Terms of Use

Donor List Policy 
WQED Web Usage Policies
Tracking and Use of Cookies
Privacy Policy for WQED KIDS Sites
Linking Policy
WQED's Rules of the Road

Donor List Policy

WQED will not share or sell a donor’s information with anyone outside of our organization, nor will WQED send donor mailings on behalf of other organizations, unless explicitly permitted to do so by the donor.  If you have questions about the privacy of your information as a donor, please contact WQED Donor Relations at members@wqed.org.

WQED Web Usage Policies

WQED is dedicated to protecting your privacy and handling any personal information we obtain from you on our site and other sites hosted on our servers (our "Affiliated Web Sites") with care and respect. Below you'll find information about our commitment to ensuring the privacy of your and your children's personally identifiable information (such as your full name, address, e-mail address, telephone number and/or other identifying information) and preserving the integrity of the medium. Please read the following carefully. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact us.

Gathering and Use of Information

WQED and our Affiliated Web Sites will never willfully disclose any personally identifiable information about our audience to any third party without first receiving the user's permission.

We do not collect personally identifiable information from our visitors other than what is supplied to us on a voluntary basis. WQED and our Affiliated Web Sites will never willfully disclose any personally identifiable information that has been supplied to us through this website to any third party without first receiving the user's permission.

Visitors to WQED and our Affiliated Web Sites may voluntarily supply certain personally identifiable information in connection with (i) contest or sweepstakes registration, (ii) subscription registration for sites or services which require subscription (such as e-mail newsletters), (iii) requests for membership information to local public television stations and (iv) transactions in the WQED "Store." In addition, personally identifiable information is voluntarily provided in connection with certain content submissions, community postings (i.e., forums or bulletin boards), comments and suggestions, or voting.

WQED and our Affiliated Web Sites may use such information only for conducting the activities stated above, or for internal marketing and promotional purposes.

Tracking and Use of Cookies

WQED uses the information from cookies to improve our visitors' experiences on the site.

WQED does not sell information collected by cookies nor use the information for commerce-related purposes. In addition, WQED will not filter content based on your preferences without permission.

If you watch a video clip or listen to an audio clip on wqed.org, a cookie may remember which media player (such as Real Player or Windows Media Player) and which type of clip (high or low bandwidth) you prefer to use on your computer. You can change your video and audio preferences at any time, or choose a player each time you view or listen to a clip. As you explore wqed.org, a session cookie will tell us which pages you visit and the amount of time between each page visit. This cookie does not remember any information about you or your computer, it just tells us at WQED how long visitors spend on our sites and which pages receive the most traffic. A "session cookie" only remembers information about your current visit to the site.

*What's a cookie? A cookie is information a Web site puts on your computer's hard drive so that the site can remember your preferences or which pages you visited on that site.

Privacy Policy for WQED KIDS Sites

WQED has long been recognized as a source of non-commercial, high quality children's programming. The adults who care for children trust WQED and our partners to provide a safe, stimulating and entertaining haven of educational programming, projects and services. We encourage parents, and other caregivers to spend time online with their children, to supervise their child's online activities and to enjoy the interactive activities offered on the WQED sites together.

WQED and our Affiliated Web Sites support the goals and guidelines established by the Children's Advertising Review Unit (CARU) of the Better Business Bureau, as well as the efforts of the Center for Media Education (CME) and other organizations' concerned with children's online safety and privacy. In order to further our corporate mission of providing a safe, non-commercial environment for children in all media, and to better serve our online audience, we have designed these special guidelines for WQED KIDS sites and any other WQED sites that offer kids opportunities to contribute and participate.

1. WQED KIDS content is screened carefully to ensure quality, educational applications. The WQED editorial staff works closely with our producers to guarantee that our sites supply high quality, educational content that goes far beyond the promotion of the companion broadcast program. WQED KIDS regularly monitors our sites to make sure the content meets our standards. We encourage you to contact us with any suggestions or comments about our content.

2. WQED KIDS Web sites may contain "links" to other sites, and we select these sites carefully to make sure that, when they are selected, they meet our high standards of decency and integrity. Although we have taken all precautions to ensure that these links meet our standards when they were selected, we cannot guarantee that the sites have not changed since the time they were selected and that they continue to meet our standards. For this and other reasons, all WQED KIDS links to outside sites contain a "bridge page" to alert users that they are leaving the WQED KIDS Web site.

3. WQED KIDS protects the identity of our visitors by limiting the collection of personal information, with certain clearly noted exceptions. No child's personally identifiable information is ever posted online or shared with third parties unless a parent or guardian has provided written authorization by use of a verified e-mail address, fax or ordinary mail (called "snail mail"). Personal information may be collected and used by WQED and our Affiliate Sites in order to provide our visitors with additional ways of obtaining information (such as e-mail responses from producers or program-related newsletters). Whenever a visitor provides identifiable information, it is always explained how the information will be used; if the visitor does not want this information collected and used by us for disclosed internal purposes, the visitor is given an opportunity to "opt out"."Opting-out" may mean exclusion from certain activities for which the identifiable information is needed. (For example, if a contest participant elects to "opt-out" on permitting us to collect and use their personal information, we cannot contact them if they win without obtaining such information.)

4. Information promoting the sale or availability of program-related or non-program-related goods and services may not be included on WQED KIDS Web Sites on WQED. Exceptions to this rule may be made by WQED in special cases for designed instructional material offered at no or nominal cost.

Acceptance of these WQED Privacy Policy Terms and Conditions By using this site, you signify your agreement to the terms and conditions of this WQED Privacy Policy. If you do not agree to these terms and conditions, please do not use the site. We reserve the right, at our sole discretion, to change, modify, add, or remove portions of this policy at any time. Please check this page periodically for any changes. Your continued use of WQED following the posting of any changes to these terms shall mean that you have accepted those changes. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact us.

Linking Policy

WQED requests that you only link our home page to your site. Please do not link internal pages, as we add and remove pages on a daily basis. If there is specific information that you would like to frame or otherwise use for your own site, please contact us for permission prior to your use of our copyrighted material. Because WQED is a nonprofit organization, we require that WQED content not be used in coonnection with advertising without the prior written consent of WQED.

WQED'S Rules of the Road

The following rules govern the use by you of the WQED website. The rules set forth herein apply to all materials, online communications and other information that is or becomes available on the WQED website (collectively, "Information"). BY SIGNING ON AND USING The WQED website, YOU SPECIFICALLY AGREE TO ABIDE BY THESE RULES AND ANY MODIFICATIONS THERETO.

1. PERSONAL USES PERMITTED.
The WQED website is an online information exchange service for use by WQED, PBS, and the general public. You shall not post, publish, transmit, reproduce, distribute or in any way use or exploit any Information for commercial purposes or otherwise use the Information in a manner that is inconsistent with these rules and regulations.

2. USER'S OBLIGATION TO ABIDE BY APPLICABLE LAW.
In connection with the use of the WQED website, you shall abide by all applicable federal, state or local laws, including those pertaining to such areas as libel, slander, defamation, trade libel, product disparagement, harassment, invasion of privacy, tort, obscenity, indecency, and copyright or trademark infringement ("Applicable Law"). The Information available on the WQED website may include intellectual property that is protected under the copyright, trademark and other intellectual property laws of the United States and/or other countries ("Intellectual Property Laws"). Such Intellectual Property Laws generally prohibit the unauthorized reproduction, distribution or exhibition of all text, photographic and graphic (art and electronic) images, music, sound samplings and other protected materials. The violation of applicable Intellectual Property Laws may give rise to civil and/or criminal penalties.

3. DISCLOSURE OF ONLINE COMMUNICATIONS.
You are cautioned that any online communications may not be fully confidential. In addition, you should be aware that federal postal regulations do not protect electronic mail. You should be aware that some administrative personnel of WQED may, in the course of their regular duties, have access to communications for technical or operational purposes. WQED may also disclose any communications to the extent permitted or required by law.

When communicating with WQED, especially regarding the sharing of ideas for programs, please remember that ideas are public domain. We thank you for sharing yours with WQED and remind you that WQED has many ideas, stories, and projects in development and that it is quite possible that any ideas submitted are already being used or are already under consideration by WQED. Therefore, any communication of ideas to WQED is done so unconditionally without expectation of payment or commitment of any kind from WQED

4. PROHIBITION AGAINST ROGUE PROGRAMMING.
You shall not post, transmit or make available in any way through the WQED website any software or other materials which contain a computer virus, trojan horse, timebomb, worm or other rogue programming ("Rogue Programming"). WQED has no obligation to detect the presence of any Rogue Programming. Any downloading of software or other materials or any other use of the Information on the WQED website is at your risk, and you are advised to take adequate precautions to minimize any loss to your system caused by Rogue Programming, including use of anti-virus programs and proper backup of files.

5. CONTENT OF INFORMATION.
You are responsible for the content of any Information you put on the WQED website. WQED has no obligation to, and does not in the normal course, monitor or control any Information that is or becomes available on the WQED website. WQED reserves the right to review any Information that is or becomes available on the WQED website. WQED reserves the right to refuse to post or to remove any Information that is, in WQED's sole discretion, unacceptable, undesirable or in violation of these rules. However, WQED has no obligation to exercise such reservation of rights by WQED.

6. DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTIES.
The WQED website IS PROVIDED ON AN "AS IS" BASIS WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION WARRANTIES OF TITLE, NONINFRINGEMENT, OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. WQED DOES NOT WARRANT THAT ANY INFORMATION IS COMPLETE OR ACCURATE, THAT THE WQED WEBSITE WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED OR ERROR FREE OR THAT ANY INFORMATION IS FREE OF ROGUE PROGRAMMING.

7. LIMITATION OF DAMAGES.
UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES, INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE, SHALL WQED OR THE BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, PUNITIVE OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES THAT MAY RESULT FROM THE USE OR INABILITY TO USE THE WQED WEBSITE, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION USE OF OR RELIANCE ON INFORMATION AVAILABLE ON THE WQED WEBSITE, INTERRUPTIONS, ERRORS, DEFECTS, MISTAKES, OMISSIONS, DELETIONS OF FILES, DELAYS IN OPERATION OR TRANSMISSION, NONDELIVERY OF INFORMATION, DISCLOSURE OF COMMUNICATIONS, OR ANY OTHER FAILURE OF PERFORMANCE.

8. RELEASE AND INDEMNITY.
YOU HEREBY RELEASE AND WAIVE ANY AND ALL CLAIMS AND/OR LIABILITY AGAINST WQED ARISING FROM OR IN CONNECTION WITH YOUR USE OF THE WQED WEBSITE. YOU ALSO AGREE TO DEFEND, INDEMNIFY AND HOLD HARMLESS WQED FROM AND AGAINST, ANY AND ALL CLAIMS OR LIABILITY, INCLUDING COSTS AND ATTORNEYS FEES, ARISING FROM OR IN CONNECTION WITH YOUR USE OF THE WQED WEBSITE OR FAILURE TO ABIDE BY APPLICABLE LAW.

9. MODIFICATIONS.
These rules may be modified by WQED from time to time and such modifications will be binding on you when placed online.