Datenschutzrichtlinie Storyboard That
For our educational edition, please also see our school / student privacy policy.

STORYBOARD THAT PRIVACY POLICY

Introduction

This privacy policy (“Policy”) is designed to inform users of the Storyboard That service, including all associated websites (collectively, the “Service”) about how Clever Prototypes, LLC (“Clever Prototypes,” “we” or “us”) gathers and uses personal information collected by us in connection with the Service. We will take reasonable steps to protect user privacy consistent with the guidelines set forth in this Policy and with all applicable laws. In this Policy, “user” or “you” means any person using or otherwise benefiting from the Service or otherwise submitting personal information to Clever Prototypes via the Service. BY ACCESSING OR USING THE SERVICE, YOU ACKNOWLEDGE THAT YOU HAVE READ, UNDERSTAND, AND AGREE TO BE BOUND BY THIS PRIVACY POLICY. IF YOU DO NOT AGREE TO THESE TERMS, DO NOT USE THE SERVICE.

Types of Accounts

The Storyboard That platform is designed to be used by individuals, schools, and businesses. The privacy implications are different based upon the type of user using the Service.

We define our user account types as follows:

  • Educational Users
    • School Administrators and Teachers - Owners and administrators of the educational version of the Service that oversee students.
    • Students - Accounts designed and optimized for students to do projects overseen by a teacher.
  • Business Users - Users that use a version of the Service for their business or in teams.
  • Individuals - Users that use the Service who are not explicitly Education or Business Users.

We also differentiate our user accounts based on whether they are free or premium accounts. Accounts that are actively paying for the Service or are on a free trial are considered premium accounts for purposes of this Policy.

What Information Do We Collect?

Limited Personal Information

We collect the following personal information in connection with the Service:

  • (a) if you register for any of the Service’s user account types, we will collect the personal information you submit to us to build your user profile, including your name, email address, and Internet Protocol (“IP”) address;
  • (b) if you pay fees by credit card, we may collect the name, expiration date and credit card number for the relevant card;
  • (c) if you communicate with us by email, we will collect your email address
  • (d) Educational Users can optionally provide more detailed rostering information (School Name, Classes, Teacher Lists, and Student Lists). For some free Educational User accounts, we may require this information in return for using the Service for free.

All of this information is referred to in this Policy as “Personal Information.” We strive to minimize the amount of Personal Information we collect about our users. We do not collect, use, or sell any sensitive personal information from or about our users, as that term is defined in California Civil Code § 1798.140.

Other Personal Identifiers

Apart from the types of limited Personal Information described above, Clever Prototypes does not collect and does not wish to receive additional personally identifying information. Without limitation, you shall not submit to Clever Prototypes any social security number, financial account number, credit or debit card number (other than the number of the card paying for the Service), driver’s license number or government ID number, and we do not store or retain this information.

When parents or guardians (or schools and/or teachers acting in an educational context) create accounts for students under 13 years of age, we may collect personally identifiable information – including first name, last name, and email address – regarding the students on whose behalf such accounts are created for the sole purpose of rendering the Service. Students under 13 years of age who use the Service under the supervision of a parent or guardian (or school and/or teacher acting in the educational context) are not prevented from uploading personally identifiable information as part of using the Service. We do not collect, maintain, use, or share student information except as needed to provide and improve the Service, or as authorized by the parent, guardian, or (in the case of a student 13 years of age or older) the student.

We will use commercially reasonable physical, technical, and administrative safeguards to protect all such personally identifiable information.

Hashing of Email Addresses

As part of using single sign-on technologies to access the Service and as part managing access for Users, we may create and store hashed information regarding a User’s email address. A hashed email address consists of a unique alphanumerical value that is identical each time an email address is passed through a hashing algorithm, but not the email address itself. This permits us to identify Users with the same email address across multiple sign-on services without storing the email address.

User Data

As a rich content creation platform, our users generate a large amount of user data. The main forms of user data generated on Storyboard That are as follows:

  • Storyboards - Collections of Storyboard That art and user uploads combined with the creative energy and unique content of our users;
  • Assignments - A collection of Storyboards typically for one project created by students for a teacher;
  • Folders - A collection of Storyboards created usually in a business setting;
  • Audio - Voice Overs for Storyboards;
  • Payment History - Records of past payments for the Service.

All data uploaded by users is referred to in this Policy as “User Data.”

Web Tracking Information

We, and our third party service providers, may use web tracking technologies such as cookies, web beacons, pixel tags and clear GIFs in order to operate the Service efficiently and to collect data related to usage of the Service. Such collected data (“Web Tracking Information”) may include the address of the websites you visited before and after you visited the Service, the type of browser you are using, your IP address, what pages in the Service you visit and what links you clicked on, and whether you opened email communications we send to you. In order to collect Web Tracking Information and to make your use of the Service more efficient, we may store cookies on your computer. We may also use web tracking technologies that are placed in web pages on the Service or in email communications to collect information about actions that users take when they interact with the Service or such email communications, and Clever Prototypes’ Contractors (as defined herein) may also do so.

Some Web Tracking Information may include data, such as IP address data, that is unique to you. You may be able to modify your browser settings to alter which web tracking technologies are permitted when you use the Service, but this may affect the performance of the Service.

We rely on the following legal grounds to process your Personal Information:

  • Performance of a contract – We need to collect and use your Personal Information to perform our agreement with you to deliver the Service as described in this Privacy Policy.
  • Consent – We may use or disclose some of your Personal Information as described in this Privacy Policy subject to your consent.
  • Legitimate interests – We may use your Personal Information for our legitimate interests to improve our products and the Service. Consistent with our legitimate interests and any choices that we offer or consent that may be required under applicable laws, we may use your Personal Information as described elsewhere in this Policy, including for marketing purposes.

How Do We Use the Information We Collect?

Personal Information

Your Personal Information may be supplemented with additional information regarding your activities on the Service; to the extent that such information is linked specifically to you, we will treat that additional information as your Personal Information. We may use your email address to send you marketing materials about Clever Prototypes and its products and services. We may also use Personal Information for the internal operational, product development, marketing, and administrative purposes of the Service.

User Data

We collect and store User Data in order to provide the Service to you, and it may be used for the internal operational, product development, marketing, and administrative purposes of the Service.

If you create Storyboards that incorporate User Data with a Free Account, or if otherwise marked for publication, User Data will be accessible to the public via the Service and via third-party search engines.

Web Tracking Information

We use Web Tracking Information to administer the Service and to understand how well our Service is working, to store your user preferences, and to develop statistical information on usage of the Service. This allows us to determine which features and content users like best to help us improve our Service, to personalize your user experience including through marketing messages, and to measure overall effectiveness.

Aggregate Information

We will also create statistical, aggregated data relating to our users and the Service for analytical purposes. Aggregated data is derived from Personal Information and User Data, but in its aggregated form, it does not duplicate or reveal any User Data or relate to or identify any individual. This data is used to understand our customer base and to develop, improve, and market our services.

What Information Do We Disclose to Third Parties?

For all Users

We do not sell Personal Information or User Data to third parties.

For Student Accounts

We do not use or disclose Personal Information or User Data for the building of personal profiles or for the targeting of advertisements to students.

We collect, use, disclose, and retain the Personal Information of students only for the authorized purposes for which the Personal Information was collected.

Personal Information and User Data

We will not disclose your Personal Information or User Data to any third parties except as follows:

  • (i) to third party contractors engaged to provide services on our behalf (“Contractors”), such as performing marketing, analyzing data and usage of the Service, hosting and operating the Service or providing support and maintenance services for the Service, or providing customer service. We enter into agreements with all Contractors that require Contractors to use the Personal Information they receive only to perform services for us, and protect the security and privacy of Personal Information received from us.
  • (ii) when we have your consent to share the information.
  • For Personal Information belonging to student users, third parties must adhere to privacy and security as stringent or greater than ours.

In the past 12 months, we have disclosed the following categories of personal information about users to third parties for the purposes set out above:

Category:
  • Identifiers such as first and last name, Internet Protocol address, and email address;
  • Internet or other electronic network activity information, including information regarding a user’s interaction with an internet website application or advertisement.
Categories of Recipients:
  • Vendors and third parties who perform services on our behalf (such as Internet service providers, payment processors, and marketing and data analytics providers).

Email Communications

If you or your organization register an account and provide your email address, we will send you administrative and promotional emails. We may use your Personal Information and User Data or share your Personal Information and User Data with our Contractors in order to personalize or improve our promotional and marketing emails sent to the email address that you provide.

If you wish to opt out of promotional emails, you may do so by following the “unsubscribe” instructions in the email, or by editing your account settings. All users receive administrative emails, and so you cannot opt out of them while you remain registered.

Web Tracking Information Disclosure

We may disclose Web Tracking Information to Contractors in order to analyze the performance of the Service and the behavior of users and to operate and improve the Service. This information may also be used by our Contractors in combination with your Personal Information and User Data to help improve our promotional and marketing materials, as described elsewhere in this Policy.

Most web browsers and some mobile operating systems and mobile applications include a Do-Not-Track ("DNT") feature or setting you can activate to signal your privacy preference not to have data about your online browsing activities monitored and collected. We do not currently respond to DNT browser signals or any other mechanism that automatically communicates your choice not to be tracked online.

Aggregate Information Disclosure

We may disclose aggregated data that does not contain Personal Information or User Data to any third parties, such as potential customers, business partners, and funding sources, in order to describe our business and operations.

Network Operators

Use of the Service may involve use of the services of third-party telecommunications carriers. Such carriers are not our contractors, and any information that a carrier collects in connection with your use of the Service is not “Personal Information” and is not subject to this Policy. We are not responsible for the acts or omissions of telecommunications carriers.

Notwithstanding the above, we may in any event use Personal Information and other information collected through the Service to the extent required by law or legal process, to resolve disputes, to enforce our agreements (including this Policy and the Terms of Service https://www.storyboardthat.com/about/terms-of-use) with you, or if necessary to protect our legal rights or to protect third parties, in our reasonable discretion.

Additional Disclosures

We reserve the right to disclose any information we collect in connection with the Service, including Personal Information, (a) to any successor to our business as a result of any merger, acquisition, asset sale or similar transaction; and (b) to any law enforcement, judicial authority, or governmental or regulatory authority, to the extent required by law or if in our reasonable discretion disclosure is necessary to enforce or protect our legal rights or to protect third parties.

In the event of a sale/merger, all student Personal Information will be subject to the same standards as this Policy or given an option to opt out within 90 days of the change of company structure. During the transition window, the data will be subject to the standards defined in the Policy when last accepted.

Privacy Settings/Opt Out

If you would like your name and email address permanently removed from our database, please contact us at Help@StoryboardThat.com. We will promptly delete your name and email address and you will no longer receive email from Clever Prototypes. Your removal from the mailing list or database will not remove User Data you have submitted to us or records of past use of the Service, nor delete information stored in our data backups and archives. User Data, including User Data submitted, data on past queries and data stored in backups and archives will be maintained and/or deleted in the ordinary course of Clever Prototypes’ business. Clever Prototypes does not provide copies of User Data to its customers.

Your Choices About Your Information

Depending on where you live, you may have some or all of the rights listed below in relation to your Personal Information. However, these rights are not absolute, may apply only in certain circumstances and, in certain cases, we may decline your request as permitted by law.

You may have the following rights:

  • Right to Access/Know: You may have the right to request an accounting of all Personal Information that we have that pertains to you, and to be delivered copies of such information in electronic format (e.g., electronic copies of information attached to an email). We reserve the right to transmit information to you in a manner that complies with all applicable laws.
  • Right to Correct: You may have the right to request that we change any Personal Information that pertains to you that is inaccurate.
  • Right to Delete: You may have the right to request that we delete some or all Personal Information that pertains to you, as further described in the “Privacy Settings/Opt Out” section of this Policy. We reserve the right to carry out such a request in a manner that complies with all applicable laws, such as laws concerning record retention. Note that fulfilling this request requires us to delete Personal Information in our possession, but that this right does not extend to Personal Information that has already been lawfully shared in accordance with this Policy.
  • Right to Opt Out of Sale or Sharing or Targeted Advertising: As described elsewhere in this Policy, we do not sell your Personal Information or User Data to third parties. However, you may have a right to direct us not to “sell” or “share” your Personal Information or to opt out of the processing of your Personal Information for purposes considered to be “targeted advertising,” as defined in applicable privacy laws.
  • Restriction of Processing: You may have the right to request that we cease processing any Personal Information that pertains to you. Note that fulfilling this request requires us to cease processing Personal Information that pertains to you in the future, but does not apply to lawful processing that has already occurred in accordance with this Policy.
  • Right to Non-Discrimination: You have the right to exercise all the rights afforded by this Policy without fear of retaliation or discrimination. This means that we treat users who exercise any of the rights under this Policy the same as users who do not.

California Civil Code Section 1798.83, also known as the “Shine The Light” law, permits our users who are California residents to request and obtain from us, once a year and free of charge, information about categories of Personal Information (if any) we disclosed to third parties for direct marketing purposes, and the names and addresses of all third parties with which we shared Personal Information in the immediately preceding calendar year. If you are a California resident and would like to make such a request, please submit your request in writing to us using the contact information provided below.

If you are a resident of the European Union and have a complaint about our use or processing of your Personal Information, you have a right to lodge a complaint with a national Data Protection Authority. Each European Union member nation has established its own Data Protection Authority; you can find out about the Data Protection Authority in your country here: https://edpb.europa.eu/about-edpb/about-edpb/members_en.

If you are a resident of Australia or New Zealand, please contact us at Help@StoryboardThat.com with any questions or concerns regarding the handling of your personal information. If we do not respond to your inquiry within 30 days, you may lodge a complaint with the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner in the manner described here: https://www.oaic.gov.au/privacy/privacy-complaints/lodge-a-privacy-complaint-with-us. If you live in New Zealand, you may lodge a complaint with the Office of the Privacy Commissioner as described here: https://www.privacy.org.nz/your-rights/making-a-complaint-to-the-privacy-commissioner/.

To exercise any of the rights explained above, please contact Help@StoryboardThat.com. If you have consented to the collection, processing, and/or transfer of your Personal Information, you have the right fully or partially to withdraw your consent. To withdraw your consent, please contact Help@StoryboardThat.com. Once we have received notification that you withdraw your consent, we will no longer process your information for the purposes to which you consented unless there are compelling legitimate grounds for further processing or for the establishment, exercise, or defense of legal claims.

General

Security

We use reasonable security precautions to protect the security and integrity of your Personal Information in accordance with this Policy and applicable law. However, no Internet transmission is completely secure, and we cannot guarantee that security breaches will not occur. Without limitation of the foregoing, we are not responsible for the actions of hackers and other unauthorized third parties that breach our reasonable security procedures.

The Clever Prototypes Service may contain links to other websites as services, including payment services. Clever Prototypes is not responsible for the privacy practices or the content of those websites. Users should be aware of this when they leave our Service and review the privacy statements of each third party website. This Privacy Policy applies solely to information collected by the Service.

Amendments

Clever Prototypes may modify or amend this policy from time to time. If we make any material changes, as determined by Clever Prototypes, in the way in which Personal Information is collected, used or transferred, we will notify you of these changes by modification of this Privacy Policy, which will be available for review by you at the Service. Notwithstanding any modifications we may make, any Personal Information collected by Clever Prototypes from you will be treated in accordance with the Policy in effect at the time information was collected, unless we obtain your consent otherwise.

Children

Clever Prototypes does not knowingly collect or maintain personally identifiable information from persons under 13 years of age, and the Service may only be used by persons under 13 years of age under the supervision of a school, parent, guardian, or teacher. If you are under 13 years of age, you may not register for the Service on your own, and you may not provide any Personal Information. If you are a parent who has reason to believe that your child has provided Personal Information through our Service, you have the right to request access to and review the Personal Information we have collected from your child. You also have the right to direct us to delete your child’s Personal Information and to cease further use or collection of your child’s Personal Information. If Clever Prototypes learns that personally identifiable information of persons less than 13 years of age has been provided, then Clever Prototypes will take the appropriate steps to delete this information.

To make any requests pursuant to this section, please contact us at Help@StoryboardThat.com.

Geographic Location

We offer the service in several geographic regions. We define a geographic region as the location where a user is located.

Users Within the United States

For users within the United States, we process data in data centers located in the United States. We have adopted reasonable physical, technical, and organizational safeguards against accidental, unauthorized, or unlawful destruction, loss, alteration, disclosure, access, use, or processing of user data in our possession. We comply with state and federal laws governing the protection of personal information.

Users Within the European Economic Area (EEA) and the United Kingdom (UK)

For users within the EEA and UK, we transfer data from those regions to data centers located in the United States for processing. Such processing is performed in accordance with Regulation 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council of April 27, 2016 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data and free movement of such data, known as the General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”) (and its equivalent in the UK). This includes the imposition of required safeguards with respect to accidental, unauthorized or unlawful destruction, loss, alteration, disclosure, access, use or processing of data. We also honor your privacy rights as a user within those jurisdiction (for more information, see above under the section titled, “Your Choices About Your Information”). Transfers of EEA and UK user data to processors in the United States are made in accordance with the GDPR (and where appropriate the UK addendum) and subject to the appropriate transfer mechanism, primarily the Standard Contractual Clauses as approved by the European Commission and the UK addendum as approved by the UK ICO. To review our GDPR Data Processing Addendum, including the Standard Contractual Clauses and UK addendum, click here.

Users in Other Regions

For users not within the United States, EEA, or UK, we transfer data from such regions to the United States for processing. For such users, we have adopted reasonable physical, technical, and organizational safeguards against accidental, unauthorized, or unlawful destruction, loss, alteration, disclosure, access, use, or processing of user data in our possession that substantially mirror protections available to users located within the United States.

Retention and Deletion

We will only retain your Personal Information for as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes for which it was collected and processed, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, regulatory, accounting or reporting requirements. In the case of Personal Information of students, we will not knowingly retain Personal Information of students beyond the time period required to support the authorized educational purpose for which the information was collected, or as authorized by the parent, guardian, or student 13 years of age or older, or as required by applicable law.

In some circumstances, we may anonymize your Personal Information so that it can no longer be associated with you, at which point it will no longer be treated as Personal Information.

It is our policy to retain Personal Information for up to 6 years once such personal information is no longer necessary to deliver the Service and to delete such personal information thereafter. This means that, if you close your account with us, we will delete Personal Information associated with your account after no more than 6 years.

Use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning

Our Service utilizes third-party artificial intelligence (“AI”) and machine learning technologies to improve our products, personalize user experiences including marketing, and enhance the functionality of Storyboard That. This section explains how we use AI and what it means for your Personal Information and User Data.

How We Use AI

We may use AI for the following purposes:

  • To Improve Service Features: AI algorithms analyze user interactions and feedback to identify patterns and trends, which helps us to enhance and optimize the features of our service, including marketing and customer support interactions.
  • To Personalize User Experience: AI may be used to provide personalized recommendations for content, templates, or features that may be of interest to you, based on your usage patterns.
  • For Product Development: AI may be used to create new features and improve our Service.

Data Used for AI

In the process of using AI, we may process various types of data, including:

  • PII and User Data: The content you create and upload to our Service as well as PII including name, email address and IP. We do not include any Sensitive Personal information as defined by California Civil Code § 1798.140.
  • Anonymized and Aggregated Data: We may convert your Personal Information and User Data into anonymized and aggregated forms, which cannot be used to identify you. This data is then used to train and improve our AI models without compromising your privacy.
  • Publicly Available Data: We may use publicly available datasets to train and refine our AI models.

Your Privacy and AI

  • No Student data in AI Models: No PII from students in the educational version is shared in any capacity with AI Models
  • No PII in Shared AI Training and Models: We do not use your Personal Information to train AI models that are shared with or sold to third parties.
  • Automated Decision-Making: We do not use AI for any automated decision-making that would have a legal or similarly significant effect on you without human review.
  • Your Rights: Your rights regarding your data, as outlined in the “Privacy Settings/Opt Out” and “Your Choices About your Information” sections of this Policy, apply to data processed by our AI systems. This includes the right to request access, correction, or deletion of your Personal Information, where applicable.

Third-Party AI Services

We may utilize third-party AI services to power certain features of our Service. When we do, we ensure that these third-party providers are contractually obligated to protect your data with the same or greater level of security and privacy as outlined in this Policy. We do not permit these third-party services to use your data for their own purposes, including to train their own AI models.

Processors and Sub-processors

We engage various third-party service providers and partners to help us operate StoryboardThat.com and deliver our services to you. These entities may process your personal data on our behalf, or in some cases, act as independent data controllers for specific processing activities (such as payment processing). All payment gateways in use are Payment Card Industry – Data Security Standard (“PCI DSS”) compliant.

For a complete and up-to-date list of our data processors and key third-party recipients, please email us at Help@StoryboardThat.com. We are committed to transparency regarding how your data is handled and will provide this information promptly upon request.

About Us

We are based in the United States of America at:

75 2nd Avenue
Suite 140
Needham, MA 02094

Users in the United States and regions other than the European Union can contact us at the above address.

Our representative in the EU for GDPR purposes is Foley Hoag AARPI. You can contact our representative at 153 rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré, 75008 Paris, France.

In the event of material changes to the privacy policy users will be emailed and presented the new terms upon logging in.

See Also

Effective Date of this policy: January 25, 2014
Last Material Update: August 21, 2025
Last Minor Update: July 25, 2026