privacy policy

Fundamental principles:

• In most circumstances, AB will not (1) disclose a contestant's personal information or (2) confirm or deny that an individual has submitted an entry to any private party or governmental organization. There are, however, important exceptions to this general principle covered below.
• We will disclose personal information and confirm or deny an individual's participation if required by federal, state or local law.

Information we collect and how we use it:

• Under no circumstances will we sell your private data to third-parties.
• We collect every entrant's name, physical address, and telephone number. We do not make this information public under ordinary circumstances. However, by submitting an entry for the high school or college essay contest, a contestant authorizes AB to use his or her name and likeness for a wide range of purposes. For further information on the scope of this authorization, please read the contest rules.
• We collect essay submissions from contestants. By submitting an entry for either contest, contestants grant AB a royalty-free, perpetual, and non-exclusive license to use their submitted essays and accompanying materials in any way AB sees fit.
• We do not collect email addresses in order to better protect your privacy. For more information on this policy, please read the contest rules.
• We collect a certification letter from entrants who are under the age of 18. Unless required by federal, state or local law we will not share these certification letters or their contents with third parties.
• We reserve the right to create and maintain a local database to facilitate the processing and evaluation of essay submissions. We take reasonable steps to make sure that this database is secure and not vulnerable to third-party attempts to access your information in an unauthorized fashion.

Compliance with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act ("COPPA"):

• We believe that children are especially vulnerable on the Internet. To protect children's privacy, we comply with COPPA.
• To comply with COPPA, we require all entrants under the age of 13 to submit, in addition to the signed entry form, a letter from their parents or from a legal guardian consenting to Aldus Books, Inc.'s Privacy Policy.
• In addition, parents must provide AB with written authorization to disclose the identity of children under the age of 13 who are chosen as winners in either the high school or college essay contest.

Information security:

• We take reasonable security measures to prevent unauthorized access to or disclosure of information provided by contestants.
• We cannot be responsible for any data that is compromised, destroyed, modified, or stolen due to security breaches to AB's information systems.
• We restrict access to personal information to AB's employees and agents.