Privacy Policy

Thank you for visiting Synthesis Publications. In this Privacy Policy, we want to explain how information about you may be utilized by us.

This Privacy Policy (hereafter referred to as the “Policy”) applies to the SynthesisPublications.org website and any other website owned and/or operated by or on behalf of Synthesis Publications that link to this Policy or states that it is governed by this Policy (collectively, the “Website”).

Synthesis Publications is committed to protecting your privacy and information. This Policy provides you with an overview of the information we collect, what we disclose, our data security practices, and what we do to provide a safe online environment.

By accessing or using the Website, you accept and agree to this Policy and the Website’s Terms of Use. We reserve the right to change this Policy at any time, and those changes will be reflected in the updated Policy displayed here. Your continued use of the Website after any changes to this Policy will constitute your acceptance of and agreement to such changes.

INFORMATION COVERED BY THIS POLICY

This Policy explains how we collect and use certain personally identifiable information and other information collected by the Website from you. This Policy also describes the choices you have when accessing or using the Website concerning our collection, use, and sharing of your information.

COLLECTION AND USE OF PERSONALLY IDENTIFIABLE INFORMATION

We consider the following to be personally identifiable information: first and last name, social security number, credit card number, email address, street address, phone number, geolocation information sufficient to identify street name and name of a city or town, photos or videos of a child’s image received or collected, screen or user names, “persistent identifiers” that can be used to recognize a website user over time and across different websites or online services, including a visitor number held in a cookie, an Internet Protocol (IP) address, a processor or device serial number or unique device identifier, and any other substantially similar identifier that permits direct contact with a person online, and any other personal user identification, password, or other personally identifiable information that may be needed to obtain access to or use the Website’s applications.

We (and/or our agents, affiliates or service providers) may collect and use personally identifiable information from you: (1) to customize the content on our Website for your current and future needs, (2) in connection with the Website or the Synthesis Publications Awards or other scholarships, contests, content submissions, surveys, forums, and educational, literary or artistic materials and activities; (3) our requests for suggestions and your requests for materials or information; and (4) to process and record donations or other fees paid to Synthesis Publications.

Upon written or email request, Synthesis Publications will provide you the ability to correct or update your contact information. You will be responsible for keeping your contact information current and accurate and may do so by checking and, if necessary, modifying your online profile.

SHARING OF INFORMATION

Synthesis Publications may disclose your personally identifiable information to third parties, so that the Website may be used to provide you, via email or other means, information about materials and activities that may be of interest to you, including products or services of third parties. IF YOU HAVE PROVIDED US WITH YOUR PERSONALLY IDENTIFIABLE INFORMATION AND YOU DO NOT WANT US TO SHARE THIS INFORMATION WITH THIRD PARTIES, OR IF THERE IS ANY MEDIA NOTIFICATION, PUBLICATION, OR MATERIAL THAT YOU NO LONGER WISH TO RECEIVE FROM US, YOU CAN OPT OUT BY FOLLOWING THE OPT-OUT PROCEDURES SET FORTH BELOW.

How to Opt-Out: You may choose not to have your personally identifiable information shared with third parties for the above-described purposes by simply OPTING OUT. You may also OPT OUT if you do not want to receive email from us in the future. In order to OPT OUT for any of these purposes, email us at: synthesisstaff@gmail.com

If you are writing to request that you no longer wish to receive a particular notification, publication, or material from us, please include the name of the specific item you no longer wish to receive. In addition, in every email that we send, we provide a link that you can click on to enable you to opt out of receiving future emails from the sender.

In addition to the above disclosures, personally identifiable information possessed or used by Synthesis Publications may be disclosed: (a) to any entity that is a successor to, or acquires all or substantially all of, Synthesis Publications or our assets; (b) as required by law, for example, to comply with a court order or subpoena or to assist in criminal investigations; (c) when we deem it advisable to protect the rights, property, safety, or security of our Website, you, your information, or others; and/or (d) to enforce our Website’s Terms and Conditions.

FOR PARENTS AND GUARDIANS

There are many areas of the Website that minors can explore without having to share personally identifiable information. Parents and guardians can request to review or have deleted their child’s personally identifiable information from Synthesis Publication’s records, and/or refuse to permit further collection or use of their child’s personally identifiable information, by writing to us at: Synthesis Publications, [insert address]. To request that we stop sending digital newsletters, parents and guardians may follow the “unsubscribe” instructions found at the end these emails. For other digital communications, parents and guardians can request cessation of contact by responding to the communication with the subject line “Unsubscribe.”

Unless we indicate otherwise and obtain prior parental consent, personally identifiable information collected from minors will be used solely by Synthesis Publication’s contractors, agents, or service providers for internal purposes (such as administration of the Synthesis Publications Awards program and services related to the Website) and will not be sold or otherwise transferred to third parties.

NON-PERSONALLY IDENTIFIABLE INFORMATION AND THE USE OF COOKIES

We collect non-personally identifiable information through the use of a software technology called “cookies”, through submissions that you provide to us at your discretion and/or that you make upon our request. By non-personally identifiable information, we refer to information about our visitors’ browsers (e.g., Google Chrome or Internet Explorer), operating systems (e.g., Windows or Macintosh), Internet service providers (e.g., AOL or NET.COM) and other similar information (such as Website traffic, navigational and statistical user information), which we collect and track anonymously in individual or aggregate form. We may also collect non-personally identifiable information in connection with content submissions, special projects, questionnaires, surveys, etc. For example, such non-personally identifiable information may include: first name only and first initial of last name, state, age, and grade. The non-personally identifiable information that we collect or track is anonymous and we do not identify, match, link or combine it with, or trace it back to, any of our visitors’ personally identifiable information. Cookie technology helps us to know such information as how many people visit the Website, if these are new or return visitors to the Website, and where the visitors go on our Website. Cookies are small bits of information we send to your computer. Among other things, this non-personally identifiable information allows us to know which areas are favorites, which areas need improvement, or what technologies and Internet services are being used by our visitors so that we may continually improve our visitors’ online experiences.

You can disable cookies on your computer by indicating your desire to do so in the preferences or options menu of your browser. NOTE: If you configure your computer to block or erase cookies you may not be able to use all or certain parts or features of our Website. Our site may also use a technology called “tracking pixels.” These may also be referred to as “Action Tags,” “Clear GIFs,” or “Web Beacons”. This technology allows us to understand which pages you visit on our Website. These tracking pixels allow us to understand the effectiveness of our outreach and are used to help us optimize and tailor our Website for you and other future Website visitors. We may also contract with third party service providers to operate web servers for our Website, to set cookies or similar data collection technologies on the Website, and/or to collect, store, analyze, and/or report to us the information gathered by these cookies or other data collection technologies. We contractually prohibit companies that provide these services from using cookies or other data collection technologies for any purpose other than the performance of these services to Synthesis Publications, and from sharing the information collected with anyone other than us or our other service providers.

USE OF IP ADDRESSES

We collect IP addresses to obtain information on the use of our Website. An IP address is a number assigned to your computer by a Web server when you’re on the Web. When you are on our Website, we have a back-end server that logs your computer’s IP address. We only use the information we find out from tracking IP addresses anonymously, such as in the aggregate, for example, to determine how many visitors entered a specific area of our Website, and not to track a specific IP address to identify an individual visitor. However, we may use such information to identify you, if we feel that there are or may be safety and/or security issues, or to comply with legal requirements.

SECURITY

Making sure your information is secure is an important priority at Synthesis Publications. We maintain reasonable and appropriate measures to safeguard the information that you provide to us, and to comply with the data security requirements of applicable law. These measures include our use of secure server software over a Secure Socket Layer (SSL) line to protect your credit card information. It encrypts all of your personal and credit card information so that this information cannot be read as it travels to our ordering system, and that once it is received, it is stored in a location not accessible via the Internet.

Disclaimer: While we strive to maintain the security of the data provided by you to our Website, no transmission or storage of electronic data is ever completely secure. Synthesis Publications cannot, and does not, therefore, warrant or guarantee the security of such information, or that your information will never be disclosed in a manner inconsistent with this Policy.

The effective date of this Privacy Policy is February 1, 2021.