Data Tracking Policy

Technology Usage

Modern educational platforms can't function without certain tracking technologies—it's just the reality of how websites work today. When you log into Cantiago Merimodo, access your course materials, or interact with quizzes and assignments, there's a complex dance happening behind the scenes. Various technologies help us remember who you are, what courses you're enrolled in, and where you left off in that video lecture you started yesterday. Without these tools, you'd need to re-enter your credentials constantly, your progress wouldn't save, and we couldn't deliver the personalized learning experience that makes online education effective.

Think of tracking technologies as the infrastructure that holds everything together. Some are absolutely essential—they keep you logged in and ensure your test answers actually get submitted. Others help us understand which features get used most, where students struggle, and how we can make navigation more intuitive. We've organized these technologies into distinct categories so you can understand what each type does and make informed decisions about your preferences.

Necessary Technologies

These are the non-negotiable tools that make our platform functional. When you authenticate with your username and password, a session cookie gets created that tells our servers "this person is authorized to access these courses." Without it, every click would require re-authentication. Similarly, when you're taking an assessment and move between questions, temporary storage keeps track of your answers so nothing gets lost if your connection hiccups.

• Authentication tokens maintain your logged-in state throughout your learning session, preventing the frustration of getting kicked out mid-lecture. These tokens typically expire after a set period of inactivity for security purposes, but they're essential for basic platform access. You can't opt out of these because, frankly, the platform wouldn't work without them.
• Form submission tracking ensures that when you submit an assignment or complete a quiz, your work actually reaches our servers and gets recorded in your gradebook. This includes temporary storage of your responses as you work through multi-page assessments. Without this technology, you'd risk losing hours of work to a single browser crash.
• Load balancing cookies direct your requests to the appropriate server, especially during high-traffic periods like exam weeks. This prevents slowdowns and ensures consistent performance regardless of how many students are accessing the platform simultaneously. These operate entirely in the background and don't collect any personal information beyond technical routing data.

Performance Tracking

We measure how quickly pages load, which features respond sluggishly, and where bottlenecks occur in content delivery. Performance tracking gives us the data needed to optimize video streaming quality, reduce loading times for resource-heavy interactive modules, and ensure students with varying internet speeds can access course materials effectively. This category includes analytics that monitor technical metrics rather than personal behavior.

• Page load analytics track how long it takes for various elements to render on your screen, from video players to downloadable PDFs. We aggregate this data to identify patterns—maybe the biology course has images that need compression, or the mathematics module loads slowly on mobile devices. These insights drive our technical improvements but don't track what content you're specifically viewing.
• Error logging captures when something breaks—a failed video upload, a broken link, or a feature that doesn't work in certain browsers. When you encounter an error message, we automatically receive information about what went wrong so our developers can fix it. This includes browser type, device information, and the specific action that triggered the problem.
• Content delivery network monitoring measures how efficiently we're serving video lectures, PDF textbooks, and interactive simulations from servers closest to your location. We track bandwidth usage and streaming quality to ensure smooth playback regardless of whether you're studying in New York or New Delhi. This helps us allocate resources appropriately across our global infrastructure.

Functional Technologies

These tools remember your preferences and settings to create a more personalized learning environment. When you adjust video playback speed, choose a dark mode interface, or set your preferred language, functional technologies store those choices. They're not strictly necessary—you could manually reconfigure everything each session—but they make your experience significantly more convenient and tailored to your learning style.

• Interface customization storage keeps track of your display preferences, including text size adjustments for accessibility, color scheme choices, and sidebar configurations. If you've organized your dashboard in a particular way or hidden certain widgets, these settings persist across sessions. Students with visual impairments particularly rely on these stored preferences to maintain consistent accessibility accommodations.
• Course progress bookmarks automatically save your position in video lectures, reading materials, and multi-part lessons. When you return to a course, you can pick up exactly where you left off rather than hunting through modules to find your place. This technology operates locally in your browser for immediate responsiveness, with periodic synchronization to our servers so your progress follows you across devices.
• Learning path customization remembers which optional modules you've chosen, which supplementary materials you've marked as favorites, and how you've structured your study schedule. For platforms offering adaptive learning, these technologies track your performance patterns to suggest appropriate difficulty levels and recommend relevant resources. The goal is creating an educational journey that adapts to your individual needs rather than forcing everyone through identical paths.

Customization Methods

Beyond functional conveniences, we employ technologies that actively personalize your educational experience based on your interactions and performance. When the platform suggests additional practice problems after you struggle with a concept, or recommends related courses based on your completed curriculum, customization technologies are at work. These methods analyze your learning patterns to deliver content that matches your knowledge level, interests, and goals.

• Adaptive learning algorithms adjust content difficulty based on your performance, ensuring you're consistently challenged without becoming overwhelmed. If you're breezing through introductory material, the system might accelerate you into intermediate topics. Conversely, if quiz results indicate gaps in understanding, you'll receive targeted resources addressing those specific areas. This personalization relies on tracking your assessment results, time spent on various topics, and interaction patterns with different content types.
• Recommendation engines suggest courses, study groups, and resources aligned with your academic trajectory and demonstrated interests. When you complete a Python programming course, you might see recommendations for data science or web development tracks. These suggestions draw from your course history, search queries within the platform, and anonymized patterns from students with similar learning profiles. The technology balances exposing you to new subjects while respecting your established interests.
• Engagement optimization tools identify when you're most active on the platform, which content formats you prefer (video versus text, for instance), and how long you typically study before taking breaks. We use these insights to time notifications effectively, suggest study schedules that match your natural rhythms, and present materials in formats you find most engaging. This category represents the most sophisticated tracking—and the area where you have the most control over participation.

Integrated Data Ecosystem

All these different technologies work together rather than operating in isolation. Your authentication status (necessary) informs what personalized recommendations (customization) you receive, while performance data ensures those recommendations load quickly and display correctly. When you watch a video lecture, necessary technologies handle playback, performance tracking monitors streaming quality, functional tools remember your playback speed preference, and customization algorithms note the topic for future recommendations.

We've designed this ecosystem with intentional boundaries—necessary and performance technologies operate regardless of your consent because they're fundamental to platform operation, while functional and customization tools respect your preferences. You can disable personalization features and still access all course materials; you'll simply lose the tailored experience and convenience features. The system degrades gracefully rather than breaking entirely when you restrict certain tracking categories.

Restrictions

You're not powerless in this relationship—regulatory frameworks like GDPR and various educational privacy laws grant you substantial rights over your data. You can access information about what we've collected, request corrections to inaccurate records, and in many cases demand deletion of data no longer necessary for educational purposes. These aren't just theoretical rights either; we've built actual mechanisms into our platform for exercising them, though some limitations exist when data is essential for academic records or legal compliance.

Managing your tracking preferences happens through multiple channels. Your browser provides built-in controls for cookies and other storage mechanisms, while our platform offers a preference center where you can fine-tune which categories of tracking you'll allow. The trade-off is real though—disabling certain technologies means losing functionality. We'll walk you through both the tools available and the consequences of different choices so you can make decisions aligned with your privacy comfort level.

Browser Management

• Chrome users can access cookie controls through Settings → Privacy and Security → Cookies and Other Site Data. Here you'll find options to block all cookies (which will break Cantiago Merimodo entirely), block third-party cookies (recommended—this prevents external trackers while allowing our platform to function), or manage site-specific permissions. You can also view and delete individual cookies from our domain if you want to clear your preferences without affecting other sites.
• Firefox provides similar controls under Options → Privacy & Security → Cookies and Site Data. Firefox's Enhanced Tracking Protection automatically blocks many third-party trackers by default, which is compatible with our platform's core functionality. For more granular control, click "Manage Permissions" to set specific rules for our domain. Firefox also offers a "Delete cookies and site data when Firefox is closed" option if you prefer starting each session fresh.
• Safari takes a more aggressive default stance, blocking most third-party cookies automatically through Intelligent Tracking Prevention. Access these settings via Preferences → Privacy. Safari users should note that overly restrictive settings might interfere with embedded content like third-party video players or interactive simulations we've licensed. If you encounter issues, try temporarily allowing our domain under "Websites" settings.
• Edge users navigate to Settings → Cookies and Site Permissions → Manage and Delete Cookies and Site Data. Edge offers a helpful "See all cookies and site data" feature where you can review exactly what's stored from our platform. The browser also supports blocking trackers while allowing functional cookies, which balances privacy with usability for educational platforms.

Platform Preference Center

Within your Cantiago Merimodo account dashboard, you'll find a "Privacy & Data" section that provides more nuanced control than browser-level settings. This preference center lets you separately manage performance tracking, functional conveniences, and customization features while leaving necessary technologies untouched (since those are required for platform operation). Changes here affect all your devices once they sync with our servers.

• The "Essential Only" option disables everything except absolutely necessary technologies, giving you maximum privacy at the cost of all personalization and many convenience features. You'll still access course materials and submit assignments, but you'll lose progress bookmarks, preference storage, tailored recommendations, and adaptive difficulty adjustments. This setting makes sense if you're accessing our platform from a shared or public computer.
• Selecting "Functional" adds back convenience features—your interface preferences, progress tracking, and setting storage—while keeping performance analytics and personalization algorithms disabled. This represents a middle ground where the platform remembers your choices and maintains continuity across sessions without analyzing your behavior patterns or building a profile for recommendations. Most privacy-conscious users who regularly access our platform find this balance acceptable.
• Enabling "Full Experience" activates all tracking categories, including customization technologies that power personalized recommendations, adaptive learning paths, and engagement optimization. You'll get our platform's complete feature set, including tools that anticipate your needs and adjust content difficulty based on performance. The trade-off is more comprehensive data collection about your learning patterns and interaction behaviors.

Consequences by Category

Understanding what breaks when you disable different tracking types helps you make informed choices. Some features are surprisingly dependent on technologies you might assume are optional, while others degrade more gracefully than you'd expect. Here's what happens when you restrict each category beyond necessary technologies.

• Blocking performance tracking prevents us from identifying and fixing technical issues that specifically affect your configuration. If you experience slow loading times or errors, we won't receive the diagnostic data needed to troubleshoot your specific situation. You'll still be able to report problems manually, but our ability to proactively address them diminishes. This category has minimal impact on your immediate experience—the consequences are more about our capacity to improve the platform over time.
• Disabling functional technologies means losing all preference persistence—every session starts with default settings regardless of your previous customizations. Video players reset to standard speed, your interface returns to default layout, language preferences revert to English, and progress bookmarks disappear. For courses with lengthy video lectures or extensive reading materials, losing your place between sessions becomes genuinely frustrating. You can still complete coursework; it just requires more repetitive setup and manual navigation.
• Rejecting customization eliminates personalized recommendations, adaptive difficulty adjustments, and engagement optimization features. The platform can't suggest relevant courses, adjust problem difficulty based on your performance, or identify optimal study times. You'll see generic content recommendations rather than tailored suggestions. For self-directed learners who prefer exploring the catalog independently, this might not matter much. Students relying on guided learning paths or struggling with specific concepts will miss the scaffolding these technologies provide.

Alternative Privacy Measures

If you want privacy protection without completely disabling tracking, several middle-ground approaches exist. Browser extensions like Privacy Badger or uBlock Origin block known trackers while allowing functional site elements. These tools use algorithms to distinguish between tracking that serves you versus tracking that primarily benefits advertisers or data brokers. Our platform works well with most privacy extensions because we don't rely on the aggressive third-party tracking they're designed to block.

You can also adopt session-based usage patterns—accessing our platform in private/incognito mode means cookies and storage get cleared automatically when you close the browser. This provides a clean slate each session while still allowing necessary technologies to function during active use. The downside is losing progress tracking and preferences between sessions, but for occasional users or those accessing shared computers, it's a practical compromise. Regular students typically find this too inconvenient for daily coursework.

Additional Provisions

Our data retention policies vary by information type and purpose. Assessment results and academic records persist for seven years post-graduation to support transcript requests and accreditation requirements—educational institutions face legal obligations to maintain these records regardless of privacy preferences. However, behavioral analytics like page views and interaction patterns get anonymized after 18 months and deleted entirely after 36 months. If you delete your account, we purge all non-essential data within 90 days while archiving academic transcripts according to regulatory requirements.

Security measures protecting your tracked data include encryption both in transit and at rest, with particularly sensitive information like assessment responses using additional layers of protection. We segment data by sensitivity level—generic page views are stored separately from identifiable learning records. Access controls ensure that only authorized personnel handling specific job functions can view detailed tracking data, and all access gets logged for audit purposes. Regular security assessments and penetration testing help us identify vulnerabilities before they're exploited.

This tracking policy exists as one component of our broader privacy framework. While this document focuses specifically on cookies and similar technologies, our main Privacy Policy covers how we handle personal information more generally. The two documents work together—tracking technologies often collect the data described in the Privacy Policy, and both outline your rights regarding that information. Cross-border data transfers occur because we serve international students, and we've implemented Standard Contractual Clauses and other mechanisms to ensure adequate protection regardless of where data physically resides.

We maintain compliance with FERPA (Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act) for U.S. educational institutions, GDPR for European users, PIPEDA for Canadian students, and various other regional regulations. These laws impose restrictions on what data we can collect, how long we retain it, and circumstances requiring your explicit consent. When conflicts arise between jurisdictions, we default to the most protective standard. Educational privacy carries unique considerations because learning records fall under special regulatory categories—we can't simply apply generic website tracking practices without considering these additional obligations.

Policy Revisions

We review this tracking policy quarterly and update it when we introduce new technologies, modify existing practices, or respond to regulatory changes. Major revisions—those materially affecting what data we collect or how we use it—trigger email notifications to all active users. Minor clarifications or additions that don't change actual practices get published directly without individual notification, though we maintain a changelog at the bottom of this document showing what changed and when.

When we notify you of changes, you'll receive an email at your registered address at least 30 days before new tracking practices take effect. This notification includes a summary of changes in plain language rather than requiring you to compare full policy versions. You can review the complete updated policy through the link provided, and if changes are unacceptable, you have the option to modify your preferences or close your account before they become effective. Continued platform use after the implementation date constitutes acceptance of the revised terms.