WETA Privacy Policy

Table of Contents

• Scope of this Policy
• Information We Collect
• How We Use Your Information
• How We Share Your Information
• Security
• Your Options and Rights Regarding Your Information
• Special Information for Job Applicants
• Other Important Information
• Privacy Disclosures for Specific Jurisdictions
• Contact information, submitting requests, and our response procedures

Scope of this Policy

Greater Washington Education Telecommunications Association, Inc. (“WETA”) is committed to protecting your privacy and maintaining your trust. This Policy applies to WETA and our affiliates (“WETA,” “we,” “us,” “our”), and our online properties (including our websites and websites or mobile applications that link to the Policy) and mobile application WETA+ (the “Services”).

This Policy applies when you interact with us through our Services. It also applies anywhere it is linked. It does not apply to third-party websites, mobile applications, or services that may link to the Services or be linked to from the Services. Please review the privacy policies on those websites and applications directly to understand their privacy practices.

We may change this Policy from time to time. If we do, we will notify you by posting the updated version.

Information We Collect

We collect information from you directly, from the devices you use to interact with us, and from third parties. We may combine information from the Services together and with other information we obtain from our business records. We may use and share information that we aggregate (compile to create statistics that cannot identify a particular individual) or de-identify (strip information of all unique identifiers such that it cannot be linked to a particular individual) at our discretion.

Information you give us

Some elements of the Services may ask or permit you to directly provide us with certain information, such as:

• Contact information and information you choose to include when you communicate and interact with us, including name, email address, mailing address and telephone number.
• Information contained in your communications to us, including call recordings of customer service calls.
• Donation information and associated contact information you provide when you make a donation to us, including types and amounts of donations and information required to provide gift receipts for tax purposes.
• Information you provide when you register or participate in an event, contest, giveaway, or promotion.
• Payment information, including credit card information. Payment processing is handled by third-party payment vendors that we engage to process transactions.
• Content you may include in survey responses.
• Information you make available to us via a social media platform.
• Any information or data you provide by interacting in our online forums or by commenting on content posted on our Services. Please note that these comments are also visible to other users of our Services.
• Your use of our Services.
• Information you submit to inquire about or apply for a job with us.
• Any other information you submit to us.

Information we collect automatically

We and partners working on our behalf may use log files, cookies, or other digital tracking technologies to collect the following information from the device you use to interact with our Services. We also create records when you make purchases or otherwise interact with the Services.

• Device information, including IP address, device identifiers, and details about your web browser.
• Analytical information, including details about your interaction with our Services, website, app, and electronic newsletters.
• Diagnostic information, including web traffic logs.
• Advertising information, including special advertising and other unique identifiers that enable us or third parties working on our behalf to target advertisements to you. Please be aware that our advertising partners may collect information about you when you visit third-party websites or use third-party apps. They may use that information to better target advertisements to you on our behalf.
• Business record information, including records of your membership and subscription purchases, charitable contributions, registration and participation in events and promotions, and use of our Services.

The following is a list of our partners who collect the information described above. Please follow the links to find out more information about the partner’s privacy practices.

Partner	Information Type Collected
Google Analytics	Device, Analytical, and Diagnostic Information
Google/Doubleclick	Device, Analytical, and Advertising Information
Hotjar	Device, Analytical, and Diagnostic Information
Engaging Networks	Device, Analytical, and Business Record Information
Meta	Analytical and Business Record Information
Mailchimp	Device, Analytical, and Business Record Information

Information We Collect from Other Sources

We may collect the following information about you from third-party sources.

• Account and subscription registration information. This includes account, subscription, and other information that PBS shares with us with your permission.
• Contact information, location information, demographic information, and information about your interests and purchases, from affiliates, business partners, and consumer data providers. This may include information about race or ethnic origin, which is considered sensitive data under certain laws.
• Information about your interests, activities, and employment history from social networks and other places where you choose to share information publicly.
• Information about your interaction with advertisements on our Services, or ads that we place on third party websites, from online advertising companies.

WETA Passport Service: If you are viewing on-demand video on WETA’s websites via the WETA Passport service or player, you have agreed that PBS may collect your viewing and usage information and that PBS may share this information with WETA. Your individual and usage viewing information will only be shared with WETA, but PBS may share anonymized aggregate viewing and usage information with its member stations and service providers, as well as WETA. PBS’s collection, storage, and use of Passport information is subject to PBS’s Terms and Conditions and PBS’s Privacy Policy.

How We Use Your Information

We may use any of the information we collect for the following purposes.

• Service functionality: To provide you with our products and services, including to take steps to enter into contracts, process payments and donations, administer events, contests, giveaways, and promotions, send service communications (including renewal reminders), and conduct general business operations, such as accounting, recordkeeping, and audits.
• Service improvement: To improve and grow our Services, including to develop new products and services and understand how our Services are being used, our donors, supporters, and community at large, and the effectiveness of our marketing.
• Personalization: To offer you recommendations and tailor the Services to your preferences.
• Advertising and marketing: To send you marketing communications, personalize the advertisements you see on our Services and third-party online properties, and measure the effectiveness of our advertising. We may share your information with business partners, online advertising partners, and social media platforms for this purpose.
• Security: To protect and secure our Services, assets, network, and business operations, and to detect, investigate, and prevent theft, unauthorized use, or abuse of the Services and other activities that may violate our policies or be fraudulent or illegal.
• Legal compliance: To comply with legal process, such as warrants, subpoenas, court orders, and lawful regulatory or law enforcement requests and to comply with applicable legal and regulatory requirements.

How We Share Your Information

We may share any of the information we collect with the following recipients.

• Affiliates: We share information with affiliated companies, including PBS.
• Service providers: We engage vendors to perform specific business functions on our behalf, and they may receive information about you from us or collect it directly. These vendors are obligated by contract to use information that we share only for the purpose of providing these business functions, which include:
  • Supporting Service functionality, such as vendors that support payment processing, customer service and customer relationship management, gift and subscription fulfillment, event, contest, giveaway, and promotion registration, freight services, application development, list cleansing, postal mailings, and communications (post, email).
  • Professional services consultants, such as firms that perform analytics, assist with improving our business, provide legal services, or supply project-based resources and assistance.
  • Analytics and marketing services, including entities that analyze traffic on our online properties and assist with identifying and communicating with potential customers.
  • Security vendors, such as entities that assist with security incident verification and response, service notifications, and fraud prevention.
  • Information technology vendors, such as entities that assist with website design, hosting and maintenance, data and software storage, and network operation.
  • Marketing vendors, such as entities that support distribution of marketing emails and customer surveys.
• Business partners: From time to time, we may share your contact information with other organizations for marketing purposes.
• Online advertising partners: We partner with companies that assist us in advertising our Services, including partners that use cookies and online tracking technologies to collect information to personalize, retarget, and measure the effectiveness of advertising.
• Social media platforms: If you interact with us on social media platforms, the platform may be able to collect information about you and your interaction with us. If you interact with social media objects on our Services (for example, by clicking on a Facebook “like” button), both the platform and your connections on the platform may be able to view that activity. To control this sharing of information, please review the privacy policy of the relevant social media platform.
• Government entities/Law enforcement: We may share information when we believe in good faith that we are lawfully authorized or required to do so to respond to lawful subpoenas, warrants, court orders, or other regulatory or law enforcement requests, or where necessary to protect our property or rights or the health and safety of our employees, contractors, customers, or other individuals.
• Other businesses in the context of a commercial transaction: We may change our ownership or corporate organization while providing the Services. We may transfer to another entity or its affiliates or service providers some or all information about you in connection with, or during negotiations of, any merger, acquisition, sale of assets or any line of business, change in ownership control, or financing transaction. We cannot promise that an acquiring party or the merged entity will have the same privacy practices or treat your information as described in this policy.

Security

We use a combination of physical, technical, and administrative safeguards to protect the information we collect through the Services. While we use these precautions to safeguard your information, we cannot guarantee the security of the networks, systems, servers, devices, and databases we operate or that are operated on our behalf.

Your Options and Rights Regarding Your Information

Your Account: Some of our Services include the option to create an account. For those Services, please visit your account page to update your account information.

Email Unsubscribe: If you do not wish to receive marketing information from us or wish to opt out of future email promotions from us, please contact us. Please note that all promotional email messages you receive from us will include an option to opt out of future email communications.

Donor Information: Unless you opt out, WETA may exchange, rent, and share names and mailing addresses from our donor and membership lists with trusted partner organizations. However, our websites BrainLine.org, BrainLineMilitary.org, and BrainLineKids.org will not sell or exchange your personally identifiable information without your permission. You may opt out of any sharing of your personal information by WETA at any time by writing to us at WETA Member Services, 3939 Campbell Avenue, Arlington, VA 22206; emailing us at membership@weta.org; or calling us at (703) 998-2724.

Ad Choices: You have options to limit the information that we and our partners collect for online advertising purposes.

• You may disable cookies in your browser or mobile device using their settings menus. Your mobile device may give you the option to disable advertising functionality. Because we use cookies to support Service functionality, disabling cookies may also disable some elements of our online properties.
• The following industry organizations offer opt-out choices for companies that participate in them: the Network Advertising Initiative, the Digital Advertising Alliance, and the European Interactive Digital Advertising Initiative.
• You may use our cookie settings menu.
• You may contact us directly.

If you exercise these options, please be aware that you may still see advertising, but it will not be personalized. Nor will exercising these options prevent other companies from displaying personalized ads to you.

If you delete your cookies, you may also delete your opt-out preferences.

Do Not Track: Your browser or device may include “Do Not Track” functionality. Our information collection and disclosure practices and the choices that we provide to you will continue to operate as described in this privacy policy regardless of whether a Do Not Track signal is received.

Jurisdiction-specific rights: You may have certain rights with respect to your personal information depending on your location or residency. Please see “privacy disclosures for specific jurisdictions” below. Please contact us to exercise your rights.

Special Information for Job Applicants

When you apply for a job with us, we may collect information from you, including:

• Information you provide in connection with your application.
• Information that you make available in your social media accounts.
• Information about you that is available publicly.
• Information that you authorize us to collect via third parties, including former employers or references.

In certain circumstances, you may submit your application for employment through a third-party service that displays our job posting. We do not control the privacy practices of these third-party services. Please review their privacy policies carefully prior to submitting your application materials.

Other Important Information

Data retention

We may store information about you for as long as we have a legitimate business need for it.

Cross-border data transfer

We may collect, process, and store your information in the United States and other countries. The laws in the United States regarding information may be different from the laws of your country. Any such transfers will comply with safeguards as required by relevant law.

Information about children

WETA is very proud to provide high-quality children’s television programming and Web content. Working to maintain the privacy of the many children who make use of WETA’s services is of the utmost importance. Some of the WETA websites allow children to participate in website activities. For example, LD Online provides the opportunity to submit children’s drawings or writings for publication to the site. Parents may request the removal of any work submitted by their child. In such cases, WETA’s websites do not collect more information from children than is reasonably necessary for the child to participate in activities, and WETA discards children’s information once the activity is complete. WETA will not entice children, by the prospect of a special game, prize or other activity, to provide more information than is necessary to participate in an activity. WETA also will not share any personally identifiable information about children with third parties. For more information about the privacy of children please see the Children’s Privacy Policy.

Privacy Disclosures for Specific Jurisdictions

Maryland

Residents of Maryland have the following rights:

• Opt out of “sales” of personal information and use of their personal information for “targeted advertising,” as those terms are defined under applicable law. As described under “Donor Information” above, WETA may “sell” names and mailing address of donors and members, within the meaning of applicable law. To opt-out of such sale, please follow the opt-out instructions provided in the “Donor Information” section.
• Opt out of “profiling” under certain circumstances, as defined under applicable law.
• Confirm processing of and access to personal information under certain circumstances.
• Obtain a portable copy of personal information under certain circumstances.
• Correct personal information under certain circumstances.
• Request the categories of third parties to which personal information has been disclosed.
• Delete personal information under certain circumstances.

Residents of Maryland can exercise their rights by contacting us by using one of the methods listed below. 

Contact information, submitting requests, and our response procedures

Contact

If you have questions or wish to take any action with respect to information to which this privacy policy applies, please contact us using the form on this page.

Making a request to exercise your rights

Submitting requests: You may request to exercise your rights, including a request for us to remove your data, by submitting the form on this page.

We may have a reason under the law why we do not have to comply with your request, or why we may comply with it in a more limited way than you anticipated. If we do, we will explain that to you in our response.

Verification: We may verify your identity before responding to your request. We verify your identity by asking you to provide personal identifiers that we can match against information we may have collected from you previously. We may need to follow up with you to request more information to verify identity.

We will not use personal information we collect in connection with verifying or responding to your request for any purpose other than responding to your request.