Privacy Statement for
gale.com and galeschools.com

This privacy statement is designed to help you understand how we use and safeguard the personal information you provide to us. This privacy statement applies to gale.com and galeschools.com Web sites and their related pages.

Our Web sites provides direct links to various sponsor and marketing partner sites. This privacy statement does not describe the practices of our partners. Before disclosing personal information on any other company's Web site, you should read the privacy policy associated with that site.

Information That We Collect

In general, you may browse our Web sites without providing any personal information. The information we collect from visitors is done on an aggregate basis as you and others browse our Web site and is not used to identify you in any way.

If you want to interact with us via the Web site, you may need to provide us with personal information. For example, you may register with us or sign up for our e-newsletters. Or, you may complete search forms to get information about our products and services. The types of information we ask for varies with the services that you request. In addition to your name and contact information, we may ask for other information if you are making a purchase on the Web site. You may also be asked to provide information in order to enter contests or to receive information on having authors visit your school.

How We Use the Information

In general, we use the information you provide in order to:

• respond to your requests
• provide the products and services you've purchased
• provide customer service
• provide you with additional information that may be of interest
• send e-newsletters you have requested and to allow us to customize future e-mail and e-newsletter offerings

Unless you tell us not to, we may share your personal information with other members of the Thomson [Learning] family so that we can provide you with marketing and other information. We may also share your information with other third parties who perform services for us, but we forbid these companies from using your personal information for their own purposes. We will not share your information with other third parties for their own purposes without your specific agreement.

Please note that we may disclose any information as required by law or when needed to protect our legal rights. For example, we may disclose information about you in response to a subpoena. We may also disclose information about you in connection with the transfer of assets of our business.

A Special Note About Children

Although parts of the galeschools.com Web site provide information and activities for students, we do not collect any personal information about children. Teachers must provide their own personal information in order for students to participate in our online quizzes and contests. In the event that we decide to collect information from students in the future, we will fully comply with the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998 (COPPA).

We encourage parents and teachers to spend time online with children and to monitor their online activities. Please protect your child's privacy by instructing them to never provide personal information on this site or any other, or within any software registration process, without your permission. For more information on children's online privacy, please see the following Web sites:

• U.S. Department of Education's Parents' Guide to the Internet
• SafeKids.com
• FTC Kidz Privacy Web site
• Your Choices

We only want to send you information you have requested. You may opt out of receiving additional or future e-mails from us at any time by following the directions included in each e-mail or e-newsletter (the directions can also be found at www.gale.com/enewsletters/unsubscribe.htm) or by contacting our customer services department by e-mail at gale.galeord@thomson.com and requesting removal from our e-mail lists.

We strive to provide all our customers with reasonable opportunity to access and update their customer profile information. If you have disclosed information to us via an online order form or registration, or have other questions related to information about you that we may maintain, our customer support department can assist you.

Cookies and Web Site Information

Cookies are small pieces of data that are stored by your Web browser on your hard drive. The cookies allows our Web servers to recognize the computers used to access our Web sites. Cookies allow you to move from page to page on the Web site, by remembering the information about the entire session.

Like most other commercial Web site, we use standard "cookie" technology and Web server logs to collect information about how our Web site is used. For example, we conduct anonymous Web traffic analysis for our site. Information gathered through cookies and by our Web server logs may include the date and time of visits, the pages viewed, time spent at our Web site, and the Web sites visited just before and just after our Web site. This information is collected on an aggregate basis. None of this information is associated with you as an individual.

Although no systems are completely secure, we have taken reasonable steps to help prevent the loss, misuse and alteration of the information under our control. For example, personal information collected during the Order Center registration process is maintained separately from all other sections of this site. All transactions on the Order Center are encrypted and secured by a VeriSign SSL certificate.

Changes to Our Policies

From time to time, we may use customer information for new, unanticipated uses not previously disclosed in this privacy statement. If our information practices change, we will post and highlight the policy changes, and we will provide customers with the opportunity to opt out of the new data uses.

Contact Us with Any Questions

If you have any questions about this privacy statement or our practices with respect to personal information, please contact gale.galeord@thomson.com or in writing to:

Thomson Gale
Customer Service
27500 Drake Road
Farmington Hills, MI 48331