Privacy Policy

ARCHIVED 2019-06-01, DATE APPROXIMATE · VERSION 20190601_rev01 · COMPARED WITH 20190501_rev01

Full text changes — 20190501_rev01 to 20190601_rev01

COLOUR MARKS THE SEVERITY OF A FLAGGED CLAUSE · + AND − MARK ADDED AND REMOVED

13	13	Howdy! We are the folks behind a variety of products and services designed to allow anyone - from bloggers, to photographers, small business owners, and enterprises - to take full advantage of the power and promise of the open web. Our mission is to democratize publishing and commerce so that anyone with a story can tell it, and anyone can turn their great idea into a livelihood. We believe in powering the open Internet with code that is open source and are proud to say that the vast majority of our work is available under the General Public License ("GPL"). Unlike most other services, because our GPL code is public, you can actually download and take a look at that code to see how it works.
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15	15	This Privacy Policy applies to information that we collect about you when you use:
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17	17	- Our websites (including automattic.com, wordpress.com, vip.wordpress.com, jetpack.com, woocommerce.com, crowdsignal.com, gravatar.com, intensedebate.com, vaultpress.com, akismet.com, simplenote.com, simperium.com, leandomainsearch.com, cloudup.com, longreads.com, and happy.tools);
18	18	- Our mobile applications (including the WordPress mobile app for Android and iOS);
19		- Our other Automattic products and services that are available on or through our websites (including WordPress.com plans, WordPress.com VIP, Jetpack, the WooCommerce Services Extension, Gravatar, the IntenseDebate comment management system, Akismet plans, Simplenote, Simperium, Cloudup, Longreads, and Happy Tools); and
	19	- Our other Automattic products, services, and features that are available on or through our websites (for example, WordPress.com plans, Recurring Payments, Simple Payments, WordPress.com VIP, Jetpack, the WooCommerce Services Extension, Gravatar, the IntenseDebate comment management system, Akismet plans, Simplenote, Simperium, Cloudup, Longreads, and Happy Tools); and
20	20	- Other users' websites that use our Services, while you are logged in to your account with us.
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22	22	Throughout this Privacy Policy we'll refer to our websites, mobile applications, and other products and services collectively as "Services." And if you'd like to learn more about which Automattic company is the controller of information about you, take a look at the section below on Controllers and Responsible Companies.
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24	24	Please note that this Privacy Policy does not apply to any of our products or services that have a separate privacy policy.
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38	38	#### _Information You Provide to Us_
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40	40	It's probably no surprise that we collect information that you provide to us. The amount and type of information depends on the context and how we use the information. Here are some examples:
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42	42	- Basic Account Information: We ask for basic information from you in order to set up your account. For example, we require individuals who sign up for a WordPress.com account to provide an email address along with a username or name, [depending on the service](https://en.support.wordpress.com/wpcc-faq/) - and that's it. You may provide us with more information - like your address and other information you want to share - but we don't require that information to create a WordPress.com account.
43	43	- Public Profile Information: If you have an account with us, we collect the information that you provide for your public profile. For example, if you have a WordPress.com account, your username is part of that public profile, along with any other information you put into your public profile, such as a photo or an "About Me" description. Your public profile information is just that - public - so please keep that in mind when deciding what information you would like to include.
44		- Transaction and Billing Information: If you buy something from us -a subscription to a WordPress.com plan, a premium theme, a [custom domain](https://en.support.wordpress.com/domains/domain-registrations-and-privacy/), or some fun Longreads swag, for example - you will provide additional personal and payment information that is required to process the transaction and your payment, such as your name, credit card information, and contact information.
	44	- Transaction and Billing Information: If you buy something from us -a subscription to a WordPress.com plan, a premium theme, a [custom domain](https://en.support.wordpress.com/domains/domain-registrations-and-privacy/), or some fun Longreads swag, for example - or pay fees to a site owner (for example via Recurring Payments or Simple Payments), you will provide additional personal and payment information that is required to process the transaction and your payment, such as your name, credit card information, and contact information.
45	45	- Happy Tools Information: If you are a Happy Tools user, you will provide us with information to make use of the Service's features. For example, you might enter timezone and location information, company information, and contact information.
46	46	- Ecommerce Site Information: If you use our ecommerce Services to sell products or services to others through your site (including [Stores on WordPress.com](https://en.support.wordpress.com/store/), the [WooCommerce Services extension,](https://docs.woocommerce.com/document/woocommerce-services/) or other purchases on WooCommerce.com), you will have to create a WordPress.com account or connect an existing account and, for some of our ecommerce Services, provide your site URL. You may also provide us with information about your financial account to set up a payments integration, such as the email address for your Stripe or PayPal account or your bank account information.
47	47	- Content Information: Depending on the Services you use, you may also provide us with information about you in draft and published content (such as for your website or your Crowdsignal survey). For example, if you write a blog post that includes biographic information about you, we will have that information, and so will anyone with access to the Internet if you choose to publish the post publicly. This might be obvious to you...but it's not to everyone!
48	48	- Credentials: Depending on the Services you use, you may provide us with credentials for your website (like SSH, FTP, and SFTP username and password). For example, Jetpack and VaultPress users may provide us with these credentials in order to use our one-click restore feature if there is a problem with their site, or to allow us to troubleshoot problems on their site more quickly.
49	49	- Communications with Us (Hi There!): You may also provide us information when you respond to surveys, communicate with our Happiness Engineers about a support question, post a question about your site in our public forums, or sign up for a newsletter like the one we send through Longreads. When you communicate with us via form, email, phone, WordPress.com comment, or otherwise, we store a copy of our communications (including any call recordings as permitted by applicable law).
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105	105	- Third Party Vendors: We may share information about you with third party vendors who need to know information about you in order to provide their services to us, or to provide their services to you or your site. This group includes vendors that help us provide our Services to you (like payment providers that process your credit and debit card information, payment providers you use for your ecommerce operations, fraud prevention services that allow us to analyze fraudulent payment transactions, postal and email delivery services that help us stay in touch with you, customer chat and email support services that help us communicate with you, registrars, registries, and data escrow services that allow us to provide domain registration services, and your hosting provider if your site is not hosted by Automattic), those that assist us with our marketing efforts (e.g. by providing tools for identifying a specific marketing target group or improving our marketing campaigns), those that help us understand and enhance our Services (like analytics providers), and companies that make products available on our websites (such as the extensions on WooCommerce.com), who may need information about you in order to, for example, provide technical or other support services to you. We require vendors to agree to privacy commitments in order to share information with them. Other vendors are listed in our more specific policies (e.g. our [Cookie Policy](https://automattic.com/cookies/)).
106	106	- Legal and Regulatory Requirements: We may disclose information about you in response to a subpoena, court order, or other governmental request. For more information on how we respond to requests for information about WordPress.com users, please see our [Legal Guidelines](https://en.support.wordpress.com/report-blogs/legal-guidelines/). Additionally, if you have a domain registered with WordPress.com, we may share your information to comply with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers' (ICANN) regulations, rules, or policies. For example, your information relating to your domain registration may be available in the WHOIS database, or we may be required to share your information with ICANN-approved Dispute Resolution Service Providers. Please see our [Domain Registrations and Privacy support document](https://en.support.wordpress.com/domains/domain-registrations-and-privacy/) for more details.
107	107	- To Protect Rights, Property, and Others: We may disclose information about you when we believe in good faith that disclosure is reasonably necessary to protect the property or rights of Automattic, third parties, or the public at large. For example, if we have a good faith belief that there is an imminent danger of death or serious physical injury, we [may disclose information related to the emergency without delay](https://en.support.wordpress.com/report-blogs/legal-guidelines/).
108	108	- Business Transfers: In connection with any merger, sale of company assets, or acquisition of all or a portion of our business by another company, or in the unlikely event that Automattic goes out of business or enters bankruptcy, user information would likely be one of the assets that is transferred or acquired by a third party. If any of these events were to happen, this Privacy Policy would continue to apply to your information and the party receiving your information may continue to use your information, but only consistent with this Privacy Policy.
109	109	- With Your Consent: We may share and disclose information with your consent or at your direction. For example, we may share your information with third parties with which you authorize us to do so, such as the social media services that you connect to your site through our Publicize feature.
110	110	- Aggregated or De-Identified Information: We may share information that has been aggregated or reasonably de-identified, so that the information could not reasonably be used to identify you. For instance, we may publish aggregate statistics about the use of our Services and we may share a hashed version of your email address to facilitate customized ad campaigns on other platforms.
111		- Site Owners: If you have a WordPress.com account and interact with a site, your information may be shared with the administrators of the site. For example, if you leave a comment on a site that uses our Services (like a site created on WordPress.com or a site running Jetpack), your IP address and the email address associated with your WordPress.com account may be shared with the administrator(s) of the site where you left the comment.
	111	- Site Owners: If you have a WordPress.com account and interact with a site, your information may be shared with the administrators of the site. For example, if you leave a comment on a site that uses our Services (like a site created on WordPress.com or a site running Jetpack), your IP address and the email address associated with your WordPress.com account may be shared with the administrator(s) of the site where you left the comment. Or if you make a payment (such as via [Recurring Payments](https://en.support.wordpress.com/recurring-payments/)) to a site, your public display name, user name, and email address may be shared with the administrator(s) of the site.
112	112	- Published Support Requests: And if you send us a request (for example, via a support email or one of our feedback mechanisms), we reserve the right to publish that request in order to help us clarify or respond to your request or to help us support other users.
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114	114	#### _Information Shared Publicly_
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116	116	Information that you choose to make public is-you guessed it-disclosed publicly.
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205	205	Although most changes are likely to be minor, Automattic may change its Privacy Policy from time to time. Automattic encourages visitors to frequently check this page for any changes to its Privacy Policy. If we make changes, we will notify you by revising the change log below, and, in some cases, we may provide additional notice (such as adding a statement to our homepage or the [WordPress.com Blog](https://en.blog.wordpress.com/), or sending you a notification through email or your dashboard). Your further use of the Services after a change to our Privacy Policy will be subject to the updated policy.
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207	207	That's it! Thanks for reading.
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209	209	### Change log
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	211	- _May 31, 2019:_ Included information for the Recurring Payments feature.
211	212	- _April 1, 2019:_ Included information for Happy Tools.
212	213	- _March 13, 2019:_ Added clarifications and additional details to existing sections, for example about ICANN policies and what we may store when you communicate with us.
213	214	- _February 1, 2019:_ Included information for Longreads and additional information regarding Longreads accounts.
214	215	- _November 6, 2018:_ Removed references to Polldaddy, which has been rebranded as Crowdsignal.
215	216	- _September 24, 2018:_ Included information for Simplenote, Simperium, Cloudup, and Lean Domain Search.
216	217	- _May 25, 2018:_ Added more specific information to help clarify our practices, included information for Crowdsignal and Woocommerce.com services, and added information to reflect the requirements of the EU's General Data Protection Regulation.