Welcome to MusicEducationCenter.com, owned and produced by Music Education Center, Inc. and its assigns (collectively referred to as "Music Education Center"). All Products and Services on the Music Education Center website (as defined in our Terms and Conditions) are made available subject to this Privacy Policy. By using our Products and Services, you agree, without limitation or qualification, to be bound by this Privacy Policy or any other privacy or data collection policy applicable to any individual Music Education Center Web site and to receive any required legal notices regarding our privacy practices through the continuous posting of a clear and conspicuous link to the current version of this Privacy Policy throughout the Music Education Center near the bottom of most pages. If you become an inactive user, we will adhere to the policies and practices as described in this Privacy Policy, which may be revised from time to time.

Please note that the Music Education Center contains links to other sites and occasionally allows other sites to be co-branded with the Music Education Center name. Web sites that are linked to Music Education Center sites or carry the Music Education Center brand for co-branding or marketing purposes may have privacy policies which differ from that of the Music Education Center Web site.

The Music Education Center Privacy Policy discloses our privacy practices and contains detailed information about the following:

1. What information of yours does the Music Education Center web site collect?
2. What organization is collecting the information?
3. What are "cookies" and "Web beacons" and how does Music Education Center use them?
4. How does the Music Education Center use the information?
5. With whom does the Music Education Center share the information that is collected?
6. How can you access or edit your information?
7. What is the opt-out policy for the Music Education Center?
8. What types of security procedures are in place to protect againist the loss, misuse or alteration of your information?
9. How does the Music Education Center comply with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA)?
10. What can you do to better protect yourself on the Internet?

    1. What information of yours does the Music Education Center collect?

Our goal is to become your one of your favorite Internet destinations by providing information, services, and product offerings that are most relevant to you. To achieve this goal, the Music Education Center must collect information so we can understand what makes you different from its millions of other unique users. While you are not required to register for any services on the Music Education Center, some Products and Services may not function properly or may not be accessible unless you do.

Information collected online is usually defined as being either anonymous or personally identifiable.

• Anonymous information refers to data that cannot be tied back to a specific individual. For example, Music Education Center collects some information each time a visitor comes to a Music Education Center site so we can improve the overall quality of the visitor's online experience. Music Education Center collects the visitor's IP address (e.g., whether the user is logged on from ibm.com or aol.com), referral data (e.g., the Internet address of the last Web page visited by a user before clicking over to a Music Education Center site), and browser and platform type (e.g., a Netscape browser on a Macintosh platform). Music Education Center also collects aggregate search terms from online search services as well as any integrated search services for internal reporting and targeted advertising. Music Education Center collects this user information for purposes of product monitoring, product improvement, and targeted advertising. You do not have to register with the Music Education Center before we can collect this anonymous information.
  
  
• Personally identifiable information refers to data that tells us specifically who you are, such as your name and postal address, which may be collected in addition to the anonymous data described above. Music Education Center collects personal information in the following ways from different parts of its network of Web sites:
  
  
  • Music Education Center Registration: When you register to use one or more sites on the Music Education Center web site, you may provide Music Education Center with your name, postal address, ZIP Code, email address, birth date, gender, telephone number, occupation, marital status and other information. While not all of this data is required for our services to function, we are better able to customize your experience if you volunteer complete and accurate information. Users who complete the registration process are given a Music Education Center ID and can take full advantage of the many offerings across the Music Education Center.
    
    
  • Other Registration: In addition to registration for various services on the Music Education Center web site, we may ask you for personal information at other times, including when you enter a sweepstakes, contest or promotion sponsored by the Music Education Center. As described below, our co-brand partners may also ask for personal information. If you purchase premium services from Music Education Center or it's partners, we will ask for a valid credit card number. If you choose not to provide the requested information, the Music Education Center may not be able to offer you some of the personalized services or products that depend on this type of information to function.
    
    
  • Correspondence: If you contact the Music Education Center, we may keep a record of that correspondence. We do not collect any email addresses of those who communicate with the Music Education Center via email. We use the information provided so that we may respond to the email.


When you use Products and Services designed to post or transmit content (e.g. Music Education Center Mail, Music Education Center Communities, Music Education Center Bulletin Boards, etc.), that content is necessarily stored in our computers for varying periods of time and associated with the registration information for your account. Music Education Center will not use or disclose such content except as described in this Privacy Policy.

2. What organization is collecting the information?

When you register for a service within the Music Education Center, that information is generally collected and maintained solely by the Music Education Center unless specifically stated otherwise at the point of collection. If data is collected and/or maintained by any company other than Music Education Center, we will tell you at the point of collection. If you do not want to share your information with that company, you can choose not to use that service.

Click here to see a list of companies that work with Music Education Center to provide you with a wide variety of Products and Services.

Music Education Center runs many promotions and sweepstakes across its Network. These promotions may be sponsored or co-sponsored by third-party companies. Data collected during a promotion is typically shared with the sponsor or co-sponsor. Music Education Center will inform you at the point of collection whether or not we are sharing your personal data as a result of your participation in a promotion or sweepstakes. If you do not want to have the Music Education Center share your data, you can choose not to participate in the promotion or sweepstakes.

Be aware that Music Education Center sponsors and other advertisers have links on the Network that take you to external sites. Some of these sites may collect personally identifiable information from you, and third-party advertising networks for Music Education Center may use cookies and Web beacons in their advertisements to collect certain information from you. While Music Education Center hopes that all third parties involved adhere to our policies regarding the privacy of our users, the Music Education Center Privacy Policy does not cover third-party data collection practices and the Music Education Center web site does not assume any responsibility for any actions of third parties.

3. What are "cookies" and "Web beacons" and how does Music Education Center use them?

In addition to the personally identifiable information that Music Education Center actively collects when you register, we may also collect anonymous information passively using cookies and Web beacons. This technology plays an important role in making the Internet work, but there is much confusion among Internet users about what cookies and Web beacons are and how they are used.

A cookie is a small text file containing a unique identification number that is transferred from a Web site to the hard drive of your computer so that the site administrator may identify your computer and passively track its activities on the Web site. This unique number identifies your Web browser to our computer system whenever you visit one of the sites in the Music Education Center web site. A cookie will not allow a Web site to learn any personally identifiable information (such as your real name and address) that you have not otherwise disclosed.

Cookies allow Music Education Center to automatically remember your Web browser when you visit our Network of Web sites. To help serve you better, Music Education Center generally uses cookies to

• Allow us to deliver products and services more efficiently. By storing certain registration and preference information on cookies or associating cookies with registration, preference or profile information stored on our computers, we can deliver products and services that use such information more quickly and efficiently for more users. This information is normally saved in an encrypted form that only Music Education Center can interpret.
  
  
• Prevent others from using your account. On some Music Education Center web sites, cookies help us efficiently determine that only one user is logged on under the same member name at a time.
  
  
• Measure statistics such as audience size and traffic patterns. This information is only collected in aggregate form and will not be linked to your personally identifiable information.
  
  
• Display advertisements. Cookies let us know whether or not a Web browser has seen a particular advertisement (so we can show you a variety of material) and count the number of advertisements displayed to a particular browser. We also use cookies to customize the advertising you see based on non-personally identifiable demographic information that you provide when you register. Third-party advertising networks for Music Education Center may issue cookies on the Music Education Center web site and other sites when serving advertisements.

The use of cookies is an industry standard, and they are currently used on most major Web sites. It is possible to adjust your Web browser preferences to alert you when a cookie is sent to your hard drive, or to refuse cookies altogether. While Music Education Center does not require you to use cookies, keep in mind that certain sites and services will not function properly if you set your browser to refuse all cookies.

Web beacons, also known as clear GIFs or single-pixel GIFs, are small image files that Music Education Center may place on Web pages and within Web-based email newsletters that we send. Working in conjunction with cookies, Web beacons allow Music Education Center to accurately count the number of unique users who have visited a specific page on the Music Education Center Network and the number of times those pages are displayed. We can also use Web beacons to let us know how many people opened a Web-based email newsletter. This information is only collected in aggregate form and will not be linked to your personally identifiable information.

Without cookies and Web beacons, it would be difficult for Music Education Center to know which services have a larger audience than others. Tracking audience size helps us to better understand when to launch new services and enhance the current offerings. Keep in mind that any image file on a Web page can act as a Web beacon. Third-party advertising networks for Music Education Center may use Web beacons in their advertisements.

Because Web beacons work in conjunction with cookies, you can prevent our Web beacon from collecting anonymous information by setting your Web browser to refuse all cookies or the Music Education Center Network cookie in particular. Web beacons are built into our Web pages, so non-functional Web beacons will continue to appear even if you refuse the Music Education Center Network cookie.

4. How does the Music Education Center Website use the information it collects?

Any personally identifiable information you share with Music Education Center when registering for Products and Services at any of our sites is maintained and accessible only by Music Education Center unless specifically stated otherwise. Music Education Center requests information from its users so that users can enjoy customized experiences across the Music Education Center Website , including personalization services, interactive communications, online games and much more. Most of these Products and Services are available to you at no cost, and Music Education Center displays advertisements so we can continue to provide great content and services free of charge. We can also better prepare future content based on your interests.

The following are examples of how the Music Education Center Website may use the information it collects:

• Music Education Center uses the information collected (both anonymous and personal) to personalize and enhance the content you see on the Music Education Center Website , such as news, stock portfolios, weather reports, sports scores, horoscopes, advertisements and more. In some cases, our Products and Services cannot work unless you have volunteered accurate information (for example, we need your valid ZIP Code to display weather conditions in your local area).
  
  
• Music Education Center collects anonymous data and shares it with third-party advertisers in an aggregate form. We will disclose to those advertisers the numbers of Music Education Center users who have certain demographic characteristics and the number of those people who have seen and "clicked" on a particular display. We will also disclose to those advertisers the overall demographics available regarding who saw and "clicked" on their advertisement. No personally identifiable information will be disclosed as part of this process.
  
  
• Music Education Center also uses the aggregate data to perform statistical analyses of the collective characteristics and behavior of our registered users and visitors, to measure user demographics and interests regarding specific areas of the Music Education Center Website , and to analyze how and where best to use our resources. We do not track what pages individual users are browsing, but rather how well each page performs overall. Without such data, we would not know which parts of the Music Education Center Website are the most popular, and we would not be able to change and update the content and services appropriately.
  
  
• Music Education Center collects an aggregate list of search terms from its outside search services and the integrated Music Education Center search services. This information is collected anonymously and used primarily for the purposes of product development, monitoring, and improvement, as well as targeted advertising. Please note, however, that we may share this anonymous information with third-party companies.
  
  
• Music Education Center sometimes uses an individual registered user's data to "pre-populate" online forms that are displayed for the purpose of collecting additional individual data by the Music Education Center Website , selected third-party sites, and/or sponsors and advertisers.
  
  
• Music Education Center may, from time to time, use your information to contact you about changes or enhancements to Products and Services on the Music Education Center Website , issues regarding your account, or Music Education Center Website Terms and Conditions violations or suspensions.
  
  
• If you enter a sweepstakes or a contest on the Music Education Center Website , we will use the information you provided to contact you in the event you win.
  
  
• If you told Music Education Center that you were interested in receiving offers or information from selected sponsors and advertisers, Music Education Center or third parties on Music Education Center's behalf will send you email about products and services that we feel may be of interest to you. For those who elect to receive such materials directly from selected sponsors or advertisers, Music Education Center will release personally identifiable information to the applicable sponsor or advertiser. Information released includes name, email address, postal address and other information supplied in the Music Education Center Website registration process. Music Education Center may also combine information we have about you with information we obtain about you from third parties for the purpose of providing you with more appropriate products, services, and offerings. If you do not wish to have us combine information supplied in the Music Education Center Website registration process with information obtained from third parties, you should follow the instructions shown here to indicate that you do not wish to receive offers or information from sponsors and advertisers.
  
  
• Subscription Customers: Your credit card information is used to collect your recurrent subscription fees for lessons, classes or other pay services.

5. With whom does the Music Education Center Website share the information that is collected?

By providing Music Education Center with your personally identifiable information, you authorize Music Education Center to internally share that information with other companies in the Music Education Center group, including companies that become part of the Music Education Center group in the future.

Any company in the Music Education Center group (including Music Education Center ) is authorized to share your personally identifiable information with any other company of the Music Education Center group for the following purposes: to manage, administer, provide, expand and improve the existing Music Education Center group products and services, and to offer new products and services; to adapt such products and services to your tastes and preferences; to send service updates to Music Education Center users; to send, by traditional and/or electronic means, technical, operational and commercial information relating to the products and services offered by the Music Education Center group or through any of the sites operated by the Music Education Center group, currently and in the future; and to send you survey forms, which you are not required to fill in. Of course, Music Education Center and the Music Education Center group companies will always give you the option to opt out of receiving any information or notices as described above, other than legal notices and other notices that are necessary to the functioning of the Products and Services, during the time that you are using the Products and Services or maintain an active registration with the Music Education Center Website . Companies in the Music Education Center group may have a physical address in a foreign country. In any event, Music Education Center will take precautions to maintain the confidentiality and security of all user information sent abroad.

As described below, the Music Education Center Website will sometimes share personally identifiable information with third-party companies and organizations. In most cases, you agree to share your information when you choose to register at a co-branded Web site. Co-branded sites are operated by third-party companies and offer a particular service or product to Music Education Center Website members. We may also maintain private label relationships where a third-party company provides Music Education Center with technology, services and/or content under Music Education Center Website branding.

Whenever you provide registration information on co-branded or private label sites, that data may be shared with the third-party company providing the service. You should make every effort to read the individual privacy policies of such third parties and make an informed decision on your own whether or not to continue based upon these sites' privacy practices and your own discretion. You may opt-out of sharing your information with such providers by choosing not to use that service or content.

When you find goods or services through Music Education Center's Online Shopping area, you submit data directly to the individual merchants from whom you order goods or services. Please review carefully the privacy policies of particular merchants that you access through Music Education Center Shopping.

In addition to finding co-branded and private label sites, you will find direct links on our site to sites offered by third parties. Some of these sites are authorized to use the Music Education Center Website brands and/or logos. No third-party sites are covered by this Privacy Policy. If you feel that a site using a Music Education Center Website brand and/or logo does not follow an acceptable privacy policy, please contact the Music Education Center Privacy Site Coordinator by email at privacy@Music Education Center .com.

Music Education Center may disclose information about individual users to third parties who agree to provide services to Music Education Center and who agree to maintain the confidentiality of such information in accordance with this Privacy Policy. These third parties will provide a variety of services to Music Education Center , including, without limitation, processing and storing user information, helping to create new content and promotions for the Music Education Center Website , and sending or coordinating the sending of marketing communications that users have consented to receive. Also, Music Education Center will disclose information about individual users to governmental or judicial authorities or law enforcement agencies, or to other individuals or entities in response to subpoena, court order, or other legal process. In matters involving a danger to personal or public safety, Music Education Center may voluntarily provide information to appropriate governmental authorities.

6. How can you access or edit your information?

The Music Education Center Website provides its registered users the ability to access and edit the personal information in their user profiles. For most membership sites on the Music Education Center Website ( Music Education Center Mail and others) you can access your user profile by following these steps:

• Go directly to page for the service to which you would like to change your information for (example: MusicEducationCenter Mail). You will receive a prompt to log in to the Network with your Music Education Center Website Member Name and password.
  
  
• After you log in, you will be taken to the Membership Information page, which contains your user profile. If you see a field that needs to be updated, click the appropriate Edit button.
  
  
• Make the necessary changes and click the Update button to save your changes.

For some other sites on the Music Education Center Website , you may have to follow different steps to update the personal information in your user profile.

7. What is the opt-out policy for the Music Education Center Website ?

You can opt out of sharing your personally identifiable information with any third-party service or content providers in any areas of the Music Education Center Website by choosing not to use such areas.

In addition, you may opt-opt of sharing your personally identifiable information with third-party service providers and sponsors by clearing the appropriate checkboxes at the point of initial collection. You will see these checkboxes near the bottom of the registration page.

After the point of initial collection, we offer you the ability to opt-out of receiving updates and information about new Music Education Center products and services, as well as direct mail offers from selected service providers and sponsors.

All Music Education Center Website newsletters and direct email communications have easy-to-follow unsubscribe instructions at the bottom of each email.

If you have a question about the Music Education Center opt-out process that is not answered here, please send an email to privacy@musiceducationcenter.com.

8. What kinds of security procedures are in place to protect against the loss, misuse or alteration of your information?

The Music Education Center Website has security measures in place to attempt to protect against the loss, misuse and alteration of your user data under our control. Music Education Center uses physical, electronic, and procedural safeguards to protect any personally identifiable data stored on its computers. Only authorized employees have access to the information you provide us. Any particularly sensitive information, such as a credit card number used to purchase premium services is encrypted prior to transmission.

While we cannot guarantee that loss, misuse or alteration to data will not occur, we take many precautions to prevent such unfortunate occurrences.

You are ultimately responsible for the security of your Music Education Center Website ID and password. Please take care when using and storing them. Music Education Center recommends that you do not divulge your password to anyone. You should log out of your browser at the end of each computer session to ensure that others cannot access your personal information and correspondence, especially if several people have access to your personal computer or you are using a computer in a public place like a library or Internet cafe.

9. How does the Music Education Center Website comply with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA)?

The Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) of 1998 provides safeguards to protect children who use the Internet by regulating the online collection of personal information from children under the age of 13. Because of these safeguards, children under 13 are not able to access or use all Products and Services on the Music Education Center Website . Parents of children under 13 can authorize their children to use some of our services by signing up for a Music Education Center ID to be used by the entire familyMembership.

Parents can learn more about the Music Education Center Family Membership and obtain detailed answers about our compliance with COPPA by clicking here.

Additionally, Music Education Center is registered with the Internet Content Rating Association and features an embedded content label in all of our web pages which allows our site to be recognized as "kid friendly" by most Internet Blocking and Filtering software on the market. Parents that wish to download a free copy of the ICRA's Internet Filtering software should visit the ICRA WEbsite at http://www.icra.org.

10. What you can do to better protect yourself on the Internet?

Know the risks.

Meeting new people in an online community (chat room, forum, newsgroup, message board, Web page, etc.) is one of the best things about the Internet, but you should always be careful about disclosing personal information such as an actual name, member name, email address, and so on. This information may be collected and used by others within the online community to send unsolicited email messages from other parties, outside the Music Education Center Website. Some of the messages you receive may be useful to you, but some may not. In an effort to curtail unsolicited email, Music Education Center blocks certain email addresses and domains from sending messages to email addresses at our domains.

Educate yourself.

Search the Web for as much information as you can about how to protect your privacy. Look for a privacy policy on the Web sites you visit. A good place to start is TRUSTe -- an independent, non-profit organization with a mission to build trust and confidence in the Internet. The Federal Trade Commission has a great Web site with useful information on being a Savvy Internet Traveler along with other privacy initiatives. Additional privacy resources can be found at by clicking on any of the following links

Department of Education: Parents Guide to the Internet
http://www.ed.gov/pubs/parents /internet/

Better Business Bureau (BBB)
http://www.bbbonline.com

Center for Democracy and Technology
http://www.cdt.org/privacy/ - Data Privacy
http://www.cdt.org/privacy/guide/ - Guide to Online Privacy

Direct Marketing Association (DMA)
http://www.the-dma.org/

Electronic Frontier Foundation - non-profit dedicated to protecting public interest in online privacy.
http://www.eff.org

EPIC.org (Electronic Privacy Information Center)
http://www.epic.org

Georgetown Internet Privacy Study
http://www.msb.edu/faculty/culnanm/gippshome.html

Internet Content Rating Association (ICRA) - A non-profit group of software designers dedicated to empowering parents to protect children on the internet while preserving free speech. They offer free Internet filtering software for your computer.
http://www.icra.org

Net Nanny - child safety software that filters potentially harmful Web sites
http://www.netnanny.com/

NetCoalition.com
http://www.netcoalition.com

Network Advertising Initiative
http://www.networkadvertising.org/

Online Privacy Alliance
http://www.privacyalliance.org/

The Privacy Rights Clearinghouse
http://www.privacyrights.org/

 

Tell your children: "Never talk to strangers!"

While Music Education Center works hard to protect children on the sites within the Music Education Center Website , we cannot protect their privacy once they leave. Please teach children that they should not reveal their names or other personal information to anyone they encounter on the Internet. They should also be instructed not to fill out any forms or register at any Web site without your knowledge and consent. Parents can also prevent or limit a child's access to inappropriate material on the Web by using commercially available parental control protections (such as computer hardware, software, or filtering services). Take advantage of the online resources for parents available on the Music Education Center Website , such as SearchGuard and GetNetWise.

Use PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) http://www.pgp.com or another encryption program.

Contact Us
Questions regarding this statement should be directed to:

Music Education Center Privacy Site Coordinator
Music Education Center , Inc.
90 Indian Trace
Weston, FL 33326
(954) 349-3511
(954) 349-3537 (Fax)
privacy@MusicEducationCenter.com

If you do not receive acknowledgment of your inquiry or your inquiry has not been satisfactorily addressed, you should then contact TRUSTe, who will serve as a liaison with the Music Education Center Website to resolve your concerns.

Updates

The Music Education Center Website will update this policy from time to time so please check back periodically. When such changes occur, you will see the word "Updated" next to the Privacy Policy link on the front page of each site on the Music Education Center Website . If at any point we decide to use personally identifiable information in a manner different from that stated at the time it was collected, we will prominently post such changes prior to implementing them.

Last updated: 3 November, 2007