DisQus Privacy Policy

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Written by Disqus
Updated over a week ago
Updated February 25, 2020

Disqus Privacy Policy

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This Privacy Policy tells you about how Disqus collects, uses, sells, discloses
and protects data relating to you in connection with our Service (as defined
below), as well as your choices regarding our collection and use of this data.

1.INTRODUCTION
a. Overview. Disqus offers an online public comment sharing platform where users login and create profiles to participate in conversations with peers and enjoy an interactive experience. Use of our platform and software (collectively the “Service”) is subject to the terms of this Privacy Policy. You further understand that the Service is a public platform and that we or others may search for, see, use, or re-post any of your User Content (as defined in our Terms of Use) that you post through the Service.

b. Applicability and third-party websites and services. This Privacy Policy only applies to the data we collect when you use the Service or view the comments and does not apply to any website that uses the Service or other website linked to from the Service. We are not responsible for the practices employed by websites linked to or from the Service, including Partner Sites. Please remember that when you use a link to go from the Service to another website, our Privacy Policy is no longer applicable, it also does not apply to the Partner Site on which you are commenting. Your browsing activity and interaction with any other website, including those that you link to from the Service, is subject to that website's privacy policy.

c. Children’s Privacy. The Service is not intended for use by children under the age of 16. We do not knowingly collect or sell personal information from children under 16 or knowingly allow such persons to register for an account. In the event that we learn that we have collected personal information from a child under the age of 16, we will delete it. If you believe that we might have collected personal information from a child under 16, please contact using the information below.

2.THE DATA WE COLLECT ABOUT YOU
a. Personal data, or personal information, means any information about an individual from which that person can be identified. It does not include data that cannot be linked back to a specific person (anonymous data).

b. We may collect, use, store and transfer different kinds of personal data about you which we have categorized as follows:

• i. Identity Data includes first name, last name, username or similar identifier, date of birth, email address, telephone number, and mailing address.
• ii. Technical Data includes internet protocol (IP) address, unique Cookie ID, Device ID, your login data, browser type and version, time zone setting and location, browser plug-in types and versions, operating system and platform and other technology on the devices you use to access the Service.
• iii. Profile Data includes your username and password, your interests, preferences, feedback and survey responses, marital status, gender, title.
• iv. Usage Data includes information about how you use the Service, and the content of comments that you post.
• v. Aggregated Data includes statistical or demographic data for any purpose.
• vi. Special Data We do not intentionally collect any personal data about your race or ethnicity, religious or philosophical beliefs, sex life, sexual orientation, political opinions, trade union membership, information about your health and genetic and biometric data, or information about criminal convictions and offences. However, if you make comments using the Service that include such data about yourself it will be publicly available and may be processed by Disqus or others.

3. HOW IS YOUR PERSONAL DATA COLLECTED?
We use different methods to collect data from and about you including through:

Direct interactions. This includes personal data you provide when you create an account or leave a comment.

Automated technologies or interactions. As you interact with our Service, we may automatically collect Technical Data about your equipment, browsing actions and patterns.

Cookies: Please see our cookie policy for further details about specific types of cookies we use.

Log File Information:These server logs may collect Technical Data such as your IP address, browser type, and information about the number of clicks and how you interact with links on the Service, Partner Sites, 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 collect Technical Data and information such as online usage patterns. We may also use clear gifs in HTML-based emails sent to our users to track which emails are opened and which links or advertisements are clicked by recipients.

Third parties or publicly available sources. We may obtain or receive personal data about you from the following parties, analytics providers such as Google based outside the EU, advertising partners listed here, and Identity and Contact Data from third party connections or log-ins for example Facebook Connect, Google or Twitter by “following”, “liking” or linking your account to the Service.

4. TARGETED ADVERTISING and AD PARTNERS.
Advertising is the predominant way Disqus makes money. Advertising revenue allows Disqus to support and improve the Service. Disqus uses, and also engages third party ad partners and affiliates who use cookie IDs, device IDs (including mobile), hashed email addresses, IP address, ISP and browser information, demographic or interest data, content viewed and actions taken on the Service or Partner Sites, including information about the websites you’ve viewed and advertisements you’ve interacted within order to provide you with more relevant advertising targeted to your preferences and interests derived from your interaction with the Service, Partner Sites or other third party websites. For a list of third party ad partners that Disqus is currently working with click here. Disqus may also send you email newsletters and email marketing messages if you have provided us with permission, or consented to receive such emails, as required in the jurisdiction in which you reside. Email marketing messages may be tailored to your interests based on the information described above in this section, for information about how to opt-out and utilize our “Do Not Sell” option please click here.

We partner with third parties that collect information across various channels,
including offline and online, for purposes of delivering more relevant advertising
to you or your business. Our partners use this information to recognize you
across different channels and platforms, including but not limited to, computers,
mobile devices, over time for advertising (including addressable TV), analytics,
attribution, and reporting purposes.

**5. HOW WE USE YOUR PERSONAL DATA

**a. We will use your personal data in the following circumstances; where it is necessary for our legitimate interests (or those of a third party) and your interests and fundamental rights do not override those interests, where we need to comply with a legal or regulatory obligation, where you have provided your consent to such use.

b. We have set out below, in a table format, a description of all the ways we plan to use your personal data, and which of the legal bases we rely on to do so. We have also identified what our legitimate interests are where appropriate.

c. Note that we may process your personal data for more than one lawful ground depending on the specific purpose for which we are using your data. Please contact us if you need details about the specific legal ground we are relying on to process your personal data where more than one ground has been set out in the table below.

d.

6. DISCLOSURES OF YOUR PERSONAL DATA
a. We may have to share your personal data with the parties set out below for the purposes set out in the table in paragraph 5 above.

Internal Third Parties as follows: Zeta Global.

For a list of external third parties, please click here .

We may seek to acquire other businesses or merge with them. If a change happens to our business, then the new owners may use your personal data in the same way as set out in this privacy notice. We may also do some limited data sharing in order to evaluate and test our potential data partners. Where such testing takes place, the data is encrypted and hashed before it is shared. Furthermore, such sharing is subject to appropriate contractual provisions and the data is promptly deleted after the testing is completed.

In addition to the above, we may access, preserve, and disclose your personal data, including your Identity, Contact, or Technical data, if we believe doing so is required or appropriate to comply with law enforcement requests and legal process. We may also access, preserve, and disclose such personal data if we believe in good faith that disclosure is necessary to protect yours', ours' or others' rights, property, or safety, or to investigate fraud.

We require all third parties to respect the security of your personal data and to treat it in accordance with the law.

7. YOUR CHOICES REGARDING COLLECTION OF YOUR INFORMATION.
a. Your Account. All registered users may review, update or correct the Identity, Contact and Profile data by changing their “user preferences” in their account. To delete your account entirely, please follow these steps.

b. Opting Out of Targeted Advertising. We strive to make the Disqus experience as personalized and relevant as possible for all users. In doing so, we may deliver you targeted ads based on Technical, Profile and Usage data collected on the Service and Partner Sites (as described above).

Targeted Ads Opt-Out. If you prefer to opt out of targeted advertising (also called interest based advertising) by Disqus, you may do so by clicking on the “opt-out page” link here: opt out page. Our opt-out mechanism for online advertising is managed through cookies, if you delete cookies from your browser or use a different browser, you may need to opt-out again, depending on the jurisdiction from which you access the Service. Please note that even if you choose to opt-out of targeted advertising from Disqus, you will still see ads from us, they just won’t be targeted to you based on your interaction with the Service, Partner Sites or third-party sites. The ads you continue to see from us may be selected for you based on information such as your age or gender or other demographic information.

c. Opting Out of Our Newsletters and Promotional Emails. You may opt-out of Newsletters and promotional emails from us at any time by using the opt-out mechanism contained in such emails (also referred to as "unsubscribe"). You may also unsubscribe or manage your email subscription by clicking this link: Manage My Disqus Email Settings. Please note, unsubscribing from Disqus emails will unsubscribe you from Disqus notification emails and Disqus digest emails. You will still receive transactional emails necessary for the Disqus service to function, these include, but may not be limited to, emails confirming you created a new account, emails helping you reset your password etc.

d. Declining Cookies. If you do not want to accept our cookies, you can adjust your browser settings to decline cookies. You should note, however, that certain areas of the Site may not operate properly if you decide not to accept cookies.

e. Do Not Sell My Info.If you do not want us to share your data with our affiliated companies for their own use, please click here.

8. DATA RETENTION.
a. We will only retain your Personal Data for as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements.

b. To determine the appropriate retention period for personal data, we consider the amount, nature, and sensitivity of the personal data, the potential risk of harm from unauthorized use or disclosure of your personal data, the purposes for which we process your personal data and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means, and the applicable legal requirements.

9. SECURITY.
a. Disqus uses commercially reasonable safeguards to preserve the integrity and security of all information collected through the Service. To protect your privacy and security, we take reasonable steps (such as requesting a unique password) to verify your identity before granting you access to your account. You are responsible for maintaining the secrecy of your unique password and account information, and for controlling access to your email communications from Disqus. Disqus is not responsible for the functionality or security measures of any third party.

10. Your Rights.
Under certain circumstances and depending on where you are based, you have rights under privacy laws such as the CCPA (California), GDPR (Europe), PIPEDA (Canada), or others in relation to your Personal Data. This section describes these rights and explains how to exercise them. Note that Disqus allows any person to exercise the rights listed below and Disqus will not take any action against you for exercising your privacy rights.

You have the right to:

i. Request access to your personal data (commonly known as a “data subject access request”). This enables you to receive a copy of the personal data we hold about you in a readable format.

ii. Request correction of the personal data that we hold about you that is inaccurate.

iii. Request erasure of your personal data. This enables you to ask us to delete or remove personal data from our systems.

iv. Object to processing of your personal data (we will treat this as a request for deletion).

v. Request restriction of processing of your personal data (we will treat this as a request for deletion).

vi. Request the transfer of your personal data to you or to a third party (we will treat this as an access request).

vii. Request us not to sell your personal data. We will not sell your data on to third parties. In order to exercise this right, please click here.
vii. Withdraw consent at any time (we will treat this as a request for data deletion).

How To Make a Valid Request If you wish to exercise any of the above rights please click here . You may only make a verifiable consumer request for access or data portability twice within a 12-month period. The verifiable consumer request must contain information that permits us to reasonably verify your identity. Making a verifiable consumer request does not require you to create an account with us. We will only use personal data provided in a consumer request to verify the requestor’s identity or authority to make the request. This is a security measure to ensure that personal data is not disclosed to an unauthorized person. Furthermore we may charge a reasonable fee if your request is clearly unfounded, repetitive or excessive. If your request cannot be fulfilled, we will inform you of the reason.

12. INTERNATIONAL DATA TRANSFERS.
For users based in the European Economic Area (EEA) we may share your personal data within the Disqus Group or with external third parties. This may involve transferring your data outside the EEA.

Whenever we transfer your personal data out of the EEA, we ensure a similar degree of protection is afforded to it by ensuring at least one of the following safeguards is implemented:

•We may transfer your personal data to countries that have been deemed to provide an adequate level of protection for personal data by the European Commission.

•We may transfer data subject to specific contracts approved by the European Commission, which ensures that personal data the same protection it has in Europe regardless of where it is processed.

•For some service providers based in the US, we may transfer data to them if they participate in the EU-US Privacy Shield program, which requires them to provide similar protection to personal data shared between the Europe and the US.

13. GENERAL
a. Contact. If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, please email us at [email protected], or contact us by mail at 717 Market Street, Suite 700, San Francisco, CA 94103.

b. Changes to Privacy Policy. Disqus 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, we will update the ‘last modified’ date at the bottom of this page. Your continued use of the Site following the posting of any changes to this policy means you accept such changes.

This Privacy Policy was last modified on February 25 2020. Click here to view the Terms of Service.

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