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PRIVACY POLICY AND COPPA NOTICE TO PARENTS AND GUARDIANS OF INFORMATION COLLECTION PRACTICES WITH REGARD TO CHILDREN
Introduction
Rainbow Rumpus is committed to providing a fun, entertaining, and safe website for people of all ages. Our site creates media that reflect the lives of youth with lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) parents. We are dedicated to safeguarding any personal information collected online and to helping parents and children learn how to exercise control over personal information while exploring the internet. To this end, we ensure that our privacy policy and our information practices adhere to the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Safe Harbor Principles. Because many of the visitors to this site are children who need an especially safe community, we take special measures to help children protect their privacy while online. For example, we do not ask children to disclose more personal information than is necessary for them to participate in a particular activity, and we take efforts to prevent children from posting contact information. This privacy policy is intended to explain our privacy practices and inform you : (1) the kinds of personally identifiable information (“personal information”) we collect from the visitors of www.rainbowrumpus.org (“the site”); (2) how that information is collected; (3) how we use personal information; (4) the fact that we do not disclose information to outside parties unless we are legally required to do so; (5) how you can access, update or delete any personal information collected about you by us; and (6) the mechanisms we have implemented to protect your personal information.
Information: Why We Collect It, How We Collect It, and How We Use It
Users under Age 13
As previously stated, we do not ask children to share more information than is reasonably necessary to participate in an activity. Children may be asked to type their first names, state, province or country of residence, and email address into a form on our site in order to post messages on adult-moderated bulletin boards. This allows children to see their own writing and that of others in a safe, non–personally identifying manner. We use email addresses to let children know that their work has been posted on the site, but we do not keep a record of these email addresses nor use them to continue any form of communication with children. Adult moderators prevent children from sharing any personally identifying information.
Parents and legal guardians may choose to share their children’s name, address, birth date, and contact information for children under age 13 so that children may: (a) receive birthday greetings from the site’s dragon mascots, Flo and Mo, both on the site and via email; (b) receive invitations to participate in Rainbow Rumpus activities online or in their hometown area; (c) contribute an article, video, or other feature for the site; and (d) participate in surveys or polls conducted on the site.
If your child is recognized on the site (for example, with a birthday greeting or a piece of writing your child submits to us for publication), he or she will be identified by only first name, age, and state to protect his or her privacy.
Users Age 13 and Older
Users age 13 and older are given the opportunity to receive our electronic newsletter, invitations to participate in Rainbow Rumpus events, and opportunities to contribute to the organization and the well-being of youth with LGBT parents by typing into an electronic form their full names, addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, and birth dates.
We also collect information such as gender, age, family status, and ethnicity. We use this information to help tailor our content more precisely to the needs of our users. We extract from this personal information certain aggregate data, not identified as that of any particular person or persons, from which we can inform potential corporate sponsors and foundation supporters of the numbers and kinds of people who use the site. By providing this information to potential funders, we are able to bring you the literature, articles, video, music, and interactive opportunities you find on the site.
Additional Information Concerning Children’s Privacy
At Rainbow Rumpus our goal is 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 contact us to review any personal information collected about their child, have this information corrected or deleted, and/or request that there be no further collection or use of their child’s information. Please make any such request through this email address: admin@rainbowrumpus.org. Rainbow Rumpus 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.
If you have any questions about our children’s privacy practices, you may also contact us by postal mail at Rainbow Rumpus, P.O. Box 6881, Minneapolis, MN 55406, or by phone at 612-721-6442.
In addition, each email we send children will include a link to this Notice to Parents and Guardians of Informational Practices with Regard to Children (“Notice”). This procedure is designed to protect the privacy of your child and to comply with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) and related rules.
Collection of Information by Third-Party Sites and Sponsors
Our site contains links to other sites, including those of children’s authors, musicians, sponsors, advertisers, and survey companies. Visitors should consult the other sites’ privacy notices, since our privacy policy does not cover those sites. Rainbow Rumpus does not share a visitor’s email address or other personal information with such third parties.
Disclosure of Personal Information
We do not share personally identifying information with anyone outside of the Rainbow Rumpus organization, unless we are required to disclose personal information in response to a subpoena, warrant, or other legal process requiring us to make information available to law enforcement, administrative agencies, or parties to judicial proceedings.
Security
We take seriously our obligation to safeguard the confidentiality, security, and integrity of personal information collected, and we have established and will maintain procedures that are designed for that purpose. Parents should be aware, however, that no system is completely secure from hackers, network failure, and error, and we cannot guarantee the confidentiality, security, and integrity of information maintained on our service.
If we make any material change to this Notice or the informational practices with regard to children that were in effect when your consent to the collection of your child’s personal information was obtained, we will—as required by law—send you a new notice and request your consent.
A Final Note to Parents
The internet offers a world of opportunity for children. Your guidance and involvement are essential to help ensure that children have a safe and rewarding online experience. We encourage you to explore the Get CyberSavvy! program at http://www.cybersavvy.org/cybersavvy/index.html. Though the graphics are irritatingly heterosexist, the Get CyberSavvy! website does help families learn how information flows online so they can use the internet in ways that protect their privacy and well-being. It also contains a number of valuable resources to help parents and children be aware of and express their preferences about information that is collected online and how it is used. Your efforts to instill your children with responsible information practices will help steer them to age-appropriate sites and will go a long way toward ensuring that they have enriching experiences online.
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