Your privacy and your children’s privacy are of the utmost importance to kidthing.
This Privacy Policy informs you how kidthing collects, uses and safeguards information from you or your children (a “Member” or “you”) in using the kidthing Service. Please refer to the Kids’ Privacy Policy, below, for kidthing’s privacy policy for individuals under the age of 13 years old.
You do not need to disclose any Personal Data, and no Personal Data is collected FROM YOU, to download, install and use the free kidthing Player, which will enable you to play sample kidthing Content and visit and browse the kidthing store.
In this Privacy Policy, the following capitalized definitions are used, singular as well as plural:
Assessment Data: any data regarding what kidthing content is accessed, by which Members, for how long, at what times and certain performance metrics, as applicable.
Child Member(s): the child (or children) under the age of 13 using a Child Account within your kidthing Account.
Communications Content: any information that is communicated between Members.
Feedback Information: any information that is reported to kidthing by filling in the feedback forms from the Service or Website.
kidthing: for purposes of this Privacy Policy, kidthing, inc., a Delaware corporation.
Player: the downloadable kidthing player (client), that is installed on your computer, which permits kidthing content to be played and enables certain features of the Service.
Member Profile: any information about the Member that is provided by the Member for inclusion on the Member’s profile, which is shared with other kidthing Members, can be searched for by other kidthing Members and/or, only after the Member’s approval, can be added to another Member’s “friend’s list.”
Passive Information: Information that is necessary to provide you with the desired kidthing Service, such as a session ID token, source and destination addressing information, and the version of the software you are using.
Personal Data: any personally identifying information that kidthing possesses relating to you or any Child Member, excluding information in your Member Profile.
Registration Information: Information that is necessary to verify your identity and to provide Service, such as your name, billing information, credit card account and e-mail address and other information you may elect to provide to enhance and customize kidthing experience for you and any Child Members.
Service: means the services provided by kidthing and/or kidthing’s partners, as they may be extended or changed from time to time;
Website: the website located at www.kidthing.com and affiliated domains.
Contents
1. What is kidthing and what services does it offer?
kidthing is a corporation established under the laws of the state of Delaware, USA. Its headquarters are located in Los Angeles in the Great State of California. kidthing offers the kidthing Player and Service, which may be modified from time to time.
2. What information does kidthing collect?
You do not need to disclose any Personal Data, and no Personal Data is collected from you, to download, install and use the free kidthing Player, which will enable you to play sample kidthing Content and visit and browse the kidthing store.
To purchase content and to access certain features of the Service, you will need to register and open an account. Children under the age of 13 are not permitted to open accounts, but must have a parent or guardian do it for them. When you open an account and use the Service, kidthing may gather and process the following information (see below for more information on each of these):
kidthing collects Personal Data only from you, as the parent or legal guardian, and never knowingly from a Child Member. It is up to the parent or guardian holding the Master Account to provide any personally identifying data for any Child Member.
3. How does kidthing use this information and for what purpose?
kidthing’s primary purpose in collecting information is to provide you and any Child Members with a safe, efficient and customized experience.
kidthing may use the information defined in this Privacy Policy to: provide the Service, provide customer support you request; resolve disputes, collect fees, and troubleshoot problems; enforce the End-User License Agreement, Terms of Service and Terms of Sale; customize, measure, and improve the kidthing Player, Service and Website content and layout; inform you about targeted marketing, service updates, and promotional offers (unless you opt out); compare information for accuracy; verify your age and identity; provide other services for you as described when kidthing collects the information. Additionally, kidthing may use your information as described below:
You do not need to register to download and use the kidthing Player, but you will need to register and provide certain Registration Information if you want to purchase Products or use certain features of the Service.
After registering, you may also provide, at your election, additional information, such as your gender, age, hobbies, or those of the Child Members, or kidthing might request information on the Child Member’s interest in science, animals, nature, travel, sports, books, and the like. The information you supply will help kidthing offer you more personalized features, to tailor the Service to your interests and those of the Child Member, and to make it more useful to you and more enriching for the Child Member. This information is not shared with third parties except in an anonymous, aggregated form.
You do not need to create a Member Profile to use the Service. Personal Data that you provide on your Member Profile, or those you create for your Child Members, can be viewed by other Members and therefore, you should have no expectation of privacy in any information you elect to disclose in Member Profiles! You can access your Member Profiles from the menu in your kidthing Player in order to view, correct, complete or remove information.
Child Members are not able to create or edit Member Profiles.
You may wish to invite friends to join kidthing. If you use kidthing’s referral service, you will provide your friends’ e-mail addresses. The e-mail addresses and messages you provide will only be used for the purpose of automatically generating an e-mail message to these potential kidthing members and for no other purpose. These are immediately deleted after use. If you have requested to add that friend to your network when he or she joins kidthing, we will retain your friend’s email address so that when they join we can send them an invitation to join your network. We will not use their email address for any other purpose.
Any information that you voluntarily submit in feedback forms is used for the purposes of reviewing the feedback and improving the Player, Service and/or Website. kidthing reserves the right to utilize anonymous information for marketing purposes, for instance by displaying selected comments on the Website or in other communications. kidthing may from time to time ask you to provide information on your kidthing experiences, which will be used to measure and improve quality. You are at no time obliged to provide such information. kidthing will never disclose any personally identifiable feedback information to third parties (other than third parties who are involved in providing the Service, such as third party banking organizations and other providers of payment service where such feedback relates to those providers) without your explicit permission.
Passive Information is automatically generated. kidthing only uses this Passive Information, on an aggregated basis, to provide you with better service or for statistical information.
kidthing respects the privacy of personal e-mail accounts and stores your e-mail addresses just as securely as other Personal Data. Your e-mail address will not be sold or given to third parties for their marketing purposes without your explicit permission. kidthing may use e-mail to send you messages about new Service, content or features, kidthing promotions, faults and Service issues or possible violations of the Software License Agreement, Terms of Service and Terms of Sale. kidthing reserves the right to use e-mail to notify you of any claims related to your use of kidthing Player and/or Service, including without limitation claims of violation of third party rights.
kidthing may also use e-mail to keep you up to date with news about kidthing and its Service. If you do not want to be kept informed in this way by e-mail, please contact kidthing at support@kidthing.com.
To track content usage and performance by Members, kidthing may collect and make available to you various Assessment Data. Assessment Data is used to provide you with reports on what kidthing content Child Members are using, their performance and to provide recommendations on what other content might be appropriate for them. Assessment Data linked to Personal Data is only accessible to you. kidthing may use Assessment Data in anonymous, aggregated form for marketing and business purposes.
4. Under what circumstances does kidthing transfer Personal Data?
Except as provided below, kidthing will not sell, rent, trade or otherwise transfer any Personal Data to any third party without your explicit permission.
kidthing may disclose Personal Data of a Member if kidthing believes in good faith that kidthing is required to do so by law, or that doing so is necessary to comply with legal process, law enforcement agencies, respond to claims, or protect our rights in or the safety of the Service, or to protect the safety or rights of other Members or Child Members. kidthing may share Personal Data with its affiliates.
In various offers, promotions, contests, sweepstakes, and other similar features, the co-sponsor and/or the sweepstakes’ or contests’ administrators may have access to the Personal Data that you submit in your entry. If you do not wish for us to share such personally identifiable information with our co-sponsors or administrators, please do not enter such offers, promotions, contests or sweepstakes on kidthing.
To provide you with the Service, kidthing may sometimes, as necessary, share your Personal Data with partner service providers and/or agents, for example the third party banking organization or other providers of payment services. kidthing requires these third parties to take organizational and technical measures to protect your Personal Data and to observe applicable legal requirements. Please be informed that, notwithstanding this, in the unlikely event of an applicable governmental authority requesting kidthing or kidthing’s local partner responsible to such authority, to retain and provide Personal Data, or to install equipment in order to intercept Member Communications, kidthing and/or its local partner will, to the extent required to do so by law, provide necessary assistance and information to fulfill such a request.
kidthing may use non-personally identifiable aggregated data, including Assessment Data, and make it available to third parties. This aggregated data is used by kidthing or its partners to track traffic use, to gauge interest in certain features, to improve the Service or for other business or marketing purposes.
Personal Data that is collected may be stored and processed in any country in which kidthing and its affiliates and contractors maintain facilities. In this regard, or for purposes of sharing or disclosing data in accordance with this article 4, kidthing reserves the right to transfer and store your Personal Data outside of your country of residence. By using the Service you consent to any such transfer and storage of Personal Data outside of your country of residence.
As kidthing continues to develop its business, kidthing might sell or buy subsidiaries or business units. In such transactions, as well as in the event kidthing or substantially all of its assets are acquired by a third party, Personal Data of Members will generally be one of the transferred business assets. kidthing reserves the right to include such Personal Data, collected as an asset, in any such transfer to a third party. Additionally, information about Members may be disclosed as part of a bankruptcy.
5. What are cookies? How does kidthing use them?
Cookies are pieces of information that kidthing will transfer to your computer’s hard drive through your browser to enable kidthing’s systems to recognize your browser. Cookies also enable kidthing to gain information about the use of its Website and to enhance the Website accordingly to the preferences of the users.
The Help option on the toolbar of most browsers will tell you how to prevent your browser from accepting new cookies, how to have the browser notify you when you receive a new cookie, or how to disable cookies altogether. kidthing’s cookies do not contain any identifying information.
6. How far does kidthing’s responsibility extend?
The Website may contain links that will let you leave the Website and access other websites. Linked websites are not under the control of kidthing and it is possible that these websites have a different privacy policy. This Privacy Notice applies solely to Personal Data that is acquired on the Website or in connection with the Service, so kidthing urges you to be careful when you enter any personal information online. kidthing accepts no responsibility or liability for these other websites.
7. How does kidthing protect your Personal Data?
kidthing takes appropriate organizational and technical measures to protect the Personal Data provided to it or collected by it. Your Personal Data can only be accessed by authorized employees or contractors of kidthing who need to have access to this data to perform their given duties.
Your registration information is encrypted or otherwise protect within a kidthing-controlled database or with a third-party service provider. kidthing seeks to safeguard the Personal Data you provide. As effective as encryption technology is, however, no security system is completely impenetrable, so kidthing cannot guarantee the absolute security of our database, nor can kidthing guarantee that any information you supply won’t be intercepted while being transmitted to kidthing over the Internet.
8. Can this Privacy Policy be modified?
kidthing reserves the right to modify the provisions of this Privacy Policy at any time. kidthing will inform you of these changes by publishing the revised Privacy Policy at www.kidthing.com. The revised Privacy Policy becomes effective thirty (30) days of such publishing. You agree that your continued use of the kidthing Service after the notice period of thirty (30) days constitutes your acceptance of such revised Privacy Policy.
9. How long is your Personal Data kept by kidthing?
kidthing will retain your Personal Data for as long as is necessary to: (1) perform the Service; (2) invoice you for your use of the Service and to maintain records until invoicing for the Service cannot be lawfully challenged and legal proceedings may no longer be pursued; (3) carry out kidthing marketing activities; (4) comply with applicable legislation, regulatory requests and relevant orders from competent legal authorities; (5) enforce the End-User License Agreement, Terms of Service or Terms of Sale; or (6) fulfill any of the other purposes detailed in this Privacy Policy.
10. Kids' Privacy Policy
PLEASE READ: This section of the Privacy Policy explains our information collection and use practices online for children under the age of 13. kidthing asks that you take the time to review our policy so that you can know exactly what information kidthing collects (and doesn’t) from children under 13. If you have any questions or concerns about this policy, please contact us.
a. What Information does kidthing collect from Children Under 13?
kidthing is firmly committed to protecting the privacy rights of children. kidthing will not knowingly collect, use or save data from children under the age of 13 without the express consent of the child’s parent or legal guardian.
Child Members can use the Player, visit the Store, view Content, and participate in activities without submitting any Personal Data. kidthing never asks for any personally identifiable information from a user of a Child Account, such as his or her name, e-mail address, phone number, etc. When kidthing does collect information from Child Accounts, kidthing limits its collection to information that does not personally identify the Child Member.
kidthing never collects more information from Child Members than is reasonably necessary in order to participate in the activity. Assessment Data is collected when a Child Member is accessing or viewing content.
There may be some other activities that require individually identifiable information in order to participate, such as offers, promotions, sweepstakes or contests, or other activities such as newsletters or sending online postcards or e-mail messages. kidthing will notify you, via the e-mail address associated with your Account, and will identify your child to you by using his or her Screen Name that your child wishes to participate. kidthing will only collect personally identifiable information from you, the parent, and not from your child. The information will not be used for any other purpose and the information will not be used after the promotion or activity is complete. Co-sponsors and/or sweepstakes’, contests’ or activity administrators may have access to the personally identifiable information that is submitted. If you do not wish for us to share this personally identifiable information with sweepstakes, contest or activity co-sponsors or administrators, please do not enter your child in any contests or sweepstakes on kidthing.
kidthing won’t knowingly allow anyone under the age of 13 to register as a Member or otherwise submit individually identifiable information, except with parental/legal guardian consent. If kidthing becomes aware that kidthing has inadvertently received individually identifiable information from a child under the age of 13, except as discussed above, kidthing will delete the information from our records as soon as kidthing discovers it.
kidthing also offers memberships to certain licensed pre-schools and other educational institutions, who in turn make the Service available to children under the age of 13. No individually identifiable information is collected from children who access the kidthing Service via these school Accounts.
b. How does kidthing use Personal Data of Child Members?
kidthing always collects Personal Data only from you, as the parent or legal guardian, and never knowingly from a Child Member. kidthing will only use that information for the express purpose for which it was collected and will only disclose that Personal Data as set forth below.
Except as set forth below, kidthing does not share Personal Data of Child Members with any third parties (except those parties that help us administer the Service) without a parent’s express consent. These third parties may not use the information for any other purpose, and have agreed to maintain the confidentiality, security, and integrity of the information.
kidthing may disclose Personal Data of a Child Member if kidthing believes in good faith that kidthing is required to do so by law, or that doing so is necessary to comply with legal process, law enforcement agencies, respond to claims, or protect our rights in or the safety of the Service, or to protect the safety or rights of other Members or Child Members. kidthing may share Child Member Personal Data with its affiliates.
kidthing may use non-personally identifiable aggregated data and make it available to third parties. This aggregated data is used by kidthing and/or its partners to track traffic use, to gauge interest in certain content and features, to improve the Service or for other business or marketing purposes.
Personal Data of Child Members that is collected may be stored and processed in any country in which kidthing and its affiliates and contractors maintain facilities. In this regard, or for purposes of sharing or disclosing data in accordance with this article 4, kidthing reserves the right to transfer and store Personal Data of Child Members outside of their country of residence. By opening a Child Account, you consent to any such transfer and storage of Personal Data outside of the Child’s country of residence.
As kidthing continues to develop its business, kidthing might sell or buy subsidiaries or business units. In such transactions, as well as in the event kidthing or substantially all of its assets are acquired by a third party, Personal Data of Child Members will generally be one of the transferred business assets. kidthing reserves the right to include such Personal Data, collected as an asset, in any such transfer to a third party. Additionally, information about Child Members may be disclosed as part of a bankruptcy.
c. Tracking and Content Recommendations
If you are setting up one or more Child Accounts, you are encouraged to set up an unidentifiable, anonymous screen name for each Child Member. kidthing may give you the ability to track the Child Member’s use of the Service (which may include allowing you to see what Content the Child Member is viewing, reading, and learning and, where applicable, performance metrics), as well as receive content and other recommendations based upon the Child Member’s use and progress. kidthing may also make content recommendations based upon previous usage of the Service, as well as your child’s appropriate grade range.
11. Parent's Rights
kidthing wants you to be comfortable with what your child is doing when using kidthing. Therefore, you may contact us at any time regarding privacy questions or concerns, or to request to review what Personal Data kidthing has collected from you or about Child Members.
If you would like to exercise your right to view, correct, complete or remove your Personal Data, please contact kidthing at privacy@kidthing.com. WithWithin a reasonable period of time and upon verification of your identity, kidthing will fulfill your request, provided kidthing will not act contrary to applicable legal requirements in fulfilling your request.
You may also contact us at any time to request that kidthing delete your or your Child Members’ Personal Data and/or refuse to permit further collection or use of your or your Child Members’ information. kidthing will take steps to ensure that any person contacting us for a child’s information is that child’s parent or legal guardian.
© kidthing® inc. All rights reserved. Last revised: 3 August 2008