🔒 Privacy Policy
Your privacy and your child’s digital safety are our top priorities. Learn how we protect and respect your family’s information.
Our Commitment to Your Privacy
At Smart Tech Kids, we believe that teaching digital citizenship includes modeling excellent privacy practices. This policy explains how we collect, use, and protect your information when you visit our website and use our educational resources.
Who We Are
Our website address is: https://www.smarttechkids.com
Smart Tech Kids is a digital citizenship education platform dedicated to empowering children ages 6-12 and their families. We provide engaging, story-driven content that builds understanding and confidence in using technology safely and responsibly.
Comments & Community Interaction
When visitors leave comments on our site, we collect the information shown in the comments form, plus the visitor’s IP address and browser user agent string to help with spam detection.
🎭 Profile Pictures (Gravatars)
An anonymized string created from your email address (called a hash) may be provided to the Gravatar service to display your profile picture. The Gravatar service privacy policy is available at: https://automattic.com/privacy/. After your comment is approved, your profile picture becomes visible to the public alongside your comment.
Media & Image Uploads
Important for families: If you upload images to our website, please avoid uploading images with embedded location data (EXIF GPS information). Other visitors could potentially download and extract location data from images, which could compromise your family’s privacy and safety.
- Always review images before uploading to ensure no personal information is visible
- Consider using our provided character avatars instead of personal photos
- Contact us if you need help removing location data from images
Cookies & Website Functionality
We use cookies to improve your experience on our site. Here’s what you should know:
Comment Cookies
If you leave a comment, you may choose to save your name, email, and website in cookies for convenience. This means you won’t need to enter your details again for future comments. These cookies last for one year.
Login & Session Cookies
- Temporary cookies determine if your browser accepts cookies (no personal data, deleted when browser closes)
- Login cookies save your login information and display preferences (last 2 days for regular logins, 2 weeks if you select “Remember Me”)
- Screen options cookies remember your display preferences (last 1 year)
- Edit cookies track recent article edits (no personal data, expire after 1 day)
Educational Content from Other Websites
Our articles may include embedded educational content such as:
- Educational videos from trusted sources
- Interactive learning tools and games
- Articles from reputable digital citizenship organizations
- Safe, age-appropriate demonstration tools
⚠️ Important for Parents
Embedded content behaves as if you visited the original website directly. These external sites may collect data about you, use cookies, and track interactions. We carefully select only trusted educational partners, but we recommend reviewing their privacy policies as well.
Who We Share Your Data With
We prioritize your family’s privacy. We only share data in these limited circumstances:
- Password reset requests include your IP address in the reset email for security
- Spam detection services may review comments to protect our community
- Legal compliance when required by law to protect children’s safety
- Trusted educational partners (only with explicit consent and for educational purposes)
How Long We Keep Your Information
Comments & Community Content
Comments and their metadata are retained indefinitely so we can automatically approve follow-up comments from trusted community members instead of holding them in moderation.
User Accounts
For registered users, we store the personal information provided in user profiles. All users can view, edit, or delete their personal information anytime (username changes require contacting support). Website administrators can also access and edit this information for support purposes.
Your Rights Over Your Data
You have significant control over your personal data:
- Access: Request an exported file of all personal data we hold about you
- Correction: Update or correct any inaccurate information
- Deletion: Request erasure of your personal data (except data required for legal, administrative, or security purposes)
- Portability: Receive your data in a commonly used format
- Withdrawal: Opt out of marketing communications or data processing
How We Protect Your Data
🛡️ Security Measures for Families
We implement industry-standard security measures including SSL encryption, secure servers, regular security audits, and limited access controls. We never store payment information directly and use trusted, PCI-compliant payment processors.
Where Your Data Goes
Visitor comments may be processed through automated spam detection services. Our servers are located in secure data centers, and we ensure appropriate safeguards for any international data transfers.
Special Protections for Children
🎯 COPPA Compliance
We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13 without verifiable parental consent. Our educational content is designed for family use with parent/guardian involvement. If you believe we have collected information from a child under 13, please contact us immediately.
Changes to This Privacy Policy
We may update this privacy policy as our services evolve or laws change. We’ll notify you of significant changes through email (if you’re subscribed) and prominently display updates on our website. Continued use of our services after changes indicates acceptance of the updated policy.
📞 Questions About Your Privacy?
We’re here to help! If you have any questions about this privacy policy, how we handle your data, or want to exercise your rights, please don’t hesitate to reach out.
Last Updated: August 2025
This privacy policy is reviewed regularly to ensure it reflects our current practices and legal requirements.