LEGAL AT BUZZFEED
BuzzFeed’s Privacy Policy and Cookie Policy
LAST UPDATED: May 17, 2024
Welcome to BuzzFeed’s Privacy Policy and Cookie Policy. This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, and disclose personal data (as defined herein) related to your use of our Services.
United States users you can find out about your privacy rights “Privacy Information for United States Residents” section.
3. Changes to this Privacy Policy
5. Personal data we collect and how
7. How we collect personal data
10. EU users: international transfer of your personal data
11. Retaining your personal data
12. Social Media Platforms and Other Third-Party Sites
14. Privacy information for EEA and UK users
15. Privacy Information for United States Residents
1. Who we are
When we mention “BuzzFeed”, “we”, “us” or “our” in this Privacy Policy, we mean BuzzFeed, Inc., or the relevant BuzzFeed company responsible for processing your data. BuzzFeed legal entities are listed in our section 16. Please note that Independent Digital News and Media Limited now manage operations for UK users. For further details please see Section 14 - Privacy Information for EEA and UK users for further details.
2. About this Privacy Policy
This Privacy Policy explains how BuzzFeed collects, uses, and discloses your personal data. We collect personal data when you use our website(s), mobile apps, and other online and offline products, services and experiences (collectively, the “Services”). This Privacy Policy does not apply to any third parties you may interact with through our Services. From time to time, we parties with third parties to provide you with products, promotions or other experiences. If those third parties will receive your personal data, we will make their privacy policy available to you.
3. Changes to this Privacy Policy
We’re likely to update this Privacy Policy in the future and when we make changes, we will revise the date at the top of the policy. When we make significant changes, will notify you through the Services, such as on our homepage, or via email or other communication. Please come back and check this page from time to time for the latest information on our privacy practices.
4. How to contact us
If you have questions or concerns about the information in this Privacy Policy, our handling of your personal data more generally, your choices and rights regarding such use, or wish to exercise your rights under law, please do not hesitate to contact us at:
BuzzFeed, Inc.
229 West 43rd Street, 10th Floor
New York, NY 10036
Attn: Legal Department
[email protected]
5. What personal data we collect and how
5.1 Personal data you provide to us.
We collect data you provide directly to us.
Account data. If you sign up for a BuzzFeed.com account (“Account”), we will collect your name, email address, username and password, and any other information needed to set-up your Account. We describe this more fully in Section 5.4 below.
Payment data. To order products or services through our Services, you will need to provide us with payment information (like your bank account or credit card information). Please note that your financial information is collected and stored by our third party payment processing company. Use and storage of that data is governed by the third party payment processor’s applicable privacy policy.
Purchase data. If you make a purchase from a third party after clicking on an affiliate link through the Services, we will receive data about the purchase so that we can get credit for sending you to that third party.
Public Account data. You may provide additional data as part of your Account (such as your personal description). This data will be publicly visible to others. If you do not wish to share this information with others, or us do not provide the information as part of your Account.
Other data you share through the Services. You may provide us with data when you fill in a form, conduct a search, update or add information to your Account, respond to surveys, post to community forums, provide us with feedback, participate in promotions, or use other features of the Services.
5.2 Data that we collect automatically about your browser and device.
When you access or use the Services, we use cookies and similar technologies that collect information about your browser and device:
Log Data. We automatically receive and record information from your device or web browser when you interact with the Services. For example, we collect your internet protocol (IP) address, mobile device ID, time zone setting, language preference, operating system, platform, internet service provider (ISP), and links you have clicked on or shared with others, including through email and social media.
Account ID. If you sign up for an Account, we also create a user ID that indirectly identifies you. We use this information to collect data about your activities through the Services.
Cookie Data. When you visit the Services, we will set certain “cookies” and similar tracking technologies on your device, including cookies and web beacons (“Cookies”). For more information about cookies and how to disable them, please see our “Cookie policy” section below.
We also may use these technologies to collect data about your online activities over time and across third-party websites or other online services (behavioral tracking).
The information we collect automatically may include personal data, or we may maintain it or associate it with personal data we collect in other ways or receive from third parties.
5.3 Location data.
We use your IP address to infer your approximate location. We may also collect the language option or country you choose. When we provide certain services, such as providing you with a version of our Services that is localized to your country, we link location data to other information we have collected about you to provide you with a localized experience.
5.4 Profile data.
If you sign up for an Account, we will collect the data you give us as part of your Account sign-up, information you give us in connection with purchases or orders made by you, and your interests, preferences, feedback and survey responses. Your interests and preferences are inferred from data we collect regarding the content you have interacted with, how long you interacted with them, how often you interacted with them, and the nature of your interaction with the content. We do not disclose email addresses to other users except where it is necessary to comply with the law, to protect our rights, or to protect the rights of our users.
5.5 Special category data.
When we conduct research or carry out surveys and you participate in our research or surveys, we may collect sensitive personal data or sensitive personal information ("SPDI") about you, for example, information about your racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, sex life or sexual orientation. We will get your explicit consent for our collection, use, or sharing of this data as required by law. We do not collect or process SPDI for any other purpose other than those permitted by applicable law.
6. Aggregated data
6.1 We analyze and aggregate personal data we collect, such as the number and frequency of your visits to the Services, to produce anonymized metrics and statistical information that does not identify you as an individual.
6.2 We combine information about you with information about other users to create audience segments of aggregated data, for example, statistical, demographic and usage data. If we combine or connect aggregated data with your personal data, we treat the combined data as personal data and treat it in accordance with this Privacy Policy.
7. How we collect personal data
7.1 From You. You may give us your personal data directly, for example when you create an Account, fund us by donation, support us by paying for a subscription, buy products or services, subscribe to our newsletters, opt-in to marketing communications, publish posts or comments, enter a competition, participate in a promotion or survey, ask for user support, or contact us for any reason.
7.2 Using Cookies. We collect information about your devices and browsing actions and interests by using cookies and similar technologies. Our “Cookie Policy” section provides more details on how this works.
7.3 From our Advertising Partners. Third parties who provide advertising and related services (such as analytics providers and ad networks, our “Advertising Partners” may give us your personal data so that we can compare it to personal data we hold in order to determine if you are the same individual (this is sometimes called “cookie-matching”). We may collect data from unaffiliated third parties so we can better understand you and provide you with information and offers that may be of interest to you. For example, we may receive information about your interests or preferences as well as contact information, such as email address.
7.4 From our Advertisers and Affiliate Partners. We may receive your personal data from third parties when you buy things through our Services or when you buy things from a third party after clicking on an affiliate link in our content. This information may include your contact details and financial and transaction data (such as items purchased and purchase price) from providers of technical, payment and delivery services.
7.5 From Social Media Platforms. If you access our Services using your Facebook or Google credentials, we will automatically collect certain information, such as your Facebook or Google user ID. We will use any information collected from Facebook or Google, including the user ID Facebook or Google attribute to you, only in accordance with Facebook’s or Google’s policies and your preferences selected through Facebook or Google.
7.6 How we use your data:
We use the data we collect to provide, maintain, and improve our Services. We also use the data we collect to:
Send you technical notices, updates, security alerts and support and administrative messages and to respond to your comments, questions and customer service requests;
Communicate with you about products, services, offers, and events offered by BuzzFeed and others, and provide news and information we think will be of interest to you;
Make inferences about your interests and preferences (including at a household level). Your interests and preferences are inferred from data we collect about the content you have interacted with, how long you interacted with them, how often you interacted with them, and the nature of your interaction with the content;
Personalize and improve the Services and provide you with advertisements, content or features that match your profile, activities or interests;
Customize content that our third-party Advertising Partners deliver on the Services (such as personalized third-party advertising);
Creating and updating profiles and audience segments that can be used for analytics, interested-based advertising and marketing on the Services, and on websites, mobile apps and other platforms controller by our advertisers and other third party advertising partners (“Third Party Sites”)
We may use information about you, such as your email address, to identify you across the devices you use to access the Services, as well as offline. This helps us learn more about your interests and preferences, which we use for advertising on the Services and Third Party Sites.
Facilitate contests, sweepstakes and promotions and process and deliver entries and rewards;
Monitor and analyze trends, usage and activities in connection with our Services and personalize and improve the Services;
Detect, investigate and prevent fraudulent transactions and other illegal activities and protect the rights and property of BuzzFeed and others; and
Carry out any other purpose described to you at the time the data was collected.
8. Marketing choices
When you sign up for a promotion like a sweepstakes, or subscribe to or create an Account to use our Services, we use your personal data to help us decide which products, services and offers may be of interest to you. We will send marketing messages to you if you have asked us to send you information, bought goods or services from us, or if you provided us with your details when you entered a competition or registered for a promotion. If you opt out of receiving marketing messages, we may still send you non-promotional emails, such as those about your Account or our ongoing business relations. We will ask for your consent before we share your personal data with any third party for direct marketing purposes.
You may unsubscribe from marketing messages through a link we include on messages we send you. You can also ask us to stop sending you marketing messages at any time by contacting us at: [email protected]
9. Sharing your personal data
In general, your personal data will remain with BuzzFeed but we may share personal data about you as follows or as otherwise described in this Privacy Policy:
Within BuzzFeed. We share your personal data within BuzzFeed’s legal entities where necessary to fulfill a contract or precontractual measures, or where we have a legitimate interest in doing so or a legal obligation to do so. BuzzFeed’s legal entities are listed in our “BuzzFeed Legal Entities” section;
With vendors, consultants, and other service providers who process your data on our behalf when they provide services to us, for example data analytics, research, marketing and financial services;
With Advertising Partners to customize your experience and better tailor the services, products, marketing and advertising on our Services and on their Third Party Sites. Our Advertising Partners are companies that provide services that help us provide advertising to you. These companies may use their own tracking technologies to collect or request information about you. For more information, please see our “Cookie Policy” section.
In connection with, or during negotiations of, any merger, sale of company assets, financing or acquisition of all or a portion of our business by another company;
We may be legally required to disclose or share your personal data without your consent in some circumstances, for example to comply with a court order or law enforcement. In such circumstances, we will only disclose your personal data if we have a good-faith belief that such sharing is required under applicable legal obligations.
Other Sharing
We may also share aggregated or de-identified information, which cannot reasonably be used to identify you (we do not attempt to re-identify de-identified information, except as permitted or required by law). For example, we may share aggregated or de-identified information with our ad partners and service providers so that we, and they, can understand how people use our Services; this helps us grow our business and improve and develop our products and services.
We may also share information about you along with a hashed version of your email address with our Advertising Partners so that they and we can facilitate customized ad campaigns and other offers on the Services and on other platforms. “Hashing” transforms your email into an unrecognizable series of numbers and letters (e.g. a “hashed” version of [email protected] would be [email protected]).
10. EU users: international transfer of your personal data
10.1 When we process your personal data within BuzzFeed, we will do so in countries in which we have offices (United States, India, Australia, Japan, Mexico, Canada). We have put into place intra-group controls (including the standard contractual clauses approved by the European Commission) to ensure that your rights continue to be protected.
10.2 Third parties with whom we share your data may be based outside the EEA and their processing of your personal data may involve a transfer of data outside the EEA. For more information, please refer to the privacy policy links for such third parties in our consent management platform.
10.3 Our agreements with those third parties include Commission-approved standard contractual clauses and otherwise make clear the standards we expect of them in order to safeguard your information and your legal rights.
11. Retaining your personal data
11.1 We keep your personal data for as long as we need it for the purposes for which it was collected.
11.2 When we decide how long we will keep your information we consider the amount, nature, and sensitivity of the personal data, the potential risk of harm from unauthorized use or disclosure, why we need it, and any relevant legal requirements (such as legal retention and destruction periods).
11.3 We may anonymize your personal data (so that it can no longer be associated with you) for research or statistical purposes.
12. Social Media Platforms and Other Third-Party Sites
12.1 Our sites and apps may include links to third-party sites, apps and social media platforms (“Third-Party Sites”). Clicking on those links may allow third parties to collect or share data about you. We do not endorse or control Third-Party Sites, each of which are governed by its own terms of service and privacy policy. We encourage you to read their privacy policies and terms so that you understand how they process information about you. We are not responsible for any damages or other harms that may arise when you leave BuzzFeed and interact with Third-Party Sites. Please take all protections necessary to protect yourself when accessing Third-Party Sites, particularly when downloading content or making purchases.
12.2 The Services may offer social sharing features and other integrated tools, which let you share actions you take on our Services with your friends or the public on social media platforms. We also use the analytics tools provided by the social media platforms to help us to understand how people interact with our social media presence, to identify trends and to carry out joint promotional activities with those platforms. For example, sometimes we agree with a social media platform that we will jointly promote certain content.
12.3 We receive aggregated statistical information from social media platforms about the performance of our posts and promoted content, such as numbers of views and kinds of viewers. This data is aggregated and anonymized by the social media platform before it is given to us.
12.4 We also use the paid advertising and paid content tools provided by the social media platforms to help us carry out advertising campaigns for our advertisers and to promote our content on the social media platforms. For example, we use the “Promoted Pins” tool on Pinterest to promote editorial or paid content to visitors to Pinterest. Again, we only receive aggregated statistical information from the social media platforms. This is information about interactions with our ads and paid content, such as number of views, number of times shared and so on.
12.5 We process information provided to us by the social media platforms on the basis of our legitimate interest in interacting with our audience on social media and using social media to promote our content.
For more information about the purpose and scope of data collection and processing in connection with social sharing features or your use of the social media platforms, please visit the privacy policies of the respective entities at the following links:
Facebook and Instagram - https://en-gb.facebook.com/policy.php
Twitter - https://twitter.com/en/privacy
YouTube - https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=en
Snapchat - https://www.snap.com/en-US/privacy/privacy-center/
Twitch - https://www.twitch.tv/p/legal/privacy-policy/
TikTok - https://www.tiktok.com/en/privacy-policy
Pinterest- https://policy.pinterest.com/en/privacy-policy
Tumblr - https://www.tumblr.com/privacy
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/legal/privacy-policy
LINE - https://terms.line.me/line_rules
13. Cookie policy
What Are Cookies?
Cookies are small data text files that are used to identify your computer or device online. When you visit a website, a cookie is created and stored on your hard drive so that that website can recognize you while you are on that website. Some cookies are “session-based,” which means they disappear once you leave the website. Others are “persistent,” which means they are stored on your device until you delete them and they allow a website to recognize you each time you visit the website. Cookies are just one technology used to collect information online. A “web beacon,” also known as a tag, pixel tag, or clear GIF, is also used to transmit information back to a web server. When you interact with our mobile apps we may use SDKs, which act like cookies, or we may use other identifiers to help us identify your device. When we talk about “Cookies” in this Privacy Policy, we mean not just cookies, but web beacons, SDKs and similar technologies.
What Types of Cookies are on the Services?
First Party Cookies. Our Services use our own cookies to recognize you and remember you as a unique user.
Session Cookies remember you during your session on our Services. They are deleted when you log out of the Services and when you close your web browser. We use session Cookies to ensure content is displayed correctly on the Services, to balance and monitor load on our servers, and for other technical matters essential to the operation of our Services. You can configure your device to reject these cookies, but our Services will probably not work correctly, or at all, if you do.
Consent cookies are used by our consent management platform we employ to record your preferences about third party cookies described below, and to store and share your preference with those third parties. These cookies are essential for compliance with the legal obligations imposed on us and on third parties with whom we have a business relationship to ensure we request your consent, record your consent preferences, and act on such consent preferences.
Analytics cookies. Analytics cookies are used by us and by third parties who process data for us for data analytics purposes (for example Google Analytics) so that we can manage and improve the performance and design of our Services and for monitoring, auditing, research and reporting. We have activated Google’s IP anonymisation function on our Sites. This will cause your IP address to be cut by Google within Member States of the European Union or in other countries party to the Agreement on the European Economic Area before being transmitted to the USA. Only in exceptional cases will the full IP address be transmitted to a Google server in the USA and shortened there. On our behalf, Google will use this information to evaluate your use of the Sites, to compile reports on Site activity and to provide us with other services relating to website and internet use. The IP address transmitted by your browser in the context of Google Analytics is not merged with other Google data. With respect to Google Analytics, you can read about how Google uses data gathered for that purpose here. For AU users, Audigent may be used by Val Morgan, who operates the BuzzFeed AU Territory scope. Please visit their site for information.
Third party cookies: advertising and affiliate links. Our Advertising Partners and our affiliate links partners collect personal data from you for the purposes they disclose through our cookie consent management platform.
Advertising Partners include ad networks such as third party ad servers, ad agencies, ad technology vendors and research firms.
Affiliate links partners pay us when you buy things from them or another third party after clicking on an affiliate link in our content.
Our Advertising Partners use third party cookies to serve ads to you and to target you with tailored (or personalized) ads when you are using the Services and when you visit Third-Party Sites. They also use cookies to measure traffic on the Services (for example to track ad views).
Advertising Partners and affiliate links partners may view, edit or set their own cookies on your mobile device or web browser when you interact with our Services. They use cookies to track your use of our Services and your activities elsewhere online. We provide links to their privacy policies in our consent management platform, which you can access by clicking here.
What Information do Cookies Collect?
Cookies and similar technologies allow us to collect the following types of personal data: a unique ID assigned to your device; IP address; device and browser type; operating system; referring URLs; content viewed or other actions taken through our Services; time and date of those actions; country and language selected.
What Choices Do you Have?
Browsers and devices have tools that allow you to disable Cookies. If you disable Cookies you may not be able to access all the features of our services. We suggest that you keep our essential cookies active for a better user experience and to help us keep improving and developing our products and services. You can decide who you will allow to set third party cookies on your browser or device by going to our consent preferences center. You can change your mind and revisit your consent choices at any time by returning there.
If you would like more information about this practice and to know your choices about having your information used in this manner by our partners, you may visit https://optout.networkadvertising.org/?c=1, https://optout.aboutads.info/?c=2&lang=EN or https://youradchoices.com/token.
14. Privacy information for EEA and UK users
14.1 Information for EU Users (including legal bases)
We will use your personal data only for the purposes for which we collect it, unless we reasonably consider that we need to use it for another reason that is compatible with the original purpose. If we need to use your personal data for another purpose, we will explain the legal basis we rely on.
The table below shows what we use your personal data for and the lawful basis for processing it in each case.
| Purpose | Type of data | Lawful basis |
|---|---|---|
| Recognize you and analyze how you, and other users, navigate the Services and apps and what type of content you’re interested in, and to manage and improve the Services by testing new features of our sites and apps. We do this by using cookies or similar technology as explained in our “Cookie Policy” section. | Data that indirectly identifies you such as your IP address, mobile device ID and location data. This data does not include anything that allows us to identify you by name or contact details. | Legitimate interest. |
| Recognize you and analyze how you, and other users, interact with ads on our Services and what type of ads you’re interested in. We do this by using cookies or similar technology as explained in our “Cookie Policy” section. | Data that indirectly identifies you such as your IP address, mobile device ID and location data. This data does not include anything that allows us to identify you by name or contact details. | Consent |
| Communicate legal information to you. | Data that indirectly identifies you (such as your IP address or mobile device ID and location data) and data that directly identifies you (such as your name, username, and email address and information you include in your user profile). | Legitimate interest. |
| Analyze comments and feedback you have given us including comments, feedback and reviews you have posted on our Services in order to use the information to carry out journalistic activities, to improve our services and content offerings, and to enforce our Terms of Service. | Data that directly identifies you (such as your name, username, and email address) and data that indirectly identifies you (such as your IP address or mobile device ID and location data). | Legitimate interest. |
| Provide you with communications and services you’ve signed up, for such as our newsletters. | Data that directly identifies you such as your name, username, email address and location data. | Consent. |
| Register you as a user of our Services and other products and services and administer your Account. | Data that directly identifies you (such as your name, username, and email address and other information included in your user profile). | Creation or performance of a contract. |
| Publish content on our Services including articles, feedback, reviews and user comments about our posts. | Data that indirectly identifies you (such as your IP address or mobile device ID and location data) and data that directly identifies you (such as your name, username, and email address and information included in your user profile). | Creation or performance of a contract. |
| Fulfill orders for subscriptions, products or services placed through our Services. | Data that directly identifies you including your name and address, email address, other contact details, financial and transactional data. | Creation or performance of a contract. |
| Collect money you owe us. | Data that directly identifies you including your name and address, email address, other contact details, financial and transactional data. | Legitimate interest. |
| Verify or obtain payments due to us when you buy something from a third party after clicking on an “affiliate” link in our content, measure the performance of affiliate links, analyze and develop this part of our business. | Data that indirectly identifies you (such as your IP address or mobile device ID) or data that directly identifies you (such as your name, username, email address and location data). | Legitimate interest. |
| Communicate our terms, notify you about changes to them and communicate with you about non-compliance. | Data that indirectly identifies you (such as your IP address or mobile device ID and location data) or data that directly identifies you (such as your name, username and email address). | Creation or performance of a contract. |
| Communicate our Privacy Policy and notify you of changes to them | Data that indirectly identifies you (such as your IP address or mobile device ID and location data) or data that directly identifies you (such as your name, username, and email address). | Compliance with a legal obligation. |
| Conduct surveys or undertake similar types of research so that we can improve and develop our business, our Services. | Data that directly identifies you (such as your name, username, name, email address and location data) | Consent. |
| Allow you to take part in a prize draw, sweepstake, or other competition or other promotional activity. | Data that directly identifies you such as your name, username, and email address. | Creation or performance of a contract. |
| Administration and protection of our business including troubleshooting, data analysis, testing, system maintenance, user support, reporting and hosting data, administration and IT services, network security, fraud prevention, customer services and business reorganization, including exchanging information with third parties for fraud protection and spam/malware prevention. | Data that indirectly identifies you (such as your IP address or mobile device ID and location data) and data that directly identifies you (such as your name, username, and email address). | Legitimate interest. |
| Send marketing communications to you if you subscribe to our newsletters or other products and services. We explain how we comply with the law and how you can manage your preferences in our “Marketing choices” section. | Data that directly identifies you such as your name and email address. | Consent |
| Communicate with you about our services that you sign up to receive when you create an Account and transactions that you conduct using our services, including published content you visit, content you submit for publication on buzzfeed.com, and content posted by you on buzzfeed.com (including your comments on content, feedback and reviews). | Data that directly identifies you such as your name and email address. | Creation or performance of a contract |
| Comply with applicable laws, regulations and legal and regulatory processes. | Data that indirectly identifies you (such as your IP address or mobile device ID and location data) and/or data that directly identifies you (such as your name, username, and email address). | Creation or performance of a contract |
14.2 Legal rights for EEA users
If you are an EU resident, you have certain rights in respect of the information that we hold about you. Below is a short overview of those rights:
Access. With some exceptions designed to protect the rights of others, you have the right to a copy of the personal data that we hold about you. Where the data is data that you have given to us, you have the right to receive your copy of it in a common electronic format, and to provide copies of it to other people if you wish.
Correction. You have the right to have the personal data we hold about you corrected if it is factually inaccurate. This right does not extend to matters of opinion, such as views expressed in editorial content.
Deletion. In some limited circumstances, you have the right to have personal data that we hold about you erased (the “right to be forgotten”). This right is not generally available where we still have a valid legal reason to keep the data (for example, because we are obliged to do so by law).
Objection. You have the right to object to our processing of your personal data where we rely on “legitimate interests” as our legal basis for processing, but we may be able to continue processing if our interest outweighs your objection.
Withdrawing consent. If we are processing your personal data on the basis of your consent, you have the right to withdraw that consent at any time, in which case we will stop that processing unless we have another legal basis on which to continue.
14.3 How to exercise your rights
To exercise your rights, please complete the form on our Request Portal which can be accessed here. In order to protect your privacy and that of others, we will ask you to prove your identity before we take any steps in response to a request you have made. If a third party is making a request on your behalf, we will ask them to prove that they have your permission to act for you.
We may contact you to ask you for further information to help you exercise your legal rights or to speed up our response. We will try to respond to requests within one month and we will let you know if we need to take longer, for example because your request is complicated. We may have an overriding lawful basis for processing your personal data, or certain exemptions may apply. If we refuse your request, we will explain why. You may also reach us at [email protected].
UK users: please contact [email protected]
14.4 UK Users
UK Users of BuzzFeed's site are subject to the privacy policy (https://www.independent.co.uk/service/privacy-policy-a6184181.html) of the Independent Digital News and Media Limited.
To contact Independent Digital News and Media Limited, please email [email protected].
Below are additional contacts:
Data Protection Officer (DPO)
The DPO for Buzzfeed USA is DQM GRC Ltd. Their contact details are:
DQM GRC Limited, Oakridge House, Cressex Business Park, Wellington Road, High Wycombe HP12 3PR
+44 01494 442900
The DPO for Buzzfeed UK is Nicola Mckilligan-Regan. Their contact details are:
Alphabeta Building, 14-18 Finsbury Square, London, United Kingdom, EC2A 1AH
If you are based in the EEA please contact our EU Representative:
EU Representative
We have appointed IT Governance Europe Ltd to act as our EU representative. If you wish to exercise your rights under the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), or have any queries in relation to your rights or privacy matters generally, please email our representative at [email protected] or post your request or query to: EU Representative, IT Governance Europe, The Mill Enterprise Hub, Stagreenan, Drogheda, Co. Louth, A92 CD3D, Ireland. Please ensure you include our company name in any correspondence.
15. Privacy Information for United States Residents
Residents of certain states have additional rights and choices beyond what is described in Sections 1-13 of this Privacy Policy. This section addresses those additional rights.
15.1 United States Privacy Rights
Right to Deletion. You have the right to request that we delete certain personal data we have about you.
Right to Access. You have the right to request that we informyou about the categories of personal data we collect or disclose about you; the categories of sources of such data; the business or commercial purpose for collecting your personal data; and the categories of third parties with whom we share/disclose personal data. Such information is also set forth above in this Privacy Policy. You may also request that we provide you access to and/or a copy of the specific pieces of personal data we collected about you (also called a data portability request).
Right to Correction. If you feel that any of the records of personal data we have about you are incorrect, you have a right to request that we correct those inaccuracies. This right does not extend to matters of opinion, such as views expressed in editorial content.
No Discrimination. You have the right to not be discriminated against (as provided for in the applicable US Privacy Law) for exercising your rights.
Right to Opt-Out. You have the right to opt-out of the “sale” of your personal data, or the “sharing” of your personal data for interest-based or other targeted advertising on third party websites. Note that “sale” is defined broadly and may include allowing third parties to receive certain data, such as cookies, IP address, and/or browsing behavior, to deliver targeted advertising on our Services or other sites and apps. We engage in these activities because advertising, including targeted advertising, enables us to provide you certain content for free and allows us to provide you content relevant to you.
15.2 How to Exercise Your Rights
Opt-out of Sale/Share/Targeted Advertising.
If you would like to opt out of the sale or sharing of your personal data for targeted advertising, please visit this page: “Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information” or contact us at [email protected].
We will also respond to browser-based opt-out signals sent through the "Global Privacy Control", as well as any other browser-based signals that meet the requirements of applicable state privacy laws. If you use an opt-out preference signal from your browser, we will apply the opt out to the device or browser which sends the opt out preference signal.
Please note that because these activities are based on Cookies, you will need to opt out again if you visit one of our Services from a different device or browser or if you clear your Cookies. Your selections are specific to the device, website, and browser you are using, and are deleted whenever you clear your browser’s cache. We do not knowingly sell or share the personal data of minors under 16 years of age without legally-required affirmative authorization.
Exercising Your Other Privacy Rights
If you have a registered account with us, you can submit your access or deletion request by signing into your account. You can find instructions on how to proceed at our consent preferences center.
If you do not have a registered account, you may exercise your rights by completing the form on our Request Portal which can be accessed here. You may also reach us at [email protected].
Please note that the verifiable consumer request must:
Provide sufficient information that allows us to reasonably verify you are the person about whom we collected personal data or an authorized representative.
Describe your request with sufficient detail that allows us to properly understand, evaluate, and respond to it.
We cannot respond to your request or provide you with personal data if we cannot verify your identity or authority to make the request and confirm the personal data relates to you. Making a verifiable consumer request does not require you to create an Account with us. We will only use personal data provided in a verifiable consumer request to verify the requestor’s identity or authority to make the request.
Only you or a person that you authorize to act on your behalf may make a verifiable consumer request related to your personal data. You may also make a verifiable consumer request on behalf of your minor child.
You may only make a verifiable consumer request for access or deletion twice within a 12-month period.
Please note that certain data may be exempt from such access, data portability, correction, and deletion requests under US Privacy Law. For example, we need to retain certain data in order to provide the Services to you or to comply with our legal obligations.
If we are unable to honor your request or you are not satisfied with the outcome of your request, you have the right, within a reasonable period of time, to appeal our decision. Please send your appeal by email to [email protected] with “Privacy Appeal” in the subject line.
15.3 Notice for California Users
This section provides you with our practices regarding the collection, use, and disclosure of your personal data in the 12 months prior to our last update to this Policy (see the date at the top). It also explains your rights regarding your personal data that we collect pursuant to applicable U.S. state privacy laws.
Categories of Information We Collect:
Your contact details (e.g. your name, address, email address, telephone number and username).
Payment information (e.g. bank account number, credit card number, debit card number, or any other financial information).
Demographic information (e.g. race, ethnic origin, religion, or sexual orientation).
Purchase history & preferences (e.g. records of products or services purchased, obtained, or considered, or other purchasing or consuming histories or tendencies).
Internet activity information (e.g., browsing history, search history, information on a consumer’s interaction with a website, application, or advertisement, or questions and other messages you address to us directly through online forms or by email).
Inferences (e.g. inferences about your about personal preferences and attributes drawn from profiling).
Online identifiers (e.g. IP address, ADID/IDFA, cookie IDs, internal identification numbers).
Location data (e.g. your city, state or country information).
Application information (for job applicants) (e.g. your passport number, driver’s license or other state identification card number, education, and employment information)
Categories of Sources:
You
Your device
Data partners.
Purpose of Collection
To communicate with you, including to process your requests for products/services and/or information.
To register your Account.
To improve our Service, including to better understand our customer base, meet our diversity and inclusion goals; and to help our business partners do the same.
To enforce our User Agreement, and for the administration and protection of our business.
To comply with applicable law, regulations, and legal and regulatory processes.
To advertise and market our Services, and the products and services of our advertisers.
If you opt-in to do so, we may use your name and email address for our marketing purposes and to help our business partners with their marketing.
When Do We Sell or Share Personal Data?
| Categories of data sold or shared: | Categories of Vendors or Other Entities We Sell/Share data With: |
|---|---|
| Your contact details | Social network partners and our business partners. |
| Internet activity information, inferences and online identifiers | Advertising networks, data analytics vendors, social networks, and other Advertising Partners. |
| Categories of data Disclosed: | Categories of Vendors or Other Entities We disclose data to: |
|---|---|
| Your contact details | Our email service vendors, sweepstakes/promotions partners, social network partners, other vendors who assist in providing services on our behalf, and our business partners. |
| Payment information | Our payment processing vendors. |
| Demographic information | Our research and survey vendors, and our advertisers and other business partners. |
| Purchase history & preferences | Our affiliate partners, and other vendors who assist in providing services on our behalf. |
| Internet activity information, inferences and online identifiers | Advertising networks, internet service providers, data analytics vendors, operating systems and platforms, and social networks. |
| Location data | Internet service providers, data analytics vendors, operating systems, and platforms. |
We may share your personal data with government entities when required to do by law.
15.4 Financial Incentives
From time to time, we may offer financial incentives in connection with the collection or use of personal information. The material terms of the financial incentive will generally be presented to you at the time you sign up. You may withdraw from any financial incentive at any time by emailing us at [email protected].
15.5 Statistics on California Consumer Requests We Receive
The CCPA requires us to provide metrics on the number of requests we have received each year from California consumers and how they have been fulfilled. This information can be found in the chart below.
*Note: The numbers above reflect requests received from all individuals, rather than requests received from California consumers only.
15.6 California Shine the Light Disclosure
Under California Civil Code sections 1798.83- 1798.84, California residents are entitled to ask for a notice identifying the categories of personal customer data which we share with our affiliates and/or third parties for their own direct marketing purposes, and providing contact information for such affiliates and/or third parties. If you are a California resident and would like a copy of this notice, please submit a written request to the following address: 229 West 43rd Street, New York, NY 10036, 10th Floor, Attn: Legal Department.
16. BuzzFeed legal entities
BuzzFeed, Inc.
BuzzFeed Media Enterprises, Inc.
BuzzFeed Canada, Inc
BuzzFeed UK Limited
BuzzFeed India Private Limited
BuzzFeed PTY, Ltd (Australia)
BuzzFeed Japan Corporation
Entertainment Contents Online Mexico, S.A. de C.V.
BuzzFeed Motion Pictures Inc.
Product Labs, Inc.
Torando Labs, Inc.
Lexland Studios, Inc (formerly known as BFMP Video, Inc.)
The HuffingtonPost.com, Inc.