Privacy Policy
Your Privacy Rights – Effective January 11, 2023
[CA residents: CCPA]
Information we collect and the purposes for which we use it
Automatically collected information
Our servers automatically collect the following information regarding devices that access our site or app: device characteristics (including device ID for mobile devices), operating system, browser type, IP address, username from stored cookies if present, dates and times of each login, page and image viewing statistics, and incoming and outgoing links. We also log the metadata associated with any uploaded images. We use this automatically collected anonymous data to analyze how our site and app are used so as to keep them optimized, to determine the popularity and usefulness of various features, to maintain the integrity of user accounts so that each user can see his or her posts and the upvotes, downvotes, and comments to them, and to enable users with usernames to access their posts, albums, and membership information.
None of this information is “personal information” – that is, data we could use to identify a specific person. We also provide automatically collected anonymous data to third party advertisers and analytics companies to supplement the tracking information described below, but we contractually prohibit such third parties from combining such anonymous data with other data they may have in a way that could enable the identification of individuals. We also use such data to enable us to comply with copyright law, with 18 USC §2258A (illegal content), and to respond to lawful requests by public authorities, including national security, courts, and law enforcement.
Interactively collected information
In addition to the automatically collected anonymous data described above, we may place information on your device and then retrieve it later: we may use cookies, web beacons, or other anonymous tracking information to improve our server's interaction with your device. We also partner with third party advertisers who may (themselves or through their partners) place and/or recognize cookies on your device that collect data about which pages and ads are viewed while our app or site is being used. Advertiser cookies enable customized ads that are selected for display on your device based on the anonymous information collected. No personal data is on, connected to, or derivable from, these cookies. If you block or disable cookies and other tracking technologies, instead of getting customized ads you will see non-customized (generic) ads. Although our servers currently don't respond to "do-not-track" requests, you can block tracking in other ways. If you would like more information about this practice and to know your choices about not having this information used by these companies for interest based advertising, please visit http://www.aboutads.info/choices/ or see the section below, “Accessing, correcting, and limiting use of your data”.
Imgur participates in the Digital Advertising Alliance's (DAA) Self-Regulatory Program for Online Behavioral Advertising. For more information please visit http://www.aboutads.info.
Information you choose to give us
When you sign in with a username, we handle it in the same way as an automatically collected username except that if you don’t allow cookies, you have to enter your username each time you log in. A username is, by nature, publicly posted information. On occasion we may run a contest or other type of promotion, and to enable us to award prizes to the winners as well as to comply with the applicable laws, we collect real names and contact information – so if you win a contest, we’ll ask for that information and we’ll use it only for those two specific purposes.
We collect whatever personal data about you that you choose to give us, such as a contact email address (which we do not make public) and profile information. We do not require you to use an account to upload images. If you open an account you do not have to provide any personal information except your cell phone number, which we don't retain; we use it once to send you a code. (See below.) If you are located in the EEA and wish to open an account, do not use your real name – choose a username and email address that reveal nothing about your identity. If you give us an email address, we’ll probably send you promotional messages once in a while; we’ll try to make them fun and interesting but of course you’ll be able to opt out at any time.
When you use our website and enter your email address on our website (either to log in, or to sign up for a newsletter, or similar), we may share with LiveRamp and its group companies information that we collect from you, such as your email (in hashed, pseudonymous form), IP address, or information about your browser or operating system, with any of the following, acting as “joint controllers” (as applicable and defined in the GDPR).
LiveRamp uses this information to create an online identification code that we may store in our first-party cookie for our use in online, in-app, and cross-channel advertising. This may be shared with advertising companies to enable interest-based and targeted advertising. LiveRamp uses this information to create an online identification code for the purpose of recognising you on your devices. This code does not contain any of your directly identifiable personal data and will not be used by LiveRamp to re-identify you.
Detailed information on LiveRamp’s data processing activities is available in LiveRamp’s privacy policy. You have the right to withdraw your consent or opt-out to the processing of your personal data at any time LiveRamp Opt Out.
VPAA Consent
Like all websites, Imgur pages have metadata that is publicly available. Certain companies, such as Meta, install cookies on the machines of their users, and these cookies can pull metadata information from third-party websites, including ours. Furthermore, the cookies may transmit this metadata, which may include the titles of the videos you have watched on our website, to the company installing the cookie (e.g., Meta). In other words, Meta may learn of the videos you watch on our website. By using the Imgur website, you understand this may occur and consent thereto.
Why do I have to verify my phone number?
To keep everything fun, we’ve come up with a new way to send miscreants north of the wall! And without collecting any personal information from you.
To set up an account, you give us your cell phone number and we’ll text you a confirmation code to verify that it’s your number. But we won’t save your number, share it, sell it, or even show it to anyone. Instead, we’ll one-way encrypt it into a hash and save only the hash. Since a hash can’t be decrypted, we can’t get your phone number from it. Then, if you get banned for breaking the rules, we’ll ban your hash too – and you won’t be able to set up another account with the same phone number, since it would generate the same hash. Clever, huh?
For more information, see our community rules.
Information you post
Imgur does not “collect” the stuff you post: images, comments, messages, etc., and – with respect to persons in the EEA – does not “process” or determine any purposes for processing of any information that you manifestly make public. In particular, every image uploaded to Imgur is public – whether uploaded directly without going through a user account, or uploaded via a user account – and has its own URL. No matter what your privacy settings are, every image can always be accessed and viewed by anyone who types in that exact URL. No image uploaded to Imgur is ever completely hidden from public view. This is mainly to ensure that Imgur, which allows anonymous postings, will not be used as a platform for illegality. So too for messaging: Imgur allows users to send messages to one another both indirectly (via comments to posts) and directly (via chat). Imgur's messaging functionality is not intended to be a secure messaging platform; it's just for fun. To ensure that Imgur's messaging platform is not used as a platform for illegality, all messages are public. No messages are ever completely hidden from public view. We may monitor user messaging.
Post / Image Privacy
Uploading a New Post creates a “post” (also called “album”) that can be shared to the community. The individual images inside the post are referred to as “images.”
Although nothing you post to Imgur is completely hidden from public view or entirely private, with that understanding you can set the privacy level of posts.
Hidden: Posts will be hidden by default. They are not searchable within Imgur, and will not appear in Imgur’s public gallery or public profile, but each one will still be accessible by going to the post’s URL. They cannot receive comments or earn points.
Public: Posts will be publicly viewable and shared with the community. Public posts shared with the community will allow comments, sharing, and voting, and appear in a user’s profile.
“Favorite Folders” Privacy
You can add favorited posts to folders that you create. Individual public posts that you favorite are always visible from the “All Favorites” page in your user profile and cannot be hidden, even those within folders. Favorited hidden posts will not appear publicly in your favorites. These settings for favorites cannot be changed, but the visibility of folders can be toggled to public or private.
Public: Folders are visible to the public community on your public profile.
Private: Private folders are kept hidden from your public profile.
Accessing, correcting, and limiting use of your data
Because we don’t collect information about the identity of our users and don’t receive any information from third parties enabling us to identify our users, we have no means of knowing, or providing you with information about, whatever anonymous data about you we might have on our servers – unless you have a username. If you have a username, you may log in and access your data, correct whatever information you deem to be incorrect, opt out of information sharing with our advertisers, or delete your account. For legal reasons we may retain backup and/or archival copies of information prior to your corrections, amendments, or deletions.
Data Protection
We take every reasonable precaution to protect the data on our servers from loss, misuse, unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration, or destruction, taking into account the risk level and the nature of the data. You are responsible for taking every reasonable precaution on your end to protect any unauthorized person from accessing your Imgur account.
GDPR
Imgur does not collect “personal data” about, or monitor behavior of, “data subjects” as those terms are defined in GDPR Art.4(1), nor do we “target” individuals in the EEU. Regarding the latter, see Guidelines 3/2018 on the territorial scope of the GDPR (Article 3), Ver. 2.1 (07 Jan 2020). To contact us regarding privacy issues, you can email us at privacy@imgur.com, or snailmail us at Imgur, Inc., 1222 6th St., Santa Monica, CA 90401
Individuals and the data protection supervisory authorities in the EU/EEA and individuals and the data protection supervisory authority (“ICO”) in the UK may also contact our data protection representatives according to Article 27 GDPR below:
EU: DP-Dock GmbH, Attn: Imgur, Ballindamm 39, 20095 Hamburg, Germany
UK: DP Data Protection Services UK Ltd., Attn: Imgur, 16 Great Queen Street, Covent Garden, London, WC2B 5AH, United Kingdom
Dispute resolution
These terms are governed by California law, excluding its conflicts of law principles. Disputes between the parties shall be governed by the arbitration provision set forth in the Terms of Service.
Changes to this Privacy Policy
We may revise our privacy policy from time to time by posting the changes here. You can determine the date of the most recent changes by looking at the “effective date” at the top.