Homeschool World
HomeTop Menu
Homeschool World® (www.home-school.com) Website Privacy Statement

This document was last updated on March 24, 2010.

  1. Acknowledgement and Acceptance of Terms

    This is the Homeschool World Web site (the "Site"), as provided by Home Life, Inc. ("Home Life", "we" or "us"). Homeschool World is committed to protecting your privacy. We respect the privacy rights of all visitors to our Site ("Visitors").This Privacy Statement sets forth our current privacy practices with regard to the information we collect when you or your computer interact with our website. By accessing Homeschool World, you acknowledge and fully understand Homeschool World's Privacy Statement and freely consent to the information collection and use practices described in this Website Privacy Statement.

    Use of the Site and the activities and services available on and through the Site (collectively, the "Services") is governed by the Terms and Conditions of Use.

  2. Services Available on the Site.

    Homeschool World may make certain services available to visitors of the Site. By way of example, but not limitation, you may be able to post comments on a forum, vote in a poll, submit a Group listing, submit an Event listing, or submit a Contest listing (the "Services"). Site visitors are solely responsible for any user information and other content they post on and through the Site. Users should be aware that when they voluntarily disclose personal information (e.g., user name, e-mail address, phone number) on or through the public portions of the Site (e.g., forums, group listings, event listings), that such information is generally accessible to and may be collected and used by others and may result in unsolicited messages from other people. Visitors to and users of the Site are encouraged to exercise caution when providing personal information about themselves. By accessing this Site, you, the user, agree to and do hereby release and discharge Home Life, Inc., its parents, subsidiaries, affiliates, officers and employees, from any and all liability which may arise from your use of the site.

  3. Participating Merchant Policies

    Related services and offerings with links from this website, including vendor sites, have their own privacy statements that can be viewed by clicking on the corresponding links within each respective website. Online merchants and others who participate in Homeschool World services are encouraged to participate in industry privacy initiatives and to take a responsible attitude towards consumer privacy. However, since we do not have direct control over the policies or practices of participating merchants and other third parties, we are not responsible for the privacy practices or contents of those sites. We recommend and encourage that you always review the privacy policies of merchants and other third parties before you provide any personal information or complete any transaction with such parties.

  4. Information We Collect and How We Use It

    Homeschool World collects certain information from and about its users three ways: directly from our Web Server logs, the user, and with Cookies.

    1. Web Server Logs.

      When you visit our Website, we may track information to administer the site and analyze its usage. Examples of information we may track include:

      • Your Internet protocol address.
      • The kind of browser or computer you use.
      • Number of links you click within the site.
      • State or country from which you accessed the site.
      • Date and time of your visit.
      • Name of your Internet service provider.
      • Web page you linked to our site from.
      • Pages you viewed on the site.

      Homeschool World reserves the right to share aggregated site statistics with partner companies, companies that are considering advertising on our site, and other companies conducting business with Homeschool World.

    2. Use of Cookies

      Homeschool World may use "cookies" to personalize or enhance your user experience. A cookie is a small text file that is placed on your hard disk by a Web page server. Cookies cannot typically be used to run programs or deliver viruses to your computer. Cookies are uniquely assigned to you, and can typically only be read by a Web Server in the domain that issued the cookie to you.

      One of the primary purposes of cookies is to provide a convenience feature to save you time. For example, if you personalize a web page, or navigate within a site, a cookie helps the site to recall your specific information on subsequent visits. Hence, this simplifies the process of delivering relevant content and eases site navigation by providing and saving your preferences and login information as well as providing personalized functionality.

      You have the ability to accept or decline cookies. Most Web browsers automatically accept cookies, but you can usually modify your browser setting to decline cookies. If you reject cookies by changing your browser settings then be aware that this may disable some of the functionality on our Website.

      Although we do not currently do so, we reserve the right to allow partner companies to place a cookie if there is a temporary, overriding customer value (such as merging into Homeschool World a site that relies on third-party cookies).

      Although at present all advertising on Homeschool World is served directly through our site, we reserve the right to use a third party advertising service to display advertisements on our Site. Sometimes these advertising services will utilize cookies to display specific advertisements to Visitors based on, among other things, their surfing habits. If we use such a service, we will not have access to these cookies nor will we know what information is contained in these cookies. As stated above, you may restrict the placement of cookies on your computer through controls available in your Web browser.

    3. Personal Information Supplied by Users

      Visitors to our website can register to purchase products and services and for various other reasons. When you register, we will request some personal information such as name, address, email, telephone number or facsimile number, account number and other relevant information. If you are purchasing a product or service, we may also request financial information. Any financial information we collect is used only to bill you for the products or services you purchased. If you purchase by credit card, this information may be forwarded to your credit card provider or other credit card processing company. For other types of registrations, we will ask for the relevant information. You may also be asked to disclose personal information to us so that we can provide assistance and information to you. For example, such data may be warranted in order to provide online technical support and troubleshooting.

      We will not disclose personally identifiable information we collect from you to third parties without your permission except to the extent necessary including:

      • To fulfill your service requests for services.
      • To protect ourselves from liability,
      • To respond to legal process or comply with law, or
      • In connection with a merger, acquisition, or liquidation of the company.

  5. Use of Web Beacons or GIF files

    Homeeschool World Web pages may contain electronic images known as Web beacons - sometimes also called single-pixel gifs - that allow us to count users who have visited those pages and to deliver co-branded services. We may include Web beacons in promotional e-mail messages or newsletters in order to determine whether messages have been opened and acted upon.

    Some of these Web beacons may be placed by third party service providers to help determine the effectiveness of our advertising campaigns or email communications. These Web beacons may be used by these service providers to place a persistent cookie on your computer. This allows the service provider to recognize your computer each time you visit certain pages or emails and compile anonymous information in relation to those page views, which in turn enables us and our service providers to learn which advertisements and emails bring you to our website and how you use the site. Homeschool World prohibits Web beacons from being used to collect or access your personal information.

  6. Information We Collect for Regular Emailing

    We do not collect, request, or store email addresses of casual Visitors to our Site (e.g., those who post or read Site information). We do, however, offer an email newsletter and the option to receive additional information by email and mail, as outlined below.

    To sign up for our online newsletter, you only need to provide us with your email address. At this time, you are given the option to receive carefully screened offers and information about other products of interest via your email address. You are under no obligation to agree to receive these offers.

    This information shall be maintained by us and/or our emailing service, and may be used to provide you with periodic marketing and promotional notices by us and/or other persons or entities whom we believe offer goods or services that may interest you. It will not be shared directly with any third parties, other than our email service provider.

    You can unsubscribe from the list at any time by selecting the “Unsubscribe” option at the bottom of any email you receive as a member of our email list. You can also update your profile and/or email address by selecting the “Update” option at the bottom of any email you receive as a member of our email list.

    Those who submit a group listing to one of our Groups pages also receive regular emails reminding them to check that their listing is up to date.

  7. Catalog

    We have our catalog online as part of our Site. Those ordering from our online catalog are asked to provide their full name, street address, and phone number, as well as credit-card information, in order to process and follow through on their orders. This information is stored in our order-entry database. Credit-card numbers must be submitted each time, as we associate each credit-card number only with a specific order.

    When and if we publish a print version of our catalog, catalog customers will be sent a copy. We also may make catalog customer addresses available to third parties who offer products or services of interest to homeschoolers.

    If you are a catalog customer and do not wish to receive third-party offers, contact us by mail or email and we will mark your record accordingly.

  8. Practical Homeschooling® Reader Awards® and Practical Homeschooling® i-Learn® Awards

    We periodically ask Visitors to vote for the products they find most helpful in their homeschooling. Visitors who choose to fill out the voting ballot then have the option of entering the corresponding prize drawing. Those who wish to enter the drawing are asked to provide their full name, street address, phone number, and email address, so we can mail the winner the prize and so we can contact the winner if there is a problem with delivery. Visitors will not be required to participate in any online voting.

  9. Polls

    We periodically create new polls on our site. Like most online polls, our polls are for entertainment value only and have no scientific value. Visitors may vote in or view polls without having to sign in or share any personal data. Votes are legitimized via "Cookies" (see entry below), in order to prevent, to our best knowledge, Visitors from voting more than once in the same poll.

  10. Surveys

    Although we have not yet done so, in the future we may conduct surveys in which we may ask Visitors to provide certain personal information (e.g. email address) and demographic information (e.g. zip code). We may use this information to, among other things, improve the features, functionality, look and feel, and content of the Site and Services, and may share this information with others in an aggregate, non-personal form. Visitors will not be required to participate in any surveys.

  11. Contests

    Although we have not yet done so, in the future we may conduct contests on the Site. Contests involving prizes may require a Visitor to submit an e-mail address and full name, street address, and phone number in order to enter. If this is the case, the e-mail address and phone number will only be used for the sole purpose of determining and notifying entrants if they have won or not, and the street address will only be used for the purpose of mailing the prize. All non-winner information will be deleted once a winner is determined and notification has been sent.

  12. Links

    The Site includes links to other Web sites (the "Linked Sites"). We are not responsible for the privacy practices or the content of the Linked Sites and hereby expressly disclaim all responsibility and liability which may arise therefrom.

  13. Technical Information

    Settings, technical and other information concerning a Visitor's computer, such as an operating system, browser version, connectivity, various communication parameters and other information related to the operation and interaction of the Site and the Services may be collected by us, subject to the provisions herein. This information is collected solely in order to provide Visitors with, or access to, the Site and the Services, and to evaluate such Visitor's use of the Site. The collection of this information is not intended to include any personally identifiable information about any individual Visitor.

  14. Tracking Usage Patterns

    We gather information and usage patterns related to our Visitors' use of the Site and the Services, including without limitation, real time tracking of other Web sites linked to and from this Site, to better understand how our Visitors, as a group, use the Site and Services, and the various features thereof, as well as to help us provide personalized offerings, and to conduct market research and other commercial activities.

  15. Security

    We strive to protect its Visitors' personal information and privacy, however no data transmission over the Internet can be guaranteed to be 100% secure. Thus, although we will exercise great care to provide secure transmissions of personal information, we cannot guarantee the security of information disclosed online, and Visitors use the Site at their own risk.

  16. Legal Disclosure

    We shall, pursuant to valid legal process such as a search warrant, subpoena or court order, allow access to all available and relevant information in order to comply with such process and to protect our rights and property. If warranted, we may also allow access to this information in special emergencies where physical safety is at risk. Visitors' IP addresses may also be traced by us and disclosed for these purposes.

  17. Consent to Processing

    All Visitors of the Site and users of the Services, including without limitation, Visitors in the European Union, fully understand and unambiguously consent to the collection and processing of their personal information in the United States.

  18. Changes to this Statement

    Homeschool World has the discretion to occasionally update this privacy statement. When we do, we will also revise the "updated" date at the top of this Privacy page. We encourage you to periodically review this privacy statement to stay informed about how we are helping to protect the personal information we collect. Your continued use of the service constitutes your agreement to this privacy statement and any updates.

  19. How to Contact Us

    To comment on this Privacy Policy, write to Att: Privacy, Home Life, Inc., PO Box 1190, Fenton MO 63026-1190 or email us via our contact form. Homeschool World will use commercially reasonable efforts to promptly respond and resolve any problem or question.

Thank you for visiting Homeschool World. Together we can build a better educational tomorrow!

          
Terms of Use   Privacy Policy
Copyright ©1993- Home Life, Inc.