All Collections
Privacy & Security
Data Management
What is the difference between a data controller and a data processor?
What is the difference between a data controller and a data processor?

How the two differ and why Showbie is considered a processor

Brinna Smith avatar
Written by Brinna Smith
Updated over a week ago

A data controller is the entity that determines the purposes, conditions and means of the processing of personal data. In Showbie, teachers, schools, or districts (including kommunes, municipalities, and multi-academy trusts) are the data controllers depending on your account type and structure.

  • Teacher as controller - An individual teacher using Showbie with their class is the data controller and determines things such as which students will participate in the Showbie class, whether they want students to use an email address with their accounts, and what information they intend to collect in assignments.

  • School/District as controller - As a school or district using Showbie, those entities might act as data controllers by inviting teachers to join the school, overseeing creation of classes, or monitoring class activity with an Auditor Oversight account. When a teacher belongs to a managed school or district (those with a Pro subscription) individual teachers are no longer considered data controllers.

A data processor is an entity which processes personal data on behalf of the controller. Showbie is a data processor acting on behalf of educational institutions for any personal data provided by users of our web or iOS apps. This could involve displaying student names in a class members list, sending notifications to the email address you've provided, or surfacing teacher information to administrators in the Admin Dashboard.

Personal data entered into the Showbie app is inaccessible by Showbie and is only being processed for the functioning of the app. When required, Showbie also provides specific, limited data to the sub-processors we use to support additional app or business functionality. In this case, Showbie acts as the data controller for the sub-processor.

Did this answer your question?