Privacy Policy

The Official Upworthy Privacy Policy

Upworthy.com is owned and operated by Cloud Tiger Media, Inc. (“Upworthy,” “we,” or “us”). Upworthy provides a powerful new way to discover and share content, ideas, and messages about stuff that matters on social media networks and around the web. Our Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, disclose, and protect information that applies to our Service, and your choices about the collection and use of your information. Capitalized terms that are not defined in this Privacy Policy have the meaning given them in our Terms of Use.

1. How We Collect and Use Information
2. Sharing of Your Information
3. How We Store and Protect Your Information
4. Your Choices About Your Information
5. Children’s Privacy
6. Links to Other Websites and Services
7. How to Contact Us
8. Changes to Our Privacy Policy

1. How We Collect and Use Information

Personally Identifiable Information: We collect information that can be used to identify you as an individual (“Personally Identifiable Information”) only when you provide such information directly to us in connection with the Service.

• Types of Personally Identifiable Information you provide us directly: You aren’t required to provide us with any Personally Identifiable Information in order to use our Service, however, you may choose to provide certain Personally Identifiable Information to us such as your first and last name, birthdate, phone number, zip code and e-mail address in response to optional prompts featured on our Service, including “Hollers” and other clearly identified opt-in prompts. Each Holler will identify the specific types of Personally Identifiable Information collected. You may choose to respond to our Hollers and “Holler Back,” or not. We may also retain the contents of any messages you send to us or through the Service, and we may collect information you provide in User Content that you post to the Service. If you elect to make a donation or purchase merchandise through the Service, you may also provide us or a trusted third party provider with the financial information required to process and fulfill your transaction. Finally, we may now or in the future allow Users to create accounts. If you choose to sign up for a User account, we may collect certain Personally Identifiable Information, including your username, first and last name, phone number, and e-mail address. If you sign up for our e-mail newsletter, we will collect your e-mail address.
• Personally Identifiable Information we may receive from third parties: We may now or in the future receive Personally Identifiable Information about you from third parties. For example, if you access our websites or Service through a third-party connection or log-in, for example, through Facebook Connect, by “following,” “liking,” adding the Upworthy application, linking your account to the Upworthy Service, “liking” a particular cause or campaign featured on the Service, etc., that third party may pass certain information about your use of its service to Upworthy. This information could include, but is not limited to, the user ID associated with your account (for example, your Facebook UID), an access token necessary to access that service, any information that you have permitted the third party to share with us, and any information you have made public in connection with that service. You should always review, and if necessary, adjust your privacy settings on third-party websites and services before linking or connecting them to the Upworthy Service.
• Use of Personally Identifiable Information: We may use the Personally Identifiable Information we collect or receive to communicate directly with you. We may also send you emails containing newsletters, promotions and special offers. If you do not want to receive such email messages, we will give you the option to opt out or change your preferences. We also use your Personally Identifiable Information to send you Service-related emails or other emails that we believe may interest you (e.g., account verification, purchase and billing confirmations and reminders, changes/updates to features of the Service, technical and security notices). You may not opt out of Service-related e-mails. As discussed below, we may also combine your Personally Identifiable Information with third party analytics information to build a broader profile of our individual Users so that we can serve you better.
• Inviting a friend to use Upworthy: If you choose to use our invitation service to invite a third party to the Service, we will ask you for that person’s email address and automatically send an email invitation to the invitee. We store this information to send this email, to register the invitee if your invitation is accepted, and to track the success of our invitation service. Unless the invitee becomes a registered User of the Service, we do not use the invitee’s email address for marketing purposes, and we do not share the invitee’s email address with third parties other than Upworthy’s service providers. The invitee may contact us at any time to request that we remove his or her information from our database at support@upworthy.com.

Non-Personally Identifiable Information: We also collect and use information about your interactions with the Service in a manner and format that does not identify you as an individual (“Non-Personally Identifiable Information”). We may collect, use, and disclose the following types of Non-Personally Identifiable Information:

• Analytics information. We use third-party analytics tools to help us measure traffic and usage trends for the Service. These tools collect information sent by your browser as part of a web page request, including the web pages you visit, your browser add-ons, your browser’s width and height, and other information that assists us in improving the Service. We may collect and use this analytics information together with your Personally Identifiable Information to build a broader profile of our individual Users so that we can serve you better.
• Cookies information: When you visit the Service, we may send one or more cookies — a small text file containing a string of alphanumeric characters — to your computer that uniquely identifies your browser and lets Upworthy help you log in faster and enhance your navigation through the site. A cookie may also convey information to us about how you use the Service (e.g., the pages you view, the links you click and other actions you take on the Service), and allow us or our business partners to track your usage of the Service over time. A persistent cookie remains on your hard drive after you close your browser. Persistent cookies may be used by your browser on subsequent visits to the site. Persistent cookies can be removed by following your web browser’s directions. A session cookie is temporary and disappears after you close your browser. You can reset your web browser to refuse all cookies or to indicate when a cookie is being sent. However, some features of the Service may not function properly if the ability to accept cookies is disabled.
• Log file information: Log file information is automatically reported by your browser each time you access a web page. When you use our Service, our servers (whether operated by us or a third party provider) automatically record certain log file information. These server logs may include anonymous information such as your web request, Internet Protocol (“IP”) address, browser type, referring / exit pages and URLs, number of clicks and how you interact with links on the Service, domain names, landing pages, pages viewed, and other such information.
• Clear gifs/web beacons information: When you use the Service, we may employ clear gifs (also known as web beacons) which are used to anonymously track the online usage patterns of our Users. In addition, we may also use clear gifs in HTML-based emails sent to our Users to track which emails are opened and which links are clicked by recipients. The information is allows for more accurate reporting and improvement of the Service.
• Device identifiers: When you access the Service by or through a mobile device (including but not limited to smart-phones or tablets), we may access, collect, monitor and/or remotely store one or more “device identifiers,” such as a unique device identifier (“UDID”). Device identifiers are small data files or similar data structures stored on or associated with your mobile device, which uniquely identify your mobile device. A device identifier may be data stored in connection with the device hardware, data stored in connection with the device’s operating system or other software, or data sent to the device by Upworthy. A device identifier may convey information to us about how you browse and use the Service. A device identifier may remain persistently on your device, to help you log in faster and enhance your navigation through the Service. Some features of the Service may not function properly if use or availability of device identifiers is impaired or disabled.
• Location data: When you access the Service by or through a mobile device, we may access, collect, monitor and/or remotely store “location data,” which may include GPS coordinates (e.g. latitude and/or longitude) or similar information regarding the location of your mobile device. Location data may convey to us information about how you browse and use the Service. Some features of the Service, particularly location-based services, may not function properly if use or availability of location data is impaired or disabled.
• Use of Non-Personally Identifiable Information we collect: We use or may use cookies, log file, device identifiers, location data and clear gifs information to: (a) remember information so that you will not have to re-enter it during your visit or the next time you visit the site; (b) provide custom, personalized content and information; (c) to provide and monitor the effectiveness of our Service; (d) monitor aggregate metrics such as total number of visitors, traffic, and demographic patterns; (e) diagnose or fix technology problems; (f) help you efficiently access your information after you sign in; (g) to provide advertising to your browser or device, and (h) automatically update the Upworthy application on your mobile devices.

2. Sharing of Your Information

Personally Identifiable Information: We will not rent or sell your Personally Identifiable Information to third parties outside Upworthy and its controlled subsidiaries and affiliates without your consent, except as noted below:

• Who we may share your Personally Identifiable Information with: We respect your privacy and encourage sharing of Personally Identifiable Information on an opt-in, case-by-case basis. We may offer sponsored Hollers or prompts on behalf of clearly identified third parties ("Sponsors"). If you elect (opt-in) to provide your information in response to a Holler or prompt, then we may share or sell your Personally Identifiable Information, either alone or together with Service usage and analytics information, with the Sponsor identified and/or any intermediary acting on behalf of that Sponsor. Opting-in for one Sponsor does not mean we’ll share your information with other Sponsors; we’ll ask you again for permission via an opt-in Holler or prompt to share with additional Sponsors. We may also share your Personally Identifiable Information with third-party providers for the purpose of providing the Service to you (i.e. email providers, server providers, etc.).
• Who you may choose to share your User Content with: If you elect to post something in a public area of our Service (for example, by commenting on a post), any Personally Identifiable Information or content that you voluntarily disclose for posting to the Service, such as User Content, becomes available to the public, as controlled by any applicable privacy settings. If you remove information that you posted to the Service, copies may remain viewable in cached and archived pages of the Service, or if other Users have copied or saved that information.
• What happens in the event of a change of control: We may buy or sell/divest the company, or any combination of its products, services, assets and/or businesses. Personally Identifiable Information such as customer names and email addresses, User Content and other User information related to the Service will likely be among the items transferred in these types of transactions. We may also transfer or assign such information in the course of corporate divestitures, mergers, acquisitions, bankruptcies, dissolutions or similar transactions or proceedings, provided that the recipient of such information will continue to be bound by the terms of this privacy policy.
• Instances where we are required to share your Personally Identifiable Information: Upworthy will disclose Personally Identifiable Information where required to do so by law or subpoena or if we reasonably believe that such action is necessary to (a) comply with the law and the reasonable requests of law enforcement; (b) to enforce our Terms of Use at http://www.upworthy.com/tos or to protect the security or integrity of our Service; and/or (c) to exercise or protect the rights, property, or personal safety of Upworthy, our Users or others.

Non-Personally Identifiable Information: We may share Non-Personally Identifiable Information, including information obtained through tools such as cookies, log files, device identifiers, location data and clear gifs (such as anonymous usage data, referring/exit pages and URLs, platform types, number of clicks, etc.): (i) in any manner permitted for Personally Identifiable Information; and (ii) with our third-party business partners for the purposes described in the section above on “How We Collect and Use Information.” We may also aggregate or otherwise strip data of all personally identifying characteristics and may share that aggregated, anonymized data with third parties.

Ads on Upworthy: We may also share Non-Personally Identifiable Information with our business partners to deliver online advertisements (“ads”) that may be of interest to you. Upworthy may allow third-party ad servers or ad networks to serve advertisements on the Service. These third-party ad servers or ad networks use technology to send, directly to your browser or mobile device, the ads and ad links that appear on the Service, and will automatically receive your IP address when they do so. They may also use other technologies (such as cookies, JavaScript, device identifiers, location data, and clear gifs, see above) to compile information about your browser’s or device’s visits and usage patterns on the Service (without using any Personally Identifiable Information), and to measure the effectiveness of their ads and to personalize the advertising content. Upworthy does not sell, rent, or share your Personally Identifiable Information with these third-party ad servers or ad networks for such parties’ own marketing purposes, unless you choose in advance to have your information shared for this purpose. However, please note that if an advertiser asks Upworthy to show an ad to a certain audience and you respond to such an ad, the advertiser or ad server may conclude that you fit the description of the audience they are trying to reach. The Upworthy Privacy Policy does not apply to, and we cannot control the activities of, third-party advertisers. Please consult the respective privacy policies of such advertisers or contact such advertisers for more information. IF YOU ARE NOT INTERESTED IN RECEIVING PERSONALIZED ADS ON THE SERVICE, THEN SEE THE “YOUR CHOICES ABOUT YOUR INFORMATION” SECTION BELOW FOR INFORMATION ON HOW TO ADJUST YOUR PRIVACY SETTINGS.

3. How We Store and Protect Your Information

Storage and Processing: Personally Identifiable information collected through the Service may be stored and processed in the United States or any other country in which Upworthy or its subsidiaries, affiliates or service providers maintain facilities. Upworthy may transfer information that we collect about you, including personal information, to affiliated entities, or to other third parties across borders and from your country or jurisdiction to other countries or jurisdictions around the world. If you are located in the European Union or other regions with laws governing data collection and use that may differ from U.S. law, please note that we may transfer information, including personal information, to a country and jurisdiction that does not have the same data protection laws as your jurisdiction, and you consent to the transfer of information to the U.S. or any other country in which Upworthy or its subsidiaries, affiliates or service providers maintain facilities and the use and disclosure of information about you, including Personally Identifiable Information, as described in this Privacy Policy.

Keeping your information safe: Upworthy cares about the security of your information, and uses commercially reasonable safeguards to preserve the integrity and security of all information collected through the Service. However, Upworthy cannot ensure or warrant the security of any information you transmit to Upworthy or guarantee that information on the Service may not be accessed, disclosed, altered, or destroyed. Your privacy settings may also be affected by changes to the functionality of Upworthy’s distributors, such as social networks. Upworthy is not responsible for the functionality or security measures of any third party.

Compromise of information: In the event that any information under our control is compromised as a result of a breach of security, Upworthy will take reasonable steps to investigate the situation and where appropriate, notify those individuals whose information may have been compromised and take other steps, in accordance with any applicable laws and regulations.

4. Your Choices About Your Information

Opting out of collection of Personally Identifiable Information: You may, of course, decline to submit any Personally Identifiable Information through the Service, in which case Upworthy may not be able to provide certain services to you.

Opting out of collection of Non-Personally Identifiable Information: Please refer to your mobile device or browser’s technical information for instructions on how to delete and disable cookies, and other tracking/recording tools. Note that disabling cookies on your mobile device or browser prevents Upworthy or its business partners from tracking your browser’s activities in relation to the Service, and for use in targeted online advertising. However, doing so may disable many of the features available through the Service.

5. Children’s Privacy

Upworthy does not knowingly collect or solicit Personally Identifiable Information from anyone under the age of 13 or knowingly allow such persons to register as Users. The Service and its content are not directed at children under the age of 13. If you are under 13, please do not send any information about yourself to us, including your name, address, telephone number, or email address. In the event that we learn that we have collected personal information from a child under age 13 without verification of parental consent, we will delete that information as quickly as possible. If you believe that we might have any information from or about a child under 13, please contact us at support@upworthy.com.

6. Other Web Sites and Services

We are not responsible for the practices employed by websites or services linked to or from the Service, including the information or content contained therein. Please remember that when you use a link to go from the Service to another website, our Privacy Policy does not apply to third-party websites or services. Your browsing and interaction on any third-party website or service, including those that have a link on our website, are subject to that third party’s own rules and policies. In addition, you agree that we are not responsible and we do not control over any third-parties that you authorize to access your User Content. If you are using a third-party website or service (like Facebook) and you allow such a third-party access to you User Content you do so at your own risk. This Privacy Policy does not apply to information we collect by other means (including offline) or from other sources other than through the Service.

7. How to Contact Us

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or the Service, please contact us at support@upworthy.com.

8. Changes to Our Privacy Policy

Upworthy may, in its sole discretion, modify or update this Privacy Policy from time to time, and so you should review this page periodically. When we change the policy in a material manner we will update the ’last modified’ date at the bottom of this page.

This privacy policy was last modified on 5/21/12, and was first made effective on 3/20/12.