This is the website of Puffin Books. The website is owned and operated by Penguin Books Limited.

How to contact us

If you have any questions about this web site or our privacy policy, please contact us by writing to Puffin Privacy Policy, Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand, WC2R 0LR.

Our approach to children's privacy

We want children who visit our website to be able to take part fully in the activities and offers we provide. We also want to make sure that when we collect information from children we do so in a way that does not infringe their right to privacy. This Privacy Policy is designed to give you useful information about your child's rights and the way we collect and use personal information.

We do not ask children to disclose any more information than is reasonably necessary to enable them to participate in an activity on our website [AND to improve the website].

We do not generally disclose personal information we have collected from children through this website to third parties. We may do so sometimes, in which case we will say so when the information is collected and you or your child will be able to inform us that you do not want us to do this. This will not stop your child enjoying the site, you or your child can simply tell us that you are happy for us to have the information so your child can take part in the activities we offer, but that you do not want us to pass that information on.

Besides what we describe in this Privacy Policy, we do not maintain any personal information obtained from children through this website in a retrievable form.

The information we collect and how we use it

When children want to participate in activities on our website, this is the sort of information we ask for and how we use it:

When children enter competitions, we ask for their names and email and residential addresses. This is so that we can let them know if they have won anything, send them their prizes and also let other people (such as other users of our website, the public and our own employees) know about our competitions and their winners.

When children send e-postcards, we will ask them for their names and email addresses. This is so we can let whoever receives the postcard know who sent it and so we can make sure the child who sent it gets a copy (by email) too.

When children send in reviews of our books or jokes/poems/stories, we will ask them for their names and email addresses. This is so that, if we want to post their reviews on our website, we can give them credit for what they have written.

We only keep the personal information children submit for these purposes until we have made use of it in these ways.

Adults on the Puffin website

We encourage parents and guardians to spend time online with their children and to participate in the activities offered on this site. If your child is younger than 13, we ask you to play an active role in safeguarding his or her privacy when using our site.

Children under 13 years of age

We make it a condition of using this site that no information is submitted to or posted at the site by children under 13 unless we have the consent of their parent or guardian. When your child registers to use the site [OR Whenever your child takes part in an offer or activity on the site where we ask him or her for personal information] we will ask for your consent.

If you have children who are under 13, we ask you to complete their entry forms for competitions run on this site. We will notify you if your child wins a competition and send any prize to you. We will also obtain your prior consent before publishing the name, age and photograph of your child if he or she wins a competition.

Older children

If your child is older than 13, we will ask him or her to give consent personally if we plan to keep or use his or her information for anything (we will also say what we plan to do with it). Please help your children with this.