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Those Characters From Cleveland, Inc., an American Greetings company
("Care Bears") is committed to providing safe, entertaining
and reliable content to families. We take this trust very seriously,
especially as we expand our online presence. We recognize that
families are concerned about privacy and especially about the
privacy of their children online. American Greetings, its staff,
contractors, and others who help us operate our website follow
this privacy policy on privacy for online activities of Care Bears.
We encourage parents to read and understand our privacy policy,
and to contact American Greetings with any questions or concerns.
This policy applies only to our online privacy practices.
1. Trust, Notice, and Security
At American Greetings, we fully disclose our policy about the
collection, maintenance, use, disclosure, and security of personally
identifiable information obtained from users of our online activities.
Concerns about privacy can be stronger in the online environment.
American Greetings promises to follow this privacy policy that
we adapted for the Care Bears website.
The Care Bears website will change over time as we add exciting
new features. The Internet itself will also change as new capabilities
and perhaps new laws emerge. And accordingly, this privacy policy
will be updated occasionally. This privacy policy statement will
be refined, improved, and updated to reflect changes in our website
Another important element of trust is security. The security of
personal information is a high priority at American Greetings.
American Greetings maintains the Care Bears website and all associated
data with technical, administrative, and physical safeguards to
protect against loss, unauthorized access, destruction, misuse,
modification, and improper disclosure. No computer system or information
can ever be fully protected against every possible hazard. American
Greetings is committed to providing reasonable and appropriate
security controls to protect the Care Bears website and its information.
American Greetings requires that employees and contractors who
have access to personally identifiable information only use it
for purposes of operating the website features. These individuals
are required to acknowledge in writing that they have read the
Privacy Policy statement and agree to follow it.
The Care Bears website is operated and maintained by American
Greetings Corporation located at One American Road, Cleveland,
Ohio 44144. Care Bears is a trademark of Those Characters From
Cleveland, Inc. (TCFC), which is an American Greetings company.
American Greetings has access to any personal information collected
on this site.
2. Parental Involvement and Consent
Parental involvement in a child's Care Bears activities is a cornerstone
of our approach to the Internet.
The Care Bears website encourages parents and caregivers to spend
time online with children and to collaborate in the learning and
fun offered at our website. The Internet is a wonderful place
to explore as a family. We recommend that an adult accompany children
when using content on the Internet. The Care Bears website has
been designed to delight children and adults alike. We encourage
parents to teach their children about online safety and to supervise
their children online.
American Greetings recognizes that collecting personal information
from visitors to the Care Bears website can be sensitive. Many
features of the Care Bears website do not require disclosure of
a name, e-mail address, or any other personal information to participate
in that feature. Some features, such as the Care Bears Club, need
personal information in order to work. We want our users to understand
what information we collect and how we use it. We also want to
provide our users with a choice when possible.
A. Care Bears Club
The Care Bears Club is a special section just for club members.
It allows members to join and participate in special activities,
games, offers and promotions, fortunes, recipes and polls. Club
members may also receive special e-mail messages from Care Bears
on special occasions such as birthdays and e-mails regarding offers,
promotions or features from Care Bears. Members also may receive
periodic newsletters regarding the website or merchandise or offers.
Members may also have chances to participate in special contests
or sweepstakes in which prizes may be awarded.
To join the Care Bears Club, users first must register to become
a member. At the membership page, users are asked to provide their
first name only and their date of birth. Users who are under the
age of thirteen will not be able to become members until a parent
or legal guardian consents to their membership. Those users are
asked to provide a parent's or legal guardian's first name and
e-mail address as well as their first name.
Parents will receive a notice via e-mail that explains the Care
Bears Club, the personal information collected, and how the website
will use that personal information. Parents then have the opportunity
to consent to the collection and uses of the information. At no
time will more information be collected from a child than is reasonably
necessary to participate in the online activity.
Once parental consent has been obtained, American Greetings and
the Care Bears Club may in the future collect certain personally
identifiable information from the user such as name, address,
e-mail address, gender, age, and/or contest or sweepstakes submission.
If a parent consents, American Greetings will use the information
to send e-mails, newsletters, special promotions and offers to
Care Bears Club Members or to notify winners of any sweepstakes
or contests and to fulfill prizes. All personal information collected
from Care Bears Club Members will not be shared with any third
party, except as allowed by law, including the Children's Online
Privacy Protection Act.
B. Aggregate, Non-Personal Information American
Greetings may perform statistical analyses of aggregate user behavior,
but they are not based on personal information. These analyses
allow us to measure relative consumer interest in the various
areas of our website for product development purposes. Any non-personally
identifiable information collected is used for our own internal
purposes to improve the content of the website, to enhance user's'
experiences when visiting our site, to customize the content and/or
layout of our pages, and to provide the services required by an
individual user. Again, any statistical analyses of user behavior
will not be based on personal information, but solely on aggregate
information. We may share this aggregate non-personally identifiable
information with advertisers or potential advertisers.
C. Contact Us Throughout the site, there are
instances where users may contact American Greetings to request
more information about the website, products or the company. Users
may do this by clicking on the hyperlinks that allows them to
e-mail a question. When a user doses this, American Greetings
will collect the user’s personally identifiable information,
including the user’s e-mail address and other personal information
provided in the user’s request. American Greetings uses
this information to respond to the user, and deletes all personally
identifiable information thereafter in compliance with the one-time
exception of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act
3. Use and Disclosure Limitations
American Greetings uses personally identifiable information about
Care Bears website users only in defined and responsible ways
and pursuant to the parental consent obtained. We do not share
users' personally identifiable information with third parties
except when required or permitted by law, including the Children's
Online Privacy Protection Act.
Cookies: On the Internet, a cookie is a piece of information that
a website transfers to a user's computer for record-keeping purposes.
As a user moves from page to page at the Care Bears website, a
cookie is the only way that we have of knowing who you are. An
activity on one page may depend on what you selected on a previous
page. We use a cookie to keep track of your selection. Without
cookies, users may be asked to provide the same information repeatedly.
Some activities may not function at all.
The use of cookies is common on the Internet. Most major websites
use cookies. The Care Bears website uses cookies only when appropriate.
We never use cookies to retrieve information from your computer
that was not originally sent in a cookie from us. We never use
information transferred through cookies for marketing purposes.
We never share cookies information with any third parties for
marketing or other purposes.
Ads on the Care Bears website (e.g., interactive banners) sometimes
allow a user to click through to a website maintained by an advertiser.
Advertisers may have different privacy policies, which we encourage
you to review. When you click through to these websites operated
by our advertisers, you may occasionally get cookies directly
from them. The Care Bears website does not see or use these cookies,
and we do not control how other sites use cookies. Other websites
operate under their own cookies and privacy policies, and the
Care Bears website policies no longer apply once you leave our
site.
You can control cookies from your end. Internet browsers (like
Netscape, AOL and Explorer) give you the ability to control the
use of cookies. Most browsers are initially set to accept cookies.
If you prefer, you can set your browser to alert you when cookies
are in use. You may set your browser to disable or refuse cookies.
You can also erase a cookie that has been placed on your computer
by us or by others. If you do not allow cookies to be used in
the traditional way, it is possible that some parts of the website
will not function as we designed them. It is your choice.
It is possible that American Greetings could be required to disclose
personal information in response to valid legal process. This
includes a search warrant, subpoena or court order. In this respect,
we are no different from any other record keeper. Disclosures
may also be appropriate to protect American Greetings legal rights
or during emergencies if physical safety is believed to be at
risk. We think that these events are unlikely, but they are possible.
We will take reasonable steps to limit the scope and consequences
of any of these disclosures.
4. Complaints and Change in Parental Consent.
The Care Bears website pledges to work with users to resolve any
complaints about our privacy policy and with parents who wish
to review their child's personal information that they authorized
us to collect and use. If you have a complaint about our Privacy
Policy, wish to review your child's information, ask to have it
deleted, or refuse future collection or use of it, you can write
to us at One American Road, Cleveland, Ohio
44144 or e-mail us at help@care-bears.com.
We will try to resolve any problems that arise in a fair and prompt
manner.
Thank you.
This policy was lasted updated on August 1, 2006.
Care Bears is a trademark of Those Characters From Cleveland,
Inc. (TCFC), an American Greetings company. Care Bears character
designs © 2004 TCFC. All rights reserved
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