Privacy Policy

Effective: 12.21.2015

General Overview

Welcome! This website is operated by Walden Media, LLC (“Walden,” “us,” “our,” or “we”).  The purpose of this privacy policy (“Privacy Policy”) is to disclose what information we may collect from you, how we may collect it, with whom we may share it, and certain other matters related to such information, including the choices you have regarding our collection of information and our use and disclosure to other parties of information we may have collected from you.

We may collect such information through our website located at Walden.com, WaldenTV.com, other sites accessible via subdomains, mobile versions of any of these sites, and any other site on which this Privacy Policy is posted (each a “Site” and, collectively, the “Sites”). Terms not otherwise defined here will have the same definitions as set forth in our Terms of Service.

We may collect certain personal information and other data from visitors to our Sites.  We use this information to provide information you request, to process and complete the commercial transactions you request, and to provide you with a more personalized experience when using our Sites. We have created this Privacy Policy in order to demonstrate our firm commitment to protecting the privacy of all visitors to our Sites.

Except as otherwise discussed in this Privacy Policy, this document only addresses the use and disclosure of information we collect from you through our Sites. For some services, we may collect and transfer personal information to a service provider, or you may visit other sites or service providers through third-party links in our Sites, who may collect and use your personal information for other purposes. We encourage you to review the privacy policies of these third-party sites before you disclose your personal information to others.

Please read the following to learn more about our data collection policies and practices:

Types of information that may be collected

We collect two types of information through our Sites. “PII” means “personally-identifiable information,” which is information that identifies you personally, either alone or in combination with other information available to us (including without limitation your name, address, email address, telephone number, age, background, or other personal information). “Non-PII” means “non-personally identifiable information” or information that alone does not identify you (however, in some circumstances Non-PII may be combined with PII in order to identify a specific individual).

In order to access or use certain services and capabilities on our Sites or to participate in certain contests or sweepstakes, you may be required to voluntarily submit certain PII through our Sites. The use of these services or capabilities or participation in these programs is purely optional, so you are not required to submit any PII to Walden.com if you do not wish to do so. For example, you may wish to provide PII to us in connection with surveys, contests, sweepstakes, or other promotions; registration for our newsletter; or submitting feedback to us. This information may include your name, address, email address, and other information you voluntarily provide to us.

How is information collected?

We may collect information from you in various ways when you use our Sites, including but not limited to those described below:

Newsletters, Emails and Offers

We may offer newsletters and/or other communications to share information with you about our movies, books, Sites and Educational Materials, about topics or offers in which we believe you may be interested, about us and our related entities, or about our advertisers, sponsors, or other business partners.  You may subscribe to receive a newsletter either by registering to learn more about a particular movie, or by signing up to our general mailing list. You may cancel any of your email subscriptions by following the instructions provided in the designated area of the newsletters or emails, or as specified in another communication from us.

Contests or Sweepstakes

We may operate or promote contests and sweepstakes through our Sites, which may require registration in order to enter. The privacy practices of a particular contest or sweepstakes may vary from the practices stated in this Privacy Policy, particularly if a contest or sweepstakes is sponsored by a third party and hosted on their site. Where the terms of a sweepstakes or contest include privacy practices that differ from or conflict with this Privacy Policy, the privacy practices of the contest or sweepstakes you entered will control, and will be disclosed in the rules for that promotion. Without limiting the foregoing, your personally-identifiable information may be used by us to contact you for winner notification, prize delivery confirmation or other promotional purposes. Your entry in the contest or sweepstakes may also result in your being added to our mailing/texting lists as well as those of our promotional partners associated with the contest or sweepstakes. Acceptance of a prize may require you (unless prohibited by law) to allow us to post publicly some of your information on the Site, such as on a winner’s page, in the event you win a contest or sweepstakes.

In some instances, a third-party advertiser or sponsor may operate or host a contest or sweepstakes on the Sites (or promoted through the Sites), and may collect your information. In those cases, where we are not the sponsor, operator or host of the contest or sweepstakes, we may have no control over the information collected and accordingly urge you to review the official rules of the contest/sweepstakes as well as the advertiser’s or sponsor’s privacy policy applicable to the contest or sweepstakes before participating.

Cookies, web beacons and other tracking technologies

Our Sites use cookies, which are small, commonly-used files that are transferred to your computer by us or a third party when you allow your browser to accept cookies. Similarly, we, our third party service providers or advertisers may also use “web beacons,” “pixel tags” or other tracking technologies, which are typically small pieces of code placed on a web page to monitor behavior and collect certain data regarding the actions of our guests online. These cookies and other technologies may be used to track your online traffic patterns, to enhance your experience when using our Site, to store information during your session, to personalize the Sites for you based on your preferences and selections, to target advertising or content to you (as described further below) and to collect Non-PII about you and your visit to our Sites for other marketing and business purposes. You can adjust your privacy preferences regarding the use of cookies and similar technologies through your browser. However, disabling cookies may impair your user experience and disable certain features of our Site.

One type of third-party cookie/tool we may use is Google Analytics, which we may use to collect information about use of our Sites. Google Analytics collects information such as how often guests visit our Sites, what pages they visit when they do so, and what other sites they visited prior to coming to this Site. We use the information we get from Google Analytics only to improve the Sites and our other web sites. Google Analytics collects only the IP address assigned to you on the date you visit this Site, rather than your name or other identifying information. Although Google Analytics places a persistent cookie on your web browser to identify you as a unique user the next time you visit this Site, the cookie is designed to be used only by Google. Google’s ability to use and share information collected by Google Analytics about your visits to this site is restricted by the Google Analytics Terms of Use and the Google Privacy Policy. You can prevent Google Analytics from recognizing you on return visits to this site by disabling cookies on your browser, or you may opt out here.

Data about your activities online may be collected for use in providing advertising tailored to your individual interests. We may use third parties such as network advertisers and ad exchanges (e.g. Google) to serve advertisements across the internet and may use third party analytics service providers to evaluate and provide us and/or third parties with information about the use of these ads on third party websites and viewing of ads and of our content. These third-party tracking technologies may be set to, among other things: (a) help deliver advertisements to you that you might be interested in; (b) prevent you from seeing the same advertisements too many times; and (c) understand the effectiveness of the advertisements that have been delivered to you. This collection and ad targeting takes place both on our Sites and on third-party websites or services that participate in the ad network, such as websites that feature advertisements delivered by the ad network. To learn more about how to opt out of Google’s use of these technologies, visit Google’s Ads Settings, here. To learn more about how to opt out of DoubleClick’s use of these technologies, visit the DoubleClick opt-out page, here.

Please note, our Sites do not currently respond to browser do-not-track signals. Further, our third party advertising networks may install their own cookies, including cookies that may track our Site visitors over time and across third party sites, and which may change over time without notice to you or Walden.  If you wish to take steps to opt-out of tracking by certain online advertisers, you can visit the Digital Advertising Alliance’s opt-out page at http://www.aboutads.info/choices or the Network Advertising Initiative at www.networkadvertising.org/optout_nonppii.asp.

Location; IP Addresses; and Click-stream Data

Our Sites and servers may collect other Non-PII from you. The Non-PII collected does not by itself identify you personally. However, if you have registered on the Site, it may be possible for us to link certain Non-PII to information that identifies you personally. Non-PII collected by Walden.com includes: information sent to us automatically by your web browser, the address of the web page you were visiting when you accessed our Site, information about your operating system, the browser you are using; the date and time of your visit; and online traffic patterns and content accessed throughout our Sites. This information allows us to better tailor our content to visitors’ needs and helps us and certain third parties to better understand our audience.

How do we use the information we collect?

Walden.com or our third party service providers may use PII or Non-PII collected on our Site:

  • To enhance or personalize your experience using our Site;
  • To inform you of offers or new features that we believe may be of interest to you;
  • To provide information or services you have requested;
  • To process or maintain your subscription to a newsletter or mailing list;
  • In connection with various programs, promotions or contests in which you participate;
  • For targeting of advertising or content, or other advertising, promotional or marketing purposes;
  • To study the use and popularity of various areas of our Sites and to improve our Sites;
  • To analyze general locations where our content is viewed (by reviewing IP addresses);
  • For other purposes related to the business of Walden.com or our related entities; and,
  • For any other purpose described in this Privacy Policy or any other agreement you may enter with Walden.com or otherwise as we may disclose to you or to which you consent from time to time.

Walden.com creates aggregate reports on demographics and traffic patterns of our Site visitors for advertisers, affiliates and partners. This allows our advertisers to reach you more effectively, and allows our guests to receive advertisements that are pertinent to their interests. We will not intentionally collect (nor intentionally provide to an advertiser or affiliate) information that a personally-identified guest clicked on any particular ad. However, by clicking on, otherwise interacting with or viewing an ad, you are consenting to the possibility that the advertiser will make the assumption that you meet the targeting criteria used to display the ad, and this may lead to similar ads being targeted to you on other Sites.

With whom may the information be shared?

Information we collect may be shared with a variety of parties, depending upon the purpose for and context in which that information was provided. We sometimes offer promotions, such as sweepstakes or contests, in conjunction with a sponsor, and may share your information with these sponsors.  When we engage in retargeting or other advertisements (as described above) we may share certain non-PII with our advertising partners. We may occasionally share PII with our affiliated entities or third parties who have offers or information we believe would be of interest to you. Please be aware that although we may request your consent for some disclosures described in this section, by using our Sites you are deemed to have accepted and agreed to the sharing of your information collected through our Sites in the manner described in this Privacy Policy, and we will not be required to obtain your consent for any disclosures described in this Privacy Policy except as may be required by applicable laws.

We may share analyses of our server logs, including details regarding Site usage and general information about our audience, with current or potential advertisers or business partners. Such disclosures will refer only to general, aggregate usage data from these analyses – never specific identifying information.

In addition, in the event that we go through a business transition, such as a merger, acquisition, liquidation or sale of all or a portion of our assets, PII will, in most instances, be part of the assets transferred, or may be disclosed (subject to confidentiality restrictions) during the due diligence process. If such a transfer occurs, the acquiring company’s use of your PII will still be subject to this Privacy Policy, and any privacy choices you selected in your online profile on our Site.

Finally, we may, without your consent, access and disclose your PII, any communications sent or received by you, and any other information that we may have about you as may be permitted or as we believe in good faith may be reasonably necessary to comply with any law, regulation, rule or court order; pursuant to supoenas or other requests from governmental, regulatory or administrative agencies or law enforcement authorities; to respond to any claims, or to prevent, investigate, identify persons or organizations potentially involved in, or take any action regarding suspected fraud, violations of our Terms of Service, or activity that appears to us to be illegal or we believe may expose us to legal liability. Additionally, we may disclose PII in situations that we believe to be emergencies involving potential threats to the physical safety of any person or property of our Site visitors, Walden.com, or others, if we believe that your information in any way relates to that threat.

To obtain a list of the PII that Walden holds about you, or for residents of California (as required by California law) any PII Walden has disclosed about you to third parties for direct marketing purposes during the preceding calendar year, please send a written, signed request to: Walden, attn. Legal Department, 1888 Century Park East, 14th Floor, Los Angeles, CA 90067.

What choices do I have about collecting, using, and disclosing my information?

It is possible for you to use most of our Sites without giving us any PII. When you do register with us or give us PII, you may sometimes have an opportunity at the time we collect your information to limit e-mail communications from us or opt-out of receiving emails from third parties, or you can unsubscribe from email newsletters or similar communications by clicking on the unsubscribe link in every email.  You may opt out of all information sharing with third parties for marketing purposes by contacting us at the address or email below.

The Network Advertising Initiative (“NAI”), a cooperative group of ad serving providers that has developed a set of privacy principles to which its members adhere, provides a website offering more information about behavioral advertising practices and your choices about not having certain Non-PII used by certain companies in order to target advertisements to you, as well as information about NAI and third party ad servers in general. You may opt out of the collection of Non-PII for advertising purposes at www.networkadvertising.org/optout_nonppii.asp. You may opt-out of all information sharing with third parties for marketing purposes by emailing us at info@Walden.com.

What security precautions are in place to protect against the loss, misuse, or alteration of your information?

We have implemented reasonable security measures to safeguard the PII you provide us. However, please keep in mind that we cannot be liable for the actions of third parties to whom we may transfer your PII in accordance with this Privacy Policy. Furthermore, please remember that “perfect security” does not exist on the Internet, and accordingly we cannot provide any guarantee that your PII or any other information you provide us will remain secure.

Links to other websites.

You should be aware that when you use our Sites, you could be directed to other sites beyond our control. For example, if you click on certain Content, promotional materials or other features, such as a sweepstakes entry form, you may leave the Site and move to a different website that is not operated by us. This includes links from advertisers, affiliates and partners that may use one of our trademarks or brands as part of a co-branding agreement. These other websites may install their own cookies, independently collect data or solicit PII, and may or may not have their own published privacy policies. If you are linked to a thrid-party website through one of our Sites, you should carefully review that third-party site’s privacy policy before providing any PII. This Privacy Policy does not apply to any information you submit to third-party websites, including, without limitation, any websites that may be connected to a Site by hyperlink or otherwise.

A special note for parents concerning privacy.

Our Sites are intended for general audiences—primarily educators and parents—and are not directed to children.  If we discover that one of our guests is under the age of 13, in accordance with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (“COPPA”), we will not collect, use or share any of the child’s personal information (as defined by COPPA) unless we first notify the child’s parent and obtain the parent’s consent as required by COPPA.  However, we reserve the right to block access to certain features of our Sites (and any associated collection of personal information) if we learn that a child is under age 13, rather than seeking parental consent as described above. 

In the event that we do seek parental consent for a child under the age of 13 to use our Sites: (a) we will not require a child to disclose more information than is reasonably necessary to participate in any activities on our Sites; (b) we will maintain the confidentiality, security, and integrity of information collected from children; (c) we will retain personal information collected online from a child for only as long as is necessary to fulfill the purpose for which it was collected and delete the information using reasonable measures to protect against its unauthorized access or use; (d) if we change this privacy statement in a way that expands the collection, use or disclosure of children’s personal information to which a parent has previously consented, the parent will be notified by email, and we will attempt to obtain the parent’s additional consent, or we will not engage in the expanded use of the information, or (e) if the parent does not grant permission in accordance with COPPA, we will delete any personal information we may have inadvertently collected from the child from our databases and will not collect any further personal information from the child.

If a child under the age of 13 were to use our Sites, because our Sites are designed for general audiences, the personal information collected from the child would be the same as that collected from adults, as described elsewhere in this Privacy Policy. Parents should be aware that our Sites may include social media sharing features. If a child were to use these features of our Sites, the child could potentially disclose personal information to other users of all ages via those services.  Please be aware of any privacy policies of these third party social media sites before allowing your child to use them.

Parents have the right to review, edit, request the deletion, or prevent further collection or use of their children’s personal information.  Parents may also choose to agree to the collection and use of their child’s information, but not allow disclosure of such information to third parties unless it is inherently part of the Sites, in accordance with COPPA.  Parents may request any of these actions, or make inquiries regarding our privacy practices, by sending an email to info@walden.com, or writing to us at the address below.

International guests.

If you are accessing this Site from outside of the United States, you consent to the transfer of your information to the United States, and the processing, use, and sharing of your information in accordance with this Privacy Policy. Regardless of where your information is collected or transferred, the information will be treated in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

Limitation of liability.

By providing us with any PII, you expressly and unconditionally release and hold harmless Walden.com, its parents, subsidiaries, affiliates, related companies and their respective shareholders, owners, members, directors, officers, employees and agents (collectively, the “Releasees”) from any and all liability for any injuries, loss or damage of any kind arising from or in connection with the use and/or misuse of your collected PII. In addition, while we take reasonable steps to prevent third party companies from making unauthorized use of your PII, we cannot be held be held liable for any injuries, loss or damage of any kind arising from or in connection with the use and/or misuse of your collected PII by those third parties.

Notification of changes and acceptance of the Privacy Policy.

By using any of our Sites, you signify your agreement to the terms of our Privacy Policy. We may change this Privacy Policy from time to time. If so, any such changes will be posted on this page with the effective date of the revise Privacy Policy, so that the we may keep our guests informed of its information collection practices. Accordingly, we recommend that you consult this page frequently so that you are aware of our latest policy. Your continued use of any Site shall constitute your acceptance of such revised Privacy Policy.

Correcting and updating PII.

If you would like to correct, delete, or access your PII we have in our system, you may do so by contacting us using the email or mailing addresses below.

Whom do I contact with questions or concerns about this Privacy Policy?

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, the practices of this Site, your experience with this Site, or if you wish to make changes or delete the PII we have on file for you, please contact:

Walden LLC
attn. Legal Department
1888 Century Park East, 14th Floor
Los Angeles, CA 90067

or

info@Walden.com.