We at CORA are committed to protecting the privacy of users of our site, www.teenrelationships.org. This privacy policy discloses the information collection and dissemination practices for this web site. Please read this policy carefully. We may need to change this policy from time to time in order to address new issues and reflect changes to our site. We will post these changes here so that you will always know what information we collect, why we collect it, what we do with it, and what your choices are in this collection process. Please refer back to this policy periodically to note any changes.

If you have any questions or concerns about our privacy policy, please call our teen information line: 650-259-8136.

Table of Contents

• Collection and Use of Information
• Privacy of Children
• Surveys, Sharing and Contests
• About IP Addresses and Cookies
• Links to Other Sites
• Security
• Public Forums
• Message Boards
• Your Acceptance of These Terms

Collection and Use of Information

We at CORA maintain the confidentiality, security, and integrity of personal information that we obtain from our users. The only information required of users of our site is a user name to enter the chatroom. We do not disclose personal information to any party beyond the CORA network without your permission. CORA is a nonprofit organization and will only share aggregate information we collect about our users with funders of this website.

Privacy of Children - Individuals under 13

We understand that young people can need special safeguards and privacy protection. Therefore, users under 13 may not register with the CORA chatroom on their own. Only a parent and/or legal guardian may register a user under 13. This is important so that you and your parents are aware of the possible risks of using the Internet.

Surveys, Sharing and Contests

We may provide a link to take a voluntary user satisfaction survey on occasion. We would report data collected from such surveys to funders as aggregate data not linked to any identifying personal information.

If we run a contest from this web site, all participation would be voluntary and we would use information we collect for program assessment, and in possible cases to notify winners and award prizes.

About IP Addresses and Cookies

We collect non-personal identification information through IP address tracking and/or “cookie” technology. We may use IP addresses and/or “cookies” for the purposes of system administration and to collect the number of users to the site, areas you visit on our site and other similar information. An IP address is a number that is automatically assigned to your computer whenever you are surfing the Web. Web servers automatically identify your computer by its IP address. When guests request pages from www.teenrelationships.org, our servers log the users IP addresses. We do not link IP addresses to anything personally identifiable except when a visitor to the chat room is suicidal and in immediate danger of killing themselves. In this case, CORA staff will make every effort to use the IP address to find the location of that visitor and if it is possible to find their location, we will ask the police to do a welfare check. We log the user’s session as we do all sessions, but they remain anonymous to us.

Cookies are pieces of information that a website transfers to an individual’s hard drive for record-keeping purposes. The use of cookies is an industry standard. Most browsers accept cookies. You can set your browser to refuse cookies, or to alert you when your computer is being sent cookies.

We will use IP addresses and “cookies” to gather information to understand how our users as a group use the services and resources provided on our site. This way we know which areas of our site are favorites of our users, which areas need improvement and what technologies are being used so that we can continually improve our site.

We may share this information with our funders, but we will not share any individual names or other personal information.

Links to Other Sites

This website contains links to other sites. Please be aware that CORA is not responsible for the privacy practices of such other sites. In many cases, the links represent cooperative projects or are mutual links established with persons or entities connected with our sites. Although we initially visit the sites or services that we link to, we do not control the contents of these sites. We encourage our users to be aware when they leave our site and to read the privacy statements of each website that collects personally identifiable information. This privacy statement applies solely to the information collected by www.teenrelationships.org.

Security

Protecting your privacy and your information is very important. We have taken measures to secure both your information and our physical premises. We try to be very careful in providing secure transmission of your information for your PC to our servers. Our secure server software encrypts information, ensuring that all Internet transactions remain private (unless sent by an unsecured means, such as e-mail). Since not all areas of our website encrypt the transmission between your PC and our server, please be sure to check your web browser’s settings to verify that a particular page you are visiting is encrypted or not.

Public Forums

This website makes chatrooms and message boards available to its users. Please remember that any information disclosed in these areas becomes public information and you should exercise caution when deciding to disclose your personal information.

Message Boards

Message Boards are for public use and will only be monitored by CORA staff for offensive and inappropriate statement, information, etc. CORA does not recommend or endorse any of the advice or comments put onto the message boards. If someone would like the advice of a domestic violence peer counselor, we recommend using the chatroom, teen information line or other CORA services.

Your Acceptance of These Terms

By using this site, you signify your assent to CORA’s privacy policy. If you do not agree to this policy, please do not use our site. Your continued use of our site following the posting of changes to these terms will mean that you accept those changes.

(Last modified February 13, 2007)