Privacy Policy

Thank you for visiting ALLIANCE FOR YOUNG ARTISTS & WRITERS, INC. It is important to us that you know how information about you may be utilized. Please take a moment to look over this Privacy Policy, which we hope will address any questions you may have. This Privacy Policy applies to the Alliance’s artandwriting.org website, any successor site, and any other website owned and/or operated by or on behalf of the Alliance that links to this Policy and/or states that it is governed by this Policy (collectively, the “Website” or “Site”). The Alliance is committed to protecting the privacy and security of its online visitors. This Policy statement provides our visitors (e.g., students, parents, and educators) with an overview of our information collection, disclosure and security practices, and the measures we have taken to protect “personally identifiable information” or “personal data” (collectively, “Personal Information”). By accessing or using the Website, you accept and agree to this Privacy Policy and the Website Terms of Use. We reserve the right to change this Privacy Policy at any time. We will post all changes to this Policy here, and your continued use of the Website after any changes to this Policy will constitute your acceptance of and agreement to such changes. Please refer to this Policy regularly so that you will always know what Personal Information we gather, how we might use that information, the choices you have regarding that information, and whether and how we might disclose that information to others.

INFORMATION COVERED BY THIS POLICY
This Privacy Policy explains our policy and practices with respect to Personal Information that we collect, and describes the choices you have concerning our collection, use, and sharing of such information. This Policy also explains the options and access that we provide to our teens, alumni, parents, and educators regarding our use of their Personal Information.

COLLECTION AND USE OF PERSONAL INFORMATION
We consider the following to be Personal Information for the purposes of this Policy: first and last name, social security number, credit card number, email address, street address, phone number, geolocation information sufficient to identify the name of a street, city or town, photos or videos of a child’s image or audio files of a child’s voice received or collected from a child, screen or user names, “persistent identifiers” that can be used to recognize a website user over time and across different websites or online services, including a visitor number held in a cookie, an Internet Protocol (IP) address, a processor or device serial number or unique device identifier, and any other substantially similar identifier that permits direct contact with a person online, and any other personal user identification, password, or other Personal Information that may be needed to obtain access to or use the Site’s applications. We (and/or our agents, affiliates or service providers) may collect and use these categories of Personal Information for the following purposes: (1) in connection with the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards program or other scholarships, awards, competitions, contests, content submissions, surveys, forums, and educational, literary or artistic materials, opportunities, or activities; (2) to offer requests for suggestions and respond to visitors’ requests for materials or information; (3) to customize the content on our Site for our visitors’ current and future needs, or ensure the security of our Site; and (4) to process and record donations to the Alliance. We inform individuals of the Personal Information that we collect through our questionnaires and surveys, and how the information will be used, before they provide this information. Upon written or email request, the Alliance will provide individuals the ability to correct or update their contact information. Registered individuals will be responsible for keeping their contact information current and accurate and may do so by checking and, if necessary, modifying their online profile.

SHARING OF INFORMATION
Disclosure of Information to Third Parties: We may use Personal Information to provide you, via email or other means, information about materials, opportunities, and activities that may be of interest to you, including products or services of third parties. For these reasons, we may share Personal Information with third parties, including our affiliates and regional partners (to process and adjudicate entries, and to promote the Awards and winning entries at regional ceremonies, exhibitions, and events). We may also share Personal Information with educators (to receive entries, promote the Awards, or communicate with students or schools), and our partner scholarship programs (to award scholarships). IF YOU ARE AN INDIVIDUAL WHO HAS PROVIDED US WITH YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION AND YOU DO NOT WANT US TO SHARE THIS INFORMATION WITH THIRD PARTIES, OR IF THERE IS ANY MEDIA NOTIFICATION, PUBLICATION, OR MATERIAL THAT YOU NO LONGER WISH TO RECEIVE FROM US, YOU CAN OPT OUT BY FOLLOWING THE OPT-OUT PROCEDURES SET FORTH BELOW. We make every effort to grant these requests, unless they interfere with our ability to administer scholarships and awards, pursue our legitimate interests and the purposes listed above, or comply with our legal obligations.

Opting Out: You may choose not to have the Alliance share your Personal Information with third parties for the above-described purposes by simply OPTING OUT. You may also OPT OUT if you do not want to receive email from us in the future. In order to OPT OUT for any of these purposes, please contact us.

If you are writing to request that you no longer receive a particular media notification, publication, or material from us, please include the name of the specific item you no longer wish to receive. In addition, in every email that we send, we provide a link that you can click on to enable you to opt out of receiving future emails from the sender.

Other Transfers and Disclosures: In addition to the above disclosures, Personal Information possessed or used by the Alliance may be disclosed or transferred: (a) to any entity that is a successor to, merges with, or acquires all or substantially all of, the Alliance or its assets or operations; (b) as required by law, for example, to comply with a court order or subpoena or to assist in criminal investigations; (c) when we deem it advisable to protect the rights, property, safety, or security of our Website, visitors, or others; and/or (d) to enforce our Website Terms and Conditions.

RETENTION AND DISPOSAL
The Alliance will retain the Personally Information we receive as described in this Privacy Policy, especially for awarded entries, for as long as necessary to fulfill the business purpose(s) for which it was collected, provide our services and products, conduct audits, enforce our agreements or establish legal defenses, ensure security and data protection, comply with all applicable laws, and in accordance with our routine information storage policies. For non-awarded entries, the standard data retention period is one year. Other than as described in this paragraph, our standard data retention period is seven years with the exception of award-winning entries. We will delete your Personal Information upon request unless applicable laws or legitimate business purposes prevent us from doing so.

CHILDREN’S PERSONAL INFORMATION
There are many activities and opportunities offered on the Alliance Website that children can explore without having to share Personal Information. However, in connection with providing scholarships and awards to teens, we may collect the following Personal Information from children between the ages of 13-17 years old: name, address, email address, parent or guardian email address, age, grade, school, and school address. We collect this Personal Information directly from the child, from the child’s parent or guardian, or from the child’s school or educators. We use this Personal Information to receive submissions and for awards and scholarships. On occasion, we may also use the Personal Information of children to promote the awards or for our own marketing of the awards (e.g., photos or videos of the child’s art in our newsletters). We may also share some Personal Information of children with our local regional programs (to administer local awards) and to our service providers (for internal purposes such as administering scholarships and performing IT services). Unless we indicate otherwise and obtain prior parental consent, Personal Information collected from children will be used solely by the Alliance or the Alliance’s contractors, agents, or service providers for internal purposes (such as administration of the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards program and services related to the operation of our Site) and will not be sold or otherwise transferred to third parties. WE DO NOT COLLECT PERSONAL INFORMATION FROM CHILDREN UNDER THE AGE OF 13. IF YOU ARE UNDER THE AGE OF 13, PLEASE DO NOT SUBMIT ANY PERSONAL INFORMATION TO US.

FOR PARENTS AND GUARDIANS
We do not collect any Personal Information from children beyond what is necessary to allow your child to participate in our programs or accomplish the purposes listed above. Parents can request to: (1) review or have deleted their child’s Personal Information from the Alliance’s records; and/or (2) refuse to permit further collection or use of their child’s Personal Information. We make every effort to grant these requests, unless they interfere with our ability to administer scholarships and awards, pursue our legitimate interests and the purposes listed above, or comply with our legal obligations. Parents may submit such requests by contacting us.

To request that we stop sending digital newsletters, parents may follow the “unsubscribe” instructions found at the end the emails in which such newsletters are sent. For other digital communications parents can request cessation of contact by responding to the communication with the subject line “Unsubscribe.” Parents can also request that that their child not receive printed communications, publications and other physical materials by contacting us

OUR USE OF COOKIES AND OTHER INTERNET TECHNOLOGIES
Cookies: We collect certain information through the use of a software technology called “cookies”, through submissions our visitors volunteer to us and/or make upon our request. This includes information about our visitors’ browsers (e.g., Google Chrome or Internet Explorer), operating systems (e.g., Windows or Macintosh), Internet service providers (e.g., AOL or NET.COM) and other similar information (such as Website traffic, navigational and statistical user information), which we collect and track anonymously in individual or aggregate form. The information that we collect or track through our Website is anonymous and we do not identify, match, link or combine it with, or trace it back to, any Personal Information. Cookie technology helps us to know such information as how many people visit the Website, if these are new or return visitors to the Site, and where the visitors go on our Site. Cookies are small bits of information we send to your computer. Among other things, this information allows us to know which areas are favorites, which areas need improvement, or what technologies and Internet services are being used by our visitors so that we may continually improve our visitors’ online experiences. You can disable cookies on your computer by indicating your desire to do so in the preferences or option menu of your browser. NOTE: If you configure your computer to block or erase cookies you may not be able to use all or certain parts or features of our Website. Our site may also use a technology called “tracking pixels.” These may also be referred to as “Action Tags,” “Clear GIFs,” or “Web Beacons”. This technology allows us to understand which pages are visited most on our Site. These tracking pixels allow us to understand the effectiveness of our outreach and are used to help us optimize and tailor our Site for you and other future Website visitors. We may also contract with third party service providers to operate web servers for our Website, to set cookies or similar data collection technologies on the Site, and/or to collect, store, analyze, and/or report to us the information gathered by these cookies or other data collection technologies. We contractually prohibit companies that provide these services from using cookies or other data collection technologies for any purpose other than the performance of these services to the Alliance, and from sharing the information collected with anyone other than us or our other service providers.

OUR USE OF IP ADDRESSES
We collect IP addresses to obtain information on the use of our Website. An IP address is a number assigned to your computer by a Web server when you’re on the Web. When you are on our site, we have a back-end server that logs your computer’s IP address. We only use the information we find out from tracking IP addresses anonymously, such as in the aggregate, for example, to determine how many visitors entered a specific area of our site, and not to track a specific IP address to identify an individual visitor. However, we may use such information to identify a visitor if we feel that there are or may be safety and/or security issues, or to comply with legal requirements.

THIRD-PARTY LINKS AND WEBSITES
For your convenience, our Website may contain links to, or we may otherwise provide you with access to, websites and web-based platforms owned and operated by third parties. Please note that the Alliance does not control such third-party websites and platforms, the content thereof, any products or services that may be offered through them, or any other use of these websites and platforms. These other websites and platforms may send their own cookies to visitors, collect data or solicit Personal Information, and the privacy policies of these other websites and platforms may be significantly different from this Privacy Policy. Your access to and use of such websites and platforms is governed by the terms of use and policies of those websites and platforms and shall be at your own risk. The Alliance is not responsible for the privacy practices of these other websites and platforms and cannot guarantee the security of any information collected by any linked or other third-party website or platform. The Alliance encourages you to review the privacy policy of any third-party website or platform before submitting your Personal Information.

SECURITY
Protecting Personal Information is an important priority at the Alliance. We follow generally accepted standards designed to protect your information and have in place appropriate security measures designed to prevent your information from being accidentally lost or used or accessed in an unauthorized way. We use appropriate security measures while your information is in transit and at rest, including encryption.

Disclaimer: While we strive to maintain the security of the data that we process, no transmission or storage of electronic data is ever completely secure. The Alliance cannot, and does not, therefore, warrant or guarantee the security of such information, or that your Personal Information will never be disclosed in a manner inconsistent with this Policy.

UPDATES TO THIS POLICY
We may update this Privacy Policy. When we do so, we will also update the revision date below. We encourage you to review this Privacy Policy from time to time so you will know if the Privacy Policy has been changed or updated. If you have any questions about the Privacy Policy, please contact us.

Most recently revised June 7, 2023.