WEDU PBS is committed to protecting the private information of our web site visitors.

Which sites are covered by this policy?

This Privacy Policy applies to wedu.org (“Site”). Please note that our Site may contain links to sponsor organizations and PBS Member Stations. We are not responsible for the privacy practices of those web sites. We encourage you to review the privacy policy of any organization before submitting your personal information to them.

What information do we gather?

WEDU collects two types of information from visitors to the Site: (A) Personally Identifiable Information, and (B) Non-personally Identifiable Information (information such as IP Addresses and cookies, which allow for a better use of the Site). Uses of this information are discussed in Section 3.

Personally Identifiable Information

WEDU will not collect personally identifiable information from you, other than what you supply to us on a voluntary basis upon request. Personally identifiable information includes, but is not limited to, name, address, e-mail address, telephone number, and credit card information.

Registration for our website

Our Site may at times require a free registration, which enables full access to the information and resources offered on our Site. A unique email address must be supplied to register.

Paid Products and Services

While the majority of our Site is free, we may charge fees for select products and services. To enable the purchase of these and other products, we collect your telephone number, e-mail address, billing address and credit card information.

Support

On certain pages within the Site, WEDU may offer visitors the opportunity to make a donation in support of public broadcasting entities, programs and series, or to order products, subscriptions or other services. If a visitor chooses to make a donation or order such other products or services, WEDU will collect and store your telephone number, e-mail address, billing address and credit card information.

Forums, Feedback and Content Submissions

On some pages of the Site, you can submit content to be published, make community postings, comments, suggestions, and vote. We may collect name, address, and e-mail addresses in connection with these activities.

Your submission of others’ Personally Identifiable Information

On some pages of the Site, you can submit information about other people. For example, you may submit a person’s name and email address to send an article. Additionally, you may purchase a gift online and submit the person’s name, address and telephone number for delivery. This information will only be used for the stated purpose.

Contests, Sweepstakes and Special Offers

On occasion, we may collect personal information from users in connection with optional (i.e. you opt in to participate in these offers) sweepstakes, contests or special offers. Such information will be used as indicated at the time of collection.

Listservs and E-mail Newsletters

On occasion, we may collect personal information from users in connection with optional (i.e. you opt in to subscribe to these services) listservs and e-mail newsletters. Such information will be used as indicated at the time of collection.

Non-personally Identifiable Information

In addition to information that you provide to us, we may also collect and store certain non-personally identifiable information automatically when using the Site. This information helps us improve the experience you and other visitors have with the Site. For example, we may collect your IP address, browser information and reference site domain, as well as related information such as the date on which you visit the Site. This information does not identify you personally and is only used in the aggregate. As is common practice among web sites, we use “cookies” and similar technologies. Cookies are text files which store your preferences. No personal information is ever stored in a WEDU cookie, even if you have entered your name or email address on other parts of the Site. You can generally prevent cookies from being used by changing the settings in your web browser, but please be aware that by doing so you may be unable to fully utilize the Site.

How do we use information gathered on the site?

Except as expressly set forth in our policies, we will not willfully disclose your personally identifiable information to any third party without first receiving your permission. We will never sell, rent, or swap your personally identifiable information with non-affiliated third parties for their own purposes. In terms of our own use of information, we may use your personally identifiable information for the activities described in the previous sections, and for internal purposes and marketing, promotional and fundraising purposes in support of public broadcasting. We will typically explain the extent of use at the time you are asked to provide personal information. If you do not want this information to be collected or used by us for these purposes, you can simply “opt out.” Under certain circumstances, opting out may prevent your participation in activities for which personal information is needed, as in contests. In certain cases, we contract with other companies to provide services on our behalf. These service providers may maintain customer databases which may hold Site users’ e-mail addresses, including: viewers, listeners, Site visitors who have provided them to WEDU by registering at our Site or signing up for a newsletter or listserv, audience members who e-mail questions about membership or programs, donors who submit online contributions, or online buyers who make a purchase. We (which includes our service providers) will use these addresses to respond to the general purposes for which we collected the information, to provide services and to operate the Site, including to respond to inquiries, to process credit card payments and billing, shipping, e-mail distribution, list processing and analysis, promotions management, to send information about WEDU or PBS programs, Site, services, membership or to correspond about a purchase or product offers. Our service providers have access to your personally identifiable information as necessary to provide certain services on our behalf. They are required to maintain the privacy of all such information in their possession or control and can only use the information on our behalf for the purpose that we have contracted them, for example processing your order or sending you a series newsletter. They are not authorized to use your information for any other purpose.

At times, we make customer mailing lists available to carefully screened companies whose products or services might interest individuals who have shopped on the Site. If you prefer that we not share your information in this way, please contact us. We, or our service providers, may release personal identification information if we believe in good faith that the law or legal process requires it, we have received a valid administrative request from a law enforcement agency, or such release is necessary to protect anyone’s rights, property or safety. On certain pages, we offer visitors the opportunity to provide comments or other user-generated content on blogs and articles. Any information that you disclose when posting a message to these areas, along with the screen name or ID used, becomes public. In addition, the information that you disclose in these areas may be used by us for promotional and marketing purposes. We are not responsible for any personally identifiable information that you choose to disclose in these public areas. We reserve the right to send you e-mail relating to your account status. This includes order confirmations, renewal/expiration notices, notices of credit card problems, other transactional e-mails and notifications about major changes to our Site. If you have registered for online discussions or other services, you may receive e-mail specific to your participation in those activities. We offer several e-mail newsletters and listservs. If you no longer wish to receive a specific newsletter, you may opt out by following the “unsubscribe” instructions located near the bottom of each newsletter. We use non-personally identifiable information, such as IP addresses or demographic information (zip codes for example) to tailor our Site to the interests/locations of our users and to measure traffic within our Site.

WEDU uses the content from the cookies to deliver relevant local resources, remember browser preferences, and improve our visitors’ experiences on the Site. WEDU does not sell information collected by cookies nor use the information for commerce-related purposes. In addition, WEDU will not filter content based on your preferences without permission.

Like many nonprofits, we occasionally exchange some of our donors’ names and postal addresses with carefully selected nonprofit educational, cultural, health, and social service organizations. When you make a contribution, your name and postal address will be included as eligible for an exchange. We may exchange donor mailing list names with other public broadcasting stations or production organizations for the purpose of promotion of national programs or other activities that will benefit WEDU donors, or for the purpose of enabling other stations to offer membership benefits to donors who move from WEDU’s service area to the other station’s service area. We may provide donor information to research organizations hired by and working on behalf of WEDU or other public broadcasting stations or organizations (such as the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, PBS, NPR) for the purpose of donor research, or for providing station member benefits, that will help support WEDU and/or the public broadcasting stations. Our exchange program provides other nonprofits with only your name and postal address. We will not exchange donor information with any political candidate, party, or committee, or with a Section 501(c)(4) advocacy group. We will not sell or rent our donor information to any organization or individual.

You, as a donor may, at any time, have your name excluded from any donor list exchange activity. Once you have asked to be excluded from any exchanges, this will remain in effect for three years. To update your information or to opt out of our list exchange program, you may email us at donorservices@wedu.org. This opt-out lasts for three years.

How can I access or correct information?

Access to personally identifiable information that is collected from our Site may be accessible for a limited period of time from the point of collection, such as where a user provides an e-mail address in order to receive an e-mail newsletter or a reminder about an upcoming program or event. If at any time, you prefer not to receive e-mail from a service that you subscribed to without creating a personal account, simply get out by following the unsubscribe options at the bottom of each e-mail.

You may also contact our Donor Services department requesting access to or correction of your personally identifiable information. For verification purposes please include your first name, last name, e-mail address and a telephone number where we can contact you. Contact our Donor Services department via phone at 1-800-354-9338, option 2; via email at donorservices@wedu.org; or via mail to WEDU Donor Services, 1300 North Boulevard, Tampa, FL, 33607-5699.

How is my information protected?

WEDU is committed to ensuring the security of the data provided to us by Site users. To prevent unauthorized access, maintain data accuracy and ensure the appropriate use of information, we have put in place appropriate physical, electronic and managerial procedures to protect the information we collect online.

Do you have additional children’s guidelines?

wedu.org is a general audience Site and does not knowingly collect or store personally identifiable information about children under the age of 13. Any part of our site that is directed to children under the age of 13 complies with COPPA (Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act) standards, which are in addition to wedu.org policies.

Acceptance of wedu.org privacy policy terms and conditions

By using this Site, you signify your agreement to the terms and condition of this wedu.org Privacy Policy. If you do not agree to the terms and conditions, please do not use the Site. We reserve the right, in our sole discretion, to change, modify, add, or remove portions of this policy at any time. Please check this page periodically for any changes. Your continued use of wedu.org following the posting of any changes to these terms shall signify your acceptance of those changes. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact us.

List Exchanges & Opt-Out

WEDU occasionally exchanges some of our donor’s names and postal addresses with carefully selected nonprofit educational, cultural, health and social service organizations. If you wish to opt out of our list exchange program, you may email us at donorservices@wedu.org. This opt-out lasts for three years.