Knut Privacy Policy
Thank you for visiting and welcome to the Knut
website. It is important for parents and legal guardians to read and understand
our privacy policy. Parents and guardians (collectively
referred to as "parents") should pay particular attention to the parts of the
policy privacy that discuss the collection of information from your children.
We urge kids to check with their parents before entering information on any
website, including winterstail.com, and we urge parents to discuss with their
kids restrictions regarding the online release of personal information.
You agree, by using the website's services, without
limitation or qualification, to be bound by the terms of this Privacy Policy. Please note that this Privacy Policy
may be revised periodically.
Turtle Pond Publications LLC (referred to as "Turtle
Pond") is the owner of the Winter's Tail website. The Winter's Tail website contains links to other websites.
Turtle Pond takes no
responsibility for the content of these websites. Users of outside websites are encouraged to review the
privacy policies of these sites, which may differ from the Winter's Tail
Privacy Policy.
Turtle Pond Values Your Privacy
Protecting the privacy of you and your children is a priority
at Turtle Pond. We are committed to complying fully with the Children's On-Line
Privacy Protection Act of 1998 "COPPA."
If you would like more information about COPPA, visit http://www.ftc.gov/privacy/coppafaqs.htm.
COPPA Notice
Turtle Pond, in compliance with the COPPA, provides notice
to parents of children under the age of 13 that:
- Turtle Pond may collect personal information about your children;
- Turtle Pond needs the consent of parents before collecting,
using and disclosing personally identifiable information about children;
- When necessary, Turtle Pond has created procedures by
which parents can provide consent;
- Turtle Pond does not require children under 13 to
disclose more information than is reasonably necessary to participate in an
activity as a condition of participation; and
- Turtle Pond has created procedures by which Parents can
review their children's personal information collected by Turtle Pond, have
that information deleted, and refuse to allow further collection or use of the
information.
If you have any questions about this Notice or about Turtle
Pond's collection or maintenance of your child's personal information, please
contact us at: info@turtlepondpublications.com.
Turtle Pond's Active Collection of Information
In order for the Winter's Tail website to offer some of
its activities, various types of information are needed. This includes information about both
parents and children.
Turtle Pond sometimes collects what is called personally
identifiable information from parents or children. This information includes first and last names, street
addresses, telephone numbers, email addresses, and photographs. Other information collected may also be
personally identifiable.
Turtle Pond may also collect from parent or children
non-personally identifiable information, such as first names only, states of
residence, age or grade.
Parental Consent
Before
Turtle Pond collects personally identifiable information from children, it
obtains the consent of the child's parent. When parental consent is necessary, Turtle Pond may use one
or more of the following methods to obtain consent:
- Providing a consent form to be signed by the parent and
returned to Turtle Pond by postal mail or facsimile;
- Requiring a parent to use a credit card in connection
with a transaction;
- Having a parent call a toll-free telephone number
staffed by trained personnel;
- Using a digital certificate that uses public key
technology;
- Using e-mail coupled with additional steps to provide
assurances that the person providing the consent is the parent. Such additional
steps include: sending a confirmatory e-mail to the parent following receipt of
consent; or obtaining a postal address or telephone number from the parent and
confirming the parent's consent by letter or telephone call. Turtle Pond will
provide notice that the parent can revoke any consent given in response to the
earlier e-mail.
In
certain situations, Turtle Pond need not obtain a parent's consent before
collecting personal information from a child. Those situations are:
- Where Turtle Pond collects the name or online contact
information of a parent or child to be used for the sole purpose of obtaining
parental consent or providing parental notice. Turtle Pond will delete the collected information if it has
not obtained parental consent after a reasonable time.
- Where Turtle Pond collects online contact information
from a child for the sole purpose of responding directly on a one-time basis to
a specific request from the child.
The collected information is not used to recontact the child and is
deleted by Turtle Pond from its records.
- Where Turtle Pond collects online contact information
from a child to be used to respond directly more than once to a specific
request from the child, and where the information is not used for any other
purpose. When this happens,
Turtle Pond will make reasonable efforts to ensure that a parent receives
notice of the collection and has the opportunity to request that the Turtle
Ponds make no further use of the information immediately after the initial
response and before making any additional response to the child. Turtle Pond will not provide a
parent notice by asking a child to print a notice form or sending an e-mail to
the child.
- Where Turtle Pond collects a child's name and online
contact information to the extent reasonably necessary to protect the safety of
a child participant on the website.
When this happens, Turtle Pond will use reasonable efforts to provide
notice to a parent. The
information will be used for the sole purpose of protecting the child's safety,
and will not be used to recontact the child for any other purpose or disclosed
on the website.
Where Turtle Pond's collects a child's name and online
contact information, to the extent reasonably necessary:
- To protect the security or integrity of its website or
online service;
- To take precautions against liability;
- To respond to judicial process; or
- To the extent permitted under the law, to provide
information to law enforcement agencies or for an investigation on a matter
related to public safety.
When
information is collected for this purpose, such information is not used for any
other purpose.
Uses of Personally Identifable Information
Turtle Pond uses information collected from users
for a variety of purposes, all of which are intended to help create a better
Winter's Tail website. The
information is used in connection with online games, contests, sweepstakes,
surveys, forums, newsletter subscription registrations, content submissions and
requests for suggestions.
Turtle
Pond may also use personally identifiable information to customize the
website's content. For this
purpose, the information will not be associated with specific users.
Another
use of the information is related to marketing and promotional purposes. The information is used in connection
with providing information about materials and activities of potential interest
to the website's users, including products and services offered by parties
unrelated to Turtle Pond. The
information is used anonymously, and will be not be associated with specific
users.
Turtle
Pond may share personally identifiable information with third parties engaged
in businesses related to the above purposes. The third parties use the information in connection with
these purposes and have agreed to maintain the confidentiality, security and
integrity of the personal information provided by Turtle Pond.
Parents
May Review and Delete Collected Information
A
parent can review personally identifiable information collected by Turtle
Pond. A parent may also have the
collected information deleted from Turtle Pond's files and refuse to allow
further collection or use of the child's information.
If
you would like to review, delete or refuse to allow further use of information
collected, please contact us at:
info@turtlepondpublications.com
Turtle Pond's Passive Collection of Information
In
addition to asking for information from parents and children, collecting other
information about the website's users is helpful in creating a fun and
interactive website. This
information is usually technical information about your computer.
One
way that Turtle Pond collects technical information about your computer while
you are on the Winter's Tail website is through the use "cookies." Cookies are simply small bits of
information sent between your computer and the computer running the Winter's Tail website. Turtle Ponds also
collects the Internet Protocol (IP) addresses of its users. An IP address is simply a unique number
assigned to your computer by your Internet service provider while your computer
is connected to the Internet.
Other information may also be passively collected.
To
help us optimize the Winter's Tail website, Turtle Pond permits other
companies to gather this technical information, such as cookies. The other companies may use the
information to help Turtle Pond create a better website and provide
advertisements of potential interest to our user.
Security
of Information
Understanding
the importance of your privacy, Turtle Pond takes extensive measures to protect
the security of personal information.
Included among the measures taken are limiting the number of people
within Turtle Pond who have access to the information and password protecting
the information from unauthorized access.
Questions or Concerns
If you have any questions, concerns or comments about this Privacy Policy or
Turtle Pond's privacy practices, please contact us at: info@turtlepondpublications.com