Last Revised: August 2, 2012.
This privacy policy ("Policy") explains how personal information is collected, used, and disclosed by Santa.com, Inc. (“Santa.com”, “we” or “us”) with respect to your use of the Web site located at www.santa.com (the “Site”) and including any applications that would lead you to the Site, so you can make an informed decision about using the Site. We reserve the right to change the provisions of this Policy at any time. We will alert you that changes have been made by indicating on the Policy the date it was last updated. We encourage you to review this Policy from time to time to make sure that you understand how any personal information you provide will be used. If a material change is made to the Policy regarding our collection, use and disclosure of personally identifiable information, we will seek the appropriate opt in for the change to our Policy.
Portions of our Site may be directed to children under 13, and we recognize the need to provide additional privacy protections for children under 13 who visit our Site. Therefore, with respect to children under 13, our privacy practices on the Site are set forth below in our Children's Privacy Policy as set forth below.
As used herein, the term "personal information" means information that specifically identifies an individual (such as a name, address, telephone number, mobile number, e-mail address, or credit card number), or information about that individual that is directly linked to personally identifiable information. Personal information does not include "aggregate" information, which is data we collect about the use of the Site or about a group or category of services or users, from which individual identities or other personal information has been removed. This Policy in no way restricts or limits our collection and use of aggregate information.
Active Collection: We collect information from you in various ways when you visit the Site. For example, we collect information you voluntarily provide to us, such as when you create an account (including through the utilization of third-party social network services), send us an email, fill out a form, make or confirm a purchase. Such information may include personal information, such as your name, email, address, telephone number, mobile number, social network service unique identifier, other contact information, and credit card number. Personal information may also be collected if you provide such information in connection with creating a profile, leaving comments, posting content, sending a message to another user or participating in any interactive forums or features on the Site. In addition, from time to time we may collect demographic, contact or other personal information you provide in connection with your participation in surveys, sweepstakes, contests, games, promotional offers, and other activities on the Site.
Passive Collection: When you use the Site, some information is also automatically collected, such as your Internet Protocol (IP) address, your operating system, the browser type, the address of a referring Web site, and your activity on the Site. We treat this information as personal information if we combine it with or link it to any of the identifying information mentioned above. Otherwise, it is used in the aggregate only.
We may also automatically collect certain information through the use of "cookies." Cookies are small data files stored on your hard drive at the request of a website. Among other things, cookies help us improve our Site and your experience. If we link cookies to any personally identifying information, we will treat this information as personal information. If you wish to block, erase, or be warned of cookies, please refer to your browser manufacturer to learn about these functions. However, if you choose to remove or reject cookies, this could affect certain features or functionality on our Site.
We may use Web beacons or similar technology on the Site. Web beacons are small, invisible graphic images that may be used on the Site or in emails relating to the Site to collect certain information and monitor user activity on the Site, such as to count visits, understand usage and campaign effectiveness and to tell if an email has been opened and acted upon.
We use personal information collected through our Site for the purposes described in this Policy or elsewhere on the Site. For example, we may use personal information we collect:
• to provide the services, products, or information you request, and to process and complete any transactions or donations in connection therewith;
• to request feedback and to otherwise contact you about your use of the Site;
• to respond to your emails, submissions, questions, comments, requests, and complaints and provide customer service;
• to monitor and analyze site usage and trends, and to personalize and improve the Site and our users' experiences on the Site, such as providing ads, content, recommendations or features that match their profiles or interests, and to increase the Site's functionality and user friendliness;
• to provide you with news and information about our or third party events, activities, offers, promotions, products, and services we think will be of interest to you;
• to send you confirmations, updates, security alerts, and support and administrative messages and otherwise facilitate your use of, and our administration and operation of, the Site;
• to notify you about important changes to our Site;
• to send invitations, e-cards and other communications you request;
• to notify and contact contest and sweepstakes entrants; and
• for any other purpose for which the information was collected.
We will not share the personal information we collect from you through this Site with third parties, except as described in this Policy or on the Site. For example, we may share personal information as follows:
• with vendors, consultants, and other service providers ("Service Providers") who provide support for the operations of the Site or in connection with the products and services available through the Site, such as payment processors and fulfillment partners;
• when you give us your consent to do so, including if we notify you on the Site that the information you provide will be shared in a particular manner and you provide such information;
• when a charitable donation is made by redeeming a Santa.com Gift Card through the Site, the donor's name and email address are shared with the recipient non-profit organization;
• in an aggregated or anonymized form that does not directly identify you;
• when we believe in good faith that we are lawfully authorized or required to do so or that doing so is reasonably necessary or appropriate to comply with the law or legal processes or respond to lawful requests or legal authorities, including responding to lawful subpoenas, warrants, or court orders;
• when we believe in good faith that we are lawfully authorized or required to do so or that doing so is reasonably necessary or appropriate to protect the rights, property, or safety of Santa.com, our users, our employees, copyright owners, third parties or the public, including without limitation to protect Santa.com or our users from fraudulent, abusive, inappropriate, or unlawful use of our Site;
• to enforce or apply this Policy, our Terms of Use, or our other policies or agreements; and
• in connection with, or during negotiations of, any merger, sale of company assets, financing or acquisition, or in any other situation where personal information may be disclosed or transferred as one of the business assets of Santa.com.
You understand that when you use the Site, information you: post in your profile, WishBoards, comments, blogs, listings, public or private groups, forums and other interactive areas of the Site, as well as any information you share with individuals through the Site or share through third-party social network sites, will be available to other users and in some cases may be publicly available. We recommend you be cautious about giving out personal information to others or sharing personal information in public or private online forums.
We are not responsible for the actions of Service Providers or other third parties, nor are we responsible for any additional information you provide directly to any third parties, and we encourage you to become familiar with their privacy practices before disclosing information directly to any such parties. Nothing herein restricts the sharing of aggregated or anonymized information, which may be shared with third parties without your consent.
The Site may use social plugins (“Plugins”), which lets friends share actions they take across web sites (e.g. the Facebook "Like" button). Plugins are generally identifiable by the logo for the applicable social network or other notice indicating the use of a Plugin. When you visit a page of our website that contains a Plugin, your browser establishes a direct connection to the servers of the social network providing the Plugin, which enables that social network to receive certain information, such as information about your having accessed the respective page of our Site. If you are logged into the applicable social network, your visit can be assigned to the account of such social network. If you interact with the Plugins, for example by clicking “Like,” or entering a comment, the corresponding information is transmitted from your browser directly to the social network providing the Plugin and is stored by it. Even if you are not logged into that social network, there is possibility that the Plugins transmit certain information, such as your IP-address, to the applicable social networks. For information on the purpose and scope of data collection and processing by such social networks, as well as your rights in this respect and settings options for protecting your privacy please visit the privacy policy page for the social network providing the Plugin. If you do not want the social networks providing the Plugins to connect the data concerning your visit to our website with your member data already stored by such social networks, you must log off all such social networks before entering our website. Simply closing the social network page does not suffice.
Our Site may contain links to other websites. Any personal information you provide on the linked pages is provided directly to that third party and is subject to that third party's privacy policy. This Policy does not apply to such linked sites, and we are not responsible for the content or privacy and security practices and policies of these websites or any other sites that are linked to from the Site. We encourage you to learn about their privacy and security practices and policies before providing them with personal information.
We take reasonable measures to protect your personal information in an effort to prevent loss, misuse, and unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration, and destruction. Please be aware, however, that despite our efforts, no security measures are perfect or impenetrable and no method of data transmission that can be guaranteed against any interception or other type of misuse. To protect the confidentiality of personal information, you must keep your password confidential and not disclose it to any other person. You are responsible for all uses of our web site by any person using your password. Please advise us immediately if you believe your password has been misused.
You may "opt out" of receiving marketing or promotional emails from us by following the instructions in those emails. You may also opt out of such marketing emails by emailing us at optout@santa.com. If you opt out, we may still send you non-promotional emails, such as emails about your accounts or our ongoing business relations.
If you have any questions about this Policy, please contact us at support@santa.com.
Additional information about the collection of personal information from children under 13 and our privacy practices regarding such information are set forth in this Children's Privacy Policy. This policy will govern over any conflicting provisions in our general Privacy Policy as set forth above. Otherwise, the terms of our general Privacy Policy will apply in full. All references to "children" or "child" in this Children's Privacy Policy shall mean children under 13 years of age, and all references to the term “parent” shall include legal guardians.
The operator of this site is Santa.com, Inc, If you have questions, comments or concerns about privacy issues or our Children's Privacy Policy, please send us an e-mail at support@santa.com, call us at (877) 987-2682 or contact as at:
Santa.com, Inc, Attn: Privacy Coordinator P.O. Box 7775 #86843 San Francisco, CA 94120-7775
Active Collection:Portions of our Site, such as our Write a Letter To Santa section, are directed at least in part to children under 13. We have attempted to design these portions of the site to minimize the information collected from children under 13. Adults must create an account on the Site before a child account can be established. We use the email associated with the account to obtain verifiable parental consent. Once that is established then we enable the adult to create the child account. We also discourage children from including any personal information in their letters to Santa or their WishBoard items, although it is possible that children may include personal information in such items.
The Site does not enable children to make their WishBoards, letters or other personal information publicly available. However, letters and WishBoards are available to the child's parents and to other users that a parent has approved to access their child's letters and WishBoards. We may also collect personal information from children if they send us an email or otherwise communicate with us through the Site or if they send e-cards and other communications to their friends and family. From time to time we may collect name and online contact information from children in connection with sweepstakes, contests, games, and other similar activities on the Site. Such information will be used and shared by us solely as provided in this Children's Privacy Policy.
Note that many portions and features of our Site are not directed to children but rather to their parents and other adults or children over 13, such as viewing and interacting with third party WishBoards.
Passive Collection:When using the Site, some information is also automatically collected, such as a child's Internet Protocol (IP) address, operating system, browser type, activity on the site, and the address of referring web sites. We treat this information as personal information if we combine it with or link it to any of the identifying information mentioned above. Otherwise, it is used in the aggregate only. We may also automatically collect certain information from children through the use of "cookies," but we only use such cookies for the internal operation of the Site. Cookies are small data files stored on a hard drive at the request of a website. If we link cookies to any personally identifying information, we will treat this information as personal information. If you wish to block, erase, or be warned of cookies, please refer to your browser manufacturer to learn about these functions. However, if you choose to remove or reject cookies, this could affect certain features or functionality on our Site.
We may use personal information collected from children through our Site from children as follows:
• to request parental consent and approvals;
• to provide requested services, products, or information, and to process and complete any transactions in connection therewith;
• for record keeping purposes, to send communications about the child's account and use of the Site, such as confirmations, updates, security alerts, and support and administrative messages, and to otherwise facilitate the operation of the Site;
• to respond to a child's (or their parents') emails, submissions, questions, comments, requests, and complaints and provide customer service;
• to monitor and analyze site usage and trends, and to personalize and improve the Site and our users' experiences on the Site, such as providing ads, content, recommendations or features that match their profiles or interests, and to increase the Site's functionality and user friendliness;
• to provide news and information about Santa.com or third party events, activities, offers, promotions, products, and services
• to send invitations, e-cards and other communications the child may request
• to make children's letters to Santa and WishBoards available to a child's parents and to those users approved by a child's parent; and
• to notify and contact contest and sweepstakes entrants
At Santa.com, we do not disclose any personal information collected from children to third parties except as set form below. We discourage children from including any personal information in their letters to Santa or in their WishBoards, and such items are not made publicly available. However, you should note that children may nevertheless include such information in their letters and WishBoards, and such items will be viewable by their parents and by those users that a parent permits to view their child's letters and WishBoards.
We may need to disclose personal information provided by children in the following limited situations:
• if we believe in good faith that we are legally required to do so, or that doing so is necessary to protect the rights, property or safety of the Site, our users, our employees or the public, including without limitation to protect Santa.com, Inc. or our users from fraudulent, abusive, inappropriate or unlawful use of our Site;
• we may transfer personal information in connection with any merger or sale of company assets, [provided that (i) the acquiring Company is obligated to comply with this Children's Privacy Policy; and
Note that we may also share this personal information with vendors, consultants, and other service providers who provide support for the operations of the Site or in connection with the products and services available through the Site ("Service Providers"). These Service providers are not authorized to use or disclose such information for any other purpose and are not considered "third parties" under COPPA.
We are prohibited by law under COPPA from conditioning a child's participation in an activity on the Site on the child's disclosing more personal information than is reasonably necessary to participate in such activity.
Parents have the option to consent to the collection and use of their child's personal information without consenting to the disclosure of that information to third parties.
Parents have the right to review the personal information collected online from their child, ask to have it deleted, and refuse to permit us to collect any further personal information from their child.
To contact our Privacy Officer regarding the above requests please send an email with your request to support@santa.com. In order for us to respond to this request, verification of identity may be required, to ensure we are communicating with the child’s custodial parent or legal guardian.
