to you and others and to assess the effectiveness of our advertising. We may also share (or permit third parties to collect) certain information, such as Usage Information, aggregated or de-identified or hashed information, with these third parties for similar purposes.

These third parties may set and access their own tracking technologies on your device (including cookies and web tags) and may otherwise collect or have access to your personal information over time, including your visits to and activity on the Sites as well as other websites and online services, some of which may be personal information or personal data under various state laws.

Your Advertising Choices: Some of these third parties may be members of the Network Advertising Initiative ("NAI") or Learning Advertising Alliance ("DAA") Self-Regulatory Program for Online Behavioral Advertising. The DAA provides information regarding procedures for opting-out of targeted online advertising from participating companies. For information from DAA about opting out click here. If you are a California resident, please see our California Privacy Notice for more information about your rights.

We also use Google Analytics, which uses cookies and other technologies to collect and analyze information about use of the Site and provide other reports. This service may also collect information regarding your use of other websites, apps, and online resources. For information about opting out from Google, click here, and to download the Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on from Google, click here.

5. Security

Great Minds takes commercially reasonable steps to help protect and secure personal information. We have implemented an information security program with numerous measures, including administrative, technical and physical controls that are designed to reasonably safeguard information that can individually identify you against the loss, misuse and alteration of the information under our control. However, please remember that no data storage or data transmission over the Internet, or by other means, can be guaranteed to be 100% secure. Thus, while we strive to protect your personal data, Great Minds cannot ensure or warrant the security of any information you transmit to us. Therefore, you understand, acknowledge, and agree that you transmit certain personal information to the Sites at your own risk.

6. Third Party Links or Content

The Sites may contain links to other web sites or include other content hosted and served by third parties that Great Minds does not control. The third parties whose content appears on the Sites may collect information about you through the use of cookies and web tags, may independently collect or solicit personal information, and may have the ability to track your use of their sites and services. Likewise, our content may be provided through or be included on third parties' web pages and web sites that are not associated with Great Minds and over which we have no control. We may collect Usage Information through Great Minds content appearing on third party sites. Great Minds is not responsible for the privacy practices of any third party.

7. What Are Your Choices About Your Information?

Certain jurisdictions provide specific privacy rights. If you are a California resident, please see our Notice to California Residents.

You may request, for example, to access, correct, and delete information related to your use of our Sites by visiting our Privacy Request Form.

Marketing Emails from us: You can unsubscribe from email by following the instructions contained within the email you receive from us. Note that we reserve the right to send you certain email or postal communications relating to your use of the Sites, announcements, notices of changes to this Privacy Policy or our other terms, or similar administrative or transactional messages, and these transactional messages may be unaffected if you choose to opt-out from marketing emails.

8. Changes to This Privacy Policy

We ask that you periodically review our Privacy Policy to be sure you are familiar with the most current version. The Policy will state its effective date, which is the most recent date on which we revised the Policy.

To the extent allowed by applicable law, Great Minds reserves the right to make changes to our Privacy Policy at any time. Any changes will be effective upon posting, unless otherwise indicated. Your continued use of the Sites after the effective date of the revised Privacy Policy (or other act as specified in the revised Privacy Policy) will constitute your consent to those changes to the fullest extent allowed by applicable law. If we make material changes to the way we treat personal information we have previously collected about you, we will provide notice through the Sites and may also notify you in other ways, such as by email to your registered email address, in our discretion. However, we will not make material changes to how we treat previously collected personal information without your consent (opt-in or opt-out for adults), as required by law. You may need to consent to new Privacy Policy in order to continuing using the Sites.

9. Contact Us

For any questions about this Privacy Policy or our privacy practices, you can reach us using the contact details below or call us at 202-223-1854.

Great Minds PBC
Attention: Privacy
55 M Street SE
Suite 301
Washington, DC 20003
privacy@greatminds.org

10. Notice to California Residents

This California Privacy Notice is updated and effective as of August 3, 2026.

California consumers have certain privacy rights with respect to the personal information we collect. If you are a California consumer with whom we have a direct business or potential business relationship, this section applies to you.

This California Privacy Notice sets forth the disclosures and rights for California Consumers regarding their personal information, as required by the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 ("CCPA"), the California Privacy Rights Act of 2020 ("CPRA"), and any implementing regulations adopted thereunder. Terms (including defined capitalized terms) used in this California Privacy Notice have the same meanings given in the CCPA and CPRA and the associated regulations, unless otherwise defined.

EXERCISING YOUR CALIFORNIA RIGHTS

California consumers have the right to request: (1) that we disclose to you what personal information we collect, use, disclose, and sell, including the right to request that we provide to you the categories and specific pieces of personal information we have collected about you ("Right to Know"); (2) that we delete the personal information we have collected from you ("Right to Delete"); (3) that we correct inaccurate personal information we hold about you ("Right to Correct"), (4) to opt-out from the sharing of your personal information to a third party for cross-context behavioral advertising (i.e., targeted advertising) ("Right to Opt-Out of Sharing"), (5) and to opt-out from the sale of their personal information ("Right to Opt-Out of Sale"), all subject to the meanings and exceptions set forth in the CCPA and CPRA. More information on each of these rights is below.

In your request, you must provide enough information to allow us to verify you are the person about whom we collected personal information, or their authorized representative. You must also describe your request with enough detail so that we can understand, evaluate, and respond to it. We can't respond to your request if we can't verify your identity. Making such a request does not require you to create an account with us, and we will only use the information you provide in a request to verify your identity.

Verifying Your Requests

We will take reasonable steps to verify your identity based upon the information you provide and the type of request you are making.

When you exercise your Right to Know, Right to Delete, and/or Right to Correct Inaccurate Information, we may ask that you provide us with information, beyond your full name, in order to verify your identity and fulfill your request. If we are unable to verify that the individual submitting the request is the same individual about whom we have collected information (or someone authorized by that individual to act on their behalf), we will not be able to process the request.

Agents

If you are an authorized representative submitting a request on a user's behalf, please complete the applicable request per the instructions below. We will follow up to request a signed, written permission signed by the individual who is the subject of the request authorizing you to make the request on their behalf. The written permission must state your full legal name, the full legal name of the individual who is the subject of the request and needs to be clear about the permission granted. Alternatively, you may submit a copy of a power of attorney under Probate Code sections 4000-4465. In either case, please also indicate in your email the nature of your request. The consumer's identity, in addition to your own, will need to be independently verified in order for us to be able to fulfill your request. We may also ask the consumer to directly confirm with us that they provided you permission to submit a request. Please keep in mind that if we do not receive adequate proof that you are authorized to act on the consumer's behalf, we may deny the request.

Right to Know

California consumers have the right to know what information we have collected about you (the categories and the specific pieces of information).

If you are a California consumer with whom we have a direct business or potential business relationship and would like to exercise your Right to Know, please submit your request by visiting our Privacy Request Form. In order to have us provide specific pieces of information, we may require a signed declaration under penalty of perjury that you are the consumer whose personal information is the subject of the request.

If you would like to confirm that your sensitive personal information in our records is the same as what you have provided to us, please email privacy@greatminds.org to initiate the process. For security purposes, do not include your sensitive data in the email. After verifying your identity, we can confirm what sensitive data we have on file for you.

Right to Delete

California consumers have the right to request that we delete information we have collected from you. If you are a California consumer with whom we have a direct business or potential business relationship and would like to exercise your Right to Delete, please submit your request by visiting our Privacy Request Form.

Please note that as part of the verification process, once you submit a request to delete, we may follow up and require you to confirm that you want your information deleted.

Right to Correct Inaccurate Information

California consumers have the right to request that we correct inaccurate information we hold about you. If you are a California consumer with whom we have a direct business or potential business relationship and would like to exercise your Right to Correct, please submit your request by visiting our Privacy Request Form.

Right to Limit The Use and Disclosure of Sensitive Personal Information

Under the CPRA Regulations, a business must only provide the Right to Limit The Use and Disclosure of Sensitive Personal Information when sensitive personal information is not collected or processed for the purpose of inferring characteristics about a consumer, or does not fall under certain statutory exceptions, pursuant to CPRA §1798.121. Great Minds' use and disclosure of sensitive personal information is not used for such purpose and/or falls within the statutory exceptions, and we therefore do not offer such this right at this time.

Do Not Sell or Share

Right to Opt-Out of Sharing

California consumers have the right to opt-out of the sharing of your personal information to a third party for cross-context behavioral advertising (i.e., targeted advertising), whether or not for monetary or other valuable consideration. If you are a California consumer with whom we have a direct business or potential business relationship and would like exercise your Right to Opt-Out of Sharing, please submit your request by visiting our Privacy Request Form.

Right to Opt-Out of Sale

California consumers have the right to opt-out of the sale of your personal information. If you are a California consumer with whom we have a direct business or potential business relationship and would like exercise your Right to Opt-Out of Sale, please submit your request by visiting our Privacy Request Form.

Other Important Information for Do Not Sell or Share

Great Minds engages in online advertising practices (and certain analytics or similar activities), which may be considered a "sale" or "share" for cross-context behavioral advertising as defined in the CCPA and CPRA. To disable sharing through cookies set by 3rd parties that may be considered "sales" or "sharing" under the CCPA and CPRA, select "Decline" on our cookie banner. If you have previously opted in to all cookies, you can update your choices by clearing your cache and selecting "Decline" on the cookie banner. In addition, the Learning Advertising Alliance ("DAA") also offers tools for California consumers to send requests under the CCPA and CPRA to opt out of the sale of personal information by some or all of the participating companies (https://www.privacyrights.info/).

Data Retention

We will retain all categories of personal information described in this California Privacy Notice for as long as it is reasonably necessary for the purposes set out in this California Privacy Notice, considering the time period reasonably necessary to: provide the Sites to you; exercise the choices and rights you have requested; comply with our contractual obligations; enforce our terms for use of the Sites; and, comply with legal and regulatory requirements. Except as noted differently on specific pages or apps, we retain your personal information while you are using our Sites or continuing to visit us.

Users Younger than 18

Great Minds does not knowingly sell or share personal information of users younger than 18.

Right to Non-Discrimination for the Exercise of Privacy Rights

California consumers have the right to not receive discriminatory treatment for exercising CCPA and CPRA rights. We will not discriminate or retaliate against you for exercising your CCPA and CPRA rights.

Do Not Track

Some browsers incorporate a 'Do Not Track' (DNT) feature that, when turned on, signals to websites and online services that you do not wish to be tracked. Because there is not yet an accepted standard for how to respond to browser DNT signals, we do not currently respond to them.

PERSONAL INFORMATION WE COLLECT

The personal information we collect about you will depend upon how you use the Sites or otherwise interact with us. Accordingly, we may not collect all of the below information about you.

In addition to the below, we may collect and/or use additional types of information and will do so after providing notice to you and obtaining your consent to the extent such notice and consent is required by the CCPA and CPRA.

QUESTIONS AND CONTACT INFORMATION

For any questions about this Privacy Policy, you can reach us using the contact details below:

Great Minds PBC
Attention: Privacy
55 M Street SE
Suite 301
Washington, DC 20003
privacy@greatminds.org

California's Shine the Light Law

Great Minds does not share personal information with third parties for the third parties' direct marketing purposes without your specific consent (opt-in or opt-out).