The Michigan 4H Children's Garden understands that people who visit our web site may have concerns about how we use the information they furnish. How information is used depends upon what people do when visiting our web site.

To address these concerns, we have developed a Web Site Privacy Policy. This Privacy Policy is based on federal and state privacy laws. The policy may be updated from time to time, so please check back to the web site occasionally.

This web site is operated by the Michigan State University Comm Tech Lab. The servers are located in room 253 Communication Arts and Sciences on the Michigan State University campus in East Lansing, Michigan, zip code 48824. If you have any questions about this policy, please email the Michigan 4H Garden curator, Dr. Norm Lownds (lownds@msu.edu) or phone him at 517-355-5191x1349.

Reading and Downloading

If you visit our web site just to read or download information, such as brochures, press releases or instructions, we capture and store only the following limited information:

The name of the domain through which you accessed the Internet (for example, aol.com if you are connecting from an America On Line account or umich.edu if you are connecting from the University of Michigan).

The date and time you accessed our web site.

The pages you visited.

The Internet address of the web site from which you linked directly to our web site (for example, www.yahoo.com).

This information is used to measure the number of visitors to the different sections of this web site. This helps us make the garden web site more useful to visitors.

Personal-Identifying Information in eCards

Sending an eCard from the Michigan 4H Children's Garden main site or Kids' Tour requires that you enter your email address and the email address you are sending the card to. If you wish, you can also enter your name and the name of the person to whom the card is being sent. When you send an eCard, our server automatically creates a web page with your card and your message, specially for the person you are sending the card to. It also automatically emails your friend telling them you have sent an eCard and giving them the URL to go to so they can view their eCard. Names and email addresses related to the eCards will not be shared with third parties.

Sending the email and creating the web page happens automatically. Humans will not look at the content of garden eCards unless we receive a complaint about inappropriate use of eCards (such as obscene content or spamming). We will investigate complaints and, if the complaint turns out to be valid, we will block the email of the sender so they can no longer send garden eCards.

eCards and email addresses of senders and receivers will be deleted from the system approximately one month after they have been sent.

IMPORTANT NOTICE: Personal-identifying information will not be captured when you visit our web site unless you voluntarily furnish such information. Disclosure of personal-identifying information is subject to federal and state privacy laws.

Cookies

We do not use "Cookies" on this site. (A "cookie" is a small text file that a website can place on your computer's hard drive in order, for example, to collect information about your activities on the site or to make it possible for you to use an online "shopping cart" to keep track of items you wish to purchase.)

For more information on privacy, cookies, and the internet, see the Michigan Attorney General's guide to Privacy on the Internet:

Garden Special Event Registration

The parents and teachers section of the main garden site (not the kidstour) includes a form for parents to make reservations to attend Garden Special Events. This form requests which event, the date and time, the parent's name, phone, email, address, city, state, zip code, and first names and ages of children who will be attending. This information is used to send a confirmation letter, to reserve a spot for the attendees at the event, and to prepare nametags. We do not share personal identifying information with anyone other than the garden staff involved in putting on the program. We keep track of how many people attend, and the children's ages, to help us with future program planning.