The Exploratorium respects the privacy of our online visitors and we are committed to protecting the privacy and security of the users of our Site.

This privacy policy will advise you about how we protect your personal information. Please read this policy carefully. We may need to change this policy from time to time in order to address new issues and reflect changes on our Site. All changes will be posted here. If you have any questions or concerns about our privacy policy, please send us an e-mail to: privacy@exploratorium.edu. Please do not send general museum questions to this address. They will not be answered.

We will not sell, trade, or give out e-mail addresses to companies or other organizations. We will not intentionally disclose any personal identifiable information about you as an individual user (such as, for example, your full name, street address, telephone number or e-mail address) to any third party without having first received your permission. We may request personal identification information from you in connection with your use of, or participation in, contests, sweepstakes, games, surveys, submissions, chat and bulletin boards. However, we will only collect this personal information from you if it has been voluntarily submitted to us. 

Any personal information provided to us may be used in connection with the activities previously referred to above. Should you send us an e-mail with questions or comments, we may use your personal information in order to respond to your questions or comments. We may also keep your comments or questions for future reference. 

It is important to note that if you give out personal information online, through a message board or chat room, for example, that information may be collected and used by third parties. Although we strive to protect our users' privacy, we cannot guarantee the security of information you post in these arenas. You disclose such information at your own risk. 

The Exploratorium may use third-party extensions and services on its website. We cannot guarantee the privacy of your personal information if you use these extensions. 

One exception to this policy is that we will release specific information about you or your account to comply with any valid legal process such as a search warrant, subpoena, statute or court order.

The Exploratorium does not solicit personal information from minors. Consistent with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998, we will never knowingly request personally identifiable information from anyone under the age of thirteen (13) without prior verifiable parental consent.

If we become aware that a subscriber is under the age of thirteen (13) and has registered without prior verifiable parental consent, we will remove his or her personally identifiable registration information from our files. Please note: We may nevertheless maintain a record of that person's name and address in a "do not register" file to avoid subsequent registration by a child under the age of thirteen (13).

A cookie is a small data file stored on the user's hard drive which may contain information about the user. We use cookies but do not store personally identifiable information in your cookie. We currently use cookies only in connection with our online store and our bulletin boards. We may also use cookies to help us generate our web site usage statistics. If you are a registered user, your cookie allows us to recognize you when you return to our site and provides you with access to your account information. If you register with or order from us, we also use cookies to monitor and maintain information about your use of this Site.

This Site utilizes Secure Sockets Layer, an advanced data encryption system used to ensure the security and confidentiality of information exchanged between your browser and this Site's e-commerce servers. All of your personal information (including credit card numbers) will be encrypted and then transmitted from your browser to our e-commerce systems securely. This information can only be unencrypted by The Exploratorium or its agents.

We can only guarantee secure transactions with orders placed directly from this Site using our secure online ordering system. We cannot guarantee secure transactions for orders sent to us via e-mail.