PRIVACY POLICY

The following policy applies to the SCHOLASTIC.COM site.

Scholastic is committed to protecting the privacy and security of its online visitors. This policy statement provides our visitors (e.g., parents, teachers and children) with an overview of the measures we have taken to provide a safe environment for everyone.

PERSONALLY IDENTIFIABLE INFORMATION

We only collect personally identifiable information from our visitors 13 years old or above 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 only use such information to: (1) obtain parental consent or provide parents with notice; (2) respond directly on a one-time basis to a child's specific request; (3) respond more than once to a child's specific request along with providing parental notice of such use; (4) protect the safety of a child; or (5) 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.

We consider the following, among other things, to be personally identifiable information: first and last name, email address, street address and phone number. We may request such personally identifiable information from children in connection with our contests, sweepstakes, games, surveys, forums, subscription registrations, content submissions, classroom activities, requests for suggestions, and visitors' requests for free products, services (such as our magazines) or additional information, so that we can contact a winner, answer questions or requests, and fulfill orders. Unless we indicate otherwise, personally identifiable information from children under the age of 13 will be used solely by Scholastic or its agents for internal purposes and will not be sold or otherwise transferred to third parties.

It is Scholastic's policy never to post on its site, more than a child's first name, first initial of last name, state, and age or grade.

FOR PARENTS

There are many activities on the Scholastic 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 contests and sweepstakes (in compliance with the Federal Trade Commission's Children's Online Privacy Protection Act), Scholastic will not condition a child's participation in an activity on that child 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 these activities, Scholastic will notify the respective parent of our privacy policy and obtain verifiable parental consent before collecting personally identifiable information from a child, unless one of the exceptions discussed above applies.

Parents can request to review or have deleted their child's personally identifiable information from Scholastic's records, and refuse to permit further use of a child's information by printing, completing and returning the letter located at
http://www.scholastic.com/
parents/inforequest/index.htm.

FOR TEACHERS

There are many activities on the Scholastic site that are for teachers, which enable teachers to add another dimension to their classroom and students' activities. In order to create such online classroom activities, we will collect personally identifiable information from teachers and have teachers provide a password to their students so that students can publish materials online and do other activities online in connection with their class through the use of such password. We will only enable such passwords with the verifiable consent provided by teachers acting on behalf of parents. With respect to the teacher's personally identifiable information that we collect, we may use such information to provide teachers with information about materials, activities or other things which may be of interest to them, including products or services of third parties.

FOR KIDS

Remember to be smart online. Do not give out your full name, email address, home address, telephone number or any other personal information that would enable someone to contact you either online or offline, without first asking your parent or guardian for permission. Sometimes on our site we will ask you for your first name and email address along with your parent's email or home address. We do this so that we can contact your parent to let them know 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 visitor's voluntary submissions to us and/or upon our request. By non-personally identifiable information, we are referring to information about our visitor's browser (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. We also collect the following non-personally identifiable information in connection with content submissions, games, classrooms and bulletin boards: first name only and first initial of last name, state, age and grade. 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 what technologies and Internet services are being used by our visitors so that we may continually improve our visitor's online experiences.

USE OF IP ADDRESSES

We collect IP addresses to obtain aggregate information on the use of Scholastic.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 which 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. However, we may use such information to identify a user if we feel that there are or may be safety and/or security issues or to comply with legal requirements.

SECURITY

Scholastic ensures that all information, personally and non-personally identifiable information, that it receives via the Internet is secure against unauthorized access. This information is kept in a safe and secure system isolated from direct connection to the Internet. This means that no eyes but ours will ever see the information that our visitors send to us, unless we indicate otherwise.

In some places on our sites, parents and teachers may be able to purchase items with the use of a credit card. In such instances, Scholastic uses secure server software over a Secure Socket Layer (SSL) line, the latest technology to protect your credit card information. SSL is the industry standard and among the best software available today for secure commerce transactions. It encrypts all of your credit card information so that the information from your credit card cannot be read as it travels over the internet.

LINKS TO OTHER SITES

Visitors will find links from SCHOLASTIC.COM to independently owned, controlled and/or managed World Wide Web or internet sites whose content we have found of possible interest to our visitors. In many cases, but not always, the links represent cooperative projects or mutual links established with the organizations connected with these sites. While we initially visit these sites to which we directly link, please note that we do not control the content that appears on these sites and such content may be constantly changing. We recommend that children check with their parents or teachers before clicking off to any new sites.


Please note that we may revise our above policy as the content on our sites continue to change.

We hope that you enjoy exploring our sites.

 

Scholastic.com is owned and operated by Scholastic Inc., 555 Broadway New York, NY 10012. We can be reached by phone at 1-800-Scholastic and by email at custserv@scholastic.com.
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