Please note that the World Science Festival is a production of the Science Festival Foundation, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization which operates the World Science Festival. Both organizations share a website and all data practices. For the purposes of this privacy policy, therefore, the term "WSF" shall refer to both the operating entity, the Science Festival Foundation, and to the World Science Festival itself.

What personally identifiable information is collected about visitors to www.worldsciencefestival.com or www.worldsciencefest.org?

"Personally identifiable information" is non-anonymous information such as your name, phone number, credit card information, address or email address or anything that could identify you personally. Visitors to www.worldsciencefestival.com or www.worldsciencefest.org are not required to provide personally identifiable information to use the website.

There are three instances in which the WSF may receive your name, email address, or other information that identifies you personally.

The first is if you contact WSF, for example to request information. Clicking on a website link in order to contact our organization may result in your email application sending us a query. Such a query would contain your email address and could contain your name.

The second is if you sign up for further information by email on the Festival (as just one example, using the "email sign-up" button on any of our web pages). ). In this instance, you will be asked for information including but not limited to your name, email address, country of residence, and zip code.  You also have the option of offering other personally identifiable information including your postal address, to be used for mailings.  This information is passed on to Vertical Response, which serves as the email service provider (ESP) for the Science Festival Foundation.  The information stored at Vertical Response is governed by the privacy policy of Vertical Response (which is viewable as of the date of this Privacy Policy at http://www.verticalresponse.com/about/privacy_tos.html), not by that of WSF. WSF, however, may still have access to any email address or name you choose to enter at this Vertical Response page.

The third is if you click a button to make a donation to WSF. In this case, you may be directed to another website that is hosted by Network for Good at etworkforgood.org. At the Network for Good site, you will be governed by the privacy policy of Network for Good (viewable as of the date of this Privacy Policy at http://support.networkforgood.org/Default.asp?c=11), not by that of the WSF.  WSF, however, may still have access to any personally-identifiable information you choose to enter at this Network for Good site.

The fourth is if you use a link to purchase tickets to the WSF or any other programming of the Science Festival Foundation.  In this case, you may be directed to another website that is hosted by OvationTix at ovationtix.com.  (You may also choose to purchase tickets via the phone or via the mail, in which case you are no longer governed by any Internet privacy policy.)  At the OvationTix site, you will be governed by the privacy policy of OvationTix (as of the date of this Privacy Policy, there is no obvious public privacy policy for OvationTix), not by that of the WSF.  WSF, however, may still have access to any personally-identifiable information you choose to submit to OvationTix in the process of purchasing or attempting to purchase tickets.  WSF reserves the right to change the vendor(s) it may employ for event ticketing.  In the event of such a change of vendors, there may or may not be a public notice as to that change.

What we do and do not do with information we collect:

We do not rent, sell or distribute your personally identifying information to other companies or individuals, unless we have your consent. We may share such information in any of the following limited circumstances:

• We have your consent.
• We provide such information to trusted businesses or persons for the sole purpose of processing personally identifying information on our behalf. When this is done, it is subject to agreements that oblige those parties to process such information only on our instructions and in compliance with this Privacy Policy and appropriate confidentiality and security measures.
• We conclude that we are required by law or have a good faith belief that access, preservation or disclosure of such information is reasonably necessary to protect the rights, property or safety of WSF, its program participants, website users or the public.

We may share aggregated information with others. Examples of this include the number of users who searched for certain items on our website or how many users clicked on a particular page of our website.

WSF and the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (“COPPA”):

It is the policy of WSF to collect through our website NO personally identifiable information from children under the age of 14 years, unless we have received parental consent in connection with such collection of information. All individuals are therefore required to be 14 years or older to submit their email address at our website, to purchase tickets to our events, or to make an online donation to the WSF. If not, they must obtain parental consent with respect to their furnishing any personally identifiable information to us.

What anonymous information is collected about visitors to www.worldsciencefest.org or www.worldsciencefestival.com?

"Anonymous Information" means information that cannot be traced back to you as a specific individual. WSF receives standard web log information: cookies, referrer IDs, IP addresses and system information. None of this information identifies you personally. It is anonymous and will never be combined or linked to any personally identifiable information.

What is a cookie?

A "cookie" is a small bit of record-keeping information that websites often store on a user's computer. Cookies do not generally include people's names, email addresses, or other information that identifies you personally; they are used to identify a computer, not a person. Cookie technology is fairly commonplace on the Internet because cookies allow website owners to personalize their service based on a user's preferences. On most browsers, you can ask to be notified by your browser when you receive a cookie, giving you the opportunity to decide whether or not to accept it. WSF does not require that you accept cookies, nor will we intentionally prevent you from using our websites if you decline to accept cookies.

How does WSF use cookies?

As of August 2008, the WSF website employs cookies only in its implementation of Google Analytics, a web analytics service provided by Google, Inc. (“Google”). Google Analytics uses “cookies”, which are text files placed on your computer, to help the website analyze how users use the site. The information generated by the cookie about your use of the website (including your IP address) will be transmitted to and stored by Google on servers in the United States. Google will use this information for the purpose of evaluating your use of the website, compiling reports on website activity for website operators and providing other services relating to website activity and internet usage. Google may also transfer this information to third parties where required to do so by law, or where such third parties process the information on Google's behalf. Google will not associate your IP address with any other data held by Google. You may refuse the use of cookies by selecting the appropriate settings on your browser, however please note that if you do this you may not be able to use the full functionality of this website. By using this website, you consent to the processing of data about you by Google in the manner and for the purposes set out above.

What is a referrer ID?

A "referrer ID" is information from your web browser which shows us what URL you linked from. This allows us to see what websites link to www.worldsciencefest.org and www.worldsciencefestival.com.This information is automatically gathered by our server. Referrer IDs contain no information that identifies you personally.

What is an IP address?

IP addresses are used by your computer every time you are connected to the Internet. Your IP address is a number that is used by computers on the network to identify your computer so that data (such as the web pages you request) can be sent to you. They are automatically gathered by our web server when you visit www.worldsciencefest.org or www.worldsciencefestival.com. WSF will not use your IP address to attempt to identify your personal information.

What is system information?

System information we gather from our web logs includes time of your visit, type of browser you used, and the operating system, platform and CPU speed of your computer. This kind of anonymous information is routinely sent by your browser when you connect to websites. WSF uses this information only for broad demographic statistics. For example: it tells us what percentage of users have Netscape browsers versus Internet Explorer. You will not be personally identified by this information.

Will I receive unsolicited commercial email ("spam") as a result of visiting the Website of WSF?

No.

Changes to this Policy

Please note this Privacy Policy may be changed from time to time. We will post those changes on this page and, if the changes are significant, we will also provide a more prominent notice. Each version will be noted at the bottom of the page. If you have any additional questions, please feel free to contact us at info@worldsciencefest.org.

This policy effective as of August 1, 2008.