Whose.land
Product by TakingITGlobal
Facts checked: Not yet checked
Our take (not a Learning Standard rating). This label applies to learning-science judgments throughout this overview.
Our take (not a Learning Standard rating)
Whose.land serves as an excellent reference tool for identifying Indigenous territories and treaties, but it functions more as an interactive encyclopedia than a structured instructional platform. While it provides valuable primary source context through video interviews, it lacks active retrieval practice or formative assessment to confirm your child actually retains the geographical and historical information.
Pros
- Utilizes interactive mapping to anchor historical treaties and territories to spatial geography.
- Provides multimedia video interviews that offer authentic Indigenous perspectives and context for land acknowledgments.
- Operates completely free of charge without paywalls or distracting advertisements.
Cons
- Lacks structured assessments or retrieval practice mechanisms to test student retention of historical facts.
- Does not offer a linear, mastery-based progression pathway for learners to follow.
- Relies heavily on self-directed exploration which may leave younger students aimless without teacher guidance.
What Do We Know About Whose.land?
Whose.land is effective as an interactive reference tool for social studies, but it requires guided adult support to ensure your child actually learns and retains the material. The platform operates primarily as an interactive map that overlays Indigenous territories, languages, and treaties across North America. Your child can click on their specific geographic location to discover which Indigenous groups historically and currently reside there. Because the app lacks built-in quizzes, spaced repetition, or structured lesson plans, passive scrolling is a real risk. To make this an effective learning experience, you must prompt your child to actively engage with the content. Ask them to locate specific treaties or explain the purpose of a land acknowledgment after watching the embedded educational videos. The videos themselves provide strong contextual learning by featuring Indigenous voices explaining their relationship to the land, which helps build historical empathy. However, without external accountability, your child will not experience the active recall necessary to move this geographical and historical data into their long-term memory. The Learning Standard has not yet fully evaluated this app in a clinical setting, but its utility as an open educational resource is strong if paired with active teaching methods.
How Does Whose.land Work?
Whose.land utilizes self-directed, exploratory learning anchored in an interactive Geographic Information System (GIS) map. Users open the web-based application and are presented with a map of North America that features toggleable layers for Indigenous territories, languages, and treaties. Your child can search for their home address or school to immediately identify the historical and current Indigenous context of their physical location. Clicking on a specific territory opens an informational panel detailing the associated Indigenous Nations and relevant historical agreements. The platform also includes a video library where Indigenous speakers explain the cultural significance of land acknowledgments and traditional views on territorial stewardship. There are no structured modules, quizzes, or locked progression paths. Instead, the user interface encourages open-ended spatial exploration. This design allows students to visually connect abstract historical concepts to concrete physical geography, though it relies entirely on the user's intrinsic motivation to click, read, and watch the available resources.
Strengths and tradeoffs of Whose.land
The biggest strength of Whose.land is its ability to ground abstract historical data in spatial reality using interactive mapping, while its biggest weakness is the complete absence of retrieval practice or formative assessment. Spatial Contiguity is a major asset here; by presenting treaties and Indigenous territories visually on a map rather than in isolated text, the app helps reduce cognitive load and allows students to better understand geographical relationships. Authentic Context is another strong point. The inclusion of video interviews provides essential narrative framing, helping learners connect dry historical facts to living cultural practices like land acknowledgments. However, from a learning science perspective, the lack of Active Recall severely limits the app's standalone effectiveness. Because there are no built-in quizzes, knowledge checks, or spaced repetition systems, students consume the information passively. Passive reading and watching rarely lead to long-term memory retention. Furthermore, the absence of Scaffolded Instruction means that younger users or those with low prior knowledge may struggle to make sense of the complex overlapping territorial boundaries. Ultimately, Whose.land acts as a powerful multimedia textbook but requires educators or parents to provide the instructional framing and testing required for true mastery.
Who Might Benefit From Whose.land?
Whose.land is best for middle and high school students who need a reliable, interactive reference tool for social studies and history projects. Geared toward students in grades five through twelve, the platform is ideal for classrooms or homeschool environments where educators are actively teaching about North American Indigenous history, treaties, and land acknowledgments. It serves perfectly as a primary source database for research assignments or as a visual aid during direct instruction. Because the app relies on self-directed exploration, it is most effective for mature learners who can navigate maps independently or younger students working alongside an adult guide.
Data Transparency
Does Not Meet Data Transparency Standard
Whose.land does not meet our data transparency standard. Its privacy policy does not document basic protections, including a statement that it does not sell data, a commitment against targeted advertising and limits on sharing children's data.
7 of 35 checks passed
Evaluated September 2026
Terms of Service and Privacy Policy →Level 1 · Basic protections
Does not sell data or target ads at students, limits sharing, and lets parents see and delete their child's data.
Not documented: a statement that it does not sell data, a commitment against targeted advertising, limits on sharing children's data, contractual limits on service providers, a COPPA or FERPA commitment, parents' right to see their child's data, parents' right to delete their child's data
Level 2 · Parent control (meets the standard)
Families can get their data out, know who processes it, and know how long it is kept.
Not documented: data export, a data retention timeline
Level 3 · Direct data access
Families or schools can pull their own data through an API, in a stated format.
Not documented: an API for retrieving their own data, a named export format
View all 35 checks
Parent Access0/8
Does the policy mention parents specifically?
The policy does not mention parents.
Can parents view their child's data?
The policy does not address parents viewing their child's data.
Can parents modify their child's data?
The policy does not address parents modifying their child's data.
Can parents delete their child's account?
The policy does not address parents deleting their child's data or account.
Is there a dedicated Children's Privacy section?
The policy has no section dedicated to children's privacy.
Does it reference COPPA compliance?
The policy does not reference COPPA.
Does it reference FERPA compliance?
The policy does not reference FERPA.
Is parental consent required for child accounts?
The policy does not address parental consent for child accounts.
Data Portability2/5
Can users access their personal data?
“You may also request access to or correction of your personal information by contacting us as described in the "Contact Us" section below.”
Can users download/export their data?
The policy does not offer data download or export.
Is there a self-service data access tool?
“As a member, TakingITGlobal gives you the ability [by clicking here to edit your Information and Preferences](http://my.tigweb.org/edit/) at any time”
Is a specific data format mentioned for export?
The policy does not mention any export format.
Is there an API for data access?
The policy does not mention an API for data access.
Data Minimization1/6
Is data collection itemized?
“The information we collect when you register includes your name, e-mail address, city, state/province, and country, as well as other optional information that you may choose to provide, such as a profile photo, information about your interests in global issues and experiences in community engagement.”
Can the app be used without a real name?
The policy says the vendor collects the user's name at registration, though an alternate name may be shown publicly.
Can the app be used without an email?
The policy says the vendor collects an email address at registration.
Does it state collection is limited to what is necessary?
The policy does not state that collection is limited to what is necessary.
Is IP address anonymized or truncated?
The policy says it collects IP addresses and does not mention anonymizing or truncating them.
Is location tracking explicitly excluded?
The policy says it collects approximate location derived from the IP address.
Third-Party Protection2/7
Does it explicitly state no selling of data?
The policy does not state that the vendor does not sell data.
Are third-party providers named?
“We use analytics technologies and third-party analytics service providers, including Google Analytics and PostHog, to help us understand how visitors use and interact with our websites and online services.”
Are providers contractually restricted?
The policy says it shares data with service providers but does not describe contractual restrictions on them.
No-targeted-advertising commitment?
The policy makes no commitment against targeted advertising.
Is AI/ML data sharing addressed?
The policy does not address AI or machine learning.
Child-specific sharing restriction?
The policy has no sharing restrictions specific to children.
Cookies/tracking limited or opt-out?
“If you wish to opt-out of your sessions being included in our data collection for user experience, analytics and troubleshooting, you can contact us at privacy@takingitglobal.org.”
Deletion & Retention2/5
Can users delete their account?
“If you wish to cancel your account or request that we no longer use your information to provide you services contact us at info@takingitglobal.org.”
Self-service deletion mechanism?
“You can also control who can find you when searching on our website or on public search engines through your privacy settings and the 'close account' tab of your profile.”
Specific data retention timeline?
The policy says data is kept while the account is active or as needed, with no specific timeline.
Auto-deletion of inactive accounts?
The policy only says the vendor may, at its discretion, terminate accounts for lack of use, with no automatic deletion.
Post-deletion handling described?
The policy does not describe how data is handled after deletion, beyond keeping it as needed for legal obligations.
Advertising0/4
Advertising model explicitly disclosed?
The policy does not disclose an advertising model.
Free from third-party advertisements?
The policy does not state that the service is free of third-party ads.
Children excluded from ad targeting?
The policy does not address excluding children from ad targeting.
Ad-free option available?
The policy does not mention an ad-free option or state that there is no advertising.
What This Means
The policy review did not meet our data transparency standard. The checks above show the documented findings and unknowns. A missing statement does not establish how the app handles data in practice.
About this evaluation: Based on automated analysis of Terms of Service and Privacy Policy against 35 policy-disclosure questions, including questions adapted from the Common Sense Privacy Program's published evaluation questions. TLS is not affiliated with Common Sense Media, and this is not a Common Sense rating. Quoted text is copied from the policy; unquoted notes are our summary. Results describe what the policy documents, not the company's actual practices. Privacy policies can change: this review reflects the version we analyzed and does not determine legal compliance.
Sources and review method
TLS combines product information and editorial analysis to explain how Whose.land works, its tradeoffs, and the questions to ask before choosing it. Product features, an instructional rationale and evidence of learning outcomes are different kinds of information.
Formal Learning Standard assessment: not yet completed. Data Transparency findings are reported separately and do not establish learning effectiveness. Read our methodology.
Frequently Asked Questions About Whose.land
Is Whose.land free?
Yes, Whose.land is completely free to use. It operates as an open educational resource without any paywalls, subscription fees, or in-app purchases. This makes it highly accessible for both classroom educators and parents looking for reliable social studies resources without worrying about surprise charges. Because there are no financial barriers, teachers can easily integrate it into school-wide curriculum plans for history and geography.
Is Whose.land good for elementary students?
Partially. While students in upper elementary grades can use the basic map features to locate their home, the complex historical texts and lack of guided instruction make it difficult for younger children to use independently. Parents and teachers should actively guide elementary students through the platform to explain difficult treaty concepts, define complex vocabulary, and help them interpret the overlapping map layers effectively.
What does Whose.land teach?
Whose.land teaches the geography, history, and current context of Indigenous Nations across North America. Your child will learn how to identify traditional territories, understand the specific boundaries of historical treaties, and recognize the cultural importance of land acknowledgments. Through embedded educational videos featuring Indigenous speakers, students also learn about traditional stewardship and the ongoing relationship between Indigenous peoples and their ancestral lands.
How does Whose.land compare to Native-Land.ca?
Whose.land and Native-Land.ca are very similar interactive map tools that both focus on identifying Indigenous territories. While Native-Land.ca offers a much broader global map covering multiple continents, Whose.land provides deeper, highly specific resources for North American treaties. Whose.land also includes targeted educational videos that explicitly explain the pedagogical purpose of land acknowledgments. However, both platforms function as reference maps and notably lack built-in student assessments.
Has The Learning Standard evaluated Whose.land?
TLS has not yet completed a Learning Standard evaluation of how well Whose.land teaches. Its privacy policy has been reviewed for Data Transparency and does not yet document the basic protections (Level 1).
Is Whose.land COPPA compliant?
A COPPA reference was not found in the reviewed privacy policy. This does not determine whether the app complies with COPPA. Policy review note: The policy does not reference COPPA.
Is Whose.land FERPA compliant?
A FERPA reference was not found in the reviewed privacy policy. This does not determine whether the app complies with FERPA. Policy review note: The policy does not reference FERPA.
Does Whose.land have a children's privacy policy?
No dedicated children's privacy section was found in the reviewed policy. Policy review note: The policy has no section dedicated to children's privacy.
Does Whose.land sell student data?
A statement ruling out data selling was not found in the reviewed policy. This does not establish that the app sells student data. Policy review note: The policy does not state that the vendor does not sell data.
Can you delete your data from Whose.land?
The reviewed privacy policy describes account deletion. We have not tested the deletion process. Policy review note: Users can request that their account be cancelled.
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- Pricing
- Free (open education resource)
- Platforms
- iOS (Apple mobile), iPadOS (Apple tablet), Windows (Microsoft), macOS (Apple), Chrome OS (Google)
- Grade Levels
- 5th Grade, 6th Grade, 7th Grade, 8th Grade, 9th Grade, 10th Grade, 11th Grade, 12th Grade
- Website
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