PRIVACY POLICY
girlfuture.com is brought to you by Independent Girls, Inc., a 501c3 non-profit organization whose mission is to educate and empower girls ages 9-15 to set goals, think for themselves, and have high self-esteem. We will refer to girlfuture.com and Independent Girls, Inc. as “we,” “us” or “our.” We take your privacy seriously and are dedicated to protecting your privacy. We have published this Privacy Policy to help you understand and answer your questions about our privacy practices.
Independent Girls, Inc. cares very much about girls’ safety online. girlfuture.com is a COPPA-compliant site. “COPPA” is short for the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, a U.S. federal law regulating the online collection, use, & disclosure of personal information from children under the age of 13. It requires that we inform parents/legal guardians about how we collect, use, & disclose personal information from children under the age of 13 and that we obtain parental consent in order for children under 13 years of age to use certain features of our website. Please note that when we use the term “parent,” we also mean to include legal guardians, and, unless we specifically note otherwise, when we use the term “girl” or “child” we mean to include any child under 13 years of age.
We urge girls and their parents to use and enjoy girlfuture.com. We also urge girls to check with their parents before entering information on any website, and urge parents to discuss with their children providing information online. We urge all minors under the age of 18 to obtain their parents’ consent prior to accessing, using or registering with girlfuture.com.
In addition, please note that this Privacy Policy does not apply to any information that you submit pursuant to a sweepstakes entry. Our specific policies regarding information sharing and disclosure pursuant to a sweepstakes entry will be stated within the official rules and privacy policy for each individual sweepstakes, which will be presented to you together with the applicable sweepstakes.
What Type of Information Do We Collect From and About You?
How Do We Use Your Personally Identifiable Information?
How do We Disclose and Share Your Personally Identifiable Information?
Can You Opt-Out of Our Use of Your Personally Identifiable Information?
What Security Measures do We Have in Place to Protect Your Information?
Why Should You Check the Privacy Policy of Third Party Web Sites?
Can We Change this Privacy Policy?
How Can You Contact Us Regarding This Privacy Policy?
What Type of Information Do We Collect From and About You?
Personally identifiable information generally includes information that could be used to determine your identity, such as your name, address, phone number and e-mail address. Non-personally identifiable information includes information that cannot be used to determine your identity, such as a screen name, birthday, gender, state, zip code or country of residence. If any non-personally identifiable information is combined with personally identifiable information in such a way that it can be used to determine your identity, then we will treat such information as personally identifiable information.
Many features of girlfuture.com do not require that you provide personally identifiable information. Certain features of girlfuture.com, however, such as the interactive features of the website, do require you to provide personally identifiable information to us.
Below are descriptions of how we might collect your personally identifiable information and non-personally identifiable information from you, through the use of technology, and from third-parties.
Collection of Information From You. Below is a list of certain situations in which we may collect information from you, and a description of the types of personally identifiable information that we may collect.
• Registration by Girls. If you are a girl and would like to register with us, you will need to provide us with, and we will collect, the following personally identifiable information: your e-mail address, your parent’s first name and your parent’s e-mail address. We do not collect any other personal information from girls during the registration process. An e-mail is then sent to the parent e-mail address provided by the girl to obtain the parent’s consent to registration.
• Registration by Parents. If you are a parent and would like to register a girl with us, you will need to provide us with personally identifiable information, such as the following: the name and e-mail address of the girl you would like to register with us, your first and last name, your e-mail address, and your credit card information. We will not register a girl with us until the parent submits such information and provides payment, via credit card, for a membership. We require payment of a membership fee and the use of a credit card by the parent primarily to provide a high level of verification confirming that the parent has given permission for the girl’s use of and participation within girlfuture.com in order to satisfy the requirements of COPPA.
Under COPPA it is necessary to obtain “verifiable parental consent” in order to allow a child to engage in activities where they might share their personal information with others participating in an online activity. COPPA allows a website operator to process a credit card transaction as a means of obtaining verifiable parental consent. Paid membership to girlfuture.com through a successful credit card transaction provides for verifiable parental consent for a child to participate in girlfuture.com. Should a successful credit card transaction not be possible, a parent may obtain a hard-copy permission slip from girlfuture by e-mailing us at admin@girlfuture.com and requesting a permission slip. Once girlfuture receives the signed permission slip by mail or by fax, verifiable parental consent will have been obtained for a child to participate in girlfuture.com.
• Use of Blogs and Forums. If you choose to transmit, submit or post information through any blogs or forums available on girlfuture.com, we may collect that information you provide. You may only participate in our blogs and forums if you are a girl and have registered with us, as described above. Parents should be aware that the blog and forum features on girlfuture.com may allow a girl to disclose her personally identifiable information publicly. Although blogs and forums on girlfuture.com are moderated, we still urge parents to discuss with their child being careful about the types of information disclosed on our blogs and forums, and to monitor the information their child provides.
• Newsletters. We will collect your name and e-mail if you choose to sign up for our e-mail newsletter. During the registration process described above, parents may choose to sign up to receive our e-mail newsletter, in which case both the parent and one or more girls included by the parent within the registration process will receive our e-mail newsletter from time to time. Girls that have registered with us, as described above, may also choose to sign up to receive our e-mail newsletter, in which case the girl (but not the parent) will receive our e-mail newsletter from time to time.
• Send to a Friend. At times girls will have the option of sending a friend information about girlfuture.com and our products. In this process, we collect the sender’s first name and the recipient’s e-mail address. The recipient e-mail address is used for a one-time e-mail communication and is then deleted.
• Forms. We may collect personally identifiable information from you if you choose to fill out or provide personally identifiable information within any forms, profiles, or surveys available on girlfuture.com. For example, you may choose to provide us with personally identifiable information, such as your e-mail address, within our “contact us” form. Only parents and girls that have registered with us, as described above, may submit such forms, profiles or surveys.
• Correspondence. If you send us correspondence, such as e-mails or letters, we may choose to collect such information about you. If you are a girl, we urge you to talk to your parent and get your parent’s permission before sending us correspondence.
Note that all websites that are directed to children under 13 are prohibited by law from conditioning the child’s participation in an online activity on the child’s providing more personal information than is reasonably necessary.
If you are a parent, you may review any personal information we have collected from your child, have it deleted and refuse to allow further collection or use of your child’s personal information. You may do so by contacting us at admin@girlfuture.com. This will result in the termination of your child’s membership account with us and girlfuture.com.
Collection of Information Through the Use of Technology. We may collect information about you through a variety of technical methods, including the following:
• Collection of IP Address. When you visit girlfuture.com, we collect your IP address. Standing alone, your IP address is non-personally identifiable information. We may use IP addresses to collect information regarding the frequency with which individuals visit various parts of girlfuture.com. It is possible that we may combine IP addresses with personally identifiable information.
• Cookie Technology. "Cookies" are pieces of information that a Web site sends to your computer while you are viewing a Web site. We may set and access cookies on your computer to track and store preferential information about you. We gather anonymous information about you through cookie technology on an aggregate level only. Please note that most Internet browsers will allow you to stop cookies from being stored on your computer and to delete cookies stored on your computer.
• Web beacons. “Web beacons”, also called single-pixels (1x1) or clear GIFs, are electronic images that allow a Web site to access cookies and help track general usage patterns of visitors to a Web site. Web beacons can recognize certain types of information, such as cookie numbers, time and date of a page view, and a description of the page where the Web beacon is placed. No personally identifiable information about you is shared with third parties through the use of Web beacons.
While the type of information collected through these technical methods is, standing alone, non-personally identifiable information, such information may be collected or combined in a way that makes it become personally identifiable information.
Collection of Information From Third Parties. We may collect information about you from third parties and other sources not described above. For example, we may obtain information about you if other users of girlfuture.com send us correspondence about your activities or postings on girlfuture.com. It is possible that a third party with which we have a business relationship may provide us with information about you. It is possible that information we collect about you from these third parties is personally identifiable information or becomes personally identifiable information when combined with other information.
How Do We Use Your Personally Identifiable Information?
We use your personally identifiable information as follows:
• to fulfill your requests for certain products and services, such as to deliver our newsletter;
• to contact you and deliver information to you such as administrative notices, offerings, and other communications relevant to your use of girlfuture.com;
• to analyze site usage, conduct market research, improve marketing and promotional efforts, and improve and customize our content, layout, products and services;
• to provide customer support and troubleshoot and resolve problems and disputes;
• for trying to detect and protect against error, fraud or other criminal activity, enforcing our Terms of Use, other internal purposes, and as otherwise described to you at the time of collection; and
• as otherwise set forth in this Privacy Policy.
You expressly agree to our use of your personally identifiable information as set forth in this Privacy Policy and the Terms of Use.
If you are a parent and allow your child to register with us, or if you register a child with us, then you give us consent to collect and use that child’s personally identifiable information and non-personally identifiable information for our internal use.
How do We Disclose and Share Your Personally Identifiable Information?
The following describes some of the ways that your personally identifiable information may be disclosed in the normal scope of business:
• Blogs and Forums. Any information that you place or submit to be placed within any blog or other forum on girlfuture.com may be disclosed to others registered with girlfuture.com.
• Internal Service Providers. We may use third parties that we refer to as internal service providers to facilitate or outsource one or more aspects of our business, product and service operations (e.g., technology, Forums, analytical tools) and therefore we may provide some of your personal information directly to these internal service providers. In an effort to maintain the confidentiality, security and integrity of your personally identifiable information, we implement reasonable contractual and technical protections limiting the use of your personally identifiable information by internal service providers.
• External Service Providers. There may be a number of separate services offered by third parties on girlfuture.com that we refer to as external service providers and that may be complementary to your use of girlfuture.com. We will only provide your personally identifiable information to an external service provider with your consent. In other words, we will not sell, rent, lease, provide or otherwise disclose your personal information to external service providers without your consent. To prevent the disclosure of your personally identifiable information to an external service provider, you can decline such consent or simply not use their services.
Please note that if you provide additional information to a service provider directly, then the service provider’s use of your personally identifiable information is governed by the service provider’s privacy policy. You should evaluate the practices of a service provider before deciding to provide information directly to that service provider.
In addition to the uses described above, and notwithstanding anything to the contrary in this Privacy Policy, we reserve the right (and you authorize us) to share or disclose your personally identifiable information when we determine, in our sole discretion, that the disclosure of your personally identifiable information is necessary to identify, contact, or bring legal action against you if:
• you are or may be violating this Privacy Policy or our Terms of Use;
• you are interfering with another's rights or property, including, without limitation, our rights or property;
• you are violating any applicable law, rule or regulation;
• necessary or required by any applicable law, rule or regulation; and/or
• requested by authorities in the event of any act of terrorism or instance of local, regional or national emergency.
Personally identifiable information and other personal information collected from you may also be transferred to a third party as a result of a sale, acquisition, merger, reorganization, other transfer or bankruptcy (a “Transfer”) involving us and/or our affiliates. We specifically reserve the right to transfer personally identifiable information collected from girlfuture.com, and any of its databases, together with any personally identifiable information contained therein, to a third party in connection with a Transfer, and nothing in this Privacy Policy is intended to interfere with our ability to transfer all or part of our business and/or assets (including girlfuture.com) to an affiliate or independent third party at any time, for any purpose, without any limitation whatsoever.
Please note that, although we use security measures to keep your personally identifiable information anonymous, no security measure is perfect or impenetrable. In addition, due to the existing environment, we cannot ensure that all of your private communications and other personally identifiable information will never be disclosed in ways not otherwise described in this Privacy Policy. By way of example (without limiting the foregoing), we may be forced to disclose personal information to the government or third parties under certain circumstances or third parties may unlawfully intercept or access transmissions or private communications. Therefore, notwithstanding anything to the contrary within this Privacy Policy, the Terms of Use or girlfuture.com, you use girlfuture.com at your own risk and we do not promise, and you should not expect, that your personally identifiable information or private communications will always remain private.
If you are a parent and allow your child to register with us, or if you register a child with us, then you may choose not to have that child’s personally identifiable information disclosed to third parties by contacting us at admin@girlfuture.com. Opting out of disclosure of a child’s personally identifiable information to third parties does not apply to disclosure by us to third parties that provide support for the internal operations of girlfuture.com.
Can You Opt-Out of Our Use of Your Personally Identifiable Information?
You may at any time opt-out of our use of your personally identifiable information via our unsubscribe process available at unsubscribe@girlfuture.com. After we process your opt-out request, we will stop using your personally identifiable information and your membership account with girlfuture.com will be terminated.
Please note, however, that after you opt-out of our use of your personally identifiable information, third parties may continue to use any personally identifiable information that may be in their possession and you may still receive offers from third parties. You must contact these third parties directly to opt-out of their use of your personally identifiable information. We are not responsible for any third party's use or failure to stop using your personally identifiable information.
What Security Measures do We Have in Place to Protect Your Information?
We are COPPA-compliant and use industry-standard security measures to protect your information. In an effort to maintain the confidentiality, security and integrity of your personally identifiable information, we implement reasonable contractual and technical protections limiting the use of your personally identifiable information by internal service providers and employees. In the unlikely event that an unauthorized third party compromises our security measures, we will not be responsible for any damages directly or indirectly caused by an unauthorized third party's ability to view, use or disseminate such information.
Why Should You Check the Privacy Policy of Third Party Web Sites?
girlfuture.com may include links to other third party Web sites. Such links are not an endorsement by us of those Web sites and/or the products or services offered there. Third party Web sites may have different privacy policies and we are not responsible for the privacy practices of those third party Web sites. If you click on a link to a third party Web site, we encourage you to check the privacy policy of that Web site, as it may differ substantially from that of this Privacy Policy.
Can We Change this Privacy Policy?
We may amend this Privacy Policy at any time. Amendments that are not material will take effect immediately upon us posting the updated Privacy Policy on girlfuture.com. If we make a material amendment to this Privacy Policy, we will notify you of such amendment by sending you an e-mail at the last e-mail address that you provided us, and/or by posting notice of such an amendment on girlfuture.com. Any such material amendment to this Privacy Policy will be effective fifteen (15) calendar days following either our dispatch of an e-mail notice to you or our posting of notice of the changes on girlfuture.com.
Please note that, at all times, you are responsible for updating your personal information to provide us your current e-mail address. In the event that the last e-mail address that you have provided us is not valid, or for any other reason is not capable of delivering to you the notice described above, our dispatch of the e-mail containing such notice will nonetheless constitute effective notice of any amendment described in the notice. Our posting of notice of such an amendment on girlfuture.com will also constitute effective notice of any amendment.
You are encouraged to revisit this Privacy Policy from time to time in order to review any changes that have been made. The date on which this Privacy Policy was last updated will be noted immediately above this Privacy Policy. Please note that, notwithstanding the notice provided above, your continued access and use of girlfuture.com (other than solely to view this Privacy Policy) following the posting of any amendments to this Privacy Policy shall automatically be deemed your acceptance of all changes.
How Can You Contact Us Regarding This Privacy Policy?
Our contact information is below. You can direct any questions concerning this Privacy Policy to us at:
girlfuture.com
c/o Independent Girls, Inc.
178 Satinwood Lane
Palm Beach Gardens, FL 33410
(561)352-3511
admin@girlfuture.com