What do you do with the information I give you when I register?
We register users to protect our community and allow our members to share comments, write reviews, save favorites, and gain access to additional resources depending on which type of member you are (kid, teen, adult, or educator). Once you register, we use cookies to keep track of your online interaction with our site so we can welcome you back and personalize the services for you.
If you opt in to any of our newsletters, we also use this information to send you the newsletter.
We will use your information to personalize your experience with our services and within our communications and may recommend Common Sense content, activities, features, and products that may be of interest.
What happens when my kid registers for your site?
We support the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), and our goal is to minimize the information gathered from and disseminated about kids under 13 while permitting them active participation with the trustworthy information, education, and independent voice for which we are known.
We have strict limitations about what personal information can be collected and viewed about kids under 13 and how and when they can be contacted. Please see our Children’s Privacy Policy for additional information pertaining to our policies relating to the use of the services by children under the age of 13 (a “child” or “children“).
Do you give anyone my personal information?
We are not in the business of renting or selling your personal data. We do not share or disclose your personal data without your prior written consent, except as follows:
- to provide to our third-party vendors who assist us with operating, maintaining, and improving our services by providing us with services, such as donation processing, email delivery, information technology services, marketing Common Sense content, features, and products, and other similar services, and who receive your data for the limited purposes of providing us with such services;
- to enable social login (for adults);
- to provide credit for Digital Literacy Citizenship Training (for educators);
- to fulfill a request you have made (such as entering a promotion);
- and to comply with the law, legal process, respond to an emergency, or protect our rights.
Our Privacy Policy gives details on all of our disclosure practices.
What happens when I sign up for your newsletter?
Our newsletters are for our adult members. When you opt in for a newsletter, we will add your email address to the newsletter distribution list.
You can unsubscribe from our email newsletters by updating your subscription selection in the “My Profile” section of your account, clicking the “unsubscribe” link located at the bottom of all newsletters, or visiting commonsense.org/contact and sending this request using our online form.
Other information
For more information on our privacy practices, please go to the full Privacy Policy.
Contact us
You can contact us at: Common Sense Media, 650 Townsend Street, Suite 435, San Francisco, CA 94103 or privacy@commonsense.org.
Effective Date of Policy: May 1, 2018
COMMON SENSE MEDIA PRIVACY POLICY
Welcome! Below you will find the privacy policy for Common Sense Media, Inc. (“we” or “us“). We are dedicated to protecting your privacy and handling any personal information we obtain from you with care and respect. The Common Sense Media Privacy Policy (the “Policy” or the “Privacy Policy“) is designed to answer your questions regarding how we collect, protect, use and share information obtained through the Common Sense Media website, www.commonsensemedia.org (the “Site“), other Common Sense Media websites, the Common Sense Media mobile application and other applications (“apps“) that we operate and that link to this Privacy Policy (collectively, the “Services“). Common Sense Media also maintains other websites and apps, which are governed by their own privacy policies. If you are using another Common Sense Media website or app, please be sure to consult the applicable privacy policy, as it may differ from this Policy. We hope this information increases your confidence in Common Sense Media and enhances your experience on our Services.
Please see our separate Terms of Use, which governs the use of the Services. We encourage you to read this Policy before using the Services, and not to use the Services if you disagree with any part of this Policy. By using the Services or by clicking a box that states that you accept or agree to this Policy, you signify your agreement to the terms and conditions of this Policy.
The Services are controlled and operated by Common Sense Media, a nonprofit organization in the United States, and are not intended to subject Common Sense Media or any affiliated entity to the laws or jurisdiction of any state, country or territory other than that of the United States. We may limit the availability of the Services, in whole or in part, to any person, geographic area or jurisdiction we choose, at any time in our sole discretion.
I. INFORMATION THAT WE COLLECT ON OR THROUGH THE SERVICES
Through the Services, you can be a part of an active and vibrant community of families and educators interested in the impact of media on their children and students. Visitors who complete the membership process through our Services may become registered members (“Members“). Members can engage in a full range of activities on our Services, such as posting comments on articles, creating user reviews on media products, participating in surveys and polls, and saving favorites to a personal page. Educator members, in addition to creating user reviews, can participate in educator forums. If you are not currently a Member, you may click here to register, or here if you are an educator, and become eligible for our Services’ features.
A. Personal Information
In this Policy, when we use the term “Personal Information“, we mean any information that can be used to identify or contact a specific individual, such as the individual’s name, postal address, email address and telephone number. We collect different types of Personal Information depending on whether you are a Non-Member or a Member, and what type of Member you are, as explained below. Personal Information does not include screen names (also known as member names, usernames or other online aliases) provided by our adult users in the course of registering with or using the Services. For information on the collection, use and disclosure of children’s personal information, please see our Children’s Privacy Policy.
Visitors to the Services may register and opt-in to receive Common Sense Media email newsletters by providing their email address and zip code (child members under 13 cannot opt-in for this email newsletter). We also may collect Personal Information through surveys or questionnaires. Your participation in surveys and questionnaires is entirely voluntary.
If you wish to become a Member, you must provide us with certain Personal Information as part of the registration process, including, for example, name, email address, school information (for educators), password and age range. We additionally ask for zip code. If the Member is under the age of 18, we do not ask for name or zip code, but we do ask for birthdate information (month and year only).
If you wish to become a Member, you may optionally choose to provide us with certain additional information, such as country of residence. If you are a parent or adult Member, you may also optionally choose to provide us with information about your children such as their ages and names so we can personalize your experience on the Services and within our email newsletters.
In order to simplify our registration and login process, we provide you with the option to register or login and link your Member account on the Site with a third-party social networking service, such as Facebook, Google, and Twitter (each a “Social Networking Service“). These services will authenticate your identity, will allow you to log into the Services using the single social login buttons, and will share certain personal information that you allow us to collect, as discussed below.
If you wish to become an Educator Member on the Site, you must provide us with your school name or select that you’re not an Educator in a school and select your Educator type.
If you provide us with your name on your public user profile (“Profile“) page, your first name and the first initial of your last name will be displayed on your Profile page and next to any reviews or comments that you post on our Site. Non-Educator Members have the option to not display your name and we will instead display your screen name which can be an anonymous name of your choice.
Your screen name identifies you on the Services if you opt-out of using your name or do not provide us with that information. For instance, your screen name is included in your Profile that is viewable by other Members and is displayed with reviews and comments that you write. Since the screen name is viewable by others, we suggest that you NOT use your real name for your screen name or your password, in order to protect your privacy.
If you decide that you no longer want to be a Member, you can delete your account at any time. To delete your account, login to your account, visit your My Account page (My Profile page for Educators), and then click the “Close my Account” link located towards the bottom of the page. Once you delete your account, all of your Personal Information stored in your account and Profile on our site will be removed. If you have posted any reviews or comments, you may choose at the time you close your account to delete them as well, or you can choose to have them remain on the site, but the author name will switch to “anonymous” so your name will no longer be connected with your content. Or, you can contact us at privacy@commonsense.org and request that we delete your content (including reviews) and account for you.
If you decide that you would like your posted reviews or comments deleted from our Services, you can do this at any time by logging into your account, viewing the review or comment, and clicking the “delete” button. You can also send us an email at privacy@commonsense.org with your screen name, date of submitted review or comment, and title of media type that was reviewed. Please note that your request or deletion does not ensure complete or comprehensive removal of the content or information, as, for example, some of your content may have been reposted by another user.
It is possible that Personal Information and other data that you furnished through the Services may remain in our system (such as in backups of the Services’ data), even if you are no longer a Member, and can be used by us in accordance with this Policy. PLEASE NOTE THAT WE ARE NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR THE USE BY OTHERS OF ANY PERSONAL INFORMATION YOU DISCLOSE IN YOUR PROFILE OR ON PUBLIC-FACING AREAS OF THE SERVICES.
We may receive your Personal Information from other sources, such as Common Sense events, Common Sense education partners, activity on Common Sense social media platforms, and public databases.
B. Collection of Information by Our Service Providers
We use a third-party service provider (the “Payment Service“), to handle donations made by credit card and other payment transactions submitted to our Services. If you wish to make a donation through the Services, you will be directed to a webpage that is hosted by the Payment Service (or its service providers) and not by us (such page, the “Payment Service Page“). Any Personal Information that you provide through the Payment Service Page will be collected directly by the Payment Service rather than by us, and will be subject to the Payment Service’s privacy policy rather than this Policy. We have no control over, and shall not be responsible for, the Payment Service’s use of information collected through the Payment Service Page. PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS POLICY DOES NOT ADDRESS THE COLLECTION AND USE OF INFORMATION THROUGH THE PAYMENT SERVICE PAGE OR THE PRIVACY OR INFORMATION PRACTICES OF THE PAYMENT SERVICE.
C. Cookies and Other Technologies
We and third parties who provide services to us may also collect certain information automatically when you visit the Services, including through the use of cookies and web beacons, such as the browser you are using (e.g., Safari, Internet Explorer, Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, etc.), the internet address from which you linked to the Services, the operating system of your computer (e.g., Microsoft Windows, iOS, Android, etc.), the unique IP address of the computer you used to access our Services and usage and browsing habits. We use this information to administer and improve your experience on our Services, to help diagnose and troubleshoot potential server malfunctions, and to gather use and demographic information. Some of these third parties may use this information for other purposes.
The following page lists our third-party service providers who may use cookies and other technologies.
To help make sure you receive information that is relevant to you, our Services use “cookies,” which are small data files stored on your computer and identify you as a previous visitor to the Services and help us to personalize your experience when you arrive. Most web browsers are set to accept cookies. You can instruct your browser not to accept cookies. However, if you disable this function, you will not be able to use some of the features on our Services.
Our web pages and our e-mail newsletters may contain “web beacons.” Web beacons are small pieces of data embedded with images on pages of the Services or in emails, which allow us to collect information such as the number of users that have visited a web page or opened an email. We use web beacons to measure the effectiveness of our content and campaigns and how visitors use our Services. This allows us to learn what pages are most attractive to our visitors, which parts of our Services are the most interesting and what kind of offers our visitors like to see.
D. Non-Personal Information
Non-Personal Information is aggregated information, demographic information, high-level location information, such as the browser language and country during the user session, and other information that does not reveal a person’s specific identity. We may collect Non-Personal Information (e.g., interests, etc.) when you voluntarily provide such information to us, such as through survey responses. Such information constitutes Non-Personal Information because, unless combined with your name or other Personal Information, it does not personally identify you or any other user.
Additionally, we may aggregate Personal Information in such a manner that the end product does not personally identify you or any other user of the Services. For example, we might use Personal Information to calculate the percentage of our Members who live in a particular state. Such aggregate information is considered Non-Personal Information for purposes of this Policy.
II. HOW WE USE INFORMATION COLLECTED ON THE SITE
A. How We Use Personal Information
We use Personal Information to process requests made through our Services, such as requests to receive our e-newsletters, requests for membership and questions or comments submitted through our Services. You may opt-out of receiving our e-newsletters at any time by updating your subscription selection in the “My Profile” section of your account, clicking the “unsubscribe” link located at the bottom of all newsletters, or by visiting commonsense.org/contact and sending a request using our online form.
Fulfillment of Requests. We may use Personal Information about you to fulfill the purpose for which such information was provided (e.g., to send newsletters to you or respond to your requests or inquiries and provide related customer service).
Additional Communications. If you register to become a Member of our community or sign up to receive one of our e-newsletters, we may use the Personal Information submitted in connection with your application to contact you with surveys or important communications regarding Common Sense Media. We may additionally use Personal Information to contact you about Common Sense content, features, opportunities, and products that may be of interest to you.
Membership. If you become a Member, we may use your Personal Information to maintain and update your Profile and postings in our online reviews, surveys and polls. All content that you submit to the Services is governed by our Terms of Use. We may also use Personal Information to send updates and communications to our Members, such as our e-newsletters, surveys and other important Common Sense Media communications such as information regarding the Services or changes to our terms, conditions and policies.
Internal Operations and Analysis. We may also use Personal Information about you for our internal business purposes, such as data analysis, audits, enhancing or modifying our products and services, and so forth.
We may also use Personal Information to personalize your experience on the Services by presenting content and market opportunities and products tailored to you and to allow you to participate in sweepstakes, contests and similar promotions and to administer these activities.
B. How We Use Information Collected Via Cookies and Other Technologies
We use information collected via cookies, web beacons and other technologies as described above, under “Cookies and Other Technologies.”
C. How We Use Non-Personal Information
Because Non-Personal Information does not personally identify you, we may use or disclose such information for any purpose. For instance, we may compile and share aggregate data about the geographic locations or other demographics of our Members, provided that this information does not personally identify any of these Members.
III. HOW WE DISCLOSE INFORMATION COLLECTED ON THE SERVICES
Except as expressly provided in this Policy, we will not share any Personal Information about you without your prior consent.
Profile Information. Each Member has a Profile on the Site, which includes the Member’s name or screen name, Member photo (through social login only), Member type, registration date, and links to the Member’s posted reviews and comments. You can change or remove any information from your Profile (except for your screen name) by logging into the Site and clicking the “My Account” or “My Profile” links located in your personal Account section.
Your Posted Reviews and Comments. If you post reviews, comments or ratings on our Site, the contents of those postings may be displayed on our Site along with your name (first name, and first initial of last name) or screen name, Member photo (through social login only), Member type, age (if under 18 years of age) and school information (if you are an educator). The ages of your kids may also be displayed if you provide this information and allow it to be posted (this information can also be selected to remain private).
Digital Literacy and Citizenship Curriculum Training. For Educator users who complete our Digital Literacy and Citizenship Curriculum Training, if requested by your school district, we may share your first and last name, school name, and completion date. The purpose of sharing this data is to help your district understand which teachers have received instruction on the Common Sense curriculum. Additionally, if your school receives E-rate support, it will help your district comply with CIPA.
Third Party Service Providers. We work with third parties who provide services such as data analysis, payment or donation processing, order fulfillment, infrastructure provision, information technology services, content personalization, email delivery services, and market research or third parties who provide other services to help improve or operate our Services. We may share Personal Information about you with third parties solely for the purpose of enabling them to provide these services to us. These service providers are given access to Personal Information needed to perform their functions, but are restricted from using the Personal Information for purposes other than providing services for us.
Social Login: If you choose to register or login to the Services through a Social Networking Service, we will ask you for your permission to access your data on the Social Networking Service to create an account and Profile. In addition, we may use this data for several purposes, including:
- Populating Account and Profile Fields: When you are connected via a Social Networking Service, we will pre-populate and update your account and Profile fields with data from the Social Networking Service that you allow us to access. You can update this information at any time on your Account and Profile pages.
- Personalizing the Services: When you are connected via a Social Networking Service, we may personalize the Services experience by displaying your name (first name, and first initial of last name) and profile picture or avatar (which you can choose to not display and instead show your anonymous screen name and no image) on your public profile page, next to your posted reviews and comments, or on other areas of the site where your posted content is displayed. We might also display lists of content for you that similar users also like. We may additionally use information from your social media profile or your social media activities on our Services to personalize content for you and offer features and opportunities tailored to your interests.
- Aggregate Reporting: When you are connected via a Social Networking Service, we may use data from the Social Networking Service that you allow us to access to learn more about the demographic information of our users.
You may disconnect from a linked Social Networking Service at any time by visiting the “My Account” or “My Profile” section of the Site.
We will not share any information about you collected on the Services with a linked Social Networking Service without your approval. This means that we will not post anything to your Facebook wall, Google account, or Twitter feed unless you give us specific permission to do so, and we will not contact your friends or followers at any time. We do not store or utilize the names of your friends or followers even if they are passed to us by a social sign-on service in the initial registration process.
Social Networking Services provide varying levels of control over the extent to which content or information you submit to the Services is also made public and shared on linked Social Networking Services. When you use a Social Networking Service to log into the Services:
- You share your information with it and its privacy policy applies to the Social Networking Service’s collection, use, and disclosure of such information.
- In addition, the Social Networking Service may be able to collect information about you, including your activity on the Services, and it may notify your connections on the Social Networking Service about your use of the Services.
- Such services may also employ unique identifiers which allow your activity to be monitored across multiple websites for purposes of delivering targeted advertising to you.
Please note that the privacy policies and terms of use of linked Social Networking Services may be different from our own and we encourage you to read them. We also encourage you to familiarize yourself with the privacy controls and account settings on linked Social Networking Services for information on how to customize your privacy settings with respect to content or information submitted to the Services.
Law Enforcement; Emergencies; Compliance. Notwithstanding any other provision of this Policy to the contrary, we reserve the right to use your Personal Information, and to disclose it to others, as we believe to be necessary or appropriate: (a) under a requirement of applicable law, (b) to comply with legal process, (c) to respond to governmental requests, (d) to enforce our Terms of Service, (e) to protect our operations, (f) for assistance in fraud detection and prevention; (g) to protect the rights, privacy, safety or property of Common Sense Media, you or others, (h) to permit us to pursue available remedies or limit the damages that we may sustain, and (i) in connection with a disposition of all or a substantial portion of our business, assets or stock, such as the sale of the Site or Services, a merger, consolidation, reorganization, joint venture, assignment, or bankruptcy or similar proceedings.
To learn about our practices regarding children’s personal information, please read our Children’s Privacy Policy. When we intend to collect children’s personal information, we take additional steps to protect children’s privacy, including:
- Notifying parents about our information practices with regard to children;
- Limiting our collection of children’s personal information to no more than is reasonably necessary to participate in an online activity; and
- Providing parents with access to, and the ability to request changes to or deletion of, children’s personal information that we have collected.
At Common Sense, we are strongly committed to protecting the privacy of our donors. We are dedicated to protecting your privacy and handling any personal information we obtain from you with care and respect.
We are not in the business of renting, selling, or trading our donors’ names or personal information, nor of sending mailings to our donors on behalf of other organizations. If this should ever change, we would only do so with your prior consent.
We may use third-party service providers to provide certain services on our behalf, including to process donations. To the extent that any third-party service provider is used to process donations, that service provider has assured Common Sense it will not use personal donor information for any purpose other than what is necessary to process the gift transaction for Common Sense. And any additional service providers, such as email providers, are given access to personal donor information only as needed to provide their functions for Common Sense.
This policy applies to all donor personal information received by Common Sense, both online and offline, on any Platform (“Platform”, includes the Common Sense website and mobile applications), as well as through any electronic, written, or oral communications.
VI. IMPORTANT DISCLOSURES, PRACTICES AND CONTACT INFORMATION
Links. This Privacy Policy does not address, and we are not responsible for, the privacy, information or other practices of any third party, including any third party operating any site or service to which the Services link. The inclusion of a link on the Services does not imply our endorsement of the linked site or service. In addition, we are not responsible for the information collection, use, disclosure or security policies and practices of other organizations, such as Facebook, Apple, Google Analytics and reCAPTCHA, Microsoft, RIM or any other app developer, app provider, social media platform provider, operating system provider, wireless service provider or device manufacturer.
Security. We seek to use reasonable administrative, organizational, technical, and physical measures to help protect the Personal Information you provide to us. Unfortunately, no data transmission or storage system can be guaranteed to be 100% secure. If you have reason to believe that your interaction with us is no longer secure, you should immediately notify us in accordance with the section below entitled “Contacting Us.” Please note that if you notify us by physical mail, this will delay the time it takes for us to respond to the problem.
Updating Your Personal Information. If you are a Member, you can update your Personal Information at any time by accessing your account. To do this, just click on the “My Account”, “My Profile” or “My Desk” link.
Please note we are unable to update or delete any of your Personal Information that has been shared with a third party as permitted in this Policy or with your consent. Also, please note that we may need to retain certain information for recordkeeping purposes, and there also may be some residual information that will remain within our databases and other records (such as in backups of the Site’s data), which may not be removed.
Changes to the Privacy Policy. We reserve the right to change this Policy, and any changes to our Policy will become effective upon our posting of the revised Policy on the Site. Use of the Services following such changes constitutes your acceptance of the revised Policy then in effect. If we make changes to this Policy we will take reasonable steps to alert users of the Services that the Policy has been updated.
VII. CONTACTING US
If you have any questions about this Policy, or the practices of the Services, please contact us at privacy@cloudy360.com. Or write to us at:
Privacy Department
Cloudy 360 Technologies