YAA DIRECT NOTICE TO PARENTS RE COPPA

In order to comply with the federal law known as COPPA (Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act), we are required to obtain prior consent from parents to collect personal information (known as “Personally Identifiable Information” or “PII”) from children under the age of 13 who wish to participate in YAA programs.  We will not collect, use or disclose any PII from children under 13 years of age without parental consent.  Instructions for giving consent are provided below.

We obtained your email address from your child, which is permissible under COPPA for the sole purpose of contacting you to obtain your consent. 

Need for parental consent

In order to register your child to participate in our activities and set up an account with YAA, we need to collect certain PII.  See below for a description of the PII we collect and how we use it.

Your child is not required to provide any information to us to visit the Site, and we will not obtain PII about your child when he or she visits the Site unless your child chooses to give such information to us, and we have your permission.

As with other users, when children interact with us, certain information may automatically be collected for purposes of statistical analysis and system improvements.  See our Privacy Policy for more detail on this user information.

When do we collect PII?

We collect PII from you or your child when he or she registers for and participates in any of our programs, including our auditions and school year and summer programs, sets up and manages an account, contacts us for information, asks to be put on our email list, donates to YAA, purchases tickets and merchandise or otherwise enters information through the Site. 

What PII do we collect from your child?

We do not collect more information that is reasonably necessary to participate in the YAA activity.  We collect the following PII via the Site:

• When registering for a free YAA virtual class: name and email address (see note below re: recording of virtual classes.)

• When setting up an account with YAA through our third-party registration vendors Acceptd and Active: name, email address, user name and password

• When registering for an audition through our third-party registration vendors Acceptd and Active: name, email address, telephone number, school, address, age, gender and experience relevant to our productions

• When participating in a virtual or in-person class: submission of assignments as applicable

• When you contact us for information or ask to be added to our mailing list:  your name and email address

• When purchasing tickets or making a donation: credit card information that is collected by GiveButter or Little Green Light, our third-party credit card processors

• When purchasing merchandise: credit card and mailing information that is collected by Shopify, our third-party merchandise fulfillment and payment processing vendor

• When signing up for any of our school year or summer programs through our third-party registration vendors Acceptd and Active, more extensive PII is required in order to assure the health and safety of your child. Some of this information is known as Sensitive PII (information that if lost, compromised, or disclosed could result in substantial harm, embarrassment, inconvenience, or unfairness to an individual).  In order to protect the health and safety of your child, we will need information such as health records, allergies, vaccination records and the like.  This information is provided to Acceptd and Active via a separate registration form that also includes waivers and releases, including permissions for use of your child’s image and voice, for parental signature.

Note re: virtual classes: By registering for a virtual class, you are agreeing that YAA may record the virtual sessions for archival and YAA promotional use.

How do we use the PII we collect?

We may use the PII we collect in the following ways:

• To allow us to deliver our content and product offerings

• To personalize your experience and improve the Site

• To allow us to better respond to requests.

• To administer a survey or other Site feature.

• To quickly process our transactions.

• To send periodic emails regarding our products and services.

• To follow up with you after correspondence (email or phone inquiries)

We may also use PII in aggregate form for purposes of research or analysis. See our Privacy Policy for details.

What third parties do we share your information with?

PII:  Except as stated in this Notice and our Privacy Policy, we do not disclose your PII to third parties without first informing you and obtaining your consent to having your PII shared. As explained above (see What PII do we collect from you or your child?), we will obtain your specific consent to use of videos of your child’s performances on the Site as applicable in connection with the specific YAA activity. We do not sell your PII for marketing or any other purpose, and we do not exchange mailing lists with other organizations.

We may disclose your PII to third parties without informing you in connection with the following:

• Business-related functions: Like many organizations, we may hire other companies to perform certain services on our behalf such as hosting specific portions of the Site or maintaining databases. When we employ a third party to perform these functions, that third party will be provided only with the particular PII it needs to perform its function, and it will be required to keep the information confidential.  

• Other disclosures: In addition, we may disclose PII without providing you with the ability to opt out under the following limited circumstances:

  1. (1) to protect our legal rights, privacy or safety;

  2. (2) to protect the safety and security of other users of the Site;

  3. (3) to protect against fraud or other illegal activity or for risk management purposes;

  4. (4) to respond to inquiries or requests from public authorities;

  5. (5) to permit us to pursue available remedies or limit the damages that we may sustain;

  6. (6) to enforce the Terms of Use and the Privacy Policy; or

  7. (7) to comply with the law or legal process.

The third-party vendors we use to maintain the Site and collect and process PII, all of whom are required to keep the PII confidential, are the following:

• Data collection and credit card processing:  Acceptd and/or Active

• Donations and credit card processing:  GiveButter or Little Green Light

• Merchandise purchases and credit card processing: Shopify

• Site operation and maintenance: Squarespace

All inquiries regarding the privacy practices of our Site and third-party vendors may be directed to YAA by email to privacy@yaa.org.

Changes in our collection or use of personal information

Please know that we may amend our Privacy Policy at any time and from time to time by posting such modifications on the Site. If we make any material change to the way we collect, use or disclose your child's PII, we will send you a new notice and request for another consent.

Use of cookies and similar technologies:  Like many providers of Internet services, we may use “cookies” or other similar technologies to collect certain aggregate and anonymous data collected automatically through the operation of the Site, as well as certain information about website usage which is aggregated and used in a manner that does not identify you personally (collectively, “Non-Identifying Data”). For instance, we use cookies to help us remember and process your billing information. They are also used to help us understand your preferences based on previous or current Site activity, which enables us to provide you with improved services. We also use cookies to help us compile aggregate data about Site traffic and Site interaction so that we can offer better Site experiences and tools in the future. We may also use trusted third-party services that track this information on our behalf.

Although our cookies do not contain any PII, you should be aware that PII that we store may be linked by us to the information obtained by cookies. We do not, however, link IP addresses to any personal information. You can choose to have your computer warn you each time a cookie is being sent, or you can choose to turn off all cookies. You do this through your browser settings. Since each browser is a little different, look at your browser’s Help Menu to learn the correct way to modify your cookies.  Please be aware that if you turn cookies off, some of the features that make your Site experience more efficient may not function properly.

For further information about the technologies that we may use, please see our Privacy Policy.

How to provide consent

In order to provide COPPA’s required verifiable parental consent, you must print out the Verifiable Parental Consent Form, complete and sign it, and return it to us by one of the following methods:

• Scan or photograph the completed form and email it to us at privacy@yaa.org;

• Mail the completed form via U.S. Postal Service to us at the following address:

Young Artists of America
5301 Tuckerman Lane
North Bethesda MD 20852
Attention: Lisa Larragoite

• Fax the completed form to us at 301-272-8604

The signed and returned form constitutes your consent to the collection, use and disclosure of your child’s PII as described in this Direct Notice and in the YAA Privacy Policy.

If we do not receive your consent, your child will not be able to participate in YAA activities, and we will delete your contact information from our records. 

How to withdraw consent

A parent or guardian may, at any time, withdraw their consent and may also request that YAA delete from its records the PII that it has collected from their child.  If you desire to revoke this consent, please write down your revocation of consent and either email the signed form to privacy@yaa.org; (ii) fax it to us at 301-272-8604 or (iii) mail it to us at:

Young Artists of America
5301 Tuckerman Lane
North Bethesda MD 20852
Attention: Lisa Larragoite

Effective:   May 6, 2020
Last updated:  March 30, 2021