1. Introduction
Snopes is dedicated to protecting your personal information and informing you about how we use your information. This privacy policy applies to your use of Snopes services including our website and services (collectively “Platform”). This Privacy Policy should be read in conjunction with the Terms of Use and is integrated into the Terms of Use. All capitalized proper nouns not defined in this Agreement will have the same definitions and meanings as defined by the Terms of Use. Please review this Privacy Policy periodically as we may revise it from time to time. If you do not agree with or accept our Privacy Policy in it’s entirety, you must not access or use the Platform. If you use the Platform following a change to the terms of this Privacy Policy you agree to accept the revised policies.
2. Information Collected
At Snopes, we collect personally identifiable information (“PII”) and non-personally identifiable (“Non-PII”) information from you. Personally identifiable information is information that can be used to identify you personally. Non-personally identifiable information is information that must be combined with other information to identify you personally.
Personally Identifiable Information Collected
You will not be required to provide us any information when you visit our Platform. However, in order to fully use our Platform, we may collect PII such as your name, date of birth, email, telephone number, website and business information, and address. We may also collect your relevant payment or credit card information if you wish to pay for any services offered via the Platform. Please be aware that all payment information shall be stored and processed by our third party payment processors.
Non-Identifying Information
Whenever you use our website, we may collect Non-PII from you, such as your IP address, zip code, gender, browsing history, search history, and registration history, interactions with the Platform, usage information, location, referring URL, browser, operating system, data usage, data transferred, and Internet service provider. We may also collect information including but not limited to postings you make on the public areas of our website, messages you send to us, and correspondence we receive from other members or third parties about your activities or postings.
3. Use of Your Information
Some of your information will be visible to other users of the Platform to facilitate communication between users. We will never sell your information without your permission; however you agree that we may use your information in the following ways:
- To provide any services offered and to operate Snopes Platform.
- To enhance or improve our users’ experiences.
- To contact you via email or other electronic communications where you have an inquiry.
- To notify you of additional Snopes services and updates.
- To share with third parties, with whom you have requested additional information relating to their products and services.
- To process your transactions.
- To share your information with third-party partners or third parties hired by us to perform functions and provide services to us subject to the obligations consistent with this Privacy Policy and on the condition that the third parties use your information only on our behalf and pursuant to our instructions.
4. Anonymized Data
Please be aware that we may collect and aggregate personally identifiable information from our Platform and may anonymize that information for our own research or internal purposes. Once such data has been anonymized, it cannot be traced back to you, the user.
5. Accessing, Editing, and Removing Your Information
You will be able to access any information contained in your account through our Platform. You may edit that information by removing or changing the information listed in your account. If you have any questions or wish to review, remove, change, or access any of your information collected by us, please contact us at operations@snopes.com.
After you have canceled your account please be aware that we may keep inaccessible copies of your PII and non-PII subject to our data retention policies.
6. Permanent Removal Requests
If you wish to have any of your PII stored within Snopes Platform permanently removed, please follow our instructions as stated within the policy titled “Removing Your Information”. If you have any questions regarding such removal please contact us at operations@snopes.com.
7. Cookies and Tracking
We use cookies as stated within our Cookie Policy. Cookies must be enabled in your browser in order for our Platform to function properly. Additionally, while using portions of our Platform, we may track your usage information so that we understand how you interact with our Platform. If you disable cookies from your web browser some portions of our Platform may not work.
8. Third Party Access to Your Information
Although you are entering into an Agreement with Snopes to disclose your information to us, we do use third party individuals and organizations to assist us, including contractors, web hosts, and others to allow you to access the Platform.
Throughout the course of our provision of our services to you, we may delegate our authority to collect, access, use, and disseminate your information. It is therefore necessary that you grant the third parties we may use in the course of our business the same rights that you afford us under this Privacy Policy. For this reason, you hereby agree that for every authorization which you grant to us in this Privacy Policy, you also grant to any third party that we may hire, contract, or otherwise retain the services of for the purpose of operating, maintaining, repairing, or otherwise improving or preserving our website or its underlying files or systems. You agree not to hold us liable for the actions of any of these third parties, even if we would normally be held vicariously liable for their actions, and that you must take legal action against them directly should they commit any tort or other actionable wrong against you.
We use Ezoic to provide personalization and analytic services on this website, as such Ezoic’s privacy policy is in effect and can be reviewed here.
9. Law Enforcement
You agree that we may disclose your information to authorities if compelled to by a court order. Additionally, you agree that we may disclose your information if we reasonably believe that you have violated US laws, the terms of our Terms of Use or our Privacy Policy, or if we believe that a third party is at risk of bodily or economic harm. In the event that we receive a subpoena affecting your privacy, we may elect to notify you to give you an opportunity to file a motion to quash the subpoena, or we may attempt to quash it ourselves, but we are not obligated to do either. We may also proactively report you and release your information without receiving any request to third parties where we believe that it is proper to do so for legal reasons, where your actions violate any law of the United States or any other country having jurisdiction over us, our Platform, or our Terms of Use. You release us from any damages that may arise from or relate to the release of your information to a request from law enforcement agencies or private litigants. We may release your information under the conditions listed in this paragraph whether it is to individuals or entities and to any state or federal authorities, as required.
10. Opt Out of Commercial, Non-Commercial Communications and Do Not Track
If you decide to provide us with your contact information, you agree that we may send you communications via text and emails. However, you may unsubscribe from certain communications by notifying Snopes that you no longer wish to receive these communications, we will endeavour to promptly remove you from our once we have received that request. We currently do not offer functionality for you to opt out through “do not track” listings. If you wish to opt out of certain communications or information collection, please contact us at operations@snopes.com.
11. Third Parties
Snopes or other users may post links to third party websites on Platform, which may include information that we have no control over. When accessing a third party site through our Platform, you acknowledge that you are aware that these third party websites are not screened for privacy or security issues by us, and you release us from any liability for the conduct of these third party websites.
Please be aware that this Privacy Policy, and any other policies in place, in addition to any amendments, does not create rights enforceable by third parties. Snopes bears no responsibility for the information collected or used by any advertiser or third party website. You must review their Terms of Use and Privacy to understand how their information collection practices work.
12. Security Measures
We make reasonable attempts to protect your information by using physical and electronic safeguards. For this reason we use SSL certificates to enhance our Platform security. However, as this is the Internet, we can make no guarantees as to the security or privacy of your information. For this reason, we recommend that you use anti-virus software, routine credit checks, firewalls, and other precautions to protect yourself from security and privacy threats.
13. Your California Privacy Rights
Snopes permits residents of the State of California to use its Platform, and complies with the California Business and Professions Code §§ 22575-22579. If you are a California resident you may request certain information regarding our disclosure of personal information to any third parties for their direct marketing purposes. Various provisions throughout this Privacy Policy address requirements of the Californian privacy statutes. Although we do not disseminate your information to third parties without permission, you must presume that we collect electronic information from all visitors. You may contact us at operations@snopes.com with any questions.
14. Age Compliance
We intend to fully comply with American and international laws respecting children’s privacy including COPPA. Therefore, we do not collect or process any information for any persons under the age of 13. If you are under 13 and using our Platform, please stop immediately and do not submit any information to us. In the event that we have inadvertently collected any information from users under the age of 13 please contact us immediately.
15. International Transfer
Your information may be transferred to – and maintained on – computers located outside of your state, province, country, or other governmental jurisdiction where the privacy laws may not be as protective as those in your jurisdiction. Your consent to this Privacy Policy followed by your submission of such information represents your agreement to that transfer. PII and Non-PII that is submitted to Snopes will be collected, processed, stored, disclosed and disposed of in accordance with applicable U.S. law and this policy. If you are a non-U.S. member, you acknowledge and agree that Snopes may collect and use your Information and disclose it to other entities outside your resident jurisdiction. In addition, such information may be stored on servers located outside your resident jurisdiction. U.S. law may not provide the degree of protection for information that is available in other countries.
16. Merger and Acquisition
In the event that Snopes is involved in a bankruptcy, merger, acquisition, reorganization or sale of assets, your information may be sold or transferred as part of that transaction.
Please be aware that once the information is transferred your privacy rights may change.
17. Amendments
Like our Terms of Use, we may amend this Privacy Policy from time to time. When we amend this Privacy Policy, we will modify the date listed on this Agreement or we may contact you. You must agree to the amendments as a condition of your continued use of our Platform. If you do not agree, you must immediately cease using our Platform and notify us of your refusal to agree by e-mailing us at operations@snopes.com.
18. Privacy Notice for European Citizens
We respect the rights of persons living within the European Economic Community (EEC) and the rights afforded to them under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the sections 18-23 are referred to as our Privacy Notice and address additional privileges that EEC users may have under our Privacy Policy. This Privacy Notice explains how we shall assist our users who live within the EEC.
| Legal Rights | Your Rights Under the GDPR |
| The right to be informed |
Snopes wishes to keep you informed as to what we do with your personal information. We strive to be transparent about how we use your data. |
| The right to access | You have the right to access your information at any time. Please contact us at operations@snopes.com if you wish to access the personal information Snopes holds about you. |
| The right to rectification |
If the information Snopes holds about you is inaccurate or not complete, you have the right to ask us to rectify it. If that data has been passed to a third party with your consent or for legal reasons, then we must also ask them to rectify the data. Please contact us for more information: operations@snopes.com |
| The right to erasure | Sometimes called ‘the right to be forgotten’. You have the right to request that Snopes to erase all your personal data, if you wish to do so please our team: operations@snopes.com |
| The right to restrict processing |
You have the right to ask Snopes to restrict how we process your data. This means we are permitted to store the data but not further process it. We will only keep enough data to ensure that we can accommodate any additional requests. Please contact our team at: operations@snopes.com |
| The right to data portability |
Snopes must allow you to port and reuse your personal data for your own purposes across different platforms. Please contact our team if you wish to receive additional information on how to port your data elsewhere: operations@snopes.com. This right only applies to personal data that you have provided to us as a data controller.Snopes must allow you to port and reuse your personal data for your own purposes across different platforms. Please contact our team if you wish to receive additional information on how to port your data elsewhere: operations@snopes.com. This right only applies to personal data that you have provided to us as a data controller. |
| The right to object | You have the right to object to Snopes processing your data even if our processing is due to legitimate purposes as described in our Privacy Notice, if you have any objections please contact our team at: operations@snopes.com |
| The right to withdraw consent |
If you have given us your consent to process your data but change your mind later, you have the right to withdraw your consent at any time, and Snopes must stop processing your data. |
If you want to withdraw your consent, please contact our team at: operations@snopes.com
19. Legitimate Purposes for Collecting Your PII
The following are the specific legitimate purposes that we may use your PII for:
- Contract Administration – We may use your PII to (1) negotiate, execute, renew and/or manage a contract with you; and/or (2) communicate with you in respect of the above (including sending (legal) notifications).
- Access and Communications to Our Platform – We may use your PII to (1) set-up and manage your Snopes account; (2) interact with you through our Platform (e.g. updates, Platform announcements, etc.): and/or (3) manage and respond to your questions or comments (e.g. technical, commercial or administrative) or requests for maintenance and support.
- Use of the Platform – We may use your PII to (1) enable you to enjoy the use of, and easily navigate the Platform; and/or (2) better understand your needs and interests.
- Sharing with Third Parties – We may use your PII to share with our partner companies that we share data with.
- Allowing You To Access – We may use your PII to allow you to download your data or content from the Platform.
- Training and Improvements – We may use your PII to (1) train our employees or contractors to allow for a better Platform experience; and/or (2) improve the Platform.
- Direct Marketing – We may use your PII to contact you for additional products and services that you may be interested in.
Please be aware that all legitimate purposes will be taken with minimal amounts of additional processing. Aside from the purposes listed, we may share your information where investigations or a legal dispute has occurred in accordance with our Privacy Policy.
20. Retention of PII
Snopes will only retain your PII for as long as required. We will keep your personal information:
- For any legally required duration.
- Until we no longer have a valid reason to keep or use your PII.
- Upon your request to eliminate, delete, or modify any of you PII stored with us.
Where you have requested modification or deletion of your PII, we may keep just enough of your personal information to ensure that we comply with your requests not use your personal information or comply with your right to erasure. If you require additional details regarding the retention of your PII please contact us.
21. Transfer of PII Outside of the EEC
Where your PII is transferred outside of the EEC, Snopes shall ensure that your PII shall have an adequate level of protection and that your information will be accessible as stated under the Privacy Notice.
22. Sharing of Data with Third Parties
Aside from the uses listed within this Privacy Notice, Snopes does not share any of your PII with any third parties aside from third parties that are hired by us to assist us in processing your data (Data Processors) and our third party partners. All Data Processors have entered into binding agreements with us to ensure that your rights to your PII are respected.
23. Contact Information
If you have any questions or require additional information related to our information collection practices, please contact us at operations@snopes.com.