This privacy statement pertains to the www.kidsnclay.com site and all other web sites owned and maintained by Kids 'N' Clay Development LLC. Because we want to demonstrate our commitment to our users' privacy, we have agreed to disclose our information practices so that you can make an informed decision about providing information when visiting our site This privacy statement tells you: What personally identifiable information Kids 'N' Clay collects at the site. What personally identifiable information third parties collect through the Kids 'N' Clay site. What organization collects the information. How Kids 'N' Clay uses the information. With whom Kids 'N' Clay may share user information. What choices are available to users regarding collection, use and distribution of the information. What types of security procedures are in place to protect against the loss, misuse or alteration of information under Kids 'N' Clay control. How users can correct any inaccuracies in the information. Your California Privacy Rights (California residents may request Kids 'N' Clay's Direct Marketing Disclosure by contacting cservice@kidsnclay.com). If users have questions or concerns regarding this statement, they should first contact our webmaster by: email webmaster@kidsnclay.com, phone (510) 845.5473, or postal mail 1824 5th St, Berkeley CA 94710-1915. Information Collection and Use Information Collection Kids 'N' Clay is the sole owner of the information collected on www.kidsnclay.com.  Kids 'N' Clay collects information from our users at several different points on our site, including our landing pages. Registration In order to use certain areas of this site such as to sign up for Kids 'N' Clay communications, a user must first complete a registration form. During registration a user is required to give contact information (such as name, zip code, and email address). We use this information to contact the user about services on our site for which he or she has expressed an interest. In other areas of the site, such as when registering for the affiliate program or registering as a member or to access an online account, users must provide additional information which can include full address, a username, password, web site information, and, in some cases, a social security number or tax identification number so that we can comply with federal laws. Participation in these areas of the site is completely optional. Ordering We request information from the user on our order form. A user must provide contact information (such as name, email, and shipping address) and financial information (such as credit card number, expiration date). This information is used for billing purposes and to fill customer's orders. If we have trouble processing an order, the information is used to contact the user. We may present offers to purchase products from our marketing partners on our site. If you purchase goods or services from a marketing partner in connection with an offer posted on our web site, you authorize us to share your financial information (including your credit card information) with the marketing partner. Information Use When filling an order, Kids 'N' Clay uses your personal information to process and review order(s) for our software products. Once you have submitted an order for one of our products, we use your information internally to process your order(s), and to personalize Kids 'N' Clay communications based on your interests. Kids 'N' Clay usually does this by the periodic mailings sent to your postal address (typically along with your product order) or to your email address alerting you to special offers, newsletters, and commercial offerings that may be of interest. Profile We store information that we collect through cookies, log files, clear gifs, and/or third parties to create a profile of our users. A profile is stored information that we keep on individual users that details their viewing preferences. Consequently, collected information is tied to the users’ personally identifiable information to provide offers and improve the content of the site for the user. This profile is used to tailor a user's visit to our web site, and to direct pertinent marketing promotions to them. We share your profile with other third parties, mostly in aggregate, but occasionally, your profile is shared together with your personally identifiable information. Cookies A cookie is a piece of data stored on the user's computer tied to information about the user. We use session ID cookies and persistent cookies. For the session ID cookie, once users close the browser, the cookie simply terminates. A persistent cookie is a small text file stored on the user's hard drive for an extended period of time. Persistent cookies can be removed by following Internet browser help file directions at (http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;EN-US;q278835 for Internet Explorer and http://help.netscape.com/kb/consumer/19971020-3.html) for Netscape. By setting a cookie on our site, users would not have to log in a password more than once, thereby saving time while on our site. If users reject the cookie, they may still use our site. The only drawback to this is that the user will be limited in some areas of our site. For example, the user may not be able to retrieve account information or interact with some of our community features. Persistent cookies enable us to track and target the interests of our users to enhance the experience on our site. See the "Profile" section. Some of our business partners use cookies on our site. However, we have no access to or control over these cookies, once we have given permission for them to set cookies. Log Files Like most standard site servers we use log files. This includes internet protocol (IP) addresses, browser type, internet service provider (ISP), referring/exit pages, platform type, date/time stamp, and number of clicks to analyze trends, administer the site, track users’ movements in the aggregate, and gather broad demographic information for aggregate use. IP addresses can be tied to personally identifiable information to enable our Web-based service. We use a tracking utility called WebTrends that uses log files to analyze user movement. Clear Gifs (Web Beacons/Web Bugs) We or our third party partner companies employ a software technology called clear gifs (a.k.a. Web Beacons/Web Bugs), that help us better manage content on our site by informing us what content is effective. Clear gifs are tiny graphics with a unique identifier, similar in function to cookies, and are used to track the online movements of Web users. The main difference between the two is that clear gifs are invisible on the page and are much smaller, about the size of the period at the end of this sentence. Clear gifs can be tied to users' personally identifiable information. Clear Gifs can "work with" existing cookies on a computer if they are both from the same web site or advertising company. That means, for example, that if a person visited "www.companyX.com", which uses an advertising company's clear gif, the site or advertising company would match the clear gif's identifier and the advertising company's cookie ID number, to show the past online behavior for that computer. This collected information would then be given to the advertising company or site. To learn more about our use of clear gifs, please contact us via email, phone or postal mail at the addresses above. In addition, we, or our email deployment partner, use clear gifs in our HTML-based emails to let us know which emails the recipients have opened. This allows us to gauge the effectiveness of certain communications and the effectiveness of our marketing campaigns. If you would like to opt-out of these emails, please see the Opt-out section. This privacy statement covers use of clear gifs by this site only and does not cover use of clear gifs by our partner companies or their third party advertisers. For information about a third party partner company's use of clear gifs, please visit their site directly and review their online privacy statement. Communication from the Sites Special Offers and Updates We send all new online customers and members a welcoming email to verify password and username. Established members will occasionally receive information on products, services, special deals, and a newsletter. Out of respect for the privacy of our users we present the option to not receive these types of communications. Please see the Choice and Opt-out sections. Newsletter If a user wishes to subscribe to our newsletter, we ask for contact information such as name, zip code, and email address. Out of respect for our users’ privacy we provide a way to opt-out of these communications. Please see the Choice and Opt-out sections. Service Announcements On rare occasions it is necessary to send out a strictly service related announcement. For instance, if our service is temporarily suspended for maintenance we may send users an email. Generally, users may not opt-out of these communications, though they can deactivate their account. However, these communications are not promotional in nature. Customer Service We communicate with users on a regular basis to provide requested services and in regards to issues relating to their account we reply via email or phone, in accordance with the users wishes. Sharing Legal Disclaimer Though we make every effort to preserve user privacy, we may need to disclose personal information when required by law wherein we have a good-faith belief that such action is necessary to comply with a current judicial proceeding, a court order or legal process served on our site. Aggregate Information (non-personally identifiable) We share aggregated demographic information with our partners. This is not linked to any personally identifiable information. These are the instances in which we will share users' personal information: We share personal information with third parties, including our business partners. For example, we may pass your email, name, and other personal information to a third party that we feel may have products or services which may be of interest to you. Third Party Intermediaries We may use an outside shipping company to ship orders, and a credit card processing company to bill users for goods and services. These companies do not retain, share, store or use personally identifiable information for any secondary purposes. Service Providers We partner with other third parties to provide specific services. For example, at the conclusion of a sale, you may be offered magazine subscriptions. When the user signs up for these particular services, we share name, or other contact information, such as address and/or phone number that is necessary for the third party to provide these services. These third parties are not allowed to use personally identifiable information except for the purpose of providing these services. Business Transitions In the event Kids 'N' Clay goes through a business transition, such as a merger, being acquired by another company, or selling a portion of its assets, users' personal information will, in most instances, be part of the assets transferred. Users will be notified via email and a prominent notice on our site for 30 days prior to a change of ownership or control of their personal information. Our users are given the opportunity to 'opt-out' of having their information used for purposes not directly related to our site. Users who no longer wish to receive our newsletter and promotional communications may opt-out of receiving these communications by emailing their address to remove@kidsnclay.com or the user may contact us at 510.845.5473 or via Postal Mail: Kids 'N' Clay Development, ATTN: Remove, 1824 5th St, Berkeley CA 94710-1915, to opt-out. Links This site contains links to other sites and we will, on occasion, create partnerships with reputable third-party companies, where we host their content, or vice versa. Please be aware that we, Kids 'N' Clay Development LLC, are not responsible for the privacy practices of such other sites. We encourage our users to be aware when they leave our site and to read the privacy statements of each and every site that collects personally identifiable information. This privacy statement applies solely to information collected by this site. Surveys & Contests From time-to-time our site offers users the opportunity to participate in surveys or contests. We may request information from users via surveys or contests but participation in these surveys or contests is completely voluntary and the user therefore has a choice whether or not to disclose this information. The requested information typically includes contact information such as name and shipping address and demographic information (such as zip code). Contact information will be used and shared with the contest or survey sponsors to notify the winners and award prizes. Survey information will be used for purposes of monitoring or improving the use and satisfaction of this site. Users' personally identifiable information may be shared with third parties but only in accordance with our privacy policy. Though we may use an intermediary to conduct these surveys or contests, they may not use users' personally identifiable information for any secondary purposes. Tell-A-Friend If a user elects to use our referral service for informing a friend about our site, we ask them for the friend's name and email address.  Kids 'N' Clay stores this information for the sole purpose of sending this one-time email and tracking the success of our referral program. The friend may contact Kids 'N' Clay at remove@kidsnclay.com to request the removal of this information from our database. Security When users submit sensitive information via the site, their information is protected both online and off-line. When our registration/order form asks users to enter sensitive information (such as credit card number and/or social security number), that information is encrypted using SSL. All information entered into our order forms will be encrypted when you submit the information page. To learn more about SSL, follow this link: http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/S/SSL.html. While we use SSL encryption to protect sensitive information online, all of our users' information, not just the sensitive information mentioned above, is also restricted in our offices. Only employees who need the information to perform a specific job (for example, our billing clerk or a customer service representative) are granted access to personally identifiable information. Furthermore, ALL employees are kept up-to-date on our security and privacy practices. Periodically, as well as any time new policies are added, our employees are notified and/or reminded about the importance we place on privacy, and what they can do to ensure our users' information is protected. Finally, the servers that store personally identifiable information are in a secure environment, in a locked facility. Supplementation of Information In order for this site to properly fulfill its obligation to users it is necessary for us to supplement the information we receive with information from third party sources Enhancement of Marketing Profile We purchase third party marketing data and add it to our existing user database to better target our advertising and provide pertinent offers we think our users would be interested in. We use this information to enhance or overlay the 'profile' of individual users. This aggregate marketing data is therefore tied to the users' personally identifiable information. See also the "Profile" section. Correcting/Updating/Deleting/Deactivating Personal Information If a registered customer's identifiable information changes (such as zip code, phone, email or postal address), or if a user no longer desires our service, we provide a way to correct, update or delete/deactivate his or her personally identifiable information. This can usually be done by emailing our Customer Support at cservice@kidsnclay.com, or by contacting us by telephone or postal mail at the contact information listed below. Kids 'N' Clay Development LLC Attention:  Customer Service 1824 5th St Berkeley CA 94710-1915 Tel:  510.845.5473 California Residents California residents may request a copy of Kids 'N' Clay's Direct Marketing Disclosure by contacting cservice@kidsnclay.com. Privacy Policy Changes If we decide to change our privacy policy, we will post these changes here so that you will always be aware of what information we collect, how we use it, and under what circumstances, if any, we disclose it. We will use information in accordance with the then-current privacy policy. Contact Information If users have any questions or suggestions regarding our privacy policy, please contact us at: Kids 'N' Clay Development LLC Attention:  Customer Service 1824 5th St Berkeley CA 94710-1915 Tel:  510.845.5473 cservice@kidsnclay.com   Home Page | Contact Us | The Kids 'N' Clay Ceramics Book ! | Kevin Nierman Founder & Ceramic Artist The Kids' Gallery! (Artists-in-Residence at Kids 'N' Clay!) | Privacy Policy | Kids 'N' Clay Locations | Site Map © 2001 - 2008 The names Kids 'N' Clay and MudPies are registered trademarks and protected under US trademark and copyright laws