Children's Privacy Policy

What is a privacy policy?

It’s a notice that tells you what information that the website or app you are using collects about you and what happens to it. This might mean your name, age, a display or username and password, your photos and content or it might mean it collects information about everything you do on the site or in the app such as how many times you watch a video. The privacy policy should also tell you what the site or app does with your personal information known as personal data and if it gives it to anyone else.

So, what do we collect and keep from you when you use our site/app?

We actively collect some information about you. This means that we ask you or a parent/guardian/teacher for specific information about you when your parent/guardian/teacher creates an account for you on ePals Global Community or you or your parent/guardian/teacher submits an entry on your behalf to the Invent It Challenge. This information includes your full name, which country you live in and your date of birth. A photo showing your face is also requested when you submit an entry to the Invent It Challenge. While we do not specifically ask you to submit a photo showing your face on ePals Global Community, you may choose to upload any image as well as documents or videos. We will collect and store this information if you upload it to the Global Community.

We also passively collect some information about you. This means that we use cookies to collect information about you. Cookies are small bits of data that are placed on your computer by websites you visit. These data files allow the website to recognize you when you visit the site again and understand what pages and content you view while on the site. When you visit ePals Global Community or the Invent It Challenge websites, we use cookies from Google Analytics that help us understand what pages and content you view while on the sites as well as what city and country you are in while you’re visiting the site. When you visit ePals Global Community, we also use cookies from Kaltura (a video service). These cookies are mostly analytics cookies, meaning they help Kaltura understand how you interact with the video content on ePals Global Community. Other cookies placed by Kaltura help them analyse the performance of their video service. Non-necessary cookies require you or your parent or guardian’s consent. We only use these cookies if we have consent.

What do we use this information for?

We use the information described above to manage your account on ePals Global Community and to monitor the performance of both ePals Global Community and the Invent It Challenge websites.

How long do we keep this information?

We keep different kinds of information for different lengths of time. Account information on ePals Global Community is stored until you or your teacher/parent/guardian requests that it is deleted. Similarly, any information you uploaded to ePals Global Community or submitted to the Invent It Challenge in the form of images, documents, or videos is stored until you or your teacher/parent/guardian requests that it is deleted. The cookies placed by Google Analytics and Kaltura when you visit ePals Global Community and the Invent It Challenge will remain on your computer anywhere from 1 day to 2 years. If you or your parent or guardian wish to find out more about the cookies we use for the Global Community, click here, and for the Invent It Challenge, click here.

Who do we give this information to?

Your privacy is extremely important to us. We do not share your personal information with anyone. Sometimes, your information is stored by companies who help us manage ePals Global Community and the Invent It Challenge sites. These companies are:

• Amazon Web Services (for image and document management)
• Kaltura (for video management)
• Submittable (entry form for the Invent It Challenge sites)
• Google Analytics (collects information about how you use the site to improve our services)

For more information on these companies, or to view the privacy policies, your parent/guardian can visit our company’s privacy policy, here.  If you have any questions, you can contact us using the contact details below. 

How do we keep your information safe?

Security is very important to us and we take several steps to make sure your information is protected. We store your information on our servers, access to these servers is strictly controlled and limited only to authorized people. We do everything we can to make sure nobody else can access it or see it by mistake.

Questions About Your Personal Information?

You, or your parents/guardians, can contact us by email about your personal information, and you can request all of the following:

• To view your information
• To update or correct your information
• To stop some of your information from being collected and used
• To delete your personal information and ask that we not collect or use it anymore

When you contact us, simply state your question or request in the body of your email, and our Customer Support Team will take action within three to five business days. If you want to ask us questions, you, or your parents/guardians, can contact us by emailing support@epals.com (for the Global Community) or invent@cricketmedia.com (for the Invent It Challenge).

You may also view our company’s Privacy Policy, here.