How we handle children’s information

Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (“CSHL”) Services and content sites contain subject matter appropriate for a wide range of audiences. Content specifically appropriate for children less than 13 years of age includes the Summer Camp programs and the Saturday DNA! workshops offered by the DNA Learning Center (“DNALC”). Except as otherwise outlined in this Privacy Notice, we do not collect personal information from users of the Services, and we do not ask for more personal information than is reasonably necessary for a child to participate in an activity or an event.

Personal information we collect and how it’s used

We collect contact information from a parent or guardian of a child for the express purposes of getting their consent for the collection, use, and disclosure, if necessary, of their child’s personal information, and communicating with the parent or guardian to provide information about current and future programs. Before collecting a child’s personal information, we obtain the verifiable consent of their parent or guardian by having the parent or guardian make a payment using a credit card (e.g., using CardWorks via Authorize.net) or a personal check to register the child for an activity or event.

Registration for summer camp is completed by online application (https://summercamps.dnalc.org,) and payment by credit card. Information we collect about the child includes personal details (e.g., name, date of birth, and medical condition, if any); demographic details (e.g., gender, grade and school the child will enter in September, and the school district); and emergency contact information of two individuals (e.g., name, and home, work and cellphone numbers). Parents or guardians also are informed that one of the camp choices involves DNA collection from the child participant.

We use Eventbrite for registration and payment, via credit card, for Saturday DNA! workshops. The name and telephone number of each ticket purchaser, the required chaperone, and the name and age of each minor registrant must be included in the Eventbrite registration. A ticket for each registrant is emailed only to the purchaser.

We also may collect and store persistent identifiers (e.g., cookies, IP addresses, operating system, etc.) from users of the Services, including from children, without parental consent, for the purpose of supporting the internal operations of the Services or as otherwise permitted under COPPA (see our section on “Cookies”), such as when a user of the Services follows links on DNALC webpages to other Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory content sites.

Please refer to the sections of this Privacy Notice entitled: “Personal Information we collect and use” and “How we use your Personal Information and the basis on which we use it”, for further details on the information we collect and the tools we use to collect it. We follow our standard Policy (“How and when we share your personal information”) for the disclosure of personal information collected about children. To read about the steps CSHL takes to protect the confidentiality, security, and integrity of all users’ personal information, please see our section on “Information security and storage”.

Parental rights

A parent or guardian who has already given CSHL permission to collect, use, and/or  disclose his or her child’s personal information, may at any time, do the following: (1) review the child’s personal information, have the information corrected or deleted; and/or (2) direct that we discontinue any further collection, use, and/or disclosure of the child’s personal information, by contacting us directly in writing, either by mail (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory DNA Learning Center, 1 Bungtown Road, Cold Spring Harbor, New York 11724) or by email (dnalc-camps@cshl.edu). The request should provide the child’s name, courses or events and dates attended. A valid request to delete personal information will be accommodated within a reasonable amount of time.