Privacy Policy

ARCHIVED 2019-11-01, DATE APPROXIMATE · VERSION 20191101_rev01 · COMPARED WITH 20190601_rev01

Full text changes — 20190601_rev01 to 20191101_rev01

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

 #### _Information You Provide to Us_
 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:
 - **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.
 - **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.
+- **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.
+- **Billing and Contact 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, such as your name, credit card information, and contact information.
 - **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.
 - **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.
 - **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!
 - **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.
 - **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).
 - To provide our Services-for example, to set up and maintain your account, host your website, backup and restore your website, charge you for any of our paid Services, or provide essays and stories for your reading pleasure through Longreads;
 - To further develop and improve our Services-for example, by adding new features that we think our users will enjoy or will help them to create and manage their websites more efficiently;
 - To monitor and analyze trends and better understand how users interact with our Services, which helps us improve our Services and make them easier to use;
 - To measure, gauge, and improve the effectiveness of our advertising, and better understand user retention and attrition - for example, we may analyze how many individuals purchased a paid plan after receiving a marketing message or the features used by those who continue to use our Services after a certain length of time;
 - To monitor and prevent any problems with our Services, protect the security of our Services, detect and prevent fraudulent transactions and other illegal activities, fight spam, and protect the rights and property of Automattic and others, which may result in us declining a transaction or the use of our Services;
+- To communicate with you, for example through an email, about offers and promotions offered by Automattic and others we think will be of interest to you, solicit your feedback, or keep you up to date on Automattic and our products (which you can unsubscribe from at any time); and
+- To communicate with you. For example, we may email you to solicit your feedback, share tips for getting the most out of our products, or keep you up to date on Automattic; text you to verify your payment; or call you to share offers and promotions that we think will be of interest to you. If you don't want to hear from us, you can opt out of marketing communications at any time. (Please keep in mind that even if you opt out, we'll still send you important updates relating to your account); and
 - To personalize your experience using our Services, provide content recommendations (for example, through our [Reader Post Suggestions](https://en.support.wordpress.com/algorithms-search-and-recommendations/)), target our marketing messages to groups of our users (for example, those who have a particular plan with us or have been our user for a certain length of time), and serve relevant advertisements.
 #### _Legal Bases for Collecting and Using Information_
 A note here for those in the European Union about our legal grounds for processing information about you under EU data protection laws, which is that our use of your information is based on the grounds that:
 You have several choices available when it comes to information about you:
 - **Limit the Information that You Provide:** If you have an account with us, you can choose not to provide the optional account information, profile information, and transaction and billing information. Please keep in mind that if you do not provide this information, certain features of our Services - for example, paid, premium themes-may not be accessible.
 - **Limit Access to Information on Your Mobile Device:** Your mobile device operating system should provide you with the ability to discontinue our ability to collect stored information or location information via our mobile apps. If you do so, you may not be able to use certain features (like adding a location to a photograph, for example).
 - **Opt-Out of Marketing Communications:** You may opt out of receiving promotional communications from us. Just follow the instructions in those communications or let us know. If you opt out of promotional communications, we may still send you other communications, like those about your account and legal notices.
+- **Set Your Browser to Reject Cookies:** At this time, Automattic does not respond to "do not track" signals across all of our Services. However, you can usually choose to set your browser to remove or reject browser cookies before using Automattic's websites, with the drawback that certain features of Automattic's websites may not function properly without the aid of cookies.
+- **Set Your Browser to Reject Cookies:** At this time, Automattic does not respond to "do not track" signals across all of our Services. However, you can [usually choose](https://automattic.com/cookies/) to set your browser to remove or reject browser cookies before using Automattic's websites, with the drawback that certain features of Automattic's websites may not function properly without the aid of cookies.
+- **Opt out of our internal analytics program.** You can do this through your user settings. By doing so, you won't share information with our analytics tool about events or actions that happen after the opt-out, while logged in to your WordPress.com account. For more information, please see our [Cookie Policy](https://automattic.com/cookies/).
 - **Close Your Account:** While we'd be very sad to see you go, if you no longer want to use our Services :( :( :( :(, you can close your account (for example, [here](https://en.support.wordpress.com/close-account/), for WordPress.com accounts). Please keep in mind that we may continue to retain your information after closing your account, as described in How Long We Keep Information above - for example, when that information is reasonably needed to comply with (or demonstrate our compliance with) legal obligations such as law enforcement requests, or reasonably needed for our legitimate business interests.
 ### Your Rights
 If you are located in certain countries, including those that fall under the scope of the European General Data Protection Regulation (AKA the "GDPR"), data protection laws give you rights with respect to your personal data, subject to any exemptions provided by the law, including the rights to:
 EU individuals also have the right to make a complaint to a government supervisory authority.
 ### Controllers and Responsible Companies
 Automattic's Services are worldwide. Different Automattic companies are the controller (or co-controller) of personal information, which means that they are the company responsible for processing that information, based on the particular service and the location of the individual using our Services.
+Depending on the Services you use, more than one company may be the controller of your personal data. Generally, the "controller" is the Automattic company that entered into the contract with you under the Terms of Service for the the product or service you use. In addition, Automattic Inc., our US-based company, is the controller for some of the processing activities across all of our Services worldwide.
+Depending on the Services you use, more than one company may be the controller of your personal data. Generally, the "controller" is the Automattic company that entered into the contract with you under the Terms of Service for the product or service you use. In addition, Automattic Inc., our US-based company, is the controller for some of the processing activities across all of our Services worldwide.
 The chart below explains the controllers for processing your personal information. We use the term "Designated Countries" to refer to Australia, Canada, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, and all countries located in the European continent.
 <table><tbody><tr><td>If you reside outside of the Designated Countries&nbsp; (for services other than those offered at WooCommerce.com):</td><td><strong>Automattic Inc.</strong><br>60 29th Street #343<br>San Francisco, CA 94110</td></tr><tr><td>If you reside in the Designated Countries (for services other than those offered at WooCommerce.com):</td><td><strong>Aut O'Mattic A8C Ireland Ltd.</strong><br>Business Centre, No.1 Lower Mayor Street<br>International Financial Services Centre<br>Dublin 1, Ireland<p><strong>Automattic Inc.</strong> is also the controller for some of the processing activities related to Services provided by Aut O'Mattic A8C Ireland Ltd.</p></td></tr><tr><td>If you are using our Services offered at WooCommerce.com:</td><td><strong>Bubblestorm Management (Pty) Ltd (WooCommerce.com)</strong><br>Unit A206, The Old Biscuit Mill (TOBM)<br>373 - 375 Albert Road, Woodstock<br>Cape Town, South Africa<p><strong>Automattic Inc.</strong> is also the controller for some of the processing activities related to Services provided by Bubblestorm Management (Pty) Ltd (WooCommerce.com).</p></td></tr></tbody></table>
 ### How to Reach Us
 #### _Ads and Analytics Services Provided by Others_
 Ads appearing on any of our Services may be delivered by advertising networks. Other parties may also provide analytics services via our Services. These ad networks and analytics providers may set tracking technologies (like cookies) to collect information about your use of our Services and across other websites and online services. These technologies allow these third parties to recognize your device to compile information about you or others who use your device. This information allows us and other companies to, among other things, analyze and track usage, determine the popularity of certain content, and deliver advertisements that may be more targeted to your interests. Please note this Privacy Policy only covers the collection of information by Automattic and does not cover the collection of information by any third party advertisers or analytics providers.
 #### _Third Party Software and Services_
+If you'd like to use WooCommerce extensions that enable services provided by third parties, third party plugins, embeds, or other third party software or services, please keep in mind that when you interact with them you may provide information about yourself (or your site visitors) to those third parties. For example, some third party services may request or require access to your (yours, your visitors', or customers') data, for example, via a pixel or cookie. Please note that if you use the third party service or grant access, your data will handled in accordance with the third party's privacy policy and practices. We don't own or control these third parties, and they have their own rules about collection, use, and sharing of information, which you should review before using the software or services.
+If you'd like to use WooCommerce extensions that enable services provided by third parties, third party plugins, embeds, or other third party software or services, please keep in mind that when you interact with them you may provide information about yourself (or your site visitors) to those third parties. For example, some third party services may request or require access to your (yours, your visitors', or customers') data, for example, via a pixel or cookie. Please note that if you use the third party service or grant access, your data will be handled in accordance with the third party's privacy policy and practices. We don't own or control these third parties, and they have their own rules about collection, use, and sharing of information, which you should review before using the software or services.
 #### _Visitors to Our Users' Websites_
 We also process information about visitors to our users' websites, on behalf of our users and in accordance with our user agreements. Please note that our processing of that information on behalf of our users for their websites isn't covered by this Privacy Policy. We encourage our users to post a privacy policy that accurately describes their practices on data collection, use, and sharing of personal information. If you'd like, you can also read more about the data we collect on behalf of our users in our [Privacy Notice](https://automattic.com/privacy-notice).
 ### Privacy Policy Changes
 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.
+### Translation
+Our Privacy Policy was originally written in English (US). We may translate it into other languages. For example:
+French: [https://automattic.com/fr/privacy](https://automattic.com/fr/privacy)
+Spanish: [https://automattic.com/es/privacy](https://automattic.com/es/privacy)
+German: [https://automattic.com/de/privacy](https://automattic.com/de/privacy)
+In the event of a conflict between a translated version of our Privacy Policy and the English version, the English version will control.
 That's it! Thanks for reading.
 ### Change log
+- _October 2, 2019:_ A few miscellaneous changes, such as new sections about translations of this Privacy Policy and how to opt out of our internal analytics program.
 - _May 31, 2019:_ Included information for the Recurring Payments feature.
 - _April 1, 2019:_ Included information for Happy Tools.
 - _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.
 - _February 1, 2019:_ Included information for Longreads and additional information regarding Longreads accounts.
 - _November 6, 2018:_ Removed references to Polldaddy, which has been rebranded as Crowdsignal.
 - _September 24, 2018:_ Included information for Simplenote, Simperium, Cloudup, and Lean Domain Search.