Able Minds Privacy Policy


Our Principles
  (1) We are fully committed to following laws related to the collection of data and protecting the privacy of kids and adults, and to adhering strictly to our carefully considered policy on data collection.

(2) We value your privacy as much as you do. We are committed to protecting your privacy and the privacy of each visitor.

(3) Able Minds will not give, trade, sell, or otherwise distribute the personal information you provide to us.

(4) Able Minds reserves the right to analyze and summarize data that we collect. At times, we will share summaries of demographic data (e.g., percentages of girls vs. boys registered on our site) with sponsors or other business partners. We will never provide any specific information about an individual in any of these reports.

(5) We value your time. Registration should be easy and painless and you should get something you feel is valuable in return.

 
Why We Ask You to Register
  We do ask you to register and we do collect voluntary information. Why? Because it genuinely helps us better deliver content to you. The more we know about what our visitors like, the better able we are to create the kind of site you want. Also, in order to remain a free site, this site is supported in part by responsible advertising. The information visitors like you provide helps us communicate with advertisers as to the type of people in general who visit this site, and ultimately to bring valuable, relevant advertising information to you. In many cases, our sponsors provide free prizes for drawings and contests, but they want to make sure our visitors really represent their audience. And to be really truthful, the more sponsorship dollars we can attract to our sites, the more interesting things we can add to the site for your educational benefit and enjoyment. We strive for a relationship with our customers (that is, you) and our business partners in which everyone benefits.

What Info We Collect
  We only collect information you voluntarily supply us. We stress parental involvement and permission before you supply information on our Web site. We explain in clear language easily understood by a child why any information is being requested and how it will be used. We do not ask for real names or postal addresses. Instead you are invited to supply any nickname that is available. We only ask for very essential information that helps us learn more about the kids using our Web sites.

Why We Ask For Your E-mail Address

 
E-mail is required so that we can hold users accountable for their actions (for example in chat rooms and on message boards) and contact them quickly and efficiently without compromising their physical location. We will also use your e-mail address to notify you if you win a drawing that you enter.

Can Other Visitors See My E-mail Address?
After you on our kids sites, other visitors cannot initially see the e-mail address you entered. You can change this preference because we know that many kids like to send each other e-mail, but we request that kids ask a parent for permission. Parents need to supervise their children's use of the Internet and e-mail. Our recommendation is that children should never tell strangers where they live, their phone number, or ever agree to meet them, at least not without the permission of a parent. One reason is that there is no way for us to prevent an adult from pretending to be a child.

You Can Change Your Registration Information
Registered visitors are welcome to view, change or delete their registration information at any time.

Message To Parents & Educators
Able Minds urges children to check with parents before giving out any personal information. We urge you to closely monitor your children's Internet activities and to become educated about Internet practices affecting children, and to educate us by telling us what is important to you in this area. If you have questions or concerns you can send an e-mail message to support@ableminds.com.

Cookies
Unlike many sites, we do not currently use cookies to track individual visitors to collect information without their knowledge. We do, at times, use cookies for your convenience on our Web site. For example, to use the Cyberkids message board, a temporary cookie is created so you don't need to log in again during the same session. When you quit your browser application, this cookie information isn't saved, so when you come to our site the next time you start your browser again, you will need to log-in once again.

We would like to educate you about cookies, since their use is becoming more prevalent and they do raise very important privacy concerns. The software technology called "cookies" comes into play when you use your Browser. Cookies are basically a powerful technology that gathers and keeps track of information while you are browsing the Internet. So cookies keep track of information, which can be used for its own sake (there's where the controversy comes in) and also to save you, and sites out there you might visit, time. Essentially, when you log onto a site that uses "cookies" the site sends a special piece of information--called a "cookie"--onto your computer. The cookie has two features that are important to understand 1) it has a set of Internet locations (such as the location of the site you have logged onto) that you might log onto again in the future. But the cookie is more than a map back to certain sites on the Internet. It's also 2) a little information collection program that can ask your computer simple questions about your operating system, the service provider you use to connect to the Internet, etc. Sites can thereby store your preferences on your computer, and have the computer supply those preferences every time you re-connect to that site. Note this technology is passive; i.e., you do not know the info is being gathered.

Again, at this time we are not using cookies to collect information about visitors. We will let you know if, and to what extent we do use them in the future.



Copyright © 1997-2008 Able Minds All rights reserved. Legal Notices.