Reddit’s updated privacy policy outlines how it tracks you

Reddit just released some updates to its Privacy Policy and User Agreement that may irk some users at first read.

The Privacy Policy now goes into depth on the ways the media sharing site tracks its users, particularly on mobile. In a blog post Reddit wrote:

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We have included a separate section on accessing reddit from mobile to make clear what data is collected by the devices and to show you how you can opt out of mobile advertising tracking on our official mobile apps. We also want to make clear that our practices for those accessing reddit on the web have not changed significantly as you can see in this document highlighting the Privacy Policy changes, and this document highlighting the User Agreement changes.

On mobile, Reddit shares your mobile unique advertising identifier, IP address, and a list of subreddits with advertisers, so they can send out targeted advertising. But, now Reddit gives users to option to opt out. The company details how to opt out for Android and iOS users in a detailed post here.

Reddit also got a little more specific about what it does with the data it collects from desktop users. Like on mobile, the site logs information about the browser you use, your operating system, and your IP address. However, Reddit says it will delete all that information from its servers every 90 days — except the IP address you used to create your Reddit account. Same goes for any personally identifiable information the site collects. But your subscriptions, preferred language, all languages you view content in, karma, voting data, and date of last login will all be saved.

Reddit is specific not just about what it will track about you, but how. Reddit says it only uses a select set of cookies to track user behavior (nothing new), but it also uses pixel trackers — little images embedded in a webpage. Reddit says the data related to pixel tracking is only shared internally. In fact, most of the tracking is meant to help the Reddit team improve the user experience over time. But advertisers can still set their own cookies for desktop users.

Tracking users’ Internet and mobile browsing activity is a hot debate that raises a lot of questions about individual privacy. But Reddit was already tracking its users for both internal and advertising purposes. The new privacy policy just gives users a more in-depth idea of what that means. And if there’s anything Reddit users appreciate, it’s transparency.

To that effect Reddit noted in its post that it wants to start providing a transparency report annually for its users.

You can see the whole list of changes here.

It’s also worth checking out the new user agreement, which has updated information on content pulldowns related to copyright or trademarked material, and how you can file a counter claim. See here.