Miuchiz.com
Privacy Policy

Effective Date: August 15, 2006

A. Our Commitment to Privacy

MGA Entertainment, Inc. and MIUCHIZ.com ("MGA") value your privacy and are committed to protecting personal information that you provide online. This notice will explain MGA's online information practices so that you can make informed decisions about the collection and use of your personal information at MIUCHIZ.com ("MIUCHIZ.com" or the "Website"). To make this notice easy to use, we make it available on our homepage and at every point where personal information may be collected.

MIUCHIZ.com is subscription based. You may participate in certain features of the Website without subscribing or providing any personal information. However, subscribers receive additional members-only benefits and can access certain Website features that are not available to non-members.

1. Information for Persons outside the United States

MIUCHIZ.com operates internationally, but its computer systems are located in the United States. Consequently, your data will be processed by MGA in the United States where data protection and privacy regulations may not offer the same protection as the country in which you live. If you register or provide information to MIUCHIZ.com from outside the United States, you will be asked during the initial registration to consent to the collection and/or use in the United States of your personal information, which includes the use of cookies and web beacons as described below.

For persons in European Union countries and the United Kingdom, terms such as "personally identifiable information" or "personal information" refer to "personal data" as defined under applicable EU laws, regulations and directives. We will not collect any personal data from you unless you provide it voluntarily and with your freely given specific and informed consent. By using the Website and giving consent during the initial registration, you agree that we may collect, or transfer, your personal information outside the European Union and the United Kingdom in accordance with the terms of this Privacy Policy.

IF YOU DO NOT AGREE WITH ANY OF THE TERMS STATED IN THIS PRIVACY POLICY, PLEASE DO NOT USE THIS WEBSITE. BY USING THIS WEBSITE, YOU ARE ACKNOWLEDGING YOUR AGREEMENT TO THIS PRIVACY POLICY.

B. The Information We Collect And How We Use It

This notice applies to all personal information collected or submitted through the Website. Personal information that you provide to MGA will be collected and used, with your voluntary consent, only as provided in this Privacy Policy. MGA generally will not require that you provide more personal information than may be necessary to participate in the applicable activity. For Website visitors under 18 years of age, MGA has implemented additional steps to safeguard their privacy. For Website visitors ages 14-17, MGA will notify a parent or legal guardian (each, a "Parent"), by e-mail, to inform them that the teen visitor is electing to provide personal information to MGA. For children 13 years or younger, MGA will collect and keep personal information only with a Parent's verified consent, or that has been provided by a Parent, after a delayed e-mail notification, or in aggregated form that is not linked to any personal information or identifiers (for example, 50% of girls under age 13 like the color pink).

At different pages of the Website, you may be able to register your handheld; purchase a subscription to the Website; order products; make requests; enter sweepstakes, contests or promotions; play games; or request newsletters, updates, product and promotional information and/or materials. The types of personal information collected at these pages may vary, but could include:

  • Name
  • Street Address
  • Shipping Address
  • E-mail Address
  • Parent's E-mail Address (for minors)
  • Telephone Number
  • Demographic information (e.g., age, age range, gender, grade in school, likes/dislikes, hobbies, interests, and/ or purchase history information)
  • Credit/ Debit Card or other payment information

On some pages, you can submit personal information about other people. Other than to fill an order or provide services relating to that order, MGA will not use personal information that you have provided about other people unless such other person has consented to such use. For example, if you want to send an electronic greeting card, you may be asked to provide the other person's e-mail address, or if you order a gift online for delivery to another person, you will need to provide the recipient's delivery address. The types of personal information collected about other people may include:

    Name
    Street Address
    E-mail Address
    Parent's E-mail Address (for minors)
    Telephone Number
    Age
    Gender
    Grade In School

We also collect certain anonymous or non-personal information when you visit some of our Website pages. Such information might include the Website pages that you visited, the type of browser you use (e.g., Netscape or Internet Explorer), the level of encryption that your web browser supports, the type of operating system you use (e.g., Windows XP or Mac OS), the name of your Internet service provider (e.g., America Online, Earthlink), the query that you entered into a search engine via a website or which led you to the Website, and other types of "click stream" data. We use this anonymous or non-personal information for the purposes outlined in this Privacy Policy, as well as for technical, research and analytical purposes, including for instance, to rate and improve the design and content of the Website and to enable us to personalize your experience at MIUCHIZ.com. We may also use this information in the aggregate to analyze how the Website is used and to offer you products, services, promotions, sweepstakes and contests.

Described below are more specific examples of information that MGA may collect and how that information is used.

1. Registration.

You can register with the Website in order to fully utilize all the functions of your MIUCHIZ™ electronic handheld unit, to play at MIUCHIZ.com, or to access different or additional MIUCHIZ™ content. Registration will enable you to receive, at your election, special MIUCHIZ™ offers and new product updates, MIUCHIZ™ news and messages, news and information about other MGA products, news and information from third party partners, and free MIUCHIZ™ gifts. Information you submit at the Website will not be used except for those purposes that you have approved. Children ages 13 years and younger must have a Parent's verified consent, after a delayed e-mail notification, in order to register at the Website, and Parents of registrants who are ages 14­17 years old will be sent an e-mail notice advising them that the teen is registering at the Website.

It is important that correct information be provided at registration because the Website has software filters that are designed to block the release of certain personal information to third parties via the Website. Some of the blocked information will be picked up from the information provided at registration. For example, software filters may block a telephone number that matches the telephone number provided at registration, or variations thereof, such as 8*8-123-4567.

2. E-Commerce.

MGA uses the information you provide about yourself or others when placing an order only to complete that order, or for technical, research and analytical purposes such as improving the design of the Website, or the products, promotions, information or services that it offers you. MGA does not share this information with outside parties except as necessary to complete and service the order.

MGA may offer gift cards by which you can personalize a product you order for another person. Information you provide to MGA to create a gift card is only used for that purpose, and it is only disclosed to the person receiving the gift.

3. E-mail

MGA uses return e-mail addresses to answer the e-mail it receives. When you e-mail MGA, MGA does not collect any personal information about you and will use your e-mail address only to respond to your specific inquiry or comments in the e-mail. MGA may keep an archive copy of the e-mail as part of its regular business records. Personal information that you may provide in your e-mail is not used for any other purpose and is not shared with outside parties.

If you have provided your e-mail address to MGA as part of the Website registration, your e-mail address will only be used for the purposes that you have approved. Similarly, if you have provided your e-mail address to MGA in connection with a website promotion, your e-mail address will only be used to contact you regarding the promotion or for other purposes that you have designated. You may change any of these choices at any time, as provided elsewhere in this Privacy Policy.

4. Chat

The Website has three versions of chat, with different capabilities and different levels of protection.

  • ClickChat uses only pre-programmed words and phrases and is open to all ages.
  • "MiuChat" is a private friend-to-friend chat with a restricted list of people that you can chat with. For anyone 13 and younger, Parent approval of each user is required before a person can be added to the "friend" list.
  • "Open Chat" is a free chat among Website users. Open Chat is NOT recommended for children 13 years and younger.

For Open Chat and MiuChat, children 13 years and younger will need verifiable Parental consent to participate, and for chat participants who are 14-17 years old, Parents will be notified by e-mail that the teen has opted to participate in chat.

MGA may keep e-mail addresses, screen names or other personal information in order to facilitate the chat functions of the Website. The Website will use software filters that are designed to prevent the disclosure of personal information through any of the chat functions. MGA will keep transcripts of all MiuChat and Open Chat sessions for a specified period of time in accordance with its chat retention policies, which may be changed from time to time. You agree by using this Website that MGA may record and transcribe your chat sessions. Such chat transcripts will not be accessible except by authorized MGA representatives and will be used to prevent misuse or abuse of the Website and chat functions. MGA will cooperate with government and/or law enforcement officials in connection with any investigation of a user of the Website and may disclose chat transcripts for such purposes. No transcripts will be kept for the basic version of chat that uses pre-programmed words and phrases only.

5. Online Activities

The Website is designed to encourage an interactive user experience through games, activities and chat. You may be asked to submit content for publication (e.g. submission of a photograph, artwork, or text), and in connection with that submission, MGA may use your screen name, or your first name and last initial, and other information that you provide to us, such as the city and state where you are located. Personal information will not be published except with your consent, and your Parent's consent if you are 13 and younger.

6. Promotions

MGA may collect personal information in connection with its promotions. You may be asked to provide personal information such as an e-mail address, street address or phone number so that MGA can let you know if you have won a prize. For other MGA promotions, your name or street address may be requested so that MGA can send you products or information by postal mail. We will only collect this information from children ages 13 years and younger when we have received verifiable Parent consent. MGA will not require that a child 13 years or younger provide more personal information than may be necessary to participate in the promotion.

7. Resumes

Some MGA websites allow for the online submission of resumes in conjunction with job applications. Personal information collected by us in allowing for resume submission will be used solely for the purpose of accepting and evaluating candidate submissions for job postings, as further explained in the relevant portion of the applicable MGA websites. This information may be shared within the company and with third parties assisting MGA with its recruitment efforts, in both cases, in confidence and when there is a legitimate business purpose and reason for accessing it.

8. Customer Feedback

MGA may use non-identifying and aggregated information to obtain feedback from its customers about the company, the Website, or MGA's other products or services. Such information may be used to help MGA improve the products and services that it offers or to anticipate customer trends or desires. Such aggregated data (e.g. 6 out of 10 boys preferred Monsterz over Pawz) may be shared with MGA's advertisers, licensees and promotional partners, but only in aggregated form and without any information that could be used to identify any specific individuals. For instance, MGA may tell an advertiser that X number of individuals visited a certain area of the Website, or that Y number of men and Z number of women filled out the Website registration form, but MGA will not disclose anything that could be used to identify those individuals.

9. Customer Service/ Technical Support

You may be asked to provide personal information when you register a product or when contacting Customer Service or Technical Support for the Website. This information will be used to respond to your inquiry, for product recalls or product update information, and for archival, analysis and research purposes, but it is not used for any other purpose.

10. Cookies and Web Beacons

MGA may use cookies and web beacons to collect information about how visitors use the Website. A cookie is a small text file that is placed on your computer by a web page server. Cookies allow websites to "remember" a user's activities on a website as well as a user's visits to a site. Cookies are used to track visitor activity on the Website, such as the number of unique visitors over a given period or how people found the Website. Cookies are also used to track visitor activity: where they went, what they did, and how long they stayed. Cookies may be used to save your password so you do not have to re-enter it each time you visit the Website.

MGA may also use "web beacons" through a third party content server that monitors your use of the Website. Web beacons (or web bugs) are small strings of code that provide a method for delivering a graphic image on a web page for the purpose of transferring data, such as the Internet Protocol (IP) address of the computer that downloaded the page on which the web beacon appears, the URL (Uniform Resource Locator) of the page on which the web beacon appears, the time the page containing the web beacon was viewed, the types of browsers that fetched the web beacon and the identification number of any cookie on the computer previously placed by that server. When corresponding with you via HTML capable e-mail, web beacons let us know whether you received and opened MGA's e-mail.

On their own, cookies or web beacons do not contain or reveal any personal information. However, if you choose to furnish the Website with personal information, this information can be linked to the data stored in the cookies/web beacons.

By accepting this Privacy Policy, you specifically agree to MGA's use of cookies and web beacons as described herein. You may adjust your browser to reject cookies from MGA or from any other web site. Additionally, by setting your web browser to display HTML e-mails as text only, you may be able to prevent the use of some web beacons. Please consult the "Help" section of your browser for more information. However, certain areas of the Website may only be accessible in conjunction with cookies or similar devices and you should be aware that disabling cookies or similar devices might prevent you from accessing some of the Website content.

11. Collection of Information by Third Party Partners

In certain countries other than the United States, some of our online games and the services related thereto, may eventually be provided to you by third party distribution partners. To the extent that a third party distributor is providing services related to your account, you will be advised of this at such time, and you understand and agree that each such distributor will collect and use your personal information in accordance with its own privacy policies (which you will have access to when you register to play). To the extent that MGA collects or retains any of your personal information, its use will continue to be governed by the terms of this Privacy Policy.

12. No Sharing of Personal Information with Other MIUCHIZ.com Users

As an added precaution to protect children and other Website users, MGA will not share your personal information with other Website users (except in the case of Parents who will have access to the personal information of their children who are 13 and younger), and MGA prohibits Website users from sharing, or soliciting, personal information about themselves or others, such real first and last names, telephone numbers, e-mail addresses or street addresses, with other Website users, particularly when using any of the chat functions. MGA reserves the right to immediately suspend or terminate any account and any subscription, without a refund, for violations of this policy, as more specifically provided in the Terms of Use for the Website.

C. Disclosure to Third Parties

MGA will only disclose personal information to third parties with your consent or in the limited instances set forth in this Privacy Policy. Your personal information may sometimes be shared with other MGA affiliates and subsidiaries, who will be bound by the same terms set out in this Privacy Policy. In addition, in the course of daily operations, authorized MGA employees may be provided with access to your personal information. Any use of such personal information by MGA employees will be strictly in accordance with this Privacy Policy. MGA reserves the right to disclose your personal information as required by law and/or when we believe that disclosure is necessary to protect our rights and/or to comply with a judicial proceeding, court order, subpoena or other legal process. We also may disclose such information in response to a law enforcement agency's request or where we believe it is necessary to investigate, prevent or take action regarding illegal activities, suspected fraud, imminent danger to life or property that might be avoided or minimized by disclosure of such information, or situations involving potential threats to the physical safety of any person, violations of our Terms of Use, or as may otherwise be required by law. In addition, we may transfer information about you as part of a business transaction involving MGA, such as a merger with, or acquisition by, another company.

From time to time, MGA may provide personal information to agents and contractors of MGA who are performing services for MGA. We may, for instance, use an outside shipping company to fulfill orders, or a credit card processing company to handle payment transactions on the Website. Such third parties are required to protect this personal information in a manner that is consistent with this Privacy Policy by, for example, not using the information for any purpose other than to carry out the services they are performing for MGA.

MGA does not share personal information about you with companies that may want to market their products or services to you (e.g., other marketers, magazine publishers, retailers, participatory databases). If we intend to share personal information about you to such companies in the future, we will ask for your permission at the relevant site where we request such information.

We may occasionally combine information we receive online with outside records to enhance our ability to market to you those products or services that may be of interest to you. If you register with the Website, we provide you with an opportunity to express your preferences with respect to receiving details about other products and services from MGA, affiliated businesses and selected third parties, as well as information about other or new products, programs or services that we believe may be of interest to you, whether from MGA or from affiliated businesses and selected third parties (such as licensees).

You may at any time change or update your account preferences online or you may contact the Website's Customer Service for assistance. We will only use personal information that you have provided to us online in the ways that you have approved. We will not use or share personal information provided to us online in ways unrelated to the ones described above, without also providing you with an opportunity to opt-out or otherwise prohibit such unrelated uses, as described more fully below.

D. Choice: Opt-Out, Updates, and Removal of Personal Information

You may let MGA know that you do not want your personal information used for a particular purpose, and you may change or update these preferences at any time.

You, or your Parents for children 13 and younger, will have the ability at any time to update, correct or remove any personal information that has been provided online to MGA about yourself or your child, either by accessing your account preferences with your user name and password, or by contacting the Website's Customer Service via e-mail [insert link] or postal mail at the address provided below. Children 13 years and younger cannot update, correct or remove their personal information except through their Parent's user account so that Parents are aware of any changes. In response to a customer request, MGA will only release personal information collected from a customer to the e-mail address on file with MGA. It is the customer's responsibility to maintain the security and integrity of that e-mail address.

E. Data Integrity and Security

To prevent unauthorized access, maintain data accuracy, and ensure the correct use of information, MGA has put in place appropriate physical, electronic, and managerial procedures to safeguard the security and integrity of any information you provide to us. We periodically review these security practices and adopt new technologies and procedures in order to protect your personal information. MGA takes appropriate measures to safeguard against unauthorized disclosures of information, but we cannot absolutely ensure that personal information that we collect will never be disclosed in a manner that is inconsistent with this Privacy Policy.

MGA will only collect personal information that is relevant to the purposes for which it will be used and then only to the extent deemed reasonably necessary to serve our legitimate business purposes. Personal information that MGA collects will only be used for the purposes for which it was collected or as subsequently authorized by you. MGA takes reasonable steps to ensure that data is reliable for its intended use, accurate, complete and current.

MGA will let you know when it is collecting personal information from you and how it will be used. MGA will only use personal information that is collected online for the purposes authorized by you or as aggregated data that is not linked to any identifiers.

MGA will require verified Parent consent for the collection of any personal information from children 13 years and younger. For children 13 years and younger, the user account is controlled by a Parent user name and password, so that the Parent will be aware of any changes that are made to the account. Minors ages 14-17 will have their own user name and password but Parents will be notified via e-mail when the minor registers for the account.

When you enter sensitive information such as a credit card number on our registration or order forms, the information is encrypted using secure socket layer technology (SSL). MGA may from time to time implement other measures to protect sensitive information that may be collected online.

F. Our Commitment to Children's Privacy

Protecting the privacy of children is especially important to MGA. For that reason, MGA will not ask children to disclose more personal information than is reasonably necessary in order to participate in an online activity. Furthermore, MGA will not collect or maintain information online from those we actually know are 13 years and younger, except with verifiable consent from a Parent. In such instance, the child will be asked to provide an e-mail address for their Parent, and the Parent will receive a delayed e-mail verification within approximately 3 hours. The Parent will be asked either to provide the personal information on behalf of the child or to consent to having the child provide the requested personal information. For minors ages 14 through 17, MGA will inform the minor's Parent via e-mail that the minor has registered for the Website and provided personal information.

MGA does not share children's information with outside third parties not bound by this Privacy Policy. Parents may at any time review, update or delete any personal information collected from their child 13 or younger online through the Website, and/or the Parent may request that there be no further collection or use of the child's information as provided below.

When contacting the Website Customer Service, please be sure to include the e-mail address that was used to register so that we can verify your request, and a telephone number where you can be reached in case we have any questions or need to verify your identity before granting you access to your child's information.

For the safety of your child, MGA recommends parental supervision of all chat functions. No real names, telephone numbers, e-mail addresses or street addresses will be allowed in any chat environment and MGA reserves the right to suspend or terminate the account and subscription, without a refund, of any user who violates this rule. Open Chat is NOT recommended for children 13 years and younger. Verified Parental consent is required for children 13 and younger to use Open Chat or MiuChat. Parents will be able to, at any time, disable or request termination of Open Chat or MiuChat privileges for children 13 and younger. Parents of minors ages 14-17 will be notified by e-mail when the teen registers for Open Chat or MiuChat. No Parent consent or notice is required for the basic version of chat that uses only pre-programmed words and phrases.

G. How to Access or Correct Your Information

You (or your Parent if you are a child 13 or younger), will at all times have secure online access to your personal information collected through the Website, by using the user name and password that you have chosen for your account. With your user name and password, you can review, delete, or modify your information or, for Parents of children 13 and younger, your child's information. We use this procedure to better safeguard your information.

Alternatively, you may request that MGA delete, correct or update your personal information by sending a written request to MIUCHIZ.com Customer Service via e-mail or postal mail as provided under "How To Contact Us," below.

Please be sure to include your e-mail address that was used to register for the user account and a telephone number where you can be reached in case we need to verify your identity before granting any access to personal information about you or your child. To protect your child's privacy and security, we will take reasonable steps to verify your identity before granting you access to the personal information that we collect and maintain about your child. MGA will only release personal information to the e-mail address that is on file with the Website.

H. Enforcement

MGA is a Better Business Bureau ("BBB") Online Privacy Program participant and as such has agreed to submit to the program's dispute resolution and enforcement process. BBB is a private sector developed privacy program that incorporates the Safe Harbor Principles of Directive 95/46/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 24 October 1995 on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data ("EU Directive") and U.S. Federal Trade Commission regulations. The BBB Online Privacy Program includes effective enforcement mechanisms such as (a) a readily available and affordable independent recourse mechanism to investigate and resolve individual complaints and disputes consistent with EU Directive, and to award damages where the applicable law or private sector initiatives so provide; (b) follow up procedures for verifying that the attestations and assertions businesses make about their privacy practices are true and that privacy practices have been implemented as presented; and (c) the obligation to remedy problems arising out of failure to comply with the EU Directive and consequences for any such failures. Sanctions will be imposed to ensure compliance by member organizations.

BBBOnline's Privacy Program will only accept complaints regarding the misuse of personal information after such complaints have been first submitted to, and addressed by, MGA. For more information about the Privacy Program dispute resolution process, please visit www.bbbonline.org/privacy/dr.asp.

I. Business Transactions

Your personal information may be transferred to another company as part of a business transaction, such as a merger, acquisition by another company, or sale of all or a portion of MGA's assets. You will be notified by prominent notice on our Website for a period of at least thirty (30) days of any such change in ownership or control of your personal information. In the event that the transition will take place in less than thirty days from the date of posting of such Website notice, MGA, at its election in its sole discretion, may send you notification of such transfer to the e-mail address on file for you.

J. How to Contact Us

Should you have other questions or concerns about this Privacy Policy, please contact us by e-mail at help@miuchiz.com or by postal mail at:

MIUCHIZ.com Customer Service
c/o MGA Entertainment, Inc. Customer Service
16300 Roscoe Boulevard
Van Nuys, CA 91406

MGA encourages you to review the ONLINE SAFETY TIPS and PARENT FAQs and to always supervise your children when they are online.

K. Effective Date

MGA's Privacy Policy is effective as of the Effective Date set forth above and applies to all information previously obtained by MGA. MGA reserves the right to change its Privacy Policy at its sole discretion by posting a new privacy policy online. Please check back periodically for updated terms for the Privacy Policy. The Effective Date of MGA's Privacy Policy will be clearly marked so that you can tell when it has been updated.