Notice for California Residents
Last Revised: January, 2026
1. WHO DOES THIS POLICY APPLY TO
This Notice for California Residents (“CA Notice”) applies to you if you are a resident of the state of California. For purposes of this Notice, the term “Newsela,” “we” and “our” relates to Newsela, Inc., and its wholly owned subsidiaries (including Formative, Newsela Writing, and Generation Genius). The term “Personal Information” has the meaning provided by the California Consumer Privacy Act (“CCPA”) and the California Privacy Rights Act (“CPRA"). Terms that are not defined in this CA Notice have the meaning set out in our Privacy Policy.
Please also review our Newsela Children & Student Privacy Policy if you have any questions about how Newsela handles Student Data. You may also contact your School directly.
We collect Personal Information directly from you, from your browser, and/or device when you visit our Service, or from third parties that you permit to disclose information with us (e.g., if you create an account using a single sign-on service). In the last 12 months, the Personal Information we have collected may include: identifiers (such as your name, email address and birthdate), California Customer Records (Cal. Civ. Code §1798.89(e) such as your login credentials and phone number), internet/network information (such as device identifiers, logs and analytic data), and inferences based on your interests, preferences and usage of the Service.
In the last 12 months, the “sensitive personal information” (as defined by the CPRA) we have collected may include: your account log-in, password, and only if your School requests and requires it, demographic data. Newsela does not use or disclose sensitive personal information for any purpose other than for performing services you have requested, for detecting security incidents, fraud and other illegal actions, or for short term transient use. Please refer to our Privacy Policy to learn more about the types of Personal Information we collect.
Additionally, in the last 12 months, as needed for business purposes, we have disclosed some Personal Information we collect to our service providers, advisors, and analytics providers. Please refer to our Privacy Policy and Cookie Policy for additional information on the ways we may disclose your Personal Information.
- Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information
Based on the CCPA’s broad definitions of the terms “sharing” and “sale” certain data collected on or through our Services by third parties for purposes of interest-based advertising and social media tools may be a “sharing” and “sale” under the CCPA.
In the previous twelve (12) months, we “shared” or “sold” the following categories of personal information with our analytics service providers and third-party advertising partner service providers to perform specific services on our behalf, such as targeted advertising and analytics: identifiers, electronic network activity information, and inferences drawn from these categories.
Under the CCPA, you or an authorized agent acting on your behalf have the right to opt out of the "sharing" and "sale" of your personal information. To exercise your right to opt out, you may turn off targeting cookies at any time on our website. For the Newsela and Generation Genius product offerings, access your cookie settings tool by selecting the green cookie icon on the left corner. For the Formative product offerings, access your cookie settings at the footer of our webpage. Alternatively, you may implement an Opt-Out Signal through your browser, as described in our Privacy Policy, section 9(b).
- Global Privacy Control and Opt-Out Preference Signals
You may opt-out of targeted advertising by implementing the Global Privacy Control (“GPC”) or other opt-out preference signal through your browser (collectively, “Opt-Out Signals”). For more information about Opt-Out Signals and instructions on how to download and use them, please visit https://globalprivacycontrol.org. If you have implemented an Opt-Out Signal, we will honor your request with respect to the browser or device that sends us the Opt-Out Signal. Please note that choosing to opt in to cookies will override the Opt-Out Signal.
3. YOUR PRIVACY RIGHTS
Residents of California may be entitled to certain rights with respect to Personal Information that we have collected about them under the CCPA/CPRA:
- Right to Know and Access. The right to request to know more about the specific pieces or categories of Personal Information we have collected, the categories of data sources, and the categories of third parties with whom we have disclosed the Personal Information for a business or commercial purpose in the last 12 months, and to access a copy of your Personal Information.
- Right to Request Deletion. The right to request the deletion of Personal Information that we have collected from you, subject to certain exceptions.
- Right to Correction. The right to request we correct inaccuracies in your Personal Information, taking into account the nature of the data and the purposes for which we process that data.
- Right to Opt-Out of Sale or Sharing of Personal Information. The right to direct us not to “sell” (as such term is defined by the CCPA) Personal Information we have collected about you to third parties or to “share” your Personal Information for cross-context behavioral advertising. Note, you may turn off targeting cookies at any time using your cookie settings as outlined in the Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information section above. Alternatively, you may implement an Opt-Out Signal through your browser, as described in our Privacy Policy, section 9(b).
- Right to Limit Use and Disclosure of Sensitive Personal Information. The right to direct us to only use your sensitive Personal Information for limited purposes, such as providing you with the services you requested.
You also have the right to be free of discrimination for exercising these rights. Note that if the exercise of these rights limits our ability to process Personal Information (such as in the case of a deletion request), we may no longer be able to provide you our Services or engage with you in the same manner.
To request to exercise these rights, please submit a request by:
In accordance with our legal obligations and to ensure the protection of your Personal Information, we will need to verify your identity before processing your request. This may require us to request additional personal information from you or require you to log into your account, if you have one. In certain circumstances, we may decline or limit your request, particularly where we are unable to verify your identity or locate your information in our systems, or as permitted by law.
You may authorize another person (your “Authorized Agent”) to submit a data rights request on your behalf. Authorized Agents must submit the request via email to privacy@newsela.com and include a signed letter from the Newsela user confirming the Authorized Agent has permission to submit the request on the user’s behalf. In certain circumstances, we may need to request additional information to verify the identity of the user about whom the request is being made and/or to verify that the user has provided the Authorized Agent permission to submit the request, and it may take additional time to fulfill Authorized Agent-submitted requests. Please note that for privacy and security reasons, we will direct future communications to the Newsela user on whose behalf the request was made. We may deny a request in the event we are not able to verify the authorized agent’s authority to act on your behalf.
We retain your Personal Information for as long as your account is active, authorized by your School, or for as long as is reasonably necessary to provide our Services. You can request your Personal Information to be deleted at any time by filling out our Privacy Rights Request Webform or emailing us at privacy@newsela.com.
5. ADDITIONAL NOTICES
- Shine the Light. California "Shine the Light" law (Civil Code Section §1798.83) provides certain rights to California residents that have an established business relationship with us with regard to the disclosure of certain types of personal information to third parties for their direct marketing purposes. We do not disclose your personal information with third parties for direct marketing purposes without consent.
- Minors. We do not sell the personal information of consumers we know to be less than 16 years of age.
6. CHANGES TO NOTICE FOR CALIFORNIA RESIDENTS
We may update this CA Notice from time to time to reflect changes for operational, legal or regulatory reasons. Please revisit this CA Notice regularly to stay informed about your rights. When we make material changes to the CA Notice, we will revise the Last Revised date at the top of this CA Notice. All changes to this CA Notice are effective when they are posted on this page. If you do not agree to the updated terms of this CA Notice, you must cease using our Services.
We welcome your comments or questions about this CA Notice. Feel free to email us at privacy@newsela.com. You may also contact us at our address: Newsela, Inc., Attn: Legal, 169 Madison Ave., #2770, New York, NY 10016.
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