Privacy Policy

This is the official privacy policy (“Privacy Policy”) for Getschooled.com (“Site,” “we,” “us,” or “our”) a website fully controlled and operated by Viacom Inc. (“VIACOM”) in collaboration with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (the “FOUNDATION”).

This Privacy Policy is a part of the terms and conditions which are set forth in our Terms of Use. Both the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use Agreement are legally binding on all users. Your privacy is important to us. To better protect your privacy, we provide this notice explaining our online information practices and the choices you can make about the collection and use of the personally identifiable information you submit at our site.

We reserve the right to revise this Privacy Policy at any time by updating this posting without advance notice to you. Such revisions shall be effective to you immediately upon posting. Notice of material changes to this Privacy Policy may be posted on the Site’s homepage. However, we encourage you to check this Privacy Policy and Terms of Use Agreement often for updates. We may also e-mail you about these changes. Your continued use of this Site indicates your acceptance of this Privacy Policy and of the collection, use, disclosure, management and storage of your Personal Information as described below.

Collection and Use of Personal Information

It is our policy to create website content that requires minimum collection of information from our users. The Site is committed to complying fully with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998. Generally, the Site limits our collection of information from users under 13 years of age to what is known as non-personally identifiable information (e.g. screen name, first name, birthday, gender, state, zip code and country of residence).

When we use the term “Personal Information” we mean information such as your first/middle initial or name and last name, street address, town or city, state, zip code, telephone number, instant-messenger nickname, blog or other personal website URL, e-mail address and any other information that would allow someone to identify you or contact you.

Personal Information also includes information about your personal preferences, survey responses and your transactions or relationship with us, if you have provided this type of information to VIACOM.

We may collect Personal Information about you when you visit the Site and input information, whether you are registering to use the Site, enrolling or signing up for features and functions, participating in promotions, or in the course of any other exchanges of information, transactions and activities. We may use the information we obtain from you, including Personal Information, to tailor your experience on the Site, to display content we think may be of interest to you, or to let us customize what you see when you visit the Site according to your preferences. From time to time, we may transfer or merge any Personal Information collected off-line to our online databases or store off-line information in an electronic format. This Privacy Policy covers all such Personal Information and will remain in full force and effect as long as you are a user of the Site or a participant in our features and activities.

Electronic Newsletter Subscription

This Site may offer users the opportunity to sign up to receive the newsletters by email. All information collected for newsletters is used only to send the user the electronic newsletter and only may be transferred, disclosed, or shared with third parties who may be engaged by us specifically to handle the preparation and delivery of the electronic newsletter and perform other related technical and processing functions. These third parties may not use it for other purposes and have agreed to maintain the confidentiality of such information.

If a child under 13 years of age asks to receive our email newsletter, the child is asked to provide his or her first name, email address and the email address of his or her parent. Within two business days of receiving this information, we send the child’s parent a notification email informing him or her of the child’s request to receive by email the newsletter on an ongoing basis and give the parent the option to have his or her child’s information be removed from our newsletter database. At any time after receiving this notification email, the child’s parent has the opportunity to exercise the option to request that we stop sending the child the newsletter and have the child’s information removed from our newsletter by following the “unsubscribe” instructions found in either their initial notification email or at the end of any of the newsletter emails.

Online Contests and Sweepstakes

The Site may offer opportunities to enter contests and sweepstakes. We may ask for Personal Information in association with these contests or sweepstakes. VIACOM and the FOUNDATION use this information for purpose of conducting the contests and sweepstakes and do not (except as set forth herein) disclose such information externally to third parties, except any fulfillment house which the Site uses to help select winners and fulfill prizes and, in some cases, third-party sponsors. In the case of third party sponsors, the Site may offer from time to time contests and sweepstakes sponsored by third party businesses and may share with such third party businesses entrant information collected by The Site. In these types of contests and sweepstakes, The Site will disclose to potential entrants that such information will be so supplied and the identity of the third party to whom such information will be supplied at the time entrant information is collected and will provide potential entrants with the opportunity to opt out of such third party sponsored contests and sweepstakes. However, any information supplied to a third party may be retained by such third party and will be out of the control of VIACOM.

Wireless Marketing Services and
Promotional Opportunities

The Site may provide its users with the opportunity to register for certain services, promotions, news, and information delivered via text messaging and other wireless devices such as mobile phones. Users are required to provide their consent to receive such information from VIACOM, either by registering on this Site or via their wireless device. Such services and promotional opportunities may be provided by VIACOM affiliates. The information requested as part of the online registration process may include a user’s telephone number or a wireless email address and the carrier’s name. Optional information may also be requested for specific services or promotions. Depending on the promotion, we may also collect an Internet email address or other information and, depending on the information collected, the user may also be required to confirm his or her agreement to the Site’s Privacy Policy and Terms of Use Agreement.

We caution that most wireless transmissions are not secured and there is a greater risk of an unknown third party’s interception of messages or a user’s Personal Information when using a wireless communications device.

Users that register for wireless marketing services acknowledge, understand and agree that they will be charged by the user’s wireless carrier for all messages sent to the user from the Site. Standard messaging rates will apply, unless noted otherwise. Under no circumstances will VIACOM or corporate affiliates be responsible for any wireless email or text messaging charges incurred by a user or by a person that has access to a user’s wireless device, telephone number, or email address.

The Site will not use a wireless telephone number, wireless or conventional Internet email address, or other information submitted for its wireless marketing services for any other purpose but to provide the service requested, unless we provide advance notice of any other use. We will not share this Personal Information with advertisers or other third party marketers unless you opt-in to such disclosure. We will share this information with the operational service providers that assist us in delivering these wireless services to you and with corporate affiliates related to the Site.

Cookies and Log Data

Cookies are information files that your web browser places on the hard drive of your computer when you visit a website. Cookies cannot damage user files, nor can they read information from a user’s hard drive. Cookies allow websites to “remember” users’ activities on a website as well as users’ visits to a site. This Site uses cookies to determine the number of unique users to our website over a given period. We do not store any personal information into cookies nor do we link or combine information collected through cookies to any personal information submitted by users when participating in our activities. Log data collected on web servers within VIACOM’s control supplies VIACOM with aggregate information about the number of visits to different pages on our site. The Site uses such aggregate information to improve access to our content based on our users’ browsers and operating system types to make our content available to as many users as possible. We do not link the “log data” collected to personally identifiable information submitted by users when participating in our activities.

Postings

We respect the privacy of the contents of users’ e-mail and other correspondence (collectively, “Postings”). However, we reserve the right to monitor, edit, and disclose your use of the Site, information pertaining to any Posting or its contents to a third party, if we believe such action is required by law or is necessary to protect and defend our rights, to enforce this Privacy Policy or our Terms of Use Agreement, or to protect the interests of our users, advertisers, suppliers, operational service providers, and others.

Disclosure to Third Parties

We do not sell, rent, lease or disclose your Personal Information, except in the limited circumstances listed below. From time to time, we may partner with outside third parties to provide you with additional content, products, or services that we believe may be of interest. If you do not wish to receive information from outside third parties, you can unsubscribe by following the instructions at the bottom of any email you may receive and inform us that you no longer wish to receive such correspondences.

When we plan to disclose your Personal Information to advertisers, we ask for your consent (“Opt in”) to do so, in which case their use of your information is subject to the advertiser’s own privacy policy. The Site also offers co-branded services and features, which are events and promotions (for example, a contest) that we put together with another company (“Co-Branded Partner”). Your voluntary use and/or participation in a co-branded service or feature means that you have given your affirmative consent to both the VIACOM and our Co-Branded Partner to collect and use your Personal Information. If you wish to opt-out of a Co-Branded Partner’s future use of your Personal Information, you will need to contact the Co-Branded Partner directly.

We also have the right to disclose your Personal Information to third parties for the purpose of administering and maintaining services on the Site. These third parties are called operational service providers, the specialists that provide internal support to operations and activities and/or for Site design, development, hosting and operations including maintenance, management, storage and/or fulfillment of our membership and e-mail clubs, various contests, sweepstakes, services and events. We use operational service providers to efficiently provide the full range of content, activities and services we bring to you and we request that our operational service providers also protect your privacy and not disclose your Personal Information to third party marketers that are not associated with this Site. Additionally, such providers are not to use your Personal Information for their own marketing or promotional purposes.

We will make your Personal Information available to non-affiliated third parties only in the following limited circumstances:

1. When we are compelled to do so by a governmental agency, court or other entity (e.g., to respond to subpoenas, court orders or legal process);

2. If we believe your actions violate any law, regulation, our Terms of Use Agreement, Additional Terms, Rules, this Privacy Policy, or any of our guidelines for promotions, product offerings or any other features or functions of the Site, or if you threaten the rights, property or safety of the Site, VIACOM, its operational service providers, suppliers, advertisers, other customers or users, or any other party;

3. If, in our sole discretion, we believe such disclosure to be necessary or appropriate to investigate or resolve possible problems or inquiries, to protect our business and assets, to defend our interests and/or to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations; or

4. In the event of a bankruptcy, merger, acquisition, transfer of control, joint venture or other business combination involving the Site.

Your California Privacy Rights

California Civil Code Section 1798.83 permits our users who are California residents to request certain information regarding its disclosure of personal information to third parties for their direct marketing purposes. To make such a request, please send an e-mail to info@getschooled.com or write us:

Getschooled.com CA Privacy Coordinator

Viacom Corporate Relations

1515 Broadway, 52nd Floor

New York, New York 10036

This Site is Intended For Domestic Use Only

This Site is designed and targeted to U.S. audiences and is governed by and operated in accordance with the laws of the U.S. We make no representation that this Site is operated in accordance with the laws or governed by other nations. All users of the Site are required to provide true, current, complete and accurate Personal Information when prompted and we will reject and delete any entry that we believe in good faith to be false, fraudulent, or inconsistent with this Privacy Policy. If you are located in the European Union or elsewhere outside of the U.S. and you participate in activities on this Site contrary to our policy that only U.S. residents are eligible for certain activities, you do so at your own risk and initiative, and are responsible for compliance with any applicable local and national laws. Please be aware that any Personal Information you transfer to us will be transferred to the U.S and subject to U.S. law. By using this Site, participating in any Site activities, and/or providing us with your Personal Information, you consent to this transfer of Personal Information to the U.S., and waive any claims that may arise under your own local and national laws.

Last modified September 15, 2009 effective immediately.