Privacy Policy

1. Who we are and what this site is

K12PhoneSystems.com is a free information resource for K–12 school districts. It publishes plain-English research, worksheets and explanations about district phone systems: cost and contracts, emergency calling, reliability, deployment options, administration and campus equipment.

The site is managed by Greg Steinig, who works for SPARK VoIP (sparkvoip.net). SPARK VoIP is a separate commercial provider of managed phone services. K12PhoneSystems.com does not sell services, and nothing on this site is an offer from SPARK VoIP. SPARK VoIP has its own website and its own privacy policy.

This Privacy Policy explains what personal information this website collects, why, who can see it, how long it is kept, and what choices you have. It applies to the website at k12phonesystems.com, its contact form, its downloadable resources, and email, telephone and other communications that come from using it.

For any privacy question or request, contact [privacy@k12phonesystems.com](mailto:privacy@k12phonesystems.com), use the contact form, or call 908-923-8241.

2. The short version

• The site has no user accounts, no newsletter list and no advertising.
• The site does not use analytics tools, tracking pixels, advertising cookies or social media widgets.
• The site does not set cookies of its own. See the Cookie Policy.
• If you use the contact form, the message is emailed to Greg Steinig. It is not stored in a database on the website.
• Our hosting and security provider (Cloudflare) automatically receives technical information such as your IP address when your browser loads a page. Section 3 explains this.
• We do not sell personal information, we do not share it for advertising, and we do not use it to make automated decisions about you.
• Please do not send student records or other sensitive information through the website. See section 11.

3. Information we collect

Information you give us

You give us personal information when you use the contact form, email us or call us. The contact form asks for:

• Your name (required)
• Your school district or organization (required)
• Your email address (required)
• Your role or job title (optional)
• Your phone number (optional)
• The number of campuses (optional)
• Your current phone system (optional)
• Your main concern (optional)
• A free-text message (optional)

If you email or call us, we receive whatever you choose to tell us, including your email address or telephone number. If you attach a document, such as a phone bill or contract, we receive it. Please remove anything you do not want us to see before sending it.

Information collected automatically

When your browser loads a page, several systems that deliver the page automatically receive technical information. This happens on essentially every website.

• Cloudflare, which hosts and protects the site, receives and processes request data such as your IP address, the page requested, the date and time, your browser and device type, the referring page, and the approximate country or region derived from your IP address. Cloudflare uses this to deliver pages, block attacks and keep the service running. Cloudflare may keep this data under its own retention practices and policies.
• Fonts. The site's typefaces are stored on the site itself and delivered by Cloudflare along with the pages. Your browser does not contact Google or any other font service.
• The contact form's address. When you send the form, your browser sends the form content to a small program running on Cloudflare's network that belongs to this site. See section 4.

We do not use website analytics. We do not combine this technical information with your name, and we do not build profiles of visitors.

Information from other sources

We do not buy personal information, and we do not add information about you from data brokers. When we research district phone systems we may read public sources such as district websites, procurement documents, board agendas and government publications. Those are public documents about organizations, not information collected from visitors to this site.

4. What happens when you send the contact form

1. Your browser sends the form content to a program (a Cloudflare Worker) that belongs to this site.
2. The program checks that the required fields look valid. A hidden field that real visitors never see is used to catch automated spam. Messages that trip it are silently discarded.
3. The program emails the message to Greg Steinig through Cloudflare's email service. The email is sent from a K12PhoneSystems.com address, and your own email address is set as the reply-to address so that a reply goes to you.
4. The program does not save your message to a database. The email arrives in a private mailbox and stays there under the retention practices in section 14.

The program does not record your IP address in the message. If sending fails, Cloudflare may record an error message in its technical logs, which can include non-personal error details.

5. How we use personal information

We use the information you send us, and the technical information described above, to:

• Read and answer your message, and follow up if you asked us to.
• Understand your question so that we can point you to the right research or resource.
• Operate, secure and troubleshoot the website, and block spam, abuse and attacks.
• Keep reasonable business records of the questions we receive.
• Comply with legal obligations and protect our rights.

We do not use personal information from this site for advertising, to build marketing lists, or for automated decisions that produce legal or similarly significant effects.

6. Who we share information with

We do not sell personal information. We share it only as described here.

Service providers may use personal information only to provide their services to us, subject to their own contracts and policies. We do not give your information to anyone else for their own marketing.

We may disclose information if we believe it is reasonably necessary to comply with law, regulation, subpoena or court order, to protect the rights, safety or security of this website, its visitors or the public, or to detect and prevent fraud, abuse or security incidents. If this website or its operator is involved in a merger, acquisition or sale of assets, personal information may be transferred as part of that transaction.

7. Cookies and similar technologies

The website does not set cookies for analytics, advertising or tracking, and it does not use tracking pixels or social media plug-ins. Cloudflare may set a strictly necessary security cookie in limited situations, such as when it presents a security check. The Cookie Policy gives the detail.

8. We do not sell or share personal information for advertising

We do not sell personal information, and we do not share it for cross-context behavioral advertising or targeted advertising. We do not knowingly sell or share the personal information of anyone under 16. Because we do none of these things, there is nothing to opt out of, but you can still tell us your preference through the Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information page, and we will honor it.

9. Your privacy rights

Depending on where you live, you may have the right to:

• Know what personal information we hold about you, and request a copy of it.
• Correct inaccurate personal information.
• Delete your personal information.
• Opt out of the sale or sharing of personal information, targeted advertising and certain profiling.
• Limit the use of sensitive personal information, where applicable.
• Appeal our decision if we refuse your request, where the law provides for an appeal.
• Not be treated differently for using these rights.

To make a request, email [privacy@k12phonesystems.com](mailto:privacy@k12phonesystems.com), use the contact form, or call 908-923-8241. The Privacy Choices page explains how we verify requests, how long we take to respond, how authorized agents can act for you, and how to appeal.

10. Notices for residents of certain U.S. states

Several states, including California, Colorado, Connecticut, New Jersey, Oregon, Texas, Utah and Virginia, give residents privacy rights. Some of these laws apply only to businesses above certain size or data-volume thresholds. We honor the rights described in section 9 for any visitor who asks, whether or not a particular law applies.

California

This notice applies to California residents to the extent the California Consumer Privacy Act, as amended, applies to us.

We use this information for the purposes in section 5. We do not sell or share personal information, as those terms are defined in California law. We keep it for the periods in section 14. California residents can make the requests in section 9, and may also ask which categories of information we disclosed to third parties for their direct marketing under California's "Shine the Light" law. We do not disclose personal information for that purpose.

Texas, Virginia, Colorado, Connecticut and similar states

These laws generally give residents the rights in section 9, and allow an appeal if a request is refused. We do not process personal information for targeted advertising, sale or profiling that produces legal or similarly significant effects. We do not collect sensitive data, and we ask you not to send it.

Nevada

Nevada law allows residents to opt out of the sale of certain information. We do not sell covered information.

11. Student data and education records

This website is for adults who work for or with school districts. It is not designed to collect student education records or any information about students, and it is not a place to send them.

Please do not send student names, identifiers, contact details, health or disciplinary information, recordings, Social Security numbers, financial account numbers, passwords or other sensitive information through the contact form or by ordinary email. If you send something like that by mistake, tell us and we will delete it.

If a district later works with SPARK VoIP or another provider in a way that involves district-controlled data, that arrangement should be governed by the signed district agreement, any data privacy agreement, and applicable law, such as FERPA and state student privacy statutes. Where a signed agreement conflicts with this policy about that data, the agreement controls.

12. Children

This website is not directed to children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from them. If we learn that a child has sent us personal information without verifiable parental consent, we will delete it.

13. Security

We use reasonable safeguards to protect personal information. The website is delivered over an encrypted HTTPS connection. The contact form message is sent to a program on Cloudflare's network, which is separate from the pages themselves, and is delivered to a private mailbox with restricted access. We limit who can read messages, and we use reputable providers.

No website, network or email system is completely secure, and we cannot guarantee that information will never be accessed without authorization. If you need to send something highly sensitive, call us first and we will suggest a safer way. If a security incident affects personal information in a way that the law requires us to report, we will notify affected people and authorities as the law requires.

14. How long we keep information

• Contact messages and replies stay in the mailbox for as long as they are useful to answer you and to keep reasonable business records. We delete messages sooner if you ask us to and no legal or business need requires us to keep them.
• Technical logs are kept by Cloudflare under its own retention practices. We do not keep our own copy of visitor logs.
• Documents you attach are kept with the message they arrived in, and are deleted with it.

When information is no longer needed, we delete it or remove identifying details from it.

15. Email and calls

We do not run a newsletter or a marketing list, and we do not send unsolicited marketing email. We use your contact details to answer your message and to follow up on it. If you ask us to stop contacting you, tell us and we will. We may still send a message that is necessary to finish your request, to notify you of a security or legal matter, or to confirm that we have honored an opt-out.

16. Links to other websites

The website links to other sites, including sparkvoip.net and government, vendor and standards-body pages cited in our research. We do not control those sites and are not responsible for their content or privacy practices. Read their policies before giving them information.

17. Visitors from outside the United States

The website is intended for visitors in the United States. If you visit from elsewhere, your information may be processed in the United States and in other places where our providers operate, where privacy laws may differ from those where you live.

18. Opt-out preference signals and Do Not Track

Some browsers can send an opt-out preference signal, such as Global Privacy Control. Because the website does not sell or share personal information for advertising, the signal does not change how it works, and we treat a recognized signal as a request to opt out of anything that would apply. Browsers' "Do Not Track" setting is not a recognized standard, but the website does not track you across other sites.

19. Changes to this policy

We may update this policy. When we do, we will change the effective date at the top of the page. If a change materially affects how we handle information you have already given us, we will make reasonable efforts to tell you. Using the website after an update means the updated policy applies going forward.

20. Contact us

For privacy questions, requests, or concerns about this policy:

K12PhoneSystems.com

Email: [privacy@k12phonesystems.com](mailto:privacy@k12phonesystems.com)

Telephone: 908-923-8241

Online: the contact form

Related policies

Terms of Use · Cookie Policy · Privacy Choices · Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information · Disclaimer · Accessibility Statement