My kids and I are big fans of NORAD Tracks Santa. Every year, we follow Santa as he flies around the globe. We watch until Santa reaches the East Coast then it is up to bed. With Santa’s expansion into social media, kids can now not only track Santa but “like” him on his Facebook page, follow him on Twitter and sign up for send a call to Santa on Gmail.
With Christmas rapidly approaching, kids who forgot to mail their list may need to email Santa. Santa has more than 60 registered domain names and a google search for “email santa” provides 742,000,000 results. Eager to email, kids are unlikely to scroll down to the site’s privacy policy, but even Santa needs to protect personal information. Unfortunately, some of these sites are sharing information with other companies and using it for marketing purposes. In order to find a site that protects personal information, the Better Business Bureau (BBB) advises parents to:
- Choose sites that give specific contact information; skip those that give general contact details like “Santa Claus” at “The North Pole.” Full business names, phone numbers and physical addresses should be easy to locate.
- Check whether the website shares information with third parties, including advertisers, and whether the company publicly discloses the information or retains the information for any future purpose.
- Determine that children are asked to share no more information than is reasonably necessary to participate in the activity — a first name and email address, for instance.
- Limit the personal information children share with Santa and omit physical addresses. Children may be told that Santa already knows where all the children live.
- Check sites for unwelcome content. Some sites are geared toward adults and may contain language or advertising that parents may not want children to see.
- Click on hyperlinks in the website to assure that children don’t access inappropriate content.
After reading the real privacy policies, check out McSweeneys humorous version of Santa’s Privacy Policy. I love Santa’s choice of security. Where does one buy a firewall of Elven magic?
“How Do We Secure This Information?
We secure your information by keeping it at the North Pole, one of the most remote, inhospitable and uninhabitable places on earth. It is stored in a secure gingerbread facility deep in the Candy Cane Forest, behind an impassable barrier conjured by Elven magic. The facility is guarded by a full brigade of life-size wooden toy soldiers armed with Nerf Blasters and Super Soakers. The area is also patrolled by ravenous polar bears and the Winter Warlock. “
KidsPrivacy 