At Teen Ink, we respect your privacy. We do collect information from you, but it is Teen Ink's policy and priority to ensure that all personal information remains private and secure.

To protect your privacy, Teen Ink:

• Provides a privacy notice and/or a link to this Privacy Statement on all pages that ask for personal information;
• Will not release personal identifying information about you without first obtaining consent; and
• Will not knowingly collect or use personal identifying information from children younger than 13.

When you visit the Teen Ink website, we may collect some basic information about your computer, including:

• IP address (your computer's unique signature)
• Operating system (e.g., Windows 95)
• Browser software (e.g., Netscape, Microsoft Internet Explorer)
• Internet Service Provider (e.g., AOL)
• Geographic location (e.g., Philadelphia, PA.)

The information we collect reflects the population as a whole rather than focusing on individuals, and we use it to help us better understand the people who visit Teen Ink. This information helps us identify the most popular areas on Teen Ink's website and determine the effectiveness of Teen Ink's promotional activities. In addition, we may disclose some of this general information to advertisers to inform them of the number of people who have seen and clicked on their advertisements.

For the same purposes, we may use cookies - small text files placed on your computer's hard drive - to help us determine the type of content and sites to which you link, the length of time that you spend at any particular site and the Teen Ink services you use. We use cookies to personalize Teen Ink's members' and visitors' experiences. Without cookies, it would be difficult for us to provide any personalized service or to fully understand Teen Ink readers needs. Cookies also tell us which advertising you have seen on the Teen Ink site, thereby allowing us to offer you a more diverse selection of advertising information.

The cookies used in connection with certain pages may allow Teen Ink to compile demographic data (which is not identifiable to a specific individual) about visitors to Teen Ink.

We do collect the e-mail addresses of people who communicate with us via e-mail to respond to these communications and to send future correspondence. We may archive messages for quality assurance purposes. In cases where Teen Ink may use a third-party vendor to provide a service (such as chat), feedback or questions directed to Teen Ink about that service may be forwarded to the vendor for a direct response to a reader.

For your protection, some of Teen Ink's personnel have access to Teen Ink's bulletin boards, chat rooms and forums to help us maintain a safe and collaborative environment online. Currently, we do not archive chat dialogs, screen names or forum postings. We also do not perform any analysis of chat room discussions. We encourage you not to give personal information or passwords to anyone on the bulletin board, in the chat rooms or forums. When you disclose your personal information, it may be collected and used by others to send you unsolicited e-mail. If you encounter any Teen Ink user who is improperly collecting or using information, please contact Teen Ink.

When you join, enter contests or sign up for other services at Teen Ink, we collect personal identifying information from you, which may include the following:

• First and last name;
• Home or other physical address;
• E-mail address;
• Phone number;
• Any other information that identifies you as a specific individual;
• Any other information that, when tied to the above information, may identify you as a specific individual.
• Name of your school and name of your teacher
• Your age and date of birth

We collect this information on pages where you can submit your work to Teen Ink for publishing consideration or register to join Teen Ink services and at other locations where you can sign up for sweepstakes and contests. We give notice at each location that asks for personal information, and such information will be used only for the purposes stated at the location of the collection and/or within this Privacy Statement.

We use information about Teen Ink members and visitors for administrative and other purposes that we deem necessary to maintain and improve Teen Ink's services. Such uses include data transmission, customer surveys conducted by Teen Ink or third parties, e-mail or chat services and other future services. We reserve the right to use third parties to provide these services. These third parties may receive certain personal identifying information about you in order for them to perform their services.

We send member account passwords only to the e-mail address given during the registration process. All registrants receive e-mail confirming their Registration. NEVER GIVE YOUR PASSWORD TO ANYONE. If someone claiming to represent Teen Ink in an e-mail or chat room asks for your Teen Ink password, DO NOT RESPOND. The only time we ask for your password is when you need to access to the TeenInk system.

Teen Ink cooperates with law enforcement agencies in identifying those who use Teen Ink services for illegal activities. We reserve the right to release information about members who we believe are in violation of Teen Ink's content guidelines, even without a subpoena, warrant or court order. We also reserve the right to report to law enforcement agencies any activities that we reasonably believe to be unlawful. We save your personal information indefinitely since we may need to contact you in the event we want your permission to publish your work in the future. If you would like us to remove you from our data base, please contact us at [email protected]. We maintain information on members who have been removed for violating Teen Ink's content guidelines in order to identify repeat offenders. From time to time, we may contact members to inform them of improvements or enhancements to Teen Ink services.

Teen Ink will use your credit card number in order to provide you with the subscription or goods or services that you request. It may also be used for other purposes stated at the time of collection, which may require disclosure of your credit card number and other personal identifying information about you to third parties. Information collected by Teen Ink is securely stored on Teen Ink's computers, which are called servers. Credit card transactions take place solely on servers that offer a higher level of security.

The transactions are handled by a third-party financial institution, which receives the credit card number and other personal identifying information in order to verify the credit card number and process the transaction. Only authorized Teen Ink employees have access to this information, in a manner consistent with industry standards. Third-party vendors may also sell products and services on Teen Ink, and their policies may differ from those of Teen Ink.

Teen Ink encourages parents and guardians to spend time online with their children and to participate in the interactive activities offered on the sites. Teen Ink encourages parents and guardians to advise their children not to talk to strangers, and to teach children not to give out their names or other personal information. Parents and guardians should also teach their children never to fill out online registration forms without the parent's or guardian's knowledge and consent. No information should be submitted to or posted at the Teen Ink web sites by children without the consent of their parent or guardian. In addition, when a child registers, his/her parent or guardian receives an e-mail about Registration and providing instructions on how the parent or guardian can delete the Registration if so desired.

Although children are allowed to participate in contests, if such a guest wins, notification and prizes are sent to the parents or guardians identified in the initial Registration process. Teen Ink does not knowingly collect or use any personal information from children under age 13 without obtaining express parental consent. Express parental consent means that Teen Ink obtains affirmative agreement from a parent or legal guardian that the child may divulge personal information by transmitting a signed statement by postal mail or fax.

All general information collected from children is used only for statistical analysis, editorial participation, feedback and those purposes described above and in the registration process. We do not give children's personal information to third parties, regardless of whether or not the children choose to allow us to disseminate their personal information for promotional opportunities.

Note: Teen Ink defines "children" as minors younger than age 13.

When you join Teen Ink, you have the option of signing up to receive information from Teen Ink's third party sponsors. Teen Ink may also hosts promotions and sweepstakes that may be sponsored and administered by outside parties. The fact that Teen Ink merchandise may be given away as prizes does not mean that Teen Ink is the sponsor. We require that outside parties conducting promotions and sweepstakes on Teen Ink site clearly identify who is conducting the promotion and state their practices concerning the use of personal identifying information. We will post privacy information in the rules and/or login area for the promotions and sweepstakes that we host. To the extent that the privacy information relating to the promotion or sweepstakes conflicts with Teen Ink's Privacy Statement, the specific privacy information regarding the promotion or sweepstakes will govern that particular promotion or sweepstakes.

Third parties that receive information about you from Teen Ink at your request are obligated to:

1. Clearly indicate the sender of the e-mail message; and
2. Provide you with a method of opting out from receiving future communications.

If you receive e-mail from a third party stating that is associated with Teen Ink, yet you do not want to receive promotional materials from Teen Ink or its sponsors, please follow the third party's removal procedures. If this procedure is not successful, please contact us at [email protected].

We do not control the actions of Teen Ink's members and visitors. If you disclose personal information on a bulletin board, in a chat room, forum or anywhere else on the site, it may be collected and used by others. Additionally, be aware that when you click on ad banners, they may lead you to other sites not operated by Teen Ink. These outside parties may have different privacy policies from ours. Teen Ink does not assume any responsibility for actions of third parties.

This privacy policy applies to the information Teen Ink collects about you as a user of Teen Ink site and services. Some of these services may provide you with additional information and choices about your privacy, which you should review.

This policy does not apply to information about you collected by third party websites and offerings linked to or otherwise accessible from Teen Ink. The information collected or received by third parties is subject to their own privacy policies.

Collection of Your Teen Ink Information

We collect or receive information about you when you interact with Teen Ink. Registering with Teen Ink is optional and we may collect information even if you do not register. Depending on how you use Teen Ink's Services, your Teen Ink information may include:

• registration-related information (such as name, addresses, e-mail addresses, telephone numbers, birth date, or gender);
• information about the Teen Ink Services that you use, how frequently you use them, and your responses to the offerings and advertisements presented on Teen Ink or other features made available by Teen Ink, including those available on third party websites;
• information about the searches you perform through Teen Ink Services and how you use the results of those searches;
• transaction-related information such as billing or shipping information, or a history of products purchased through Teen Ink;
• customer service information about you as an Teen Ink user;
• location data and other information about mobile devices used to access and interact with Teen Ink; or
• other information specifically related to your use of particular Teen Ink services or offerings, including information that you publicly post using tools made available by Teen Ink.

Teen Ink may also receive or collect certain technical information when you use our services. This may include: the type of browser or operating system you are using, your manner of connecting to the Internet and the name of your Internet service provider; your Internet protocol address; information about Teen Ink services that you used prior to registering with Teen Ink; and data relating to computer malfunctions or problems occurring when you use your computer with Teen Ink services. Additionally, we may collect information about other software on your computer for the limited purpose of protecting your security or improving your online experience.

How Your Teen Ink Information is used

Your Teen Ink information may be used for purposes that include:

• to operate and improve the sites, services, and offerings available through Teen Ink;
• to personalize the content and advertisements provided to you (including to present offers to you on behalf of business partners and advertisers);
• to fulfill your requests for products, programs, and services;
• to communicate with you and respond to your inquiries;
• to conduct research about your use of TeenInk; and
• to help offer you other products, programs, or services that may be of interest.

Teen Ink may use cookies, web beacons, or other technologies in combination with your Teen Ink information to enhance and personalize your experience on Teen Ink. TeenInk may use various technologies to register or authenticate you and enable you to take advantage of services.

Sharing of Your Teen Ink Information

TeenInk does not rent or sell your Teen Ink information (such as name, address, telephone number, user name, or credit card information) to third parties for their marketing purposes. Teen Ink may share your Teen Ink information with third parties to provide products and services you have requested, when we have your consent, or as described in this Privacy Policy.

Your Teen Ink information may be shared with sites and services subject to this Privacy Policy.

The contents of your online communications, as well as other information about you as a Teen Ink user, may be accessed and disclosed in response: to lawful governmental requests or legal process (for example, a court order, search warrant or subpoena), in other circumstances in which Teen Ink has a good faith belief that a crime has been or is being committed by a Teen Ink user, that an emergency exists that poses a threat to the safety of you or another person, when necessary either to protect the rights or property of Teen Ink, or for us to render the service you have requested.

Please note that if you use Teen Ink communications tools to disclose information about yourself publicly (for example, in profiles made available by Teen Ink), others outside of Teen Ink may obtain access to information you provide.

Teen Ink's offerings may include features or functionalities provided by third parties. In the process of providing such functionalities within Teen Ink services, your browser may automatically send certain technical information to the third party provider. The use of these third-party provided features or functionalities is subject to their own privacy policies.

Business partners or other third parties may receive data about groups of Teen Ink users, but do not receive information that personally identifies you.

We may use agents and contractors in order to help operate Teen Ink. Their use of information is limited to these purposes.

In the event that ownership of Teen Ink was to change as a result of a merger, acquisition, or transfer to another company, your Teen Ink information may be transferred. If such a transfer results in a material change in the use of your Teen Ink information, you will be provided notice about the choices you have to decline to permit such a transfer.

Cookies, Web Beacons, and Similar Technologies

Browser cookies are text files that are placed in your computer's browser, and that can be used to help recognize you as a Teen Ink Services user. Web beacons are small pieces of code placed on Web pages that can be used, among other things, to count the users who visit that Web page, or to deliver a cookie to the browser of a user viewing that page. Many websites, including Teen Ink, may also use Flash cookies that operate similarly to browser cookies.

We may use cookies, web beacons, or similar technologies in combination with your Teen Ink information to enhance and personalize your experience on Teen Ink Services, including:

• to help authenticate you when you use Teen Ink Services;
• to remember your preferences and registration information;
• to enable a shopping cart;
• to present and help measure and research the effectiveness of Service offerings, advertisements, and e-mail communications (by determining which Teen Ink e-mails you open and act upon);
• and to customize the content and advertisements provided to you through the Teen Ink Service.

You can control browser cookies through your browser's settings. You can control Flash cookies via the Macromedia Flash application on your computer, or by going to the Macromedia Flash Player website, which allows you to view, modify, and delete Flash cookies. Please note that if you reject all browser or Flash cookies you will not be able to take advantage of many Teen Ink Services.

The use of cookies, web beacons, or similar technologies by third party ad network or content providers is subject to their own privacy policies.

Display of Advertising

Your Teen Ink information may be used for the presentation of advertisements. Teen Ink may use ad networks to customize and display advertising on Teen Ink Services. Teen Ink may share certain information about you as a user (such as age, zip code, or other information we have collected or received) with certain ad network and service providers to help them deliver more relevant content and advertisements through their networks.

Third party advertisers and service providers may use cookies, web beacons, or other technologies in connection with advertising, content, and services offered through Teen Ink Services and other sites, including helping to operate ad networks. The use of cookies, web beacons, or other technologies by content and ad network providers is subject to the privacy policies of those third parties.

If you would like more information about this practice and to know your choices about not having this information used by these companies, you can visit the Network Advertising Initiative or Digital Advertising Alliance.

You can also use your browser to control your experience. When you clear the cookies in your browser, you may clear the information used to build a behavioral profile. Depending on the browser you are using, you can also choose to block third party cookies (such as cookies from ad networks) or browse in a private browsing mode.

Our Commitment to Security

Teen Ink has established safeguards to help prevent unauthorized access to or misuse of your Teen Ink information, but cannot guarantee that your information will never be disclosed in a manner inconsistent with this Privacy Policy (for example, as a result of unauthorized acts by third parties that violate applicable law or the policies of Teen Ink and its affiliated providers). To protect your privacy and security, we may use passwords to help verify your identity before granting access or making corrections to your Teen Ink information.

Protecting Children

Teen Ink is committed to complying fully with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act.

The Teen Ink forums and profiles are not intended for use by children under the age of 13. We will not knowingly collect any information from site visitors in this age group and have taken such measures by requiring all users to enter their birth date prior to entering personally identifiable information.

However, if we learn that a child under the age of 13 has submitted personally identifiable information online, in contravention of these measures, we will take all reasonable measures to delete such information from our databases and to not use such information for any purpose except where necessary to protect the safety of the child or others or as required by law.

We encourage children to talk with their parents about the information any website is collecting and decide together what information to share. We also encourage parents to talk to their children about limiting the release of personal information to anyone that they do not know.

How to Contact Us

If you have any questions or concerns about the Teen Ink Privacy Policy or its implementation, you may contact us.

Changes to this Privacy Policy and Additional Information

Teen Ink may update this Privacy Policy from time to time, and so you should review this policy periodically. If there are significant changes to Teen Ink's information practices, you will be provided with appropriate online notice. You may be provided other privacy-related information in connection with your use of offerings from Teen Ink as well as for special features and services not described in this Policy that may be introduced in the future.

Last Updated 07-17-2012