New Privacy Policy for Brothers-Brick.com
As this blog has grown, we’ve changed things a few times to make them better. Last December, we moved from Blogger to our own domain here at Brothers-Brick.com. We’ve also improved performance and reliability by changing to a new Web hosting provider. All of these changes were intended to make your experience more enjoyable, and as a result, we’ve had to become more professional.
One important thing that’s been missing has been a privacy policy. Privacy policies let users of Web sites know what personal information the site collects and how that information is used. It’s also an important component of legal compliance with laws like The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA).
Using non-legal, non-technical language, we’ve written a Brothers-Brick.com Privacy Policy that we hope won’t change anything about the site’s experience for most of our readers. In addition to the necessary information about personal information and cookies, the policy also includes several links to online privacy and safety information.
One change we’ve had to make for COPPA compliance is restricting Contact Form use and commenting to readers over the age of 13. The software we use for the site simply does not have the features necessary to get your parents’ permission for you to use this site. I’ve added new notices on the Contact Form and above the comment box to reflect this change in policy.
What this means if you’re not 13 yet: If you’re a Brothers-Brick.com reader under the age of 13, the new rules mean that you will no longer be allowed to leave comments or use the Contact Form. You’ll all be welcome back when you turn 13.
September 30th, 2007 at 2:24 am
Glad I’m not 13 :)
But WHY exactly aren’t people under 13 allowed to post?
September 30th, 2007 at 11:02 am
The link to the new policy (from the post a comment page) is short an ‘s’… brings up “http://www.brother-brick.com/privacy/”
At least for me…
September 30th, 2007 at 12:07 pm
whew.. I’m in the clear XD
September 30th, 2007 at 4:43 pm
@Indy: The U.S. federal COPPA law prevents us from collecting and storing personal information from children under 13. This is not my rule — it’s the law. As we learn more about these issues ourselves and become more professional about how we run this site, this is the sort of change that has to happen.
@Norro: Looks like one of the other contributors caught that and fixed it. Thanks!
@Scotty: Indeed.
September 30th, 2007 at 6:36 pm
What if you have the *mind* of a 12 year old? =P
September 30th, 2007 at 7:41 pm
@DARKspawn: Ha! Then you probably have a whole different set of legal issues. :-D
September 30th, 2007 at 7:52 pm
Wow havn’t been 13 for awhile. This brings back memorys.
October 1st, 2007 at 9:10 am
I take it you’re only doing this for legal reasons and not for a liminal hatred of under-twelves. Fortunately, I’m <Age removed by administrator>.
October 1st, 2007 at 9:17 am
@Surfininsf: Yes, absolutely, and thank you for asking! No unfriendliness or dislike toward kids is implied by this change. As you say, it’s purely for legal reasons. (And I removed your age, since it’s not a good idea to share your age online.)
October 1st, 2007 at 1:56 pm
Heh, luckily I’m older, ’cause I love commenting.
And the link in the post may’ve been fixed, but above the comment form it’s still http://www.brother-brick.com/privacy/
~smcginnis
October 1st, 2007 at 2:12 pm
@smcginnis: Oops, you’re right! I can’t get to the page editor at the moment, but I’ll fix it when I’m home tonight. Thanks!
EDIT: And fixed!