WEEKLY READER RESEARCH'S ONLINE PRIVACY POLICY for Weekly
Reader Research (http://www.weeklyreaderresearch.com)
Last Updated August
2005
Weekly Reader Research is very proud to offer kids, teens, parents,
and teachers a safe place to visit on the Internet.
This Privacy Policy applies to our online practices
only.
The following policy applies
to Weekly Reader Research's Web sites, located at www.WeeklyReaderResearch.com and
www.WRInsiders.com.
Weekly Reader Research is committed to
protecting the privacy and security of its online visitors. This policy
statement provides all of our visitors with an overview of the measures we have
taken to provide a safe environment for everyone. By visiting the Weekly
Reader Research Web sites, you are agreeing to this policy.
PERSONALLY IDENTIFIABLE INFORMATION
We collect personally
identifiable information from our visitors 13 years old or older only when such
visitors voluntarily submit such information.
We do not collect
personally identifiable information from children under the age of 13 without
first obtaining verifiable parental consent, unless we use such information for
one or more of the following reasons: (1) to obtain parental consent or to
provide parents with notice; (2) to respond directly on a one-time basis to a
child's specific request; (3) to respond more than once to a child's specific
request along with providing parental notice of such use; (4) to protect the
safety of a child; or (5) to comply with legal requirements. The consent and
notification process mentioned above gives parents the ability to let us know if
they do not want us to make further use of the personally identifiable
information we have collected from their child. Weekly Reader Research is
compliant with the Federal Trade Commission's Children's Online Privacy
Protection Act of 1998 (COPPA). Please visit the Federal Trade Commission's Web
site at http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/edcams/coppa/intro.htm
for more information.
We consider the following, among other things, to
be personally identifiable information: first and last name, e-mail address,
street address, and phone number. We may request such personally identifiable
information from children in connection with our surveys and incentive
fulfillment activities; requests for suggestions; visitors' requests for
products or services; or requests for additional information, so that we can
fulfill incentive orders. Unless we indicate otherwise, personally identifiable
information collected from visitors to WeeklyReaderResearch.com and/or
WRInsiders.com will be used solely by Weekly Reader Research;
co-operators of any customized features on our site, such as the Weekly
Reader; or Weekly Reader Research's agents for internal purposes and
will not be sold or otherwise transferred to third parties.
FOR
PARENTS
WRInsiders.com is a large,
nationally representative panel of kids 7-17 owned by WRC Media, Inc., the
parent company of Weekly Reader and Weekly Reader Research.
WRInsiders conducts market research and
opinion surveys with kids so that our clients can better understand and serve
children. You can access both WRC Media,
Inc. and Weekly Reader from our website, www.weeklyreaderresearch.com.
There are many activities on the
Weekly Reader Research site that children can participate in and enjoy
without having to share personally identifiable information.
For those activities that require
personally identifiable information, such as participation in surveys (in
compliance with the Federal Trade Commission's Children's Online Privacy
Protection Act), Weekly Reader Research will not condition a child's participation on
that child's disclosing more personally identifiable information than is
reasonably necessary to administer the activity. For certain online activities,
we require verifiable parental consent before collecting or using a child's
personally identifiable information. With those activities, Weekly Reader
Research will notify the respective parent of our privacy policy and will
obtain verifiable parental consent before collecting personally identifiable
information from a child, unless one of the exceptions discussed above applies.
As a member of the Weekly Reader
family of companies, it is Weekly Reader Research’s goal to help parents
ensure that their kids have a safe and fun online experience. That's why we've set up a system by which
parents can print out and fax us a signed form that allows them to review any
identifiable information collected about their child, have this information
deleted, and/or request that there be no further collection or use of their
child's information. You can link to the
form here.
We have prepared additional
information especially for parents at our homepage,
click here.
FOR KIDS
Remember to be smart online. Do
not give out your full name, e-mail address, home address, telephone number, or
any other personal information that would enable someone to contact you either
online or off line, without first asking your parent or guardian for permission.
Sometimes on our site we will ask you for your first name and e-mail address
along with your parents' e-mail. We do this so that we can contact your parents
to let them know that you have communicated with us and that we have collected
this information from you.
NON-PERSONALLY IDENTIFIABLE INFORMATION AND THE USE OF
COOKIE TECHNOLOGY
We collect non-personally
identifiable information through the use of a software technology called
"cookies" and through our visitors' voluntary submissions to us and/or upon our
request. By non-personally identifiable information, we are referring to
information about our visitors' browsers (e.g., Netscape Navigator or Internet
Explorer), operating systems (e.g., Windows or Macintosh), Internet service
providers (e.g., AOL or NET.COM), and other similar information which we track
in aggregate form. The non-personally identifiable information that we track is
anonymous and will never be identified with or lead us back to any of our
visitors.
Cookie technology helps us to know how many people visit us
and where visitors go on our site. Cookies are small bits of information we send
to your computer. Among other things, this non-personally identifiable
information allows us to know which areas are favorites, which areas need a bit
of improvement, or which technologies and Internet services are being used by
our visitors so that we may continually improve our visitors' online
experiences.
USE OF IP ADDRESSES
We collect IP addresses to obtain
aggregate information on the use of WeeklyReaderResearch.com and
WRInsiders.com. An IP address is a number assigned to your computer by a Web
server when you're on the Web. When you are on our site, we have a back-end
server that logs your computer's IP address. We only use the information we find
out from tracking IP addresses in the aggregate, such as how many users entered
a specific area of our site, and not to track a specific IP address to identify
an individual user. We will use such information to identify a user only if we
feel that there are or may be safety and/or security issues or to comply with
legal requirements.
THIRD-PARTY ADVERTISING SERVERS
At times, we may use third-party
advertising companies to serve ads when you visit our Web site. These companies
may (via cookies, GIFs, or otherwise) use aggregate information (not including
your name, address, e-mail address, telephone number, or any other personally
identifiable information) about your visits to this and other Web sites in order
to provide advertisements about goods and services that may be of interest to
you. We do not share your information with those parties unless you fill out a
form on our site and do not indicate that you do not wish Weekly Reader
Research to share your information with third parties. If the form on our
site does not have this check box, you will not receive communications from
third parties. We do not allow those companies to collect information about you
from our site, and we do not give those companies the right to collect or use
personally identifiable information.
Weekly Reader Research
uses or may use personally identifiable information that kids provide for such
purposes as sending requested electronic postcards and email messages on their
behalf.Weekly Reader Research
currently does not disclose to third parties personally identifiable
information that kids provide, except we may transfer, disclose or share such
information with third parties engaged by us specifically to handle and deliver
certain online activities (e.g. incentive fulfillment). Such third parties have
access to personal information needed to perform their functions, but may not
use it for other purposes. Additionally, in the event that all or substantially
all of the assets relating to Weekly Reader Research are transferred or
sold to another entity, personally identifiable information submitted to us may
be transferred to the acquiring entity. Finally, we may also disclose personally
identifiable information to third parties in order to comply with law or
requests by law enforcement agencies or to protect the rights, property or
safety of our website, users of our website and others
SECURITY
Weekly Reader Research ensures
that all personally identifiable information that it receives via the Internet
is secure against unauthorized access. This information is kept in a safe and
secure system. That means that no eyes but ours will ever see the information
that our visitors send to us, unless we indicate otherwise.
Weekly
Reader Research takes every precaution to protect the personal and private
information that you voluntarily submit to WeeklyReaderResearch.com and
WRInsiders.com. We do not collect private information from you unless you
authorize such an act by willingly giving us your information when it is
requested on the Weekly Reader Research Web site. Any information you
submit to us, unless otherwise noted, is stored in a secure database. No one
other than employees of Weekly Reader Research has access to the information
stored in its databases. The private information that you submit voluntarily is
not given or shown to any third-party companies or affiliates unless otherwise
specified in our privacy policy or on the Weekly Reader Research Web
site. We take every effort to use the latest software and to update our systems
to ensure that your information is safe and cannot be viewed by anyone other
than authorized personnel of the Weekly Reader Research.
Weekly Reader
Corporation does not release or sell any personally identifiable information
about Weekly Reader Research Web-site visitors or WRInsider panel members
to any third party for any purpose whatsoever unless otherwise stated at the
time of collection.
YOUR ACCEPTANCE OF THESE TERMS
By using the Weekly Reader Research Web site, you
accept the conditions of our privacy policy. If you do not accept, please do not
use our Web site. Please note that we may revise our above policy as the content
on our site continues to change. After a change takes place, your continued use
of Weekly Reader Research Web site means you accept those changes.
YOUR CALIFORNIA PRIVACY RIGHTS
Beginning on
January 1, 2005, California
Civil Code Section 1798.83 permits our visitors who are California residents to
request certain information regarding its disclosure of personal information to
third parties for their direct marketing purposes. To make such a request,
please send an e-mail to
support@weeklyreaderresearch.com or write us:
Weekly Reader Research
One Reader's Digest Road
Pleasantville, NY 10570
Our privacy standards are very high, and we value our
relationship with our Weekly Reader Research Web-site users. If you have
any questions about our privacy policy and security measures, please contact us
directly at support@weeklyreaderresearch.com.
We
hope that you enjoy exploring our Web site.