Reddit details privacy policy update, starts rolling out Do Not Track support

Reddit has announced it will be updating the privacy policy for its online discussion board “in a little over a month.” Company chief executive Steve Huffman took to the site to explain the changes that will be taking place.

Of note in the policy update is how long Reddit will store IP addresses for users — instead of 90 days, it’s going to be 100 “so we can measure usage across an entire quarter.” The site will also begin rolling out support for Do Not Track to prevent users from being tracked, offering what should be more protection against unwanted intrusion by third-party entities.

Do Not Track is a technology that instructs applications to disable their tracking or cross-site user tracking for individuals. It was originally proposed in 2009, but has been slow to be adopted. Microsoft’s Internet Explorer browser supports it, as do Mozilla’s Firefox and Google Chrome. Twitter has also added support for it. Now one of the largest sites on the Web, where there are tons of discussions taking place every day, will have it.

With Do Not Track enabled, Redditors can prevent third-party analytics from being loaded during their time on the site.

“We are proud that Reddit is home to many of the most open and genuine conversations online, and we know this is only made possible by your trust, without which we would not exist,” Huffman wrote. “We will continue to do our best to earn this trust and to respect your basic assumptions of privacy.”

Reddit is no stranger to protecting users’ privacy. The company was pretty active in its opposition to both the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the PROTECT IP Act (PIPA) in 2013 that were debated in the United States Congress.

But while it has been a major supporter of privacy, some of its policy changes have been questionable. In January, the company released a set of updates for its privacy policy where it said that on mobile, it would share your mobile unique advertising identifier IP address, and a list of subreddits, with advertisers.

Today, Huffman sought to reassure Redditors that they still have control over what information is shared with the site and what their browsers track.