Protecting Your Child's Privacy Online
Whether it's a profile on a social networking site or an order form from an Internet retailer, it's remarkable how people have become accustomed to sharing personal information about themselves or their families on a website, often without knowing how that information may be used.
Many websites will share the information you provide or sell it to other companies. Usually they will tell you of this policy, but often they'll bury the details of this practice deep into the privacy page on their site, which very few visitors read. Ultimately, it is up to you to look into each site and decide if they are worthy of your trust.
For parents, privacy is of particular importance. If a site collects information on your child, you want to make certain that information will be responsibly handled.
At eGuardian, nothing is more important than protecting our members from the dangers of the Internet, many of which are exacerbated by the sharing of private information.
Parents who register their children for eGuardian protection have taken a crucial step in providing their children with a secure Internet experience, and safe communication with family and friends around the world. However, as a responsible parent you should also ask how the information eGuardian acquires to verify your child's age will be used. Are you risking your child's privacy?
At eGuardian we welcome these questions. Here is our response.
eGuardian collects and verifies information about our members through their schools. Once this information is verified, it is immediately taken offline.
As soon as we confirm the identity of your child and assign the child an eGuardian ID, all personal information pertaining to that child is taken offline, and will not be used or accessed again. The only exception to this policy will be in the case of a missing or endangered child. As soon as we are aware that an eGuardian child is in danger, the system can act as a virtual AMBER Alert, to galvanize our community to assist in the search. At which time we will provide (with the parent's permission) whatever information is necessary to the media and law enforcement to help find the child.
eGuardian supplies its partners ONLY with anonymous information on the age, gender and location of your child.
We do not provide our partners with your child's name, address or any other personal information. All our partner sites will know is that a 10 year-old boy from Wisconsin, or an 8 year-old girl from Florida, has visited their site. That is all they need to know to provide the necessary protection from adult content and inappropriate communication with strangers. Also, we do not provide these sites with your child's eGuardian ID; instead, they receive only a rotating number that is based on this ID. No one but the parent and eGuardian should know your child's ID information.
Provide information about your child to eGuardian, and you'll never have to provide that same information to our partners to receive online protection.
Once eGuardian members provide us with the information necessary to become verified, they will not have to enter this same data at our partner-protected sites. Instead, we will supply all the information they need to provide the protection that eGuardian promises. With this information, your child will be safe at these sites, and our partners can tailor age-appropriate advertising and other information to your child's interest. This does not mean your child will see more ads on the site - it simply guarantees that they will never be exposed to ads for adult products or services that would be inappropriate.
More tips to protect your privacy online
1. Watch out for cookies, which allow website operators to assign a unique permanent identifier to a computer and track your child's visits to websites across the Internet. To combat cookies, set the browser cookie file to Read Only, and to delete cookies whenever the browser is started. You may also wish to investigate the software products that will reject or manage cookies for your child, such as Cookie Cruncher.
2. Clear the memory cache after your child browses the Web, so the pages and images your child visits will not be saved in your computer's memory. You can delete most of your child's online trail by setting your browser to automatically empty the cache.
3. Sites for children often ask for a parental email account, and may then share or sell this account information to advertisers or third parties. eGuardian allows children to communicate online without exposing the parent's email account or selling it. If a child wishes to register at a non-eGuardian partner site, carefully review that site's privacy policy.
4. Discourage your child for signing up for any services online. Even the simple, seemingly innocent actions of emailing an article on a news site to a friend, or sending an online birthday card, may reveal information about your child that you would prefer to keep private. Many websites will sell this information. Read the entire privacy policy on each site your child visits. Though some may state they will not sell the information they collect, they may cite exceptions (such as special offers from their partners) to this policy.