PRIVACY POLICY AND COPPA COMPLIANCE 

USER INFORMATION
Yaros Communications, Inc. ("YCI")  has been educating for more than 20 years and knows the importance of keeping children’s privacy protected.  This app is directed to a general audience - including teachers and students - who wish to better understand the local TV weathercast.  For that reason, Yaros Communication has designed its app and web site so as not to collect any personal information from its users in compliance with The Children's Online Privacy Protection Act. In contracts with our licensees and partners, and with schools, we likewise ask them not to collect from children under age 13 any personal information, as defined in COPPA from time to time.

 

YCI does not collect, sell or rent any user's personal information to any third party for any purpose - including for advertising or marketing purposes.   All content on the app is weather-related information for viewing with the exception of the option for any user to voluntarily share a local text-only weather report with the TV station without including a personal name, phone number, email address or street address as defined by COPPA. Only a city or town identifier is requested and if the report originates from a teacher or student, only a school name and grade can be submitted with the weather report  If YCI discovers that YCI has collected information from a child in a manner inconsistent with COPPA, YCI will take appropriate steps to either delete the information or immediately seek the parent’s consent for that collection.

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COPPA DEFINITIONS
COPPA broadly defines a website or online service as "mobile apps that send or receive information online (like network-connected games, social networking apps, or app that deliver behaviorally-targeted ads), YCI addresses the conditions cited by the Federal Trade Commission (below) to assess whether COPPA regulations apply:

1. The app is directed to any TV news/weather viewers including - but limited to - children under 13 and does NOT collect personal information from any user.

2. The app is directed to any TV news/weather viewers including - but limited to - children under 13 and does NOT allow others to collect personal information from any app user. 

3.  The app is directed to a general audience and YCI has NO actual knowledge that we are collecting personal information from children under 13.

 

PERSONAL INFORMATION
The COPPA web site defines "personal information" as:  1. full name, 2. home or other physical address, including street name and city or town, 3. online contact information like an email address or other identifier that permits someone to contact a person directly,  4. screen name or user name where it functions as online contact information, 5. telephone number, 6. social security number, 7. a persistent identifier that can be used to recognize a user over time and across different sites, including a cookie number, an IP address, a processor or device serial number or a unique device identifier, 8. a photo, video, or audio file containing a child's image or voice, 9. geolocation information sufficient to identify a street name and city or town; 0r 10. other information about the child or parent that is collected from the child and is combined with one of these identifiers. YCI does not collect any of this information.
 

THIRD PARTIES

The app has no feature that permits the user to enter his/her own web site destination.  The app contains only hard-coded direct links to third-party websites such as the station's radar screen, videos, etc.  Any access to - and use of - such linked websites is not governed by this Policy, but instead is governed by the privacy policies of those third-party websites. YCI is not responsible for the information practices of such third-party websites. This policy does not apply to websites or services or practices of companies that YCI does not own or control, such as third party services an app user might access through links or other features (e.g., social media buttons) on the app. These other services have their own privacy policies, and we encourage users to review their policies before providing those third party services with any personal information. We do not disclose any information to third parties, except to service providers necessary to provide the Service, as required by law, or to protect the security of the service or other users. 

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STATIONS
If an app user chooses to share mobile app drawings, text, photos, video, audio, or links with the weather team at the Weatherschool TV station - where all emailed information is sent - the station's authorized personnel will be able to view the emailed content.  Any Weatherschool app user can use the app to report their local weather conditions to the Weatherschool TV station with no more that the city or town, and if the user is a teacher or student - no more than the optional school name and grade.  TV stations and their personnel decide if and when to use any weather information received and how.   Weatherschool TV stations may have the option to offer send push notifications to app users. For example, a text displaying the daily Weatherschool lesson question that will be answered on the station's weather broadcast   If a station chooses to utilize the optional notifications service, any app user that does not wish to receive push notifications are provided the option to turn off notifications for the Weatherschool app upon first use and any time thereafter in the device's notification settings.

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GUARDIANS
If you are the parent or legal guardian of a child who has downloaded and used the Weathercschool app and you were not informed by your child’s teacher or school (as per COPPA) you can immediately delete the app from the student's device and use the devices "parental controls" to prohibit future downloading and use of the Weatherschool app.  

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ANALYTICS

Licensed Weatherschool TV stations may receive information about how many apps were downloaded from devices using the services provided by Apple and Android service providers.  We may also engage third parties, such as Google Analytics, to analyze the usage of our site (i.e. which lessons and app menus were most popular). We use the data collected by such third parties to help us administer and improve the quality of our educational lessons, web site, app, and services and user experiences. These entities may use cookies and other recording technologies to perform their services. These third parties are not permitted to use the information collected on our behalf, except to help us conduct and improve our business.  We may collect device-specific information such as a device's brand, operating system, and hardware version. This helps us to measure how the service is performing and to improve Weatherschool for you on your particular device.

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WEB BROWSERS
Most web browsers automatically accept cookies, but if you prefer, you can edit your browser options to block them in the future. The Help portion of the toolbar on most browsers will tell you how to prevent your device from accepting new cookies, how to have the browser notify you when you receive a new cookie, or how to disable cookies altogether. Visitors to our web-based lessons who disable cookies will be able to browse certain areas of the site, but some features may not function.

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SOCIAL MEDIA
The app may now or in the future include social media features provided to the public by the TV station, such as the Facebook Like button, and the Twitter Tweet button. These social media features may collect the user's IP address, which page is being visited, and may set a cookie to enable the feature to function properly. Social media features and widgets are hosted by a third party. Your interactions with these social media features are governed by the privacy policy of the company providing each social media feature.

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POLICY UPDATES

We may occasionally update this privacy policy. The date of the “Last Updated” can be found at the bottom of the web page weatherschool.com/privacy
 

If you have any questions or concerns about this Privacy Policy, please contact us using the form at the top of this page.

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Last Updated: June 18, 2020

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