Privacy Policy

Thank you for visiting our web site located at SesameStreetFamilyConnections.org, which we refer to below as the “Site.”  The Site is provided as a public service with funding from the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense (Health Affairs) and the Defense Centers of Excellence for Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury. Sesame Workshop is the administrator of the Site. The Department of Defense and the Defense Centers of Excellence do not have access to any user information on the Site or to any materials posted on the Site by users.

Through the Site, Sesame Workshop (also referred to as “we,” “us” or “our”) aims to provide families with a private network in which to post and share messages, artwork, photos, audio and video with each other.  Sesame Workshop has been trusted by parents for decades to provide safe, entertaining and educational content.  We take this trust seriously and recognize the importance of privacy concerns especially in the Internet environment.  With this in mind, we have adopted this Privacy Policy for the Site.

Site Description

The Site contains general information that you can access without registering. You may also create a “Family Network” on the Site through which you, your family members and your friends can stay connected with each other. One person (the “Network Initiator”) – who must be an adult -- can start the process by creating a password-protected Account and designing the appearance and choosing the settings for the Family Network Pages. The Network Initiator may give his or her own kids supervised access to the Family Network Pages, and may create an online identity for them under the Network Initiator’s Account. This is done without submitting any personally identifiable information about the children. Included children will be able to post materials on the Family Network Pages only as part of their parent’s password-protected Account. For this reason, we strongly suggest that users supervise the use of their Account and not provide their account user name and password to anyone.

After the Family Network has been created, the Network Initiator may send e-mail invitations to adult family and friends to join the Family Network. Those individuals who accept an invitation (“Invited Users”) must create an Account. The Invited Users will be able to give supervised access to the Family Network Pages to their own kids, and may create an online identity for them under the Invited User’s Account. Invited Users may send e-mail invitations to additional family and friends (also referred to as “Invited Users”) to join the Family Network. Network Initiators and Invited Users will be able to create, post, share, access, respond to, and delete materials within the Family Network Pages. The posted materials (“User Content”) may include messages, photos, audio and video as well as artwork created with the Site’s art tool. The Family Network Pages and all of the content on those pages will be accessible only by the Network Initiator and the Invited Users for those Family Network Pages.

Information Submitted by Users

Sesame Workshop does not actively collect personally identifiable information from users other than the information requested as part of the registration process (your name, e-mail address and password, together, the “Registration Information”). During the registration process, you may be asked whether you wish to allow us to use your Registration Information to contact you for specific purposes.

We will use your Registration Information only to set up and maintain your Account and your Family Network Pages, to fulfill the specific purposes for which you have given your consent, and as otherwise specified in this Privacy Policy.

Please understand that if you choose to not receive promotional correspondence from us, we may still contact you in connection with your use of the Site, and your relationship, activities and communications with us.

You may provide us with the name and e-mail address of family members or friends in order for us to send them an invitation to become an Invited User. Such information will be used to enable them to become registered as Invited Users and as specified in this Privacy Policy.

User Content

All User Content will be used only to maintain and display the Family Network Pages on which it was posted. Any User Content posted on the Family Network Pages will be accessible only by the Network Initiator and Invited Users for those Family Network Pages and will not be shared other than as described in this Privacy Policy.

Sesame Workshop’s policy is to not pre-screen or monitor User Content posted on the Family Network Pages. However, Sesame Workshop reserves the right in its sole discretion to review any User Content that is posted on the Family Network Pages. If Sesame Workshop, in its sole discretion, deems any User Content to be in violation of the Terms of Use or this Privacy Policy, or otherwise objectionable, Sesame Workshop shall have the right to remove such User Content.

Information About Children

Sesame Workshop does not actively collect personally identifiable information from users on the Site who we know are under 13.  We will not condition a child’s participation in a game, activity or service on the Site or a child’s opportunity for a prize on the disclosure of personally identifiable information. Account holders must be adults and children can participate in the Family Network only through their parents’ password-protected Accounts. As noted above, Sesame Workshop’s policy is to not pre-screen or monitor User Content posted on the Family Network Pages.

If you are the parent of a child who has posted any materials on your Family Network Pages, you may review the materials by accessing the Family Home Pages on which they were posted. If you wish to delete any such materials from your Family Network Pages, you may do so directly on the Family Home Pages by deleting the particular materials (e.g., a message or a video). Because your child may access your Family Home Pages only through your password-protected Account, you may restrict future postings by your child by restricting your child’s further use of your Account.

Information Collected Automatically

We also collect information by various technical means, without your submitting any information, in order to help us understand the usage of the Site (such as the number of visitors to the Site and the most popular pages) and to enhance the user experience (such as whether you have a high or low bandwidth connection to the Internet). The information collected in this way generally is not personally identifiable information.

We also collect data automatically through “cookies,” “web beacons,” and “web logs” which are commonly used on the Internet. 

A “cookie” is a piece of information that a web site transfers to a user's computer for record-keeping purposes.  As a user moves from page to page at our Site, a cookie is used to tell us that it is the same user. We also may use a cookie to keep track of your selections.  You may set your Internet browser to accept or not accept cookies and you may delete any cookies that you have received. However, should you decide to disable any cookies we place on your computer, you may not be able to use certain services or features on the Site. 

A “web beacon” is a one-pixel image (which may be visible or transparent), which may be embedded on a web page or e-mail message, and which may also provide us with information about usage of that page or e-mail message.

We also maintain web logs that record basic information about visitors to our Site such as the Internet Protocol (IP) address for their computers and the type of browser and operating system they use. An IP address is a number designated for your computer by your Internet service provider to provide access to the Internet. We may use your IP address to gather aggregate information on the use of the Site, but we will only be able to identify you individually if we link the IP address to you as a particular user. 

Additional Uses and Disclosures of Information

We may use third parties to help operate our Site and deliver our services (our “Services Providers”), and we may share the information we collect with them, to use on our behalf, in order to help us operate our Site and deliver our services.  The Services Providers are required to maintain the privacy of all such information in their possession or control and can only use the information for the purpose that we have contracted them, for example maintaining servers and storage, or delivering newsletters. 

We may disclose and use the information we collect in connection with investigations of illegal or unauthorized activity or in response to requests by law enforcement agencies as well as government and other authorities.

We may disclose information to protect our rights or property or other users of the Site.

In the event that Sesame Workshop, or substantially all of its assets, is acquired by one or more third parties as a result of an acquisition, merger, sale, reorganization, consolidation or liquidation, information we collect on our Site may be one of the transferred assets. 

We may disclose aggregate statistics regarding user behavior as a measure of interest in, and use of, our Site and e-mails to third parties in the form of aggregate data, such as overall patterns or demographic reports that do not describe or identify any individual user.

Wireless E-mail Addresses

If the e-mail address you provide to us is a wireless e-mail address, you agree to receive messages at such address from Sesame Workshop (unless and until you have elected not to receive such messages). You understand that your wireless carrier’s standard rates apply to these messages, and that you may change your mind at any time and elect not to receive such messages. You represent that you are the owner or authorized user of the wireless device on which messages will be received, and that you are authorized to approve the applicable charges.  

Security

Sesame Workshop will endeavor to protect the security and integrity of sensitive information collected on the Site.  However, due to the inherent nature of the Internet as an open global communications vehicle, we cannot guarantee that information, during transmission through the Internet or while stored on our system or otherwise in our care, will be safe from intrusion by others, such as hackers. 

In some areas of the Site, you may establish access through a username and a password.  You are solely responsible for maintaining the strict confidentiality of your password. 

In the unlikely event that we believe that the security of your personally identifiable information in our possession or control may have been compromised, we may seek to notify you of that development.  If a notification is appropriate, we would endeavor to do so as promptly as possible under the circumstances, and, to the extent we have your e-mail address, we may notify you by e-mail.  You consent to our use of e-mail as a means of such notification. If you prefer for us to use another method to notify you in this situation, please e-mail us at dotorgmail@sesameworkshop.org with the alternative contact information you wish to be used.

Links From the Site to Third Party Site

When you are on our Site, you may have the opportunity to visit, or link to, other sites, including other Sesame Workshop sites or sites operated by subsidiaries or affiliates of Sesame Workshop or by unaffiliated third parties.  When you link to such third party sites, you become subject to their terms of use and privacy policies rather than ours. You should review these third party sites’ privacy policies regarding any personally identifiable information that they may collect about you at their site.  Sesame Workshop does not accept any responsibility or liability for the privacy practices of third party sites and your use of such sites is at your own risk.

Changes to Privacy Policy

Whenever this Privacy Policy for our Site changes, we will post the changes to the Site, and such changes will be effective immediately upon posting.  If you do not agree to the changes, please do not continue to use the Site.  Under certain circumstances, we may also elect to notify you of changes or updates to our Privacy Policy by additional means, such as posting a notice on the front page of our Site or sending you an e-mail if we have your e-mail address.

Sesame Workshop

The Site is operated by Sesame Workshop, located at One Lincoln Plaza, New York, New York, 10023, USA, 212-595-3456, dotorgmail@sesameworkshop.org.

Effective date: 6/22/09.