Privacy Policy New — Global Seal of Biliteracy

Global Seal of Biliteracy Privacy Policy

Last updated and effective: 10/01/2026

Global Seal of Biliteracy (“we,” “us,” or “our”) owns and operates the Global Seal of Biliteracy website (the “Website”) and language fluency certification and credential sharing services (the “Services”) that enable language learners to demonstrate their language proficiency worldwide.

In this Privacy Policy, we refer to users of the Website and Services as “you” or “your.” When we refer to “Personal Information,” we mean information that identifies, describes, or relates to an identified or identifiable individual, or that is reasonably capable of being associated with or could reasonably be linked, directly or indirectly, with a particular individual or household.

This Privacy Policy describes how we may collect, use, and disclose Personal Information that we collect from individuals who access the Website and Services, as well as your rights regarding your Personal Information.

We also process Personal Information on behalf of our education institution customers (“Education Customers”). As such, in addition to this Privacy Policy, your privacy may further be governed by our contract with the Education Customer.

By accessing or using the Services you acknowledge that you have read and understood this Privacy Policy.

Contents:

Personal Information We Collect

Website
Services
Automatically Collected Information

Children’s Privacy
How and Why We Use Your Personal Information
Where We Share Your Personal Information
Security
How Long We Retain Your Personal Information
Opt-Out Policy
Additional Information for Residents of U.S. States with Comprehensive Privacy Laws
Additional Information For Users From The European Economic Area (EEA), Switzerland, And The United Kingdom (UK)
Artificial Intelligence Disclosures
Updates to This Privacy Policy
Contact

Personal Information We Collect

Website:

You may provide us with your first name and email address if you choose to sign up for email updates. If you choose to contact us via email, we will collect your email address and any Personal Information you choose to provide in that email.

Services:

Global Seal of Biliteracy:

If you choose to apply for a Global Seal of Biliteracy, we will ask you to provide information such as your first and last name, test scores, first and second language, school name, state and country. Optionally, you may also choose to provide your English language learner status.

When our Services are accessed by an education institution representative, including a teacher (collectively, “Educators”), on behalf of their students, the Educator will provide the information noted above for each of their students applying for a Global Seal of Biliteracy. We also collect the Educator’s first and last name, email address, phone number, and mailing address. For Services that require payment (“Customer Services”), we will also collect payment and billing address information, which is processed by our third party payment processor.

Once we have mailed student certificates to the Customer, students ages 13+ or Customer employees may choose to create an individual account to facilitate sharing of their certificate and transcript with other education institutions, employers, and other organizations, subject to agreement to the Terms of Service.

Account Creation:

If you choose to create an account, we will ask for your date of birth, email address, and password. We use your date of birth to verify your age, but do not retain that information. We will also assign a Global Seal of Biliteracy profile ID to each individual. Optionally, you may also provide a URL for your LinkedIn account, other social media account, job title, photo, city, state, and country.

Your account is made available to other users to view unless and until you choose to make it private.

Automatically Collected Information:

As you use the Website and Services, we also automatically collect certain information from you using various tracking technologies described further below. The information we collect includes the Internet Protocol (IP) address associated with your device, your browser type and version, machine make and model, the operating system of your device, and other device-specific information, as well as the time that you access the Website and Services, the amount of time you spend using the Website and Services, the pages within the Website and Services you visit, geolocation, and the referral URL, and related activity and log files.

We use this information to help us understand how the Website and Services are used, diagnose technical problems, remember your preferences, and for security purposes (such as preventing fraud and abuse and protecting our computer, software, hardware, and communications systems). When this information is in a form that identifies you as an individual, we treat it as Personal Information in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

To collect this information, we use these tracking technologies:

Cookies. A cookie is a small data file sent by a website and stored on the computer or device at the request of that website. Cookies store information related to a user's browser to enable us to recognize the browser on return visits to our Services and Website and to remember your preferences.

Pixel tags. A pixel tag (also referred to as a “clear gif” or “web beacon”) allows us to track the online usage patterns of the Website and to understand which links are clicked. When we send you emails that you have opted into, pixel tags also allow us to track which emails are opened. This information is used to help us improve the Services and Website.

HTML5 Storage. HTML5 storage or local storage allows us to distinguish your device from others and to remember information that might be important for the functioning of the Services and Website, such as to remember your location preference or your logged in state. Typically, HTML5 storage is only deleted if all Internet history, cache, and cookies are deleted. Check your browser controls for information on how to delete your HTML5 storage.

Website Third Party Cookies and Tracking

On the Website—but not within the Services—we use third-party service providers to help us collect and understand how the Website is used and, as described below, to provide or measure advertising-related functionality. These providers may collect information through cookies, pixels, and other web-tracking technologies. Most browsers can be set to detect browser cookies and allow you to reject them, but refusing cookies may affect certain Website features provided for your convenience.

A list of companies that use cookies on our Website, the services they provide, and information on how you may opt out of certain cookies is included in our Cookie Notice. To make choices about cookies placed by us or our third parties on our Website, you may do so by visiting our Cookies Settings in the footer of the website. If you do not/no longer want to have cookies placed on your browser by third parties, many of them also offer ways to opt out. To learn more about browser cookies, including how to manage or delete them, refer to the “Tools,” “Help,” or a similar section of your web browser.

For any third-party advertising, analytics, or social-media technologies enabled on the Website, those third parties may use cookies, pixels, and similar technologies to collect information about your activities over time and across our Website and other websites, measure the effectiveness of marketing, personalize content, or serve advertisements elsewhere on the Internet. Such third-party tracking may constitute a “sale” or “share” of Personal Information, or cross-context behavioral advertising, under California law and targeted advertising or profiling under other applicable laws. Where required, we will obtain consent before enabling such technologies and will provide the applicable opt-out choices, including through Cookies Settings and the “Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information” mechanism.

Currently, our Website does not respond to “do not track” (DNT) signals transmitted by web browsers. For more information about third-party advertisers and how to prevent them from using your information, visit the NAI’s consumer website at https://www.networkadvertising.org/choices; the DAA’s consumer website at https://digitaladvertisingalliance.org/ and https://www.aboutads.info/choices/; or the European Interactive Digital Advertising Alliance at https://www.youronlinechoices.com/uk/. If you do want to opt out of using these tools, you need to opt out separately for each of your devices and for each web browser (such as Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Safari, or others) that you use on each device.

Note that DNT is different from the Global Privacy Control (GPC), which we do respond to. To find out more about GPC, please visit https://globalprivacycontrol.org/.

Children’s Privacy

When Education Customers who are subject to the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (“FERPA”) contract with us, they agree to designate us as a “school official” with a “legitimate educational interest” in providing the Services as the terms are used in FERPA §§ 99.31(a)(1).

We remain under the direct control of the Education Customer with respect to the use and maintenance of FERPA-protected “education records” and use student Personal Information only as set forth in our agreement with the Education Customer and in compliance with applicable law.

As described above in the section, “Personal Information We Collect,” we collect certain persistent identifiers, such as IP addresses. These identifiers remain unchanged in our systems and can be used to refer back to a particular individual. We collect and use persistent identifiers only for the following internal operational purposes:

Maintain and analyze how our Services are functioning
Perform network communications, such as communicating between servers to deliver certain features of the Services
Authenticate users of, or personalize the content on, the Services
Protect the security or integrity of the students or Services
Ensure legal or regulatory compliance

We use role-based access controls, regular employee training, and log monitoring to ensure that persistent identifiers are not used for other purposes.

We share certain Personal Information of students under age 13 with third parties that support us in providing the Services. The list of those third parties and the functions each performs is available at this link.

We retain Personal Information provided by students under age 13 as described in the section, “How Long We Retain Your Personal Information,” found below. The authorized individual at the Education Customer may request, on their own behalf or on behalf of the respective test taker’s parent (1) to review the Personal Information that is collected from their test takers; (2) to request deletion of any or all such Personal Information; and (3) to instruct Global Seal to cease further use or collection of Personal Information from any or all such test takers. For more information about our collection and use of Personal Information from children under age 13, please see our Children’s Privacy Notice.

How and Why We Use Your Personal Information

Other than as described below, we do not sell or rent your Personal Information, and we do not use Personal Information collected through the Services for advertising purposes. We use third-party analytics, advertising, and social-media technologies, including Google Analytics and HubSpot, on the Website; as described in the Website Third Party Cookies and Tracking section. Such third-party tracking may constitute a “sale” or “share” of Personal Information, or cross-context behavioral advertising, under California law, and targeted advertising or profiling under other applicable laws; where required, we will provide notice and honor applicable consent and opt-out choices.

Generally, we use your Personal Information as described above, including:

To provide and maintain the Website and Services, including to evaluate applications, provide certificates, share certificates and transcripts, such as with an education institution, employer, or other organization, where you have authorized us to do so, and to create and maintain accounts.
To allow an individual, such as an Educator or employer, to verify your Global Seal of Biliteracy language credential.
To provide support, including via the AI-enabled chatbot on our Website, as well as via phone and email, to help maintain the security of the Website and Services, and to communicate with you regarding the Website and Services and solicit feedback on the Services from Educators. The AI-enabled chatbot may collect the content of your messages, information you choose to provide in those messages, and technical and usage information necessary to operate and secure the chatbot. Chatbot inputs are not used to train or improve third-party models.
In the event of a reorganization, merger, sale, assignment, bankruptcy, or similar business change, in which case we may need to transfer your Personal Information to a parent company, reorganized entity, or new owner after the sale or reorganization for them to use in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

Where applicable, our legal bases for the processing described above are: (a) your consent; (b) performance of a contract; (c) our legitimate interests in providing you with the Website and Services, communicating with you in response to your inquiries or about issues with the Website or Services, operating and changing our business, and protecting our legal rights; and (d) compliance with a legal obligation.

In the event of an investigation, during which we may share your Personal Information with entities assisting us, or as may be required by applicable law in response to a known or suspected violation of our terms of use, fraud prevention, or other unlawful use of the Services.
We may use and disclose your Personal Information as necessary to protect our rights or the rights and safety of our users, as necessary in the event of a court order, regulatory inquiry, or other lawful request, or otherwise as may be required by law. Provided, however, that unless legally prohibited, we will direct any such request to you or notify you before responding unless to do so would prejudice the prevention or detection of a crime.

Our legal basis for the above, where applicable, is to fulfill our legal obligations and ensure the legality of our Website as well as our legitimate interests in protecting our legal rights.

To process your payments (including by credit card and any other applicable means) and purchase requests, including to provide you with the Services you have purchased and for billing purposes.

Our legal basis for the above, where applicable, is performance of a contract.

To provide existing Education Customers with marketing materials, including updates and offers about the Services. At any time, you may unsubscribe or opt-out of further email communications by clicking on the link labeled “unsubscribe” or “manage preferences” available at the bottom of each email or by contacting us at info@theglobalseal.com.

Our legal basis for the above, where applicable, is your consent.

Where We Share Your Personal Information

To assist us in delivering and maintaining the Services, including providing certain features, we sometimes share your Personal Information with third-party service providers. We require our third-party service providers to enter into written agreements, including data processing agreements where applicable, that limit their collection and use of Personal Information to what is necessary to provide the Services, prohibit use for their own purposes except as permitted by law and the agreement, require deletion or return when no longer needed, and require reasonable administrative, technical, and physical safeguards. The list of third party subprocessors is available here: [URL]

If you choose to, you may make your account available to others accessing the Services, including other users, education institutions, employers, and other organizations.

As noted above, we may also transmit your Personal Information, including your Global Seal of Biliteracy certifications and transcripts, with education institutions, employers, and other organizations when you have asked us to do so.

Security

We use physical, administrative, and technical safeguards to help protect the confidentiality, security, and integrity of your Personal Information, including encryption of Personal Information in transit and at rest, access controls, and security monitoring, including when sending transcripts to third parties such as education institutions, employers, and other organizations in response to your requests. We maintain an incident-response process and will notify affected users and applicable authorities of a security breach as required by applicable law. However, the Internet is not perfectly secure, and we are not responsible for security breaches not reasonably foreseeable or reasonably within our control. Be vigilant regarding your Personal Information and credentials.

How Long We Retain Your Personal Information

We delete Personal Information within 90 days after termination of a contract or within 30 days of a written request. While a customer remains under contract, we will not retain that data for longer than 4 years.

We may create and retain deidentified data for use for lawfully permissible purposes for the duration of time permitted by law and consistent with our normal retention periods.

Opt-Out Policy

We may send our Customers emails with information about the Services that we believe may be of interest. You may opt out of receiving these emails by clicking on the “unsubscribe” link that appears on the bottom of each email we send, or by contacting us at info@theglobalseal.com. Note that even if you have opted out of marketing emails, we may still send you service-related emails.

Additional Information for Residents of U.S. States with Comprehensive Privacy Laws

Certain U.S. state laws — including, but not limited to, California—provide their residents with certain rights related to their Personal Information, as described below. All rights are subject to exemptions and exceptions under applicable law.

Data Minimization. We limit the collection, processing, and sharing of Personal Information to what is reasonably necessary and proportionate to provide the products and services you request. We do not collect, process, or share Personal Information beyond what is reasonably necessary for the disclosed purpose.

Right to Know and Access Personal Information: You may access Personal Information we maintain about you and request to receive it in a machine-readable copy that is readily available to you by using the methods provided below. If we grant your request, we will provide you with a copy of the Personal Information we maintain about you in the ordinary course of business. We may not fulfill some or all of your request to access as permitted by applicable law.

Right of Correction: You have the right to correct inaccuracies in the Personal Information we maintain about you.

Right of Deletion: You may ask us to delete the Personal Information we maintain about you by using the methods provided below.

Right to Data Portability: You have the right to obtain a copy of your Personal Information in a portable and, to the extent technically feasible, readily usable format.

Right to Opt Out of Profiling: You have the right to opt out of profiling in furtherance of decisions that produce legal or similarly significant effects concerning you.

Right to Opt Out of “Sale” and “Sharing” of Personal Information: You may opt out of the “sale” of your Personal Information. You may also opt out of the “sharing” of your Personal Information for cross-context behavioral advertising. Our use of third-party analytics and advertising technologies, such as Google Analytics, HubSpot, and other similar tools, may constitute a “sale” or “sharing” of Personal Information, or cross-context behavioral advertising, under certain U.S. state laws. Where required, we will provide opt-out mechanisms, including through Cookies Settings and our “Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information” control.

Right to List of Third Parties: You have the right to obtain a list of the specific third parties, other than natural persons, to whom we have disclosed your Personal Information (or, if that is not possible, a list of the specific third parties to whom we have disclosed any consumer’s Personal Information).

Right to Limit Use of Sensitive Personal Information: Where required by applicable law, you may limit our use and disclosure of Sensitive Personal Information (as that term and its analogues are defined by applicable law) to purposes necessary to provide the Services and other permitted purposes. Test scores, English language learner status, precise geolocation, and children’s Personal Information may be considered sensitive data or Sensitive Personal Information under applicable laws and may trigger consent or additional opt-out rights. We will obtain consent or provide the applicable opt-out where required by law.

Before we are able to fulfill your requests regarding certain rights, we are required by law to verify your identity in order to help prevent unauthorized access to your data. In addition, please note that the rights listed above are subject to certain exemptions to safeguard the public interest (for example, to prevent or detect a crime) and our interests (for example, to maintain legal privilege). As a result, requests to exercise these rights may be granted in whole, in part, or not at all, depending on the scope and nature of the request and applicable law. Where required by applicable law, we will notify you if we are unable to fulfill your request and of any reasons why we are unable to honor your request.

When authorized by law, you may be allowed to use an authorized agent to exercise any of these privacy rights on your behalf. If you are an authorized agent acting on behalf of a Texas resident to communicate with us or to exercise a privacy right, you must be able to demonstrate that you have the necessary authorization and access to act on behalf of the resident. If you are an authorized agent trying to exercise rights on behalf of a visitor to our Website, please contact us at the contact information below with supporting verification information required under applicable state law.

Right to Appeal: If we decline to take action on your request, you may appeal our decision within the period required by applicable law by contacting us using the information below. We will provide any additional information or external complaint process required by applicable law.

How To Exercise Your Rights

Please visit the Exercise My Rights page or contact us using the information below in order to exercise the rights described in this section. If you have any questions or concerns regarding your rights or this Privacy Policy, you may contact us at: info@theglobalseal.com

We will comply with your rights within the time frame required by applicable law. We don’t discriminate or otherwise penalize anyone for exercising their rights under this Privacy Policy.

The information below reflects our current practices and our practices that have been in place over the past 12 months.

Categories of Personal Information We Collect and Use

We automatically collect:

Internet or other electronic network activity information, including, but not limited to, browsing history, search history, or information regarding your interaction with our Website;
Geolocation data;
Identifiers such as your IP address.

When you choose to engage with certain Website features or when you create an individual account within the Services:

Identifiers, such as your first and last name, job title, organization type, organization name, your state, country, email address, and where applicable, the services of interest, as well as the questions you would like us to respond to.

We may also collect publicly available information about you.

We collect your Personal Information from these sources:

Directly from you
From publicly available sources
From marketing firms and conference organizers

We collect your Personal Information to provide the Website and for the following purposes:

Detecting security incidents, protecting against malicious, deceptive, fraudulent, or illegal activity, and prosecuting those responsible for that activity;
Debugging to identify and repair errors that impair existing intended functionality;
Sending you marketing information;
Providing customer service;
Maintaining the quality of our service and to improve, upgrade, or enhance our services;

For additional details, see “How and Why We Use Your Personal Information,” above.

Third parties with whom we disclose your Personal Information for a business purpose:

We disclose the categories of Personal Information described above to service providers who support us in delivering the Website, as described above. This includes sharing your Personal Information with certain third parties, such as analytics companies. We use this information to understand how our Website is used, to diagnose technical problems, remember your preferences, and for security purposes.

Additional Information For Users From The European Economic Area (EEA), Switzerland, And The United Kingdom (UK)

With respect to the operation of our Website and of the Services that we make available to individual users in the EEA, Switzerland, and the UK, we function as a “data controller” under the General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”). When operating the Services on behalf of a Customer, we operate as a “data processor” and, to the extent permitted by applicable law, data-subject requests relating to that Customer’s data must be submitted to and will be routed through the applicable Customer.

By visiting our Website or using our Services, you acknowledge that we may transfer, process and store your Personal Information in the United States. Wherever the Personal Information is, it will be treated in accordance with this Privacy Policy and applicable privacy laws of the United States. These laws may be different from the privacy laws in your country. However, this does not change our commitment to safeguard your privacy, and we will comply with all applicable laws relating to the cross-border disclosure of your Personal Information.

Where required, we will implement Standard Contractual Clauses with our third parties or rely on such other transfer mechanisms to ensure that the transfer of your Personal Information outside of your country is lawful. You may request details of the transfer mechanisms that we rely on to transfer personal information outside of your country by emailing us at info@theglobalseal.com.

Your Rights

Depending on where you are located or where you reside, applicable laws may provide you with rights regarding your Personal Information, and we will respect those rights as required by law.

If you are located in the EEA, Switzerland, or the UK, you have the right to:

Access, update, or correct your Personal Information;
Request deletion of your Personal Information;
Object to certain processing of your Personal Information, including processing related to marketing;
Receive a machine-readable copy of Personal Information concerning you that you have provided to us;
In certain circumstances, request to transfer your Personal Information to an applicable third party;
Where you have provided your consent for our processing of your Personal Information, you may withdraw such consent by contacting us using the details provided below in the “Contact” section;
You may also restrict how we use your Personal Information while a complaint is being investigated.

The rules in your country may provide you with additional rights or they may limit these rights. We will provide you with the rights afforded to you in compliance with applicable laws. If you contact us to exercise your rights, we will verify your request in the time period required by applicable law. Please be aware, however, that your exercise of your rights is subject to certain exemptions to safeguard the public interest (for example, prevention or detection of crime) and our interests (for example, our maintenance of legal privilege).

Artificial Intelligence Disclosures

Global Seal may use artificial intelligence (AI) to provide some of its services. We do not use your data in furtherance of decisions that produce legal or similarly significant effects concerning you.

To the extent we use data used to train any generative AI systems, we will make information available about the data use for such training, including a high-level summary of the training datasets used.

Where you interact with an artificial intelligence or automated system (including an automated chatbot or bot) operated by Global Seal, we will disclose that fact to you. You may request to interact with a human instead of a generative AI system.

If you believe you have been adversely affected by our use of an AI system, you may contact us at info@theglobalseal.com.

Updates to This Privacy Policy

As our business continues to evolve, we may make changes to this Privacy Policy. Notice will be provided through regular updates on this website, unless otherwise required by law. The “last updated” note at the top of this policy indicates when it was last revised.

Contact

To exercise your rights under this Privacy Policy, learn more about your rights or our privacy practices, or to request access to this Privacy Policy in an alternative format, contact us at:

Mail:
21200 South La Grange Road, Suite 231Frankfort, IL 60423

info@theglobalseal.com

You may lodge a complaint with your local data-protection supervisory authority, without prejudice to any other administrative or judicial remedy available to you.

Global Seal of Biliteracy Privacy Policy