Privacy Policy

Welcome to DOGO Media's websites. We respect and protect the privacy of our users and intend our websites to be a safe place for everyone who visits and corresponds with us. Our information practices are designed to comply with the United States Federal Trade Commission's Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). No action is required on your part for this benefit. You should recognize, however, that there is no such thing as perfect security on the Internet.

DOGO Media, Inc. (collectively, “DOGO,” “we,” “us,” “our”) understand that Internet privacy is important to you, so we are providing this Privacy Policy to explain how we collect, use, and disclose personal information in clear, easy-to-understand language. This Privacy Policy applies to all of our websites, apps, mobile experiences, our application programming interface (‘API”) and digital content that link to this Privacy Policy (collectively, the “DOGO websites”).

  1. Information Collection – (i) From Account holders and (ii) From All users
  2. User choices and opt-out
  3. Parental Consent
  4. Use of Personal Information
  5. Sharing of Personal Information
  6. Data Retention and Information Security
  7. Parental Control of Personal Information
  8. California Privacy Rights and Do Not Track Disclosure
  9. International Visitors
  10. Links to Third Party Sites, Services, and Content
  11. Updates

1. Information Collection

DOGO websites generally require little or no collection of personal information and you can use the services without registering for an account or providing any personal data. DOGO only collects personal information when a user knowingly and voluntarily provides it to us as part of the registration process for creating a user account.

(i) From Account holders

iDOGO accounts

iDOGO is a service that allows children to create avatars, create a book list, bookmark content, earn points and badges, enter giveaways and contests, and link to other users' iDOGO pages. During the iDOGO account registration, we ask for (but do not save) a user's date of birth to determine whether parental consent is required for a child to use the iDOGO service. When children under the age of 13 create an iDOGO account, we ask them to provide a parent or guardian email. We use the provided parent or guardian email in order to send an email notifying the recipient that their child has created an iDOGO account. We inform them of their child's username and password and provide them with a link to cancel the account if they wish to. When children over the age of 13 create an iDOGO account, we ask them to provide their email.

If a child uses a third party authentication service like Google, CLEVER, Microsoft Office365 or OverDrive to create an iDOGO account and if they are under the age of 13, we do not collect the child’s email from the third party authentication service, but instead we ask the child for a parent or guardian email. If the child is over the age of 13, we collect their email from the third party authentication service.

Teacher accounts

Teacher accounts allow educators to create classroom pages, student accounts, assign content, and enter giveaways. Teacher accounts may only be obtained by teachers who are 18 years of age or older. During the Teacher account registration, teachers are asked to provide first and last name, email, school name and address, and the grade they teach. We use the email to contact teachers about the service in the following situations: (i) request for a password reset; (ii) respond to a question or a concern; or (iii) to send email newsletters that the teacher opted-into. The email newsletters offer teachers the opportunity to unsubscribe and decline further communications.

If a teacher uses a third party authentication service like Google, CLEVER, Microsoft Office365 or OverDrive to create a Teacher account, we collect their first and last name, and their email from the third party authentication provider.

If a teacher opts to synchronize their Google Classroom roster with their DOGO class page, we may collect the first and last names of the students that belong in the Google Classroom they selected. This information is only available to the teacher to help him or her easily match the students’ usernames with their real names.

If a teacher opts to post content from their Google Drive account to their DOGO class page, we may store a link to the Google Drive file that the teacher selected.

If a teacher signs up for DOGOnews for Teachers PRO, which requires payment, we may collect payment information (such as credit or debit card) and pass the information to Stripe, our third party payment processor. All payments are processed by Stripe and all payment information is stored by them and is not available to us.

All account holders may revoke DOGO’s access to their account on third party authentication services like Google, CLEVER, Microsoft Office365 or OverDrive at any time by updating the appropriate settings in the account preferences of the respective third party authentication service. Users of third party authentication services should check their privacy settings on these services to understand and change the information sent to us through each third party authentication service. Please review each third party authentication service’s terms of use and privacy policies carefully before using their services and connecting to our websites.

Except as stated in this Privacy Policy, we will not rent, exchange, or release your personal information to outside parties without your consent. Once we obtain your consent, we consider it valid until revoked by you.

(ii) From All users

In addition to the information collected when creating accounts, we may also collect certain information automatically when users visit the DOGO websites.

To provide a personalized and high-quality user experience, we may use various technologies that automatically gather and store certain technical information from your browser or device, including standard log files, web beacons, or pixel tags. This technical information may include your Internet Protocol (IP) address, device or browser type, Internet service provider (ISP), referring or exit pages, clickstream data, operating system, and the dates and times that you visit the DOGO websites. This information is aggregated and stored. It is only used for DOGO’s internal purposes, and will not be used to contact any teacher, student or visitor.

We also place cookies – small text files containing a string of alphanumeric characters – on your computer. Cookies remember information about your activities on a website and enable us to provide you with a more personalized experience. Cookies are not used to identify visitors or users over time or across websites. Most web browsers accept cookies automatically, but can be configured not to do so or to notify the user when a cookie is sent. You can choose to remove cookies through your browser options. However, if you do so, some functionality may be limited. If you wish to disable cookies, please refer to your browser’s help section.

DOGO websites offer community features such as commenting and posting reviews. We moderate all comments and reviews posted by users on DOGO websites. We take reasonable measures to remove personal information included in these submissions before they are made public.

On DOGOnews.com, we may collect emails when a Teacher or Parent signs-up to receive the DOGOnews email newsletter. The email newsletters, offer recipients the opportunity to unsubscribe and decline further communication.

On DOGObooks.com, we may collect and use (but do not save) information about your general location (coarse geolocation) to help you locate nearby libraries. You may change the settings on your computer or mobile device to prevent it from providing us with any location information.

DOGO uses Google Analytics, to collect and analyze information about our users demographics and interests in order to measure and improve our service.

Currently, various browsers offer a “Do Not Track” or “DNT” option that relies on a technology known as a DNT header, which sends a signal to web sites visited by the user about the user’s browser DNT preferences. DOGO does not track users over time and across third-party websites and therefore does not respond to Do Not Track (DNT) signals. For more information on “do not track”, please visit www.allaboutdnt.org.

DOGO may serve display advertising when you visit our websites. We use Google DoubleClick for Publishers (“DFP”) to serve ads and have implemented “Child-Directed Treatment” tags which disables any interest-based advertising or remarketing. DFP may place cookies in order to track delivery of the advertising. DOGO does not permit any third party advertising company to serve ads on our websites and does not provide any personally-identifying information to advertisers.

Our websites includes social media features, such as “share to” buttons, which allow users to share content on different platforms. These features do not collect or store any personal information from users and simply act as a bridge for your convenience in sharing information. When users share content via email, we ask for the recipient’s and sender’s email address. These emails are discarded once the share email is sent.

2. User choices and opt-out

You can choose to not provide DOGO with your personal information. Registration is not required to access most of our content. If you decline to register, however, DOGO will not be able to provide to you certain features and functionality.

You may at any time cancel or request to cancel and have your account removed from the DOGO websites. You may cancel you account in the settings section of you account or email help@dogonews.com.

When Teachers create an account, they may opt out of receiving emails from us by indicating their preference in their account settings. If you previously opted in to receive emails from DOGO, you may at any time opt out of receiving further emails by using the “unsubscribe” provided in the emails already received from DOGO, or by emailing us at help@dogonews.com. Notwithstanding the foregoing, by creating an account, you expressly agree that DOGO may provide security breach notices required by law as well as notices regarding material changes in our Privacy Policy or Terms of Use, to you via email, and you specifically consent to continuing to receive such notices via email from DOGO even after your opt-out, unless you choose to cancel your account.

3. Parental Consent

We never collect, use, or disclose personal information from children under the age of 13 without prior parental consent. As outlined in Information Collection from Account holders – iDOGO accounts (Section 1 - i), we may collect a parent’s email from children under the age of 13 in order to notify the parent that his or her child signed up for an iDOGO account and to provide them with a link to cancel the account if they wish to.

From time to time, we may have special online promotions such as giveaways and contests on the DOGO websites that are open for iDOGO users under the age of 13. In order for the child to be awarded a prize we require a written parental consent form be signed by the parent and returned to us. The written parental consent form may ask for additional personal information necessary to award the prize. In these situations, we may email a parent or guardian as follows: (i) to inform them that their child has entered a giveaway or contest and provide them a link to cancel their child’s participation and (ii) to remind them at the conclusion of a promotion, that a written parental consent is required in order to consider their child for the promotion. Information given to us in this circumstance is used only for the purpose of awarding the prize and is stored in encrypted form on our secure servers for any future promotion the child may participate in.

4. Use of Personal Information

Except as outlined in Parental Consent (Section 3) and Information Collection from Account holders – Teacher accounts (Section 1 - ii), we do not use personal information that we collect through the DOGO websites.

5. Sharing of Personal Information

We do not transfer, disclose, or share personal information we collect through the DOGO websites with third parties. However, we may disclose personal information to third parties when required by law or pertinent to judicial or government investigations or proceedings, when otherwise necessary to protect the DOGO websites or the safety of our users or any third party, or with a parent/guardian’s consent. If we sell all or part of our organization, or make a sale or transfer of assets, or are otherwise involved in a merger or business transfer, or in the event of bankruptcy, we may transfer your information to one or more third parties as part of that transaction.

6. Data retention and information security

Unless we receive a deletion request, we will retain your information for as long as your account is active or as is reasonably useful for operational purposes.

The security and confidentiality of your child’s information is extremely important to us, and we take a number of steps to help safeguard any personal information that your child provides to us. However, no method of transmitting or storing electronic data is ever completely secure, and therefore we cannot warrant or guarantee that such information will never be accessed, used or released in a manner that is inconsistent with this policy.

If we know or have reason to know of a systems security breach by an unauthorized party of user data where that data is being or is likely to be used for an unauthorized purpose, we will promptly notify you so that you can take appropriate steps.

7. Parental Control of Personal Information

Upon providing proper identification, parents can review, correct, or have deleted their child’s personal information from our database, or refuse further collection or use of personal information from their child by writing to us at: DOGO Media, Inc.

1 Blackfield Drive #169, Tiburon, CA 94920. You may also email us at rdolasia@dogonews.com.

8. California Privacy Rights and Do Not Track Disclosure

If you are under the age of 18, or the parent of a user under the age of 18, residing in California, you are entitled to request removal of content or information you have posted on DOGO websites. To request removal of your or your child’s content or information, please email us at help@dogonews.com for assistance, or you can delete specific information (or delete your or your child’s account) directly. Please note that removal of your content or information does not ensure complete or comprehensive removal, as there may be de-identified or recoverable elements of your content or information on our servers in some form. Additionally, we will not remove content or information that we may be required to retain under applicable federal and state laws.

Currently, various browsers offer a “Do Not Track” or “DNT” option that relies on a technology known as a DNT header, which sends a signal to Web sites visited by the user about the user’s browser DNT preference setting. DOGO does not track users over time and across third-party websites and therefore does not respond to Do Not Track (DNT) signals. For more information on “do not track”, please visit www.allaboutdnt.org.

We do not share information that we collect through the DOGO websites with third parties for the third party’s direct marketing purposes.

9. International visitors

DOGO websites are operated and managed on servers located within the United States. If you use DOGO websites from the European Union or other regions of the world with laws governing data collection and use that differ from U.S. law, then you acknowledge and agree that you are transferring your Personal Information outside of those regions to the United States and that, by providing your Personal Information on DOGO websites, you consent to that transfer.

10. Links to Third Party Sites, Services, and Content

DOGO websites may contain links to other websites, online services, apps, and content that are operated and maintained by third parties and that are not under the control of or maintained by us. Such links do not constitute an endorsement by us of those other apps, websites, the content displayed therein, or the persons or entities associated therewith. This Privacy Policy does not apply to your interactions with those third parties, even if you find a link to them on the DOGO websites. We encourage you to read the privacy policy of the third-party website provider to see how your personal information will be treated on its site.

11. Updates

Due to the changing nature of the Internet, this policy may be changed at any time at the discretion of DOGO Media, Inc. Therefore we recommend that you visit our Privacy Policy often so that you are always fully informed.