Privacy Policy

Last revised March 30, 2012

Thank you for visiting Photobucket.com (the "Site") and reviewing the Privacy Policy of Photobucket.com, Inc. ("Photobucket" or "we" or "us"). It is important to us that you understand what information we collect when you visit the Site either from a computer or a mobile device and what we may do with that information, so we have laid it all out here for you. This Privacy Policy also covers the collection of data from applications on mobile devices.

By using this Site you consent to the terms of this Privacy Policy, and you signify your assent to all of the terms of this Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use. If you do not agree with any terms of this Privacy Policy or our Terms of Use, please do not use this Site or submit any personal information. Please take care to read our Privacy Policy to be sure you are informed about how your information may be used. Please also read our Terms of Use.

Getting to Know You

We collect and store a wide variety of information you submit to Photobucket or give us in the other ways described below. Some is personal information and some isn't.

• What Is "Personally Identifiable Information" (or PII)? Information that identifies you, such as your name, email address or image, or that can be used to identify you when combined with other information, is "personally identifiable information."
• When Do We Ask for PII?
  • If you choose to register to use the Site, we may collect your name, email address, and date of birth during the registration process.
  • Photobucket may ask you for other PII from time to time, such as contact information (like your mailing address and phone number), or demographic information (like your zip/postal code or region, hometown, gender, or education level). We may ask for this information from you in order for you to use the Site beyond just browsing, or for the purposes disclosed to you at the time such other PII is collected.
• What Isn't Personal Information? Information we can gather from your visit that doesn't identify you personally, like your IP address, your operating system, your browser type and language, the date and time of your visit, as well as information about your ISP, referring URL, the search term that led you to the Site, your geographic region, the type of content you view, etc. We may do this by assigning your computer one or more cookies which may collect information about how you use Photobucket; we may use standard Internet tools, such web beacons or cookies, which collect non-PII and track your use of our website.
• Do I Have A Choice? While you're not required to provide PII to visit the Site, many of our cool features may not be available to you if you choose not to create an account with us or, at other times, not to provide requested information.

How We Use What We Know

• How Do We Use PII? We use the PII we request at registration in order to provide you with the services offered on the Site, including image hosting and sharing. There are some circumstances when we will share PII with trusted third party business partners, which may include advertisers, and others:
  • Photobucket may share PII with our trusted third party business partners. They are obligated to keep your information confidential. They may present you with offers pertaining to products and services which you may have requested or other offers for products and services that you will find of interest.
  • To our trusted service providers working on Photobucket's behalf to deliver services, such as sending emails related to the Site or your account. These service providers are under confidentiality obligations with Photobucket, and do not have any independent right to share this information;
  • With other companies within our corporate family; and
  • Photobucket may disclose your PII: (a) when we are legally required to do so; (b) to protect the interests or safety of Photobucket or Site users; (c) to another company if we are bought, or if we discontinue operations.
• How Do We Use Your Email Address? Photobucket will use your email address to contact you to manage your account. Unless you tell us not to, Photobucket will also: send you marketing and promotional materials regarding Photobucket and its features; and send you marketing and promotional materials that promote third party products, including from affiliates, third parties and trusted marketing partners with whom we have shared your PII.
• What If I Don't Want Email From Photobucket? If you don't want to get emails from us (except related to customer service or account issues), you may uncheck the "Allow Photobucket to send me newsletter updates" box in Account Settings under Privacy Settings. You may also simply click the "unsubscribe" link in any of the emails you receive.
• What if I Don't Want Email From Third Parties? If you would like to opt-out from Photobucket sharing your PII with third party business partners for email marketing purposes, please go to your Account settings or click here and un-check the box for 3rd party marketing emails.
• How Do We Use Your Information For Advertising? Photobucket will target advertising based on personal information provided by users and inferred from site usage. This may include gender, age, or geographic data. Photobucket does not provide any personal information to the advertiser when you interact with or view a targeted ad. However, by interacting with or viewing an ad you are consenting to the possibility that the advertiser will make the assumption that you meet the targeting criteria used to display the ad. We may bundle and share the non-personal information we collect from you and other users with advertisers, third parties, trusted partners and affiliates so that they display advertising that better suits the interests of users of our Site. We may aggregate your PII with information about others. In that case we will make your information non-personally identifiable by removing your name and other characteristics that would identify it as you. We may use and/or share the resulting non-PII with third parties.
• Do We Use Analytics Companies? We may provide some non-personal information to others who help us understand how you use the Site.
• Do We Use Cookies? We use both HTTP (or HTML) cookies and Flash cookies to collect non personal information, help smooth the upload process, remember you on future visits, better understand how users engage with the Site so we can enhance the user experience, and maintain volume on video playback. Most browsers accept HTTP cookies automatically, but allow you to disable them. You can manage Flash cookies with a tool found on Adobe's web site. However, if you disable cookies on your browser, you will not be able to log in to the Site.
• How Can I Opt-Out of Having Non-PII Shared? You may choose to opt-out from allowing Photobucket to provide non-PII to certain partners. Visit networkadvertising.org, aboutads.info, and jumptap.com to make informed decisions about your online and mobile privacy and to opt-out of sharing your non-PII.

Going Public and Being Social

There are some things you may choose to do on or by accessing the Site which may be public. Here are some examples:

• Public Postings. Photographs and videos which you submit for use on public areas on Photobucket are considered public information and may be copied or further distributed by others in accordance with the Terms of Use. If you submit any personal or PII for display in public areas, other people who visit the Site may see it. If geotags are included in your postings, those will be viewable, too, but we offer you the ability to disable this information in the Account Settings of your account. Alternatively, if the option exists, you might want to disable the location settings on your camera or phone.
• Public Comments. Your comments may be seen by others. If you submit any personal or PII in a comment, other people who visit the Site may see it.
• Connecting With Social Media. If you link your Photobucket account to or sign in to your account through third-party social networking sites, such as Facebook, or third-party social media plug-ins and applications, you are allowing us to have access to both PII and non-PII from your social media profile. That PII may be publicly viewed and may possibly be used by other members of these sites.
• Clicking Through. This Privacy Policy applies to Photobucket and our Site only. Our Site contains links to or integrations with other sites, whose information practices may be different than ours. Before you click through to another site, you should read that site's privacy notice, since we have no control over and take no responsibility for information that is submitted to, or collected by other sites.
• Ad Postings. The Site may feature ads, including ads served by others to our Site. These advertisers and ad servers may place or utilize their own unique cookies, pixels or web beacons, and may collect non-PII about your visit to the Site, such as your IP address and the number of times you have viewed the ad. Photobucket is not responsible for the collection of these cookies and is not responsible for what the ad service providers do with the information they collect.

Is There Anything Else I Need to Know?

• Non-US Users. Your information may be stored in the United States or other countries where the data protection and other laws may not be as comprehensive as those in your country (especially for users in the EEA). By using this site you consent to your information being collected, used and transferred as set forth in this Privacy Policy. Information transferred to or stored in the United States may be subject to access requests from U.S. governments, courts, law enforcement officials and national security authorities in the United States according to United States laws.
• 14 and Up. If you are under the age of 14, we're sorry, but you can't register at the Site. On the bright side, Photobucket will never knowingly collect personal information from children under the age of 14. If a child under 14 has provided us with personal information, his or her parent or guardian may contact us for the purpose of deleting this information.
• Changing Our Policy. This Privacy Policy is subject to change. We will prominently post a notice on the Site when there are material changes in the way we treat PII. You should periodically check back and review this Privacy Policy so that you always will know what information we collect, how we use it, and with whom we share it.

Security Measures

While Photobucket has security measures to help protect the information under our control, no data transmission over the Internet or any wireless network can be guaranteed to be 100% secure.

• Photobucket tries to protect your personal information and ensure the security of your communications on our systems, by maintaining physical, organizational and technological safeguards (appropriate to the sensitivity of such information) designed to protect it against unauthorized use, disclosure or access of the personal information we collect on this Site. However, we cannot ensure or warrant that any information you transmit to us will stay safe and secure and you do so at your own risk.
• Your information may be stored in whole or in part on equipment or in facilities leased or licensed from others. Although Photobucket tries to keep your information safe, it relies on the statements of those vendors regarding the safety and security of their storage equipment and services as part of its evaluation. By using the Site, you agree that Photobucket is not responsible if the storage equipment and services provided by others aren't working like they are supposed to, and that you will have to seek any remedies from those providers, not Photobucket.

Retention and Deletion

We keep your personal information only so long as we need it for the purposes for which it was collected, for the products and services that you are using, or to meet any legal requirements. We have retention standards, which meet these requirements. We destroy your personal information when it is no longer needed.

Contact Us

Don't Be Shy! If you have any questions regarding this Privacy Policy or information that you have submitted to us or if you would like to do any of the following:

• see personal information that you have already sent us so that you can correct or update it, or delete your personal information from our files;
• if your child under 14 has sent us personal information, delete that personal information from our files;
• ask that we not send you mailings or otherwise contact you; or
• report any violation of this Privacy Policy

you can contact us at:

• Email: support@photobucket.com
• Address: Photobucket.com, Inc. P.O. Box 13003, Denver, CO 80201

View our Terms of Use here