Winter's Tail Privacy Policy

Thank you for visiting and welcome to the Winter website. It is important for parents and legal guardians to read and understand our privacy policy. Parents and guardians (collectively referred to as "parents") should pay particular attention to the parts of the policy privacy that discuss the collection of information from your children. We urge kids to check with their parents before entering information on any website, including winterstail.com, and we urge parents to discuss with their kids restrictions regarding the online release of personal information.

You agree, by using the website's services, without limitation or qualification, to be bound by the terms of this Privacy Policy. Please note that this Privacy Policy may be revised periodically.

Turtle Pond Publications LLC (referred to as "Turtle Pond") is the owner of the Winter's Tail website. The Winter's Tail website contains links to other websites. Turtle Pond takes no responsibility for the content of these websites. Users of outside websites are encouraged to review the privacy policies of these sites, which may differ from the Winter's Tail Privacy Policy.

Turtle Pond Values Your Privacy

Protecting the privacy of you and your children is a priority at Turtle Pond. We are committed to complying fully with the Children's On-Line Privacy Protection Act of 1998 "COPPA." If you would like more information about COPPA, visit http://www.ftc.gov/privacy/coppafaqs.htm.

COPPA Notice

Turtle Pond, in compliance with the COPPA, provides notice to parents of children under the age of 13 that:

Turtle Pond may collect personal information about your children;
Turtle Pond needs the consent of parents before collecting, using and disclosing personally identifiable information about children;
When necessary, Turtle Pond has created procedures by which parents can provide consent;
Turtle Pond does not require children under 13 to disclose more information than is reasonably necessary to participate in an activity as a condition of participation; and
Turtle Pond has created procedures by which Parents can review their children's personal information collected by Turtle Pond, have that information deleted, and refuse to allow further collection or use of the information.

If you have any questions about this Notice or about Turtle Pond's collection or maintenance of your child's personal information, please contact us at: info@turtlepondpublications.com.

Turtle Pond's Active Collection of Information

In order for the Winter's Tail website to offer some of its activities, various types of information are needed. This includes information about both parents and children.

Turtle Pond sometimes collects what is called personally identifiable information from parents or children. This information includes first and last names, street addresses, telephone numbers, email addresses, and photographs. Other information collected may also be personally identifiable.

Turtle Pond may also collect from parent or children non-personally identifiable information, such as first names only, states of residence, age or grade.

Parental Consent

Before Turtle Pond collects personally identifiable information from children, it obtains the consent of the child's parent. When parental consent is necessary, Turtle Pond may use one or more of the following methods to obtain consent:

Providing a consent form to be signed by the parent and returned to Turtle Pond by postal mail or facsimile;
Requiring a parent to use a credit card in connection with a transaction;
Having a parent call a toll-free telephone number staffed by trained personnel;
Using a digital certificate that uses public key technology;
Using e-mail coupled with additional steps to provide assurances that the person providing the consent is the parent. Such additional steps include: sending a confirmatory e-mail to the parent following receipt of consent; or obtaining a postal address or telephone number from the parent and confirming the parent's consent by letter or telephone call. Turtle Pond will provide notice that the parent can revoke any consent given in response to the earlier e-mail.

In certain situations, Turtle Pond need not obtain a parent's consent before collecting personal information from a child. Those situations are:

Where Turtle Pond collects the name or online contact information of a parent or child to be used for the sole purpose of obtaining parental consent or providing parental notice. Turtle Pond will delete the collected information if it has not obtained parental consent after a reasonable time.
Where Turtle Pond collects online contact information from a child for the sole purpose of responding directly on a one-time basis to a specific request from the child. The collected information is not used to recontact the child and is deleted by Turtle Pond from its records.
Where Turtle Pond collects online contact information from a child to be used to respond directly more than once to a specific request from the child, and where the information is not used for any other purpose. When this happens, Turtle Pond will make reasonable efforts to ensure that a parent receives notice of the collection and has the opportunity to request that the Turtle Ponds make no further use of the information immediately after the initial response and before making any additional response to the child. Turtle Pond will not provide a parent notice by asking a child to print a notice form or sending an e-mail to the child.
Where Turtle Pond collects a child's name and online contact information to the extent reasonably necessary to protect the safety of a child participant on the website. When this happens, Turtle Pond will use reasonable efforts to provide notice to a parent. The information will be used for the sole purpose of protecting the child's safety, and will not be used to recontact the child for any other purpose or disclosed on the website.

Where Turtle Pond's collects a child's name and online contact information, to the extent reasonably necessary:

To protect the security or integrity of its website or online service;
To take precautions against liability;
To respond to judicial process; or
To the extent permitted under the law, to provide information to law enforcement agencies or for an investigation on a matter related to public safety.

When information is collected for this purpose, such information is not used for any other purpose.

Uses of Personally Identifable Information

Turtle Pond uses information collected from users for a variety of purposes, all of which are intended to help create a better Winter's Tail website. The information is used in connection with online games, contests, sweepstakes, surveys, forums, newsletter subscription registrations, content submissions and requests for suggestions.

Turtle Pond may also use personally identifiable information to customize the website's content. For this purpose, the information will not be associated with specific users.

Another use of the information is related to marketing and promotional purposes. The information is used in connection with providing information about materials and activities of potential interest to the website's users, including products and services offered by parties unrelated to Turtle Pond. The information is used anonymously, and will be not be associated with specific users.

Turtle Pond may share personally identifiable information with third parties engaged in businesses related to the above purposes. The third parties use the information in connection with these purposes and have agreed to maintain the confidentiality, security and integrity of the personal information provided by Turtle Pond.

Parents May Review and Delete Collected Information

A parent can review personally identifiable information collected by Turtle Pond. A parent may also have the collected information deleted from Turtle Pond's files and refuse to allow further collection or use of the child's information.

If you would like to review, delete or refuse to allow further use of information collected, please contact us at: info@turtlepondpublications.com

Turtle Pond's Passive Collection of Information

In addition to asking for information from parents and children, collecting other information about the website's users is helpful in creating a fun and interactive website. This information is usually technical information about your computer.

One way that Turtle Pond collects technical information about your computer while you are on the Winter's Tail website is through the use "cookies." Cookies are simply small bits of information sent between your computer and the computer running the Winter's Tail website. Turtle Ponds also collects the Internet Protocol (IP) addresses of its users. An IP address is simply a unique number assigned to your computer by your Internet service provider while your computer is connected to the Internet. Other information may also be passively collected.

To help us optimize the Winter's Tail website, Turtle Pond permits other companies to gather this technical information, such as cookies. The other companies may use the information to help Turtle Pond create a better website and provide advertisements of potential interest to our user.

Security of Information

Understanding the importance of your privacy, Turtle Pond takes extensive measures to protect the security of personal information. Included among the measures taken are limiting the number of people within Turtle Pond who have access to the information and password protecting the information from unauthorized access.

Questions or Concerns

If you have any questions, concerns or comments about this Privacy Policy or Turtle Pond's privacy practices, please contact us at: info@turtlepondpublications.com