Children's Privacy Policy

To help ensure a rewarding online experience for parents and children, we provide this summary of our information practices. As we continue to offer our visitors new and different types of content and services, we may modify our practices from time to time. However, we will treat all personal information we collect in accordance with the privacy notice in effect at the time the information is collected. The newspaper does not ask children to disclose more personal information than is necessary for them to participate in a particular activity. We urge children to check with their parents before entering information on any web site and we urge parents to discuss with their children restrictions regarding the online release of personal information to anyone they don't know.

Information Collected

The newspaper limits its collection of information from children to what is known as nonpersonally identifiable information (e.g., first name, screen names, age, gender, city, state, zip code and country of residence). This information is collected so children can participate in activities (e.g., completing polls or online surveys, posting jokes, book reviews, movie reviews, toy reviews, video reviews, concert reviews, game reviews, artwork or questions/comments online, or playing online games) without giving unnecessary personal information. From time to time, however, we may request limited personally identifiable information (e.g., child's email address and/or parent's or guardian's email address), as explained below, in order to conduct online contests or sweepstakes or offer other online activities. The newspaper does not and cannot condition a child's participation in any of our online activities on the disclosure of more information than is reasonably necessary to participate in the activity. Information is collected actively, such as through registration forms, and passively, such as through cookies.

Contest and Sweepstakes

The newspaper occasionally offers contest and sweepstakes, which may be entered online. When a child under thirteen 13 enters a contest or sweepstakes, or participates in another activity that requires the use of personal information, we will ask for a parent's email address so that we can notify the parent of the child's entry and give the parent the option to have the child's entry deleted. All personally identifiable information collected by the newspaper is securely maintained and used only for the purpose of conducting the contest or sweepstakes and awarding prizes. Once the contest or sweepstakes is finished, the newspaper will delete any personal information collected.

Use of Information

The newspaper uses personally identifiable information provided by children for conducting contests or sweepstakes. The newspaper uses parents' email addresses to notify them when we have received information from their children and to give parents the option to remove their child's information. The newspaper does not keep any personal information obtained through a contest or sweepstakes after the particular event is completed. Sometimes, we use agents or contractors to provide services that support the internal operations of the site, such as helping us conduct a sweepstakes or sending prizes to winners. In these cases, we require the agent or contractor to maintain the confidentiality, security and integrity of the information and to use it only for the specific services they are performing on our behalf.

The newspaper may disclose information maintained as required by law, for example, in response to a court order or a subpoena. The newspaper may also disclose such information in response to a specific law enforcement agency's request. Personal information is not disclosed to third parties except those who provide support for the internal operations of the site. Parents can consent to the collection and use of their child's personal information without consenting to the disclosure of the information to third parties.

Cookies

The newspaper uses a software technology called "cookies." Cookies are small files that we place in visitors' computer browsers to store their preferences. Cookies themselves do not contain any personally identifiable information. Although cookies could enable the newspaper to relate a visitor's use of this web site to personal information that the visitor has provided, such as an email address, we do not use cookies for this purpose. We do use cookies to determine how many visitors we have and how often they visit various sections of our site. You can, of course, disable cookies on your computer by indicating this in the preferences or options menus in your browser.

Parental Access

Parents, please send a letter or postcard to our Privacy Coordinator at the mailing address provided below if you would like to do any of the following:

Access personally identifiable information that the newspaper has collected online from your child,
Correct factual errors in such information,
Request to have this information deleted, or
Request that we no longer collect or maintain such information.

Please include your email address and telephone number where we can reach you. The newspaper takes steps to verify the identity of anyone requesting information about a child and to ensure that the person is in fact the child's parent or legal guardian.

Contact Us

If you have any questions, comments or concerns regarding our privacy policy and/or practices, please visit our contact us page or feedback form and contact the webmaster.

PRIVACY COORDINATOR:

mlangeveld@thetranscript.com