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Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company recognizes the importance of protecting the information that we collect from customers during the process of purchasing a product, or registering for a service, newsletter, or membership area of a Houghton Mifflin Harcourt site. Depending on the nature of the site, we may collect first and last names; home or school address; e-mail address; credit card or other billing information; fax or telephone number; and other information appropriate to the purpose for which it is being collected. It is our policy to use this information, or information acquired through user postings at our sites, for internal business purposes only, and we maintain appropriate security measures to keep this information private. Gathering this information helps us develop websites and products to match your interests. We may share this information with vendors providing contractual services to us, such as (by way of example only and not of limitation) hosting services, tech support, credit card processors, and database managers.

You should be aware that personal information, such as your name or e-mail address, that you voluntarily disclose on bulletin boards or in chat areas could be collected and disclosed by other users with access to those sites. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company cannot take any responsibility for such collection or disclosure.

Occasionally, we use “cookies” to store pertinent user information during a session. Cookies are small pieces of information that are stored in a designated file on your computer. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt uses cookies for the purpose of holding information during online sessions (for example, to hold answers to online quizzes for short-term storage and to create an ID for use in a multiple-session assessment), and to store user information that helps us to customize our content to enhance your use of our websites. We may also use cookies to track links from an affiliate’s websites to our websites. This information is used only for the purpose of tracking commissions that may become due to an affiliate if you purchase a product or service from one of our sites.

In most cases, users can review and update or request changes to their information by logging into their account or e-mailing the divisional administrator listed at the end of our Children’s Privacy Policy. If you have any questions about the Houghton Mifflin Harcourt privacy policy, please contact the Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Legal Department at 617-351-3910. This privacy policy was last updated on June 8, 2005. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt reserves the right to change this privacy policy without notice to users of or visitors to our websites.

Children’s Privacy Policy

The following paragraphs summarize Houghton Mifflin Harcourt’s policy regarding the collection and use of personal information about children.

Types of personal information collected Under the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, “personal” is defined as individually identifiable information, such as a first and last name; a home or other physical address including street name and city or town; an e-mail address; a telephone number; a Social Security number; or persistent identifiers such as customer or processor serial numbers held in a cookie, where the identifier is associated with individually identifiable information. Cookies are small pieces of information that are stored in a designated file on a user’s computer. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt usually does not collect personal information as defined under the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act. We collect and use only as much information about a child as necessary for the activity, and do not condition participation in any online activity on the disclosure of more personal information than is reasonably necessary. Occasionally, we use cookies to store pertinent user information during a session.
Use of personal information

We use the information we collect from children only for internal business purposes, and/or to give credit to children for work they have created. We contact children by e-mail only in response to their requests for information or assistance. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt uses cookies solely for the purpose of holding information during online sessions (for example, to hold answers to online quizzes for short-term storage, or to create an ID for use in a multiple-session assessment). If, however, a child voluntarily discloses personal information, such as a name or e-mail address, on bulletin boards or in chat areas that are accessible to other users, then such information could be collected and disclosed by others. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt cannot take any responsibility for such collection or disclosure.
Involvement of parents

In accordance with the provisions of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, we will notify parents when collecting personal information from children, and will seek parental consent before collecting, using, or disclosing certain personal information from children. Parents may review and have deleted their child’s personal information, and may refuse to permit further collection or use of their child’s information by contacting the Houghton Mifflin Harcourt representatives listed below. Parents may consent to our collection and use of their child’s personal information without consenting to the disclosure of that information to others.