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Personalization and data
When you use Pinterest, we want to provide you with the most interesting (dare we say, “Pinteresting”?) content. Sometimes, we use information from other sites or apps to do that. This page describes how we use two types of information: 1) information we collect from the Save button and other Pinterest site features, and 2) information some of our advertisers share with us. In each case, you can choose whether we use the information to customize Pinterest for you by going to your account settings.
Save button and site features
If you go to a site that has the Save button or a Pinterest widget, Pinterest can use info about that visit to customize your experience back on Pinterest. For example, if you recently visited a bunch of websites that sell camping gear, we might show you more Pins related to the outdoors, show you other stuff that people have saved from those websites or show you Promoted Pins for hiking gear.
Here’s how it works:
- When you go to a Pinterest-infused site, Pinterest uses a cookie to note the visit. (What’s a cookie? Just a super-small file that gets auto-added to your browser.)
- The next time you log in to Pinterest, Pinterest reads the cookie and uses the info to personalize your experience. If you aren’t logged in or haven’t signed up yet, Pinterest can also use cookies to customize your sign up experience and start you off with stuff we think you might like to follow.
- Pinterest deletes this data after 30 days.
If you don’t want Pinterest using stuff you do off Pinterest to personalize your experience, here are some things you can do:
- Go to your account settings and turn off Personalization.
- You can also change your browser’s Do Not Track feature to keep Pinterest and other sites from using this info.
- If you don’t have an account, or don't want Pinterest using stuff you do off Pinterest to customize Pinterest when you're logged out, uncheck the box below:
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Allow Pinterest to personalize my experience using sites I visit. Please note: Pinterest uses a cookie to remember what you choose here, so if you ever clear the cookies in your browser, you’ll need to come back and update your preferences again. |
Info advertisers share with us or collect on Pinterest
Some of our advertisers may share information with us to measure and/or improve their Promoted Pins. Also, we may allow some advertisers to collect information from their Promoted Pins on Pinterest so they can understand how those ads are doing. Here’s how it works:
- An advertiser may add a pixel or similar technology to their website to help us understand who’s visited or bought something on their site, and information about what that visitor viewed or bought. This pixel lets us measure visits and purchases that come from Pinners. We may use that data to report to the advertiser how effective their Promoted Pins are (this may include sending along information on their other, non-promoted Pins, too). We may also use that data to help advertisers customize your Pinterest experience. For example, an advertiser may want to show you an ad for a pair of shoes you viewed but didn’t purchase. If you don’t want us to use this info to personalize the Promoted Pins you see, go to your account settings and turn off Personalization.
- An advertiser may share a “hash” (basically an anonymized scramble) of some identifiers (for example, email addresses). We can then match that with Pinterest users, and use the match to show targeted Pins to that group of people. If you don’t want us to target Promoted Pins to you this way, go to your account settings and turn off Personalization.
- We may allow an advertiser, or company working for an advertiser, to place a pixel or similar technology on its Promoted Pins. This pixel lets the advertiser collect info on how well the Promoted Pin is doing.
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We may share the public information you give us, like your public boards and Pins, and your profile info, through public “APIs” (basically a technical way to share information quickly). For example, a partner might use a Pinterest API to study what their most popular Pins are or how their Pins are being shared on Pinterest.