VirtualFishtank.com was developed by the creative minds at Nearlife, Inc. (www.nearlife.com) for the Museum of Science, Boston (www.mos.org). The St. Louis Science Center has also recently joined our partnership with the addition of their own Virtual Fishtank.

Terms of Use
Please read this notice before using our website. By using the site, you agree to abide by these Terms of Use; please do not use our site if you do not agree with the Terms of Use set forth below. Nearlife reserves the right to modify the Terms of Use at its sole discretion and, by using this site, you agree to be bound by the modifications or updates to the Terms of Use.

This website is owned and operated by Nearlife, Inc. No material from VirtualFishtank.com may be copied, reproduced, uploaded, or distributed in any way except that each user is allowed to download the website materials to a single computer for your own personal, noncommercial use. All copyright and other proprietary notices must be kept intact. Modification or re-use of website materials for ANY other purpose is a violation of international copyright laws. Yes, that means it's against the law to take an image or text content from VirtualFishtank.com and publish it on any other website, or in any other way that distributes the material beyond your personal computer.

Submissions to VirtualFishtank.com immediately become the property of Nearlife, Inc. upon receipt. This means that if you send us an idea via the Feedback Form, that idea immediately becomes our property and, by submitting the idea, you agree to relinquish all rights and intellectual property and other claims.

Disclaimer
The graphics, text, all other materials and the overall experience on VirtualFishtank.com are provided to users "as is" and without warranties of any kind. To the extent allowed by governing laws, Nearlife disclaims all warranties including, but not limited to, implied warranties of merchantibility and fitness for any particular purpose. Nearlife does not warrant that the features and experience of VirtualFishtank.com will be uninterrupted or free from error, that errors will be corrected, or that the files associated with this website are free from viruses or other harmful components. Nearlife makes no warrant or claim regarding the use or the results of the use of the features of this website.

Nearlife disclaims any responsibility for any aspect of the content on websites that link to or from VirtualFishtank.com. Nearlife encourages close parental supervision of children when the children are exploring Internet websites.

To the extent allowed by applicable law, Nearlife disclaims liability, under any circumstances, for special or consequential damages that result from the use of VirtualFishtank.com.

Privacy Notice
VirtualFishtank.com values your privacy. To keep you informed, we have created this privacy statement that discloses our purposes and methods for online collection and use of information. This statement applies to all information collected through the VirtualFishtank.com website and information gathered from any web pages that we host.

Site Operator and Contact for Privacy Inquiries:

Nearlife
147 Sherman Street
Cambride, MA 02140
tel: 617.491.3184
fax: 617.354.4191
Privacy Contact: privacy@virtualfishtank.com

Types of Information Collected
Generally, personal information is not collected from visitors to the VirtualFishtank.com website. However, in order to access certain special services, personal information is sometimes requested; those cases are described in more detail below.

Contests and Other Special Features
VirtualFishtank.com requires a valid e-mail address for users who want to participate in contests and other features which may from time to time appear on the website. This allows us to notify contest participants about rules, winners and other aspects of the contests.

IF YOU ARE 12 YEARS OF AGE OR YOUNGER and would like to participate in the VirtualFishtank.com contests, you will need to print a Parental Consent form and have your parent or legal guardian fax it to Nearlife prior to participating in the contest. [NOTE: Since there are currently no contests underway, the Parental Consent form link is inactive.]

Cookies
Certain activities on the VirtualFishtank.com website might, from time to time, involve the use of "cookies" to facilitate your experience. This includes retention of your username and password for contests and other such features. You have the option to turn these cookies off at any time by updating your user profile preferences in your browser.

Disclosure of Personal Information
VirtualFishtank.com will not disclose any personally identifying information (e.g., last name, address, phone number) to any third parties for any purpose without your prior consent. All reasonable care is taken by staff handling personal information to ensure its security both offline and online.

Privacy for Children Aged 12 and Under
Although VirtualFishtank.com is targeted at a general audience, Nearlife, Museum of Science, Boston, and the St. Louis Science Center, especially welcome the participation of younger users. Most of VirtualFishtank.com can be experienced without the need to fill out and fax a Parental Consent form. When features that require use of the Parental Consent form appear on the website, we will clearly indicate the need for the form and will provide a convenient link to the form. Whatever the online activity, we encourage parents to stay involved in the online life of their children.

Parents should know that federal regulations prohibit Nearlife, or any company, from requiring children to disclose more information about themselves than is reasonably necessary to participate in a given activity on a website. For example, if a website wanted to offer a contest, it could reasonably ask for email addresses to notify and communicate with participants. However, requiring information like address or phone would be unreasonable for participation in the contest and would therefore be illegal to request. [NOTE: Parents can learn more about FTC regulations regarding childrens' online privacy by going to www.coppa.org.]

Parents can review and request deletion of their child's personal information, and can refuse to permit further collection or use of their child's information. In order to request such a review, to revoke previously offered parental consent, or to express any concerns regarding a child's privacy on our website, please send a signed written request to:

Nearlife
147 Sherman Street
Cambride, MA 02140
or call our Privacy Administrator at 617.491.3184.

Questions and Concerns
If you have questions regarding your information, you can contact our Privacy Administrator at privacy@virtualfishtank.com.