Privacy
Notice
The following statement
applies to the STAR Tech website, developed by Education Development
Center, Inc. (EDC), through its Center for Family, School, and Community.
EDC is committed to protecting the privacy and security of its online
visitors and to providing a safe environment for everyone.
Personally
Identifiable Information
Collection
of Information
EDC only collects
personally identifiable information from our visitors 13 years or older.
Personally identifiable information includes first and last name, home
address, email address, or telephone number. EDC does not collect personally
identifiable information from children under the age of 13 without first
obtaining verifiable parental consent, unless EDC only uses this information
to (1) obtain parental consent or provide parents with notice of EDC's
privacy practices; (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; (4) protect the safety of a child;
or (5) comply with legal requirements. EDC's consent and notification
process gives parents the ability to let EDC know if they do not want
us to make further use of the personally identifiable information we
have collected from their child.
EDC may request
personally identifiable information from children in connection with
our forums, content submissions, or classroom activities so that we
can answer questions or requests. Unless EDC indicates otherwise, personally
identifiable information from children under the age of 13 will be used
by EDC for internal purposes and will not be sold or otherwise transferred
to advertisers or anyone else.
Posting
of Information
It is EDC's policy
never to post on the STAR Tech website any personally identifiable information
other than a child's first name, first initial of last name, state,
and age or grade.
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For
Kids
Please do not ever
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 unless you first ask your parent or guardian
for permission to do this. The EDC STAR Tech Website may ask you for
your first name and email address along with your parents' email address.
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.
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For
Parents
There are many activities
on the EDC STAR Tech website that children can participate in and enjoy
without having to share personally identifiable information. In the
event we do wish to collect or use a child's personally identifiable
information, we will notify you to obtain verifiable parental consent.
Parents can always request to review or have deleted their child's personally
identifiable information from EDC's records and refuse to permit further
use of a child's information.
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For Teachers
There are many activities
on the EDC STAR Tech website that are available to teachers to enable
them to enhance their classroom and student activities. In order for
EDC to be able to customize these activities for individual teacher's
use, EDC will collect personally identifiable information from teachers
and use this personally identifiable information to tailor the content
to teachers' specific needs. Teachers can then provide a password to
their students so students can publish materials and do other activities
online in connection with their classroom. EDC will only enable such
passwords with the verifiable consent provided by teachers.
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What
Are Cookies, and How Does EDC Use Them?
Cookies are pieces
of information that a website sends to your computer while you are viewing
the website. These pieces of information allow the website to remember
important information that will make your visit to that site more useful.
You can choose to have your computer warn you each time a cookie is
being sent, or you can choose to turn off all cookies. You do this through
your browser (like Netscape Navigator or Internet Explorer) settings.
Look at your browser's Help menu to learn the correct way to modify
your cookies. If you turn cookies off, you won't have access to many
EDC features that make your Web experience more efficient - like the
features mentioned above—and some of our services will not function
properly.
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Use
of IP Addresses
We collect IP addresses
to obtain aggregate information on the use of the EDC STAR Tech website.
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. EDC does not use IP
addresses to identify an individual user. However, EDC may use this
information to identify a user if we feel there are, or may be, safety
and/or security issues, or to comply with legal requirements.
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Links
to Other Sites
Visitors to the
EDC STAR Tech website will find links to other sites, such as LDOnline.com,
whose content we believe will be of interest. In many cases, the links
represent cooperative projects established with the organizations connected
with these sites. Please note that EDC does not monitor or control the
content that appears on these sites and that the content may be constantly
changing. We recommend that children check with their parents or teachers
before linking to any new site. We encourage all visitors to the STAR
Tech website to read the privacy policies of all linked sites before
navigating through them.
We hope that you enjoy exploring the STAR Tech website.
The STAR Tech website
is owned and operated by Education Development Center, Inc., 55 Chapel
Street, Newton, MA 02458. Judith Zorfass, Lead Developer, can be reached
by telephone at 617-618-2174 or by email at jzorfass@edc.org
If you have any questions about our privacy policy or practices, or
if you wish to amend, update, or verify the information on file, or
notify us that you want your information deleted from our files, please
contact us at the above address.
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GetNetWise
GetNetWise is an
online resource that provides information and tools that parents and
teachers can use to guide children to a safe online experience. You
can access this content by clicking on http://www.getnetwise.org/. This
initiative is part of an industry effort to create an online environment
where adults feel empowered with tools, information, and resources to
safeguard children on line.
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Security
EDC ensures that
all information, personally and non-personally identifiable, 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, other than ours, will ever see the
information that our visitors send to us, unless we indicate otherwise.
As you can see, to join a discussion we request that students enter
their first name and last initial only; we ask them not to provide their
email addresses or any other identifying information.
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