Privacy Policy
TED encourages our community to discover and share ideas with one another. While gathering information about the people who use the site is an important part of the TED.com experience, we take your privacy very seriously, and make every effort to safeguard your personal data. This privacy policy is intended to inform you of what information we collect, how this information is used, and what steps we take to protect this information. If you have any questions or concerns about our privacy policy and protections, please contact us.
What information do we collect?
We collect two kinds of information: Personal information that you directly provide to us, which includes information you supply when you register an account with us.
Automatically collected, non-personal information, which includes tracking information gathered as you use TED.com.
We may use this information to help customize your TED.com experience based on your previous activities on TED.com.
Information you provide directly to us:
When you register an account on TED.com, we ask you to provide a unique email address, first and last name, and password. You have the option of also providing profile information (such as location, occupation and your personal story). You may also choose to directly send us information such as email correspondence or search queries.
You may choose to create a TED.com account using the Facebook Connect feature on TED.com. By doing this, you are asking Facebook to send us certain information from your Facebook profile, and you authorize us to collect, store and use in accordance with this privacy policy any and all information available to us through the Facebook interface.
Billing and credit card information:
When required for TED Conference registration or other services, we may request and store name, address, telephone number, email address and billing information. We do not store credit card numbers except for the last 4 digits. This information will only be shared with third parties who perform tasks required to complete the purchase transaction.
Comments, conversations and other public activities:
We offer you opportunities to engage in public activities on TED.com. "Public activities" are any actions you take that are designed to be visible to other users, including comments, conversations, recommendations and ratings. If you choose to engage in public activities, you should be aware that any personal information you submit there can be read, collected or used by other users of these areas, and could be used to send you unsolicited messages.
We are not responsible for the personally identifiable information you choose to submit in these forums, and we have no responsibility to publish, remove or edit any of your comments, conversations or other content. For more information, see the TED.com Terms of Use.
When you share or recommend any TED.com content using your Facebook profile, your action is governed by Facebook's privacy policy. Likewise, when you share or recommend any TED.com content through other social media outlets, your actions are governed by their privacy policies.
Information gathered automatically:
We use various technologies to manage TED.com and track use of the content we provide, including: the IP address used when registering and submitting content to the site
standard web analytics information
aggregated data about email click-through rates and video viewing
information collected through HTML cookies, Flash cookies, web beacons, and similar technologies.
Non-personal information that we collect using these technologies may be combined with information you provide directly to us.
Device information:
We may collect non-personal information about the computer, mobile device or other device you use to access TED services, such as IP address, geolocation information, unique device identifiers, browser type, browser language and other transactional information.
This information may be used to offer you optimized TED.com experiences based on your device or location.
How we use the information we gather:
Providing requested services:
We may use the information that we collect to fulfill your requests for services and information. For example, we may use your contact information to respond to your customer service requests, or to enable registration for one of our conferences.
E-mail and newsletters:
If you signed up for one of our email newsletters, we will send you the newsletter that you requested. We may also use the information that we collect to send you other e-mail communications, such as information about your account, changes to the site, or information about our conferences and events (if you have opted in for this information.)
Statistical analysis:
We perform statistical analyses of users of the site, and their viewing and participation patterns, for product development purposes and to generally inform advertisers about the nature of our audience. Please note that we do not share contact information with our advertisers.
Third parties:
We may employ third parties to perform site-related services, including database management, maintenance services, analytics, marketing, billing and email distribution. These third parties have access to your information only to perform these tasks on our behalf.
Enforcement:
We may use the information that we collect to prevent illegal activities, to enforce the TED.com Terms of Use, or as otherwise required by law.
In addition to the uses identified above, we may use the information that we collect for any other purposes disclosed to you at the time we collect your information or pursuant to your consent.
Please note that third parties may independently collect data about you, including your IP address and information about the websites you visit and the links you click, through cookies, clicks on links, or other means when you visit or view ads on the site. We do not control the privacy practices of these third-party services.
Protection of your information:
To prevent unauthorized access, maintain data accuracy and ensure the appropriate use of information, we have put in place commercially reasonable physical, technical and administrative controls to protect your information. Please note that no method of transmission over the internet is 100% secure.
Children under the age of 13:
We do not knowingly collect personal information from children under 13. If we learn that we have collected any personal information from a child under the age of 13 without verifiable parental consent, we will delete that information from our database as quickly as possible. If you believe that we may have collected information from a child under 13, please contact us.
Changes to this privacy policy:
This privacy policy may be amended from time to time. Any such changes will be posted on this page. We will notify you of any significant or material changes in the way we treat your information by placing a prominent notice on our site or sending a notice to the primary email address specified in your account.
Deleting your account:
You can request that your account be deleted at any time by contacting us. When your account is deleted, your user profile and all public activities (comments, conversation topics) will be removed. To unsubscribe from our newsletters, click on the link at the bottom of a newsletter you have received, or you can manage your subscriptions from your TED.com profile.