Eng:Privacy Policy

The Privacy Policy explains how the Scratch Team uses your information. "We made Scratch so people like you could create projects, share ideas, and build a community. To make this happen, we collect some information for our users. The Scratch Team understands how important privacy is to our community, especially kids and parents. We wrote this privacy policy to explain what information we collect, how we use it, and what we're doing to keep it safe. If you have any questions regarding this privacy policy, you can contact us.

Please do not share personal contact information, such as your name, physical address, email address, phone number, or anything else that can be used to make contact outside of the Scratch website. Please report projects, comments, or forum posts that contain this kind of information so the Scratch team can remove it, and please remind the author of our policy.

What information does the Scratch Team collect about me?

Account Information: In order to build projects or comment on other users' projects, you need to make an account. During account creation, we ask you for a username, your country, birth month and year, gender, and your email address (or your parent or guardian's email address if you are under 13 years old). We ask that you select a user name that does not disclose your real name or other information that could identify you. Other users can see your username and country, but not your age, gender, or email address.

User-generated Content: All of your Scratch projects, comments, and forum posts are stored on the Scratch servers. Other users can see your shared projects, comments, and forum posts, along with your username. Because the Scratch Team is responsible for moderation, we have access to all content stored on the Scratch website, including unshared projects. If you prefer to work on projects in complete privacy, you can use either the Scratch 2 Offline Editor or Scratch 1.4.

Usage Information: When you use Scratch, our servers will automatically store a limited amount of information about how you use the website. This information includes a number that identifies your computer (the IP address), which pages you visited, and what browser you are using.

Google Analytics: We also collect some data on where you click and which parts of the site you visit using Google Analytics. This "click data" helps us figure out ways to improve the website. Information collected and processed by Google Analytics includes the user's IP address, network location, and geographic location. Google Analytics acquires all its information directly from the user, by installing a cookie (see below) on your computer, if you have enabled JavaScript. Scratch does not share any information it collects with Google, and Google does not collect any personal identifying information about you.

Cookies: When you log in, the Scratch website asks your browser to put an http "cookie" on your computer. The cookie is actually a small text file that our site can send to your browser for storage on your computer. This allows the website to remember that you are logged in when you go to a different page.

How does the Scratch Team use my information? • We collect age and gender data so that we know who is using our website. • If you forget your password, we will ask you to disclose to us your birth month and year so that we can verify your account, and your email address so that we can send you a new password. • We will use your email address to respond to messages you send us or to communicate with you about the Scratch service or your account. • We send out occasional email updates about Scratch to the confirmed email address on your account. Scratch will never sell or share your email address without your permission. You can unsubscribe from these updates by clicking the unsubscribe link found at the bottom of the email. • Parents and guardians who register their under-13 year olds for Scratch may also receive additional updates from the Scratch Foundation, a non-profit that supports Scratch educational initiatives. The Scratch Foundation will never sell or share your email address without your permission. You can unsubscribe from these updates by clicking the unsubscribe link found at the bottom of the email. • If we detect repeated abusive behavior from your account, IP address, or email address, we may share your account name, IP address, and the time and content of the abusive behavior with the IP address owner (such as a school or internet service provided). • We may use de-identified location, age, gender, and usage data in research studies intended to improve our understanding of how people learn with Scratch. The results of this research are shared with educators and researchers through conferences, journals, and other publications. You can find out more on our Research page. • We may disclose some of the information we collect to third-party service providers that help us manage communications to and from the Scratch website and improve website performance. We are satisfied that these service providers have privacy policies that restrict them from further disclosing any of your information. • Other than as described above, we will never share personally identifiable information about you with any other person, company, or organization, except: ◦ As required to comply with our obligations under the law. ◦ For technical reasons, if we are required to transfer the data on our servers to another location or organization.

How can I update my personal information?

You can update your password, email address, and country through the Account Settings page. You can also reset your password through the Password Reset page. You cannot change your username, but you can make a new account and manually copy your projects to the new account.

If you want to delete your account entirely, log in to Scratch, and then click your username in the top right-hand corner. Select “Account Settings,” then click the “I want to delete my account” link at the bottom of the page.

How does the Scratch Team protect my information?

The Scratch Team has in place physical and electronic procedures to protect the information we collect on the Scratch website. We strictly limit individual access to the Scratch servers and the data we store on them. However, as effective as these measures are, no security system is impenetrable. We cannot completely guarantee the security of our database, nor can we guarantee that the information you supply will not be intercepted while being transmitted to us over the Internet.

Notifications of Changes to the Privacy Policy

We review our security measures and Privacy Policy on a periodic basis, and we may modify our policies as appropriate. We may also change or update our Privacy Policy if we add new services or features. If we make any changes to our privacy practices, we will amend this Privacy Policy accordingly and post the amended policy on the Scratch website. We encourage you to review our Privacy Policy on a regular basis."

- The Scratch Team