reddit privacy policy
effective Apr 14, 2015
your privacy is genuinely important to us.
here's how we manage and use your data.
We take protecting your privacy seriously, and we want you to understand exactly how and why we use your information. This document is our Privacy Policy, which describes what information we collect and what it's used for. It applies to all interactions with reddit.com, including interactions with our site through buttons and widgets. It also applies to reddit.tv and mobile applications produced by reddit. However, redditgifts has its own privacy policies and terms of use.
Please read this Privacy Policy carefully. Your use of and/or registration with reddit will constitute your agreement to our policy. If you cannot agree to the terms and conditions set forth below, please do not use our services. Additionally, our Privacy Policy is part of our User Agreement, and by using reddit you agree to both.
about this policy
reddit is an open platform that allows you to communicate about anything you want on any topic you want. We collect some information in order for you to have an account you can use to participate on the site, and other information that is necessary to make the service work. Our goal in developing our privacy practices is to allow your participation to remain as anonymous as you choose, and we dont sell or profit from the information you share with us.
We do take efforts to make sure the platform keeps working. This includes using your information, where necessary, to stop spam and gaming and other activities that violate the user agreement. We also share your information when we are legally required to do so. Please read this privacy policy carefully. It describes what information we collect, how it is used, and when it is shared so you can make smart decisions about how you use reddit! We think it strikes a good balance and respects you our users who make this whole thing possible. Let us know what you think.
what information we collect
registration information
When you create an account, you are required to provide a username and password, and may opt to provide an email address. We also log, and retain indefinitely, the IP address from which the account is initially created.
Post, Comment and Messaging Data
The posts and comments you make on reddit are not private, even if made to a subreddit not readily accessible to the public. This means that, by default, they are not deleted from our servers ever and will still be accessible after your account is deleted. However, we only save the most recent version of comments and posts, so your previous edits, once overwritten, are no longer available.
Your messages are generally only viewable by the parties involved, but they may be accessed internally as needed for community support. Moreover, we keep a complete log of all messages sent on our service, even when both parties later delete their accounts.
reddit stores the IP addresses associated with specific posts, comments, and private messages for 90 days after they are made or sent.
reddit gold
If you choose to upgrade to reddit gold, this status will be stored on your profile, along with the transaction number associated with the payment and the recipient of any gold you send. Although Stripe and PayPal send us a receipt with your name and email address if you provide it, we don't add that information to your account. However, reddit does not handle or have access to any of your payment information. For questions about how this information is stored and used, please read our third party partners privacy policies.
log data
Log data is certain information that is automatically collected by our systems when you visit reddit, including the type of software used to access the site (browser, operating system), the type of device you are using, the address of the external or internal page that referred you, and your IP address. This information is recorded for all visitors and is only linked to your account if you are signed in. Except for the IP address you use to create the account, all IP addresses will be deleted from our servers after 90 days.
activity information
We collect information about how all visitors browse the site to make reddit better. We remove personally identifiable data from this information after 90 days.
other information related to your account
When you are logged into your reddit account, we save the following information about your preferences and your interactions with the site to allow you to customize your experience: subscriptions, preferred language, all languages you see content in, accumulated karma, voting data, and date of last login. You may also opt to add "flair" to decorate your profile, and this will be stored as well.
how we use or disclose collected information
our use of your information is limited to improving your experience
It takes a lot of work to keep our site running and prevent abuse, and we sometimes use your data in order to facilitate this. Your information is used internally only where necessary to provide our services. For instance, we keep IP addresses for 90 days in order to investigate issues with our site, track and block suspected spammers, and otherwise maintain the integrity of the community.
your private information is never for sale
This means that we will only share your personal data with your consent, and after letting you know what information will be shared and with whom, unless it is otherwise permitted in this policy. While advertisers may target their ads to the topic of a given subreddit or based on your IP address, we do not sell or otherwise give access to any information collected about our users to any third party.
Anonymous, aggregated information that cannot be linked back to an individual user may be made available to third parties.
reddit will not disclose your information unless required by law
We may disclose or preserve for future disclosure your information if we believe, after due consideration, that doing so is reasonably necessary to comply with a law, regulation, or valid legal process. If we are going to release your information, we will do our best to provide you with notice in advance via reddit's private messaging system unless we are prohibited by court order from doing so (e.g., an order under 18 U.S.C. 2705(b)). We reserve the right to delay notice to users in cases involving the exploitation of minors and when we believe a delay is necessary to prevent imminent and serious bodily harm to a person.
your information may be disclosed by us in an emergency or to keep our services running
We may disclose your information in certain emergency circumstances: we may also disclose your information when we believe it's necessary to prevent imminent and serious bodily harm to a person; to address fraud, security, or spam; or to protect our rights or property.
cookie policy
technologies we use
Cookies are small data files placed on your computer by websites you visit in order to help them remember certain information about you. At reddit, we set only a few cookies for tracking user preferences, authentication, and collecting anonymous analytics data. Additionally, our advertising partners set cookies. We also use pixel trackers, which are images embedded in a webpage, for the purpose of measuring and analyzing usage and activity. Each of these uses is described in greater detail below.
california's 'do not track' law
reddit's website does not currently respond to a Do Not Track ("DNT") or similar signal as it awaits the results of efforts by the policy and legal community to determine the meaning of DNT and the proper way to respond. reddit does not allow other parties to collect personally identifiable information from users on reddit.
preference cookies
If you are logged out, reddit will place a simple cookie to remember if you indicate you would like to view over 18 content, or if you set a language preference. Additionally, if you vote an advertisement up or down, our third-party advertising partner, Adzerk, will set a cookie to remember your ad preferences.
reddit.tv will place a simple cookie to remember your channel choices, which includes the subreddits you choose as channels and how they are arranged, and your playback preferences including vote sort, autoplay, shuffle, NSFW/SFW, and whether annotations will be visible.
authentication cookies
When you log into your account, reddit will place a cookie for the sole purpose of creating this session. It contains your user id and hashed authentication information.
analytics cookies
We use a tool called Google Analytics to help us understand how users interact with our website. It tells us aggregate usage and traffic information, such as how the site was accessed, how long visitors stayed, and the number of first-time visitors to the site. To learn more about Google Analytics and how it uses your data, please visit http://www.google.com/analytics/learn/privacy.html.
We also place our own session cookie, which contains the date the cookie was set and a unique identifier. This data is anonymized, never associated with your reddit account (whether you are logged-in or not), and follows the requirements laid out in the What Information We Collect section of this policy. By knowing how people use the site, we can make it better.
pixel data
We use small image files called web pixels to collect activity information to help understand how people use the service so we can make it better. We use this information internally only, and we remove information that could be used to identify an individual user after 90 days. We only link this information to your reddit account when you are signed in.
disabling cookies
Most browsers include an option to clear existing cookies or reject new ones. However, if you do this, portions of the reddit website may not function as intended.
content delivery cookie
The company that delivers the reddit website to your computer, CloudFlare, may place a cookie on your computer as part of the service it provides, which includes monitoring visitors IP addresses to track malicious actors. Further information regarding this cookie can be found in CloudFlare's Security Policy.
advertising
We partner with Adzerk to show our users third party banner ads and to provide self-serve, or sponsored headline, ads you see near the top of reddit pages.
Some cookies may be placed during the provision of this service pursuant to Adzerk's privacy policy.
To make our ads relevant to you, Adzerk receives information about the page the ad will appear on. This information includes the subreddits used to generate that page (which may include your subscriptions), as well as your IP address from which your general location (your country or city area) can be inferred. Keep in mind that when you comment and interact with a sponsored headline, others who view that same ad may be able to infer basic information about the location of your computer (since some ads like for a music venue in San Francisco are only seen in some geographies).
account deletion
You may choose to delete your reddit account at any time. The usernames associated with deleted accounts remain unavailable for others to use, and your public profile is no longer visible to reddit users. However, the posts and content you made during your tenure as a reddit user will not be automatically deleted as part of the account removal process, though your username will be publicly disassociated with all posts. Also, we do not have control over third parties that may collect and store data independently from reddit without our permission and without following our rules.
third party sites
Certain third party sites may offer users the option to log in using their reddit id (for example, redditgifts). This option is only an authentication tool and does not transmit any new personal information to or from reddit, or give reddit access to details of subsequent actions taken on these sites.
email communications
When you contact reddit support or subscribe to one of our email newsletters, reddit may use a third party service to send you email messages. All of our email communications are opt-in only. If you do opt into one of our subscription emails, only your email address will be stored with the third party service. We will always make it easy to opt out of our subscription emails, for example, by including a 1-click unsubscribe link.
data security
reddit will make every effort to secure any private information submitted to us by our users. We also maintain internal security practices designed to keep your data secure and private. As part of this, we limit employee access to user data. However, no data transmission over the internet is completely secure, so we cannot guarantee the absolute security of this data. You use the service at your own risk, and are responsible for taking reasonable measures to secure your account (such as carefully maintaining the secrecy of your password).
international visitors
reddit is a San Francisco, California-based company whose servers are housed in the United States. All personal information we collect from our international users is transferred to the United States and processed according to US law.
reddit complies with the U.S.-EU Safe Harbor Framework and the U.S.-Swiss Safe Harbor Framework as set forth by the U.S. Department of Commerce regarding the collection, use, and retention of personal information from European Union member countries and Switzerland. reddit has certified that it adheres to the Safe Harbor Privacy Principles of notice, choice, onward transfer, security, data integrity, access, and enforcement. To learn more about the Safe Harbor program, and to view reddit's certification, please visit http://www.export.gov/safeharbor/.
In compliance with the Safe Harbor Principles, reddit commits to resolve complaints about your privacy and our collection or use of your personal information. European Union and Swiss citizens with inquiries or complaints regarding this privacy policy should first contact us.
reddit has further committed to refer unresolved privacy complaints under the Safe Harbor Principles to an independent dispute resolution mechanism, the BBB EU SAFE HARBOR, operated by the Council of Better Business Bureaus. If you do not receive timely acknowledgment of your complaint, or if your complaint is not satisfactorily addressed reddit, please visit the BBB EU SAFE HARBOR web site at www.bbb.org/us/safe-harbor-complaints for more information and to file a complaint.
children under 13
Although we welcome users from all walks of life, reddit is not aimed at children, and the United States government has put limits on our ability to accept users under a certain age through the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998. Individuals under the age of 13 may not create an account with us. If you believe someone 12 or younger is using our site without parental consent, please contact us.
involuntary pornography
reddit is committed to your privacy. If you believe that someone has submitted, without your permission, to reddit a link to a photograph, video, or digital image of you in a state of nudity or engaged in any act of sexual conduct, please contact us ( contact@reddit.com), and we will expedite its removal as quickly as possible. reddit prohibits the posting of such content without consent.
reddit mobile
reddits mobile apps provide a unique and convenient way to experience reddit. This portion of our privacy policy describes the information our apps collect, how we use it, and how it all fits in with the reddit youre already familiar with.
user information we collect
Our Apps collect the same user information as described in the What Information We Collect section of this privacy policy.
activity and device information
Our apps collect certain information about your device, including its IP address, device type, and its current operating system. This information is used for analytics and to improve the reddit service; for example, we use device and OS information to track and fix bugs. It is also used to provide advertising as described below. All stored IP addresses, except the account creation IP address, are deleted after 90 days. We only associate this information with your account when you are signed in.
app advertising
To understand who clicks our mobile ads and to avoid showing you the same ad over and over again, we share your device's unique advertising identifier, its IP address, and a list of subreddits used to generate a particular page for you (which may include your subscriptions) with our ad partners, who decide which ads to display for you.
We do not associate your devices unique advertising identifier with your user account, even if you are signed in on an app.
opting out
While we have very high standards for the types of ads we show, we also want to make it easy for you to opt out of sending your device's unique advertising identifier to us. To opt out on Android and iOS, please follow these instructions.
how reddit uses and discloses app information
reddit only uses and discloses your information for the same limited set of purposes and circumstances that we describe in the How We Use or Disclose Collected Information section of this privacy policy.
your app options notifications
If you enable app notifications, you can choose to receive timely updates about things like new private messages, interactions with your comments, and more.
Deleting an app
If you delete a reddit app from your mobile device, any app-specific information stored on your device will be deleted from your device. If you have backed up your devices apps, reddit app information may continue to exist where you have backed it up. Any information collected by a reddit app while you are signed in to your reddit account is retained as described in the What Information We Collect section of this policy.
Social media
A reddit app may also allow you to post to social media, including Facebook or Twitter, but reddit will not connect to the servers of those services, share information with those services, or post on your behalf. We want to make it easier for you to share your favorite reddit content elsewhere, but we want you to control when and how that occurs.
this privacy policy and our apps
Please keep in mind that the mobile portion of this privacy policy only applies to the apps reddit owns and controls, which includes apps like reddit AMA and Alien Blue.
changes to this policy
We reserve the right to change this policy to meet the changing needs of reddit, or for any other reason. If we make changes, we will notify our users. Where the changes substantially alter your rights, notice will appear prominently on your front page. More minor changes may only be highlighted by the privacy policy link in the footer of our website.
contact
reddit welcomes questions, concerns, and feedback about this policy. Please feel free to contact us.