THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

 

The Associated Press

Privacy Policy

Last Updated : June 27, 2025

Summary of Changes to our Privacy Policy: We’ve made changes to our Privacy Policy to provide greater transparency about how we collect, use, and protect your Personal Information. Key changes include:

• Revising language and organization throughout to make the Policy easier to understand.
• Adding information about our use of identifiers to support user recognition, personalization, and targeted advertising (Sections 2, 3 4, 6, 8).
• Clarifying information about third-party Service Providers (Section 4), Business Partners (Section 4), and services/sites (Section 8).

By continuing to use our Services on or after the Last Updated date at the top of this Privacy Policy, you agree to the updated terms. If you have questions, please contact us at [email protected].

Privacy Policy

As an independent digital news organization, we rely on content, technology, and advertising to bring you our fast, accurate, and unbiased news at no cost to you. When you visit our web sites and mobile apps, you are trusting us with your information, and we strive to be transparent about how we collect, use, and share that information. This Privacy Policy explains what personal information we collect, how we use it, and choices you have related to control of your data.

Table of Contents
1. Privacy Policy Scope
2. Personal Information We Collect
3. How We Use Your Personal Information
4. Who We Share Your Personal Information With
5. Cookies Notice
6. Types of Tracking Technologies and How We Use Them
7. How We Secure Your Personal Information
8. Third-Party Services and Sites
9. Your Personal Information Choices
10. Children’s Privacy
11. Our Legal Bases for Use of Your Personal Information
12. Data Retention
13. Contact Us

1. PRIVACY POLICY SCOPE

The Associated Press (“we,” “us” or “our”) may collect and use your information when you use our web sites and mobile applications that link to this Privacy Policy (our “Services”). This Privacy Policy is part of our Terms of Use that apply to our Services (available here).

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes to our privacy practices, and when we do, we will update the “Last Updated” date at the top of the Privacy Policy. If we make material changes, we will provide prominent notice (such as through a notice or banner or, where feasible, via email). Your continued use of our Services after the “Last Updated” date constitutes your acceptance of the changes. If you do not agree to the changes, you should immediately stop using our Services. Please note that this Privacy Policy does not apply to information that you may provide to us, or that we may obtain, outside of the Services or where a separate privacy policy is provided.

2. PERSONAL INFORMATION WE COLLECT

When you use our Services (whether or not you’re a registered user), you may provide us with information that identifies you or could be linked to you. We call this information your “Personal Information.” We and our Service Providers (third parties who help us provide our Services—see Section 4) and Business Partners (including Marketing Partners, Advertising Partners, Advertisers, Analytics Providers—see Section 4) may collect this Personal Information in several ways:

User-Provided Information. We may collect Personal Information directly from you, such as when you contact our customer support team, ask about advertising, register for an account, make a donation, use our commenting features, or sign up for our newsletter emails. This Personal Information may include the following:

• Contact Information, such as your name, email address, phone number, and address.
• Account Information, such as your name, email address, username, and password.
• Donation Information, such as your name, country, postal code, and donation amount.
  
  • NOTE: You may be required to provide financial or bank information prior to making a donation. We do not store financial and bank information; that information is processed and stored by our payment processor, Stripe Inc. For more information on Stripe’s privacy practices, please see Stripe’s Privacy Policy available here.
• User-Generated Content and Feedback, such as information or content that you submit to us, including comments, photos, videos, audio, and text, whether submitted through online forms or social media platforms, by email, by phone, by mail, in surveys, or otherwise.

Automatically Collected Information. We may collect information from you automatically when you use our Services. This Personal Information may include the following:

• Internet and Service Usage Information and Device Information, such as IP address, general location, unique ID number associated with your device, web browser and operating system information, device language, wireless connections you are using, referring page that linked you to our Services, your activities on our Services (including browsing and transaction history, pages, content, and ads you view or click on during your use of our Services, as well as when and for how long you do so), the next web site you visit after leaving our Services, and search terms you enter on our Services or a referral site.
• Identifiers, such as unique identifiers associated with your browser or device and linked to your interactions with our Services, including first-party identifiers (such as Publisher Provided Identifiers (PPIDs)), to help us and our Service Providers and Business Partners deliver relevant ads, measure ad frequency, and analyze ad performance.
• Location Data, such as approximate location inferred from IP address or geographic location of your mobile device if you have consented to location services generally through your device’s settings or accepted our request for geolocation access. Your device location may be transmitted to us whenever our Service’s app is running (even if you are not actively using the app or it is running in the background on your device). Your device may continue to transmit its location to us until you change your device settings. If you set your device not to transmit location information to us, certain features of our Services may not be available or their functions may be limited. For example, you will have to manually enter a location when conducting a search.

Information Received from Third Parties. We may collect Personal Information from third parties, such as our Service Providers and Business Partners. This Personal Information may include the following:

• Information from Public and Commercial Sources. In some instances, we may receive Personal Information and/or anonymous data about you from other parties, such as our affiliates, Business Partners, and Service Providers. That information may be obtained online, offline, or through publicly available resources. We may combine this information with the information you provide and other data we already have about you.
• Social Media Information. We may receive information about you from social media platforms when you interact with us on those platforms or access our social media content.
• Information about Your Activity on Other Websites or Services. We may use information provided by third-party partners about your interaction with websites or services operated by or on behalf of such third parties. This information is sometimes referred to as “second-party data.”

Information You Provide About Third Parties. Our Services may include features that allow you to submit third-party Personal Information to us or otherwise allow us to automatically access third-party Personal Data in your possession. For example, our donation functionality may allow you to share a donation link with family and friends by providing us access to Personal Information such as names, email addresses, and phone numbers of your family and friends (together, we refer to this information as “Third-Party Data”).

NOTE: If you use any of these features, you acknowledge and agree that:

• You have the relevant third party’s authority to allow us to access and use the relevant Third-Party Data; and
• You have notified these Third Parties and informed them how their information is collected and used by us to provide our Services.

We reserve the right to identify you as the person who has made the referral and provided the Third-Party Data in any messages that are sent to these third parties.

Sensitive Personal Information. We generally do not collect or process information classified as “Sensitive Personal Information” (as that term or analogous terms are defined under applicable privacy laws), including data concerning health, race or ethnicity, or precise geolocation. When you make a donation, you may be asked to provide financial or banking details to process the payment. This information is collected and processed directly by our third-party payment processor, Stripe. We do not receive or store this information ourselves. Stripe handles all payment information in accordance with its own Privacy Policy available here.

3. HOW WE USE YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION

We, along with our Service Providers and Business Partners, may use the Personal Information we collect from or about you for the following purposes:

• To Provide our Services: To operate, deliver, and maintain our Services and any other services you may request from us.
• To Monitor and Maintain Our Services: We may use limited Personal Information (such as IP address) to monitor system performance, diagnose issues, administer and troubleshoot our Services, analyze trends and usage patterns, and generate statistics.   
• To Facilitate Donations: To process and manage donations made through our Services.
• To Respond to Your Requests: To answer your questions, fulfill your requests, and provide customer support.
• To Communicate with You: We may send you marketing communications about our Services, promotions, donation opportunities, and other information that may be of interest to you. We may also contact you on behalf of our third-party Business Partners with their offers, where permitted by applicable law.
• To Use Third-Party Data You Provide: If you provide information about third parties (such as to contact those third parties), we may use that information to facilitate communication, send reminders, and support other related features, as allowed by applicable law.
• To Improve Our Services. We may use your Personal Information to make our Services more stable and user-friendly, analyze service issues, improve the design and content of our Services, analyze how our Services are used, offer new services, and develop new Services and programs relating to our Services.
• To Personalize Our Services: We may customize the content you see based on your general location, interests, usage patterns, and previous interactions with us.
• For Marketing and Audience Engagement: To analyze user engagement, build audiences, and improve how we communicate with users.
• To Create and Use Identifiers: We may generate identifiers (such as hashed versions of your email address) or first-party identifiers to help deliver, suppress, or personalize advertising. These identifiers may be shared with Business Partners and Service Providers, such as Google and Meta, in connection with our advertising efforts, subject to applicable laws.
• To Deliver and Measure Advertising: We may use your Personal Information including in the form of pseudonymous identifiers (such as hashed emails), to tailor and deliver relevant ads across our Services and elsewhere, provide advertising performance metrics, limit ad repetition, and support retargeting and interest-based advertising.
• To Create Modeled Audiences: We may use hashed data to help platforms find new users with similar characteristics (e.g., “lookalike audiences).
• To Suppress Certain Users from Ads: We may use pseudonymous identifiers to help ensure that current users (such as newsletter subscribers or donors) do not receive ads for services they already use.
• To Provide Customer Service and Notices: To respond to your feedback, provide support, and send administrative updates, legal notices, or changes to this Privacy Policy or our Terms of Use.
• To Support Business Operations: For internal uses such as audits, market research, analytics, security, and performance monitoring.
• To Enforce Our Agreements: To uphold our Terms of Use, this Privacy Policy, and any other agreements between you and us.
• To Promote Safety and Prevent Fraud: To help protect the security of our Services and users by detecting, preventing, and responding to fraud, abuse, unauthorized access, and other security-related issues.
• To Comply with Legal Obligations: We may share your Personal Information when we have a good faith belief that disclosure is required by law, legal process, or regulatory authorities, including responding to lawful requests from public authorities.
• For Other Legitimate Purposes: Including
  
  • Any other purpose for which you provide Personal information;
  • Compliance with internal policies or legal/regulatory obligations;
  • Any other use disclosed at the time of collection;
  • Any use with your consent;
  • Any other purpose described in this Privacy policy.

Use of Non-Personally Identifiable Information. We may aggregate and de-identify your data to operate, analyze, and improve our Services. We may share such non-personally identifiable information with third parties (including affiliates, agents, Service Providers, and Business Partners) for their own use.

To learn more about how to opt out of certain uses of your Personal Information, see Section 9, Your Personal Information Choices.

4.  WHO WE SHARE YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION WITH

We may sell, share, rent, or otherwise disclose (we refer to these actions together as “share”) your Personal Information with the following categories of third parties:

Subsidiaries and Affiliates. We may share your Personal Information with our subsidiaries and affiliates for operational, administrative, and business purposes consistent with this Privacy Policy.

Service Providers. We may share your Personal Information with third-party service providers, contractors, and vendors (together, “Service Providers”) who help us provide our Services and support our business. These Service Providers may perform functions such as hosting, data storage, analytics, customer support, email delivery, payment processing, marketing services, and security operations.

Business Partners: We use the term “Business Partners” to refer to our Marketing Partners, Advertising Partners, Advertisers, and Analytics Providers, as detailed below:

Marketing Partners. We may share your Personal Information with marketing partners who assist us in promoting our content, products, or services. These partners may provide us with platforms and tools that support:

• Sending marketing communications on our behalf
• Personalizing promotions on other web sites or social platforms
• Analyzing marketing effectiveness
• Identifying and reaching relevant audiences.

Advertising Partners. We may share your personal information with advertising technology partners—including ad networks, exchanges, demand-side platforms (DSPs), supply-side platforms (SSPs), ad servers, and measurement providers—to:

• Deliver interest-based advertising across our Services and the Web
• Optimize and personalize ads
• Measure ad performance
• Prevent ad fraud

We may also share hashed identifiers (e.g., scrambled versions of your email address) or other pseudonymous identifiers (e.g., cookie IDs) to support ad targeting, frequency capping, real-time bidding, and campaign analytics.

Advertisers. We may share limited information with advertisers running campaigns on or through our Services. This may include aggregated or de-identified performance metrics, as well as certain device-level data such as IP address, browser type, and device identifiers. Advertisers may use this information to:

• Track ad performance (e.g., impressions, clicks, conversions)
• Limit how often you see a particular ad (frequency capping)
• Retarget ads based on your past activity
• Build or refine audience segments for future campaigns

Analytics Providers. We work with third-party analytics providers to understand user behavior and improve our Services. These providers may collect information such as:

• IP address, device type, operating system, and browser type
• Pages visited, time on site, links clicked, and search activity
• Session data such as heatmaps, click paths, and user flows
• These providers may use Tracking Technologies to:
• Analyze usage patterns and site performance
• Provide reports on user behavior and engagement
• Support personalization and product optimization
• Capture behavioral data
• Assist in marketing and advertising strategy

Some analytics providers may also support advertising efforts through targeting, attribution, or campaign analysis.

Authorized Representatives. If you authorize another person (such as a spouse or legal representative) to access your account or an associated email account, we may provide that person with access to your Personal Information in accordance with applicable laws.

Business Transfers. In the event of a merger, acquisition, divestiture, reorganization, bankruptcy, or sale of assets, we may transfer your Personal Information to a successor entity or buyer as part of that transaction.

With Your Consent. We may share your Personal Information for other purpose with your consent or at your direction.

5. COOKIES NOTICE

We and our Service Providers and Business Partners use cookies, pixel tags, and other similar technologies (“Tracking Technologies”) to collect and process certain Personal Information about your interactions with our Services. This section outlines how we use these technologies and your rights under the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA).

Information Collected Through Tracking Technologies. Tracking Technologies may collect the following categories of Personal Information:

• Unique identifiers (e.g., IP address, device ID, cookie ID)
• Internet or other electronic network activity (e.g., browsing history, clicks, usage data)
• Geolocation information (where available and permitted by your device settings)

For a complete list of categories of Personal Information we collect and their sources, refer to Section 2, Personal Information We May Collect.

Purposes of Use. We use Tracking Technologies to:

• Operate and improve the functionality of our Services
• Analyze traffic patterns and user behavior
• Personalize your experience
• Deliver and measure targeted advertisements

You can learn more about how we use Personal Information in Section 3, How We May Use Your Personal Information.

Third-Party Tracking and Sharing. Some Tracking Technologies may be deployed by third-party Service Providers and Business Partners. These third parties may collect or receive data about your use of our Services over time and across different web sites and online services for advertising or measurement purposes. To learn about the third parties with whom we may share Personal Information, see Section 4, Who We May Share Your Personal Information With and Section 8, Third-Party Services and Sites.

Sale or Sharing of Personal Information.

• The use of information certain third-party Tracking Technologies may constitute a “sale” or “sharing” of Personal Information under California’s CCPA/CPRA.
• To learn how to opt out of the sale or sharing of your Personal Information, refer to Section 9, Your Personal Information Choices.
• We do not knowingly sell or share Personal Information of individuals under 18. For more information, see Section 10, Children’s Privacy.
• We typically do not collect or process Sensitive Personal Information unless you make a donation. See Section 2, Personal Information We May Collect for details.

Your Privacy Requests. As a California resident, you may have rights under the CCPA, including the rights to:

• Know what Personal Information we collect
• Access, delete, or correct your Personal Information
• Limit the use of certain Personal Information, including data collected via Tracking Technologies

To learn more about how to exercise your rights, go to Section 9, Your Personal Information Choices.

Retention. We retain Personal information collected via Tracking Technologies as long as necessary for the purposes described above or as otherwise described in Section 12, Data Retention.

6. TYPES OF TRACKING TECHNOLOGIES AND HOW WE USE THEM

When you use our Services, we and our Service Providers and Business Partners may use Tracking Technologies to provide you with a more personalized experience, improve functionality, deliver relevant ads, and better understand how our Services are used.

Below is a summary of the types of Tracking Technologies we use and how they may be applied:

Cookies. These are small text files stored by your browser on your device. They help web sites function, remember user preferences, and deliver more relevant content and advertising. We use the following types of cookies:

• First-party cookies, which are set directly by us when you interact with our Services.
• Second-party cookies, which are technically third-party cookies set by a partner (such as a Business Partner or Service Provider) that we work with directly. These cookies are used for shared services such as analytics, authentication, or co-branded offerings.
• Third-party cookies, which are set by entities not directly affiliated with us (such as advertising networks or social media platforms). These cookies are typically used for interest-based advertising, tracking across websites, and measuring ad performance.

Cookies may be session cookies, which expire when you close your browser, or persistent cookies, which remain on your device until deleted or they expire. You can remove persistent cookies by following directions provided in your web browser’s “help” file.

Cookies help us:

• Remember your login preferences
• Improve site performance and usability
• Understand which areas of our Services are popular or need improvement
• Personalize content and ads based on your interests
• Measure and analyze usage and marketing and advertising effectiveness

Similar to many other web sites, if you have enabled cookies in your browser, we and our Service Providers and Business Partners may collect certain technical information using cookies, such as IP address, browser type, device identifiers, referring and exit URLs, and timestamps to support these purposes.

Pixels. Also known as web beacons or clear GIFs, pixels are tiny, transparent images embedded in web pages or emails that track your interaction with content. They help us:

• Determine whether emails or pages were viewed
• Set and read cookies
• Understand usage and engagement for analytics and advertising

We may use tools like Meta Pixel and Google Pixel to analyze user interactions and deliver relevant ads on third-party platforms. These tools may collect IP addresses, browser/device details, and page visit data. For more, see:

• Meta’s Privacy Policy
• Google’s Privacy Policy

Software Development Kits (SDKs). SDKs are code packages embedded in our mobile apps by third parties (such as ad networks or Analytics Providers). They help us:

• Collect device and usage data
• Monitor app performance
• Service personalized content or ads

JavaScript. We use JavaScript and similar scripting languages to collect data about how you interact with our Services, such as mouse clicks, scrolling behavior, and page visits.

Identifiers. We may use various identifiers to recognize your device or browser, including:

• Device identifiers, stored directly on your mobile device
• Hashed identifiers, created from data like email addresses using cryptographic techniques
• First-party identifiers, created and used internally by us

These identifiers support user recognition, personalization, and targeted advertising.

Local Storage and HTML5. We may use HTML5 or other browser-based storage methods to save information about your use of our Services. This helps us tailor your experience and understand user behavior.

For information about how to manage Tracking Technologies (including how to opt out of certain data uses) please see Section 9, Your Personal Information Choices.

7.   HOW WE SECURE YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION

We take the security of your Personal Information seriously and are committed to protecting it. We implement at least commercially reasonable technical, administrative, and physical security measures designed to protect Personal Information collected through our Services against unauthorized access, use, or disclosure.

While we take steps to help safeguard your information, no method of transmission over the internet or electronic storage is completely secure. As such, we cannot guarantee the absolute security of your Personal Information. You use our Services, and provide your Personal Information, at your own risk.

If you create an account with us, you are responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your account credentials, including your password. You are also responsible for any activity that occurs under your account. Please notify us immediately if you suspect any unauthorized use of your account or any other security incident.

8.   THIRD-PARTY SERVICES AND SITES

Links to Third-Party Sites. Our Services may contain links or integrations with third-party web sites, applications, or services, including hyperlinks, banners, embedded content, widgets, or plug-ins ("Third-Party Sites"). These Third-Party Sites operate independently from us and may have their own privacy policies and terms of use. We are not responsible for the content, privacy practices, or data handling policies of these Third-Party Sites.

When you interact with Third-Party Sites, including by clicking a link or engaging with embedded content, any Personal Information you provide is subject to those parties’ privacy policies (and not ours). We strongly encourage you to review their policies to understand how your information is collected, used, and shared.

Third-Party Data Collection and Use. When you interact with our Services, some third parties may collect or receive Personal Information through Tracking Technologies. These third parties may include Advertising Partners, Service Providers, Analytics Providers, Advertisers, and Social Media Platforms. We work with these parties for purposes such as analytics, personalization, ad delivery, performance measurement, and identity resolution. Depending on their role, they may collect data such as device identifiers, browsing behavior, hashed email addresses, or pseudonymous IDs. Even if you opt out of certain third-party data collection, you may still see non-personalized ads or recommendations based on your activity with our Services.

Third-Party Partners

A. Major Advertising and Analytics Platforms. We work with major advertising and analytics partners to help us deliver personalized ads, measure effectiveness, and build audience segments across multiple properties.

• We use technologies such as the Meta Pixel and Google Pixel to track user actions on our site (e.g., page views, submissions). These pixels collect data that is sent to their respective advertising platforms – the Meta Ads Platform (including Facebook and Instagram) and the Google Ads Platform (including Search, YouTube, Gmail, and Display – to support ad delivery, measurement, audience creation (e.g., custom or lookalike audiences), and campaign optimization. These platforms may associate your activity with existing user profiles on Meta or Google (if applicable) and use that data to serve ads or measure performance. You can control how Meta and Google use your information for advertising purposes by adjusting your settings directly on their sites:
  
  • Meta Ad Preferences
  • Google Ad Settings
• We also use additional Google advertising tools:
  
  • Google Publisher Provided Signals (PPS) and Publisher Provided Identifier (PPID) allow us to send pseudonymous data (e.g., interests or ID) to Google for personalized ad delivery.
  • Google Analytics (GA4) measures user engagement for performance and user experience insights.
  • Google Publisher Tags (GPT) serve and personalize ads on our properties.
  • Google Performance Max campaigns use Google’s machine learning models to identify new prospective audiences that resemble our first-party lists. When we use Performance Max, Google may create modeled or expanded audiences for prospecting purposes.
  • You can manage your advertising preferences or opt out of personalized ads through our cookie settings (see Section 9.i.a) or by visiting the industry-standard YourAdChoices tool or Google’s Ad Settings.
• The following advertising and analytics platforms provide analytics and audience measurement or personalized marketing services:
  
  • Comscore, including Scorecard Research, supports advanced audience measurement and analytics. Comscore’s privacy policy is available here and Scorecard’s privacy policy is available here.
  • Parse.ly provides real-time insights into audience engagement, traffic sources, and user behavior, and may process pseudonymous identifiers. Parse.ly’s privacy policy is available here.
  • Permutive provides real-time audience segmentation and data activation, which may involve pseudonymous profiling. Permutive’s Privacy notice is available here.
  • Sailthru supports our personalized marketing and cross-channel targeting (email, on-site, etc.) efforts. Sailthru’s privacy statement is available here.
  • Freestar Privacy policy available here.
• BigQuery (a Google product) provides a cloud-based data warehouse that allows for the storage and analysis of large datasets. The Google Cloud Privacy Notice is available here.
• YouTube (via Google) provides content distribution and advertising services.
  
  • Google privacy policy (for YouTube)

B. Identity and Audience Matching Partners. These Business Partners and Analytics Providers help us recognize and reengage users across sessions, devices, and platforms using identifiers. They may connect information you provide on our Services with information you have shared elsewhere, in accordance with their privacy policies and your settings.

• The following partners support hashed email or identity-based marketing and segmentation:
  
  • LiveRamp (privacy policy available here)
  • LiveIntent (privacy policy available here)
  • BlueConic (privacy policy available here)
  • OneSignal (privacy policy available here)
  • Wunderkind (privacy policy available here)
• The following partners offer engagement tools and track behavior tied to user profiles, when registration or participation is involved:
  
  • Viafoura (privacy policy available here)
  • Hearken (privacy policy available here)
  • Data Skrive (privacy policy available here)

C. Adtech and Monetization Partners. These partners enable ad serving, video monetization, programmatic ad delivery, and native ad delivery. Their data access is typically limited to information needed for basic ad serving and reporting (such as device type, IP address, and browser information). You can manage your preferences through Tracking Technology settings or industry tools like YourAdChoices. Each provider has its own privacy policy; please refer to them for details on how they process data.

• Connatix (privacy policy available here)
• JW Player (privacy policy available here)
• Taboola (privacy policy available here)
• Nativo (privacy policy available here)
• Smaato (privacy policy available here)
• PubMatic (privacy policy available here)
• OpenX (privacy policy available here)
• Sovrn (privacy policy available here)
• InMobi (privacy policy available here)
• Nexxen (privacy policy available here)
• Magnite (privacy policy available here)
• Index Exchange (privacy policy available here)

Social Networks

• Our Social Media Presence. We maintain pages on social media platforms such as Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), and Instagram. Any Personal Information you provide to us directly through these platforms (e.g., through messaging or comments) is subject to this Privacy Policy. Keep in mind that the platform itself collects and uses your data under its own policies.
• Social Logins and Data Sharing. You may have the option to log into our Services using your credentials from a third-party social platform. If you do, the platform may share your Personal Information with us based on the platform’s privacy policy, your privacy settings, and the permissions you’ve granted.
• Social Sharing Tools. Our Services may include features that let you share content directly to your social media accounts. These tools may send technical data (e.g., IP address, browser type) to the social platform, even if you do not interact with the feature directly but are logged in.

NOTE: Any interaction with third-party social platforms is governed by their privacy policies, not ours. We strongly recommend reviewing these policies before linking accounts or sharing content. Below are links to privacy policies for commonly used platforms (please note these may change over time):

• Facebook Privacy Policy
• X (formerly Twitter) Privacy Policy
• LinkedIn Privacy Policy
• Pinterest Privacy Policy
• Instagram Privacy Policy
• TikTok Privacy Policy
• Youtube (Google) Privacy Policy

Sponsored Content
We may offer content or interactive campaigns (such as quizzes or surveys) hosted on our Services but provided by third-party Advertisers. If you engage with these offerings, you may be required to submit Personal Information directly to the sponsor. That information is governed by the sponsor’s privacy policy (not ours).

9. YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION CHOICES

We believe your Personal Information belongs to you. Our goal is to give you meaningful control over how your information is collected, used, and shared, as required by applicable privacy laws—and, where possible, beyond what the law requires. We encourage you to review this Privacy Policy periodically, as we may update it to reflect new privacy tools and user controls.

This section outlines the privacy choices you have depending on your location, the device you use, and how you interact with our Services.

A.    US Residents

Consent: By using our Services, you consent to the collection and use of your Personal Information as described in this Privacy Policy. Residents of many US States have state-law rights regarding use of their Personal Information. While some of these laws may not apply to not-for-profit organizations, we voluntarily honor privacy-related requests from residents of states with active comprehensive privacy laws.

States with Active Privacy Laws: If you reside in a state with an active comprehensive privacy law (as of the Last Updated Date of this Privacy Policy, these states include: California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Iowa, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Oregon, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, and Virginia), you may have rights to:

i. Opt Out of Sale or Sharing for Targeted Advertising. To fully opt out of the sale of Personal Information and sharing/processing for targeted advertising, there are two aspects to address:

a. Tracking Technologies.

• Visit the “Your Privacy Choices” link located in our site’s footer menu or the navigation menu in the upper left corner. Adjust your preferences.
• Also note that if we detect that your browser or device is transmitting an opt-out preference signal, such as the Global Privacy Control (GPC) signal, then that browser or device will be opted out from the use of Tracking Technologies that result in a sale or sharing or use of your Personal Information for targeted advertising.
• As you make your privacy choices, please keep in mind the following:
  
  • If you decide not to allow the sale of Personal Information or sharing/processing of Personal Information for targeted ads, you will continue to see ads, but they may be less relevant or based only on information that we collect directly from your use of our Services.
  • Choices related to Tracking Technologies are specific to the site/app on the browser/device where you are making the selection, meaning that you must make Your Privacy Choices selections on each site/app on each browser/device you use to access our web site.
  • If you use our Services from a different device, or from a different browser on the same device, or if you clear your cookies, you will need to use an opt-out preference signal or renew your selections for Your Privacy Choices for that browser and/or device.

b. Name, Email, and Associated Data. We do not sell your Personal Information in exchange for monetary consideration, but our use of certain technologies described in this Privacy Policy may be considered to be “sharing” your Personal Information for targeted advertising. To opt out of the use of your name, email, and other associated Personal Information for targeted advertising activities:

• Complete and submit the Do Not Sell or Share/Process My Personal Info Form, also available in our web site footer and in the navigation menu in the upper left corner.

ii. Access, Correct, or Delete Your Personal Information.

• What you may request:
  
  • Request to Access Information. You may request that we confirm whether we are collecting or processing your Personal Information. Depending on relevant law, you may ask us to provide access to certain information we hold about you.
  • Request to Delete Information. You may request that we delete Personal Information we have collected from you. We will honor your request to the extent we are able to, but please note that we may have reason to deny or limit your request, such as a legal obligation to retain information or to provide goods or services that you have requested.
  • Request to Correct Personal Information. You may request that we maintain accurate Personal Information about you and correct any inaccuracies in Personal Information that we have collected from you, subject to exceptions within the law.

• How to make your request:
  
  • Submit a request through our web form available here.
  • We may verify your identity before fulfilling the request.
  • Once you have verified your identity, we will comply with your request unless a legal exemption applies.

iii. Limit Use and Disclosure of Sensitive Personal Information (California Only). California law permits residents to limit the use or disclosure of their “Sensitive Personal Information.” We generally do not collect or process Sensitive Personal Information. If this changes, you will be given the option to limit its use.

iv. Use an Authorized Agent. Depending on relevant law, you may authorize another person (your “agent”) to act on your behalf to make a privacy request, subject to verification.

v. Processing Requests.  Once your request is submitted, we will contact you with instructions for how to verify the request. We strive to complete verified requests as soon as reasonably practicable and consistent with relevant law. Please note that it may take additional time to verify and fulfill agent-submitted requests. Also note that many of the above requests are subject to exceptions and limitations.

vi. Non-Discrimination. We will not discriminate against you for exercising your privacy rights or choices contained in this Privacy Policy.

States without Active Privacy Laws: If you reside in a state that does not currently have an active comprehensive privacy law, you may not be able to make these privacy choices at this time. As state and federal laws change, we will be updating our privacy program.

B.     Residents Outside the US

Consent and Tracking Technologies. A cookie banner will be displayed to you, which will invite you to give your consent, where applicable, and will provide further options about the management of Tracking Technologies.

Data Subject Access Requests (DSARs). Residents of some countries outside the US (such as the EEA, the UK, Switzerland, or other countries with similar privacy frameworks), you may have the right to:

• Request access to your Personal Information
• Request deletion or correction of your Personal Information
• Request restriction or object to certain processing
• Receive a copy of your data in a portable format
• Object to processing of your Personal Data for direct marketing purposes
• Object to our legitimate interests to process your Personal Information (see Section 11)

You can exercise these rights through our Personal Information Access Request Form, available here.

C.             Choices Available to All Users

Publicly Posted Information. If you voluntarily post Personal Information to public areas of our Services (such as by using our commenting features), that information may be available to other users. You are solely responsible for the content you post to public areas, and we encourage you to carefully consider whether to post Personal Information to public areas and to review Section 5 of our Terms of Use regarding User Content.

Browser Settings. You can manage web site cookies in your browser settings. All browser settings are slightly different, so to manage cookies, you should refer to the relevant settings within your browser. Refer to the links below for instructions:

• Mozilla Firefox
• Microsoft Internet Explorer
• Microsoft Edge
• Google Chrome
• Safari Mac
• Safari iPhone, iPad

Note: If you choose to change your settings, you may find that certain functions and features will not work as intended on our Services.

Third-Party Services and Sites. When you interact with third-party services (e.g., social media, analytics, or advertising platforms) as you use our Services, these third parties may collect and use your Personal Information independently of us, and your interactions with these third-party services are governed by their own privacy policies and terms of use—not ours—and we encourage you to review them carefully. See Section 8, Third-Party Services and Sites, to learn more about Social Networks, Advertising Partners, Advertisers, and Analytics Partners.

Interest-Based Advertising. You may take steps to manage or limit the collection and use of your Personal Information for interest-based advertising through industry self-regulatory programs. These organizations offer tools allowing you to opt out of targeted advertising by participating companies across web sites, mobile apps, and other digital platforms. Note: You will continue to receive ads, but they may be less relevant to your interests.

• National Advertising Initiative (NAI) provides resources to help consumers control how third-party advertisers collect and use data for interest-based advertising. For more information:
  
  • NAI WebChoices Tool – Opt out of interest-based advertising on web browsers
  • NAI Mobile Choices – Opt out of mobile device-based advertising
• Digital Advertising Alliance (DAA) provides consumer tools that allow users to opt out of interest-based advertising by DAA member companies.
  
  • YourAdChoices
  • DAA WebChoices Browser Check
  • AppChoices Tool (Android and iOS)

Newsletters and E-mail Marketing. You can opt out of our newsletters and promotional e-mails by clicking the “Unsubscribe” link in the e-mail you receive. Please understand that it may take us a few days to process any opt-out request. Note that even if you opt out of receiving promotional communications, transactional or service-related emails may still be sent as needed.

Ad Blocking and Ad Recovery. We rely on digital advertising to help fund our ability to provide you with fast, accurate, and unbiased news at no cost to you. We respect your choice to limit the ads you see, and we want to make you aware of how adblockers and related technologies may interact with our Services.

• An adblocker is a browser extension, app, or built-in feature that blocks advertisements from displaying. Adblockers may improve browsing speed and reduce clutter, but they may also impact the advertising revenue that supports free content like ours. If you use an adblocker, note that it may allow certain ads that meet specific criteria (such as “acceptable ads”), which may include some of the ads we serve. You can manage these settings by adjusting your adblocker’s preferences. For more information, visit the Acceptable Ads website.
• To support our ad-funded model, we may use an ad blocking recovery service—a tool that detects adblocker use and helps us respond appropriately. These services may allow permitted ads to be displayed or prompt users to disable their adblocker in order to continue accessing content. We aim to balance our need to support high-quality journalism through advertising with our users’ desire for control over their browsing experience.

D.             Notice to California Residents

CCPA: The California Consumer Privacy Act (“CCPA”) provides California residents with the rights to:

• Access, correct, or delete your Personal Information:
  
  • You can make these requests through our Personal Information Access Request Form, available here.
• Opt out of the sale of Personal Information and the sharing of Personal Information for cross-context behavior advertising (the following steps are the same as provided in Section 9.A):
  
  • You can opt out of the sharing of your name, email, and other associated Personal Information for targeted advertising through our Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information form available here.
  • You can opt out of our use of Tracking Technologies (other than those that are strictly necessary) through the “Your Privacy Choices” link in the footer or navigation menu in the upper left corner of the web site.
  • You have the right to opt out of the sale or sharing of your Personal Information or use for targeted advertising by using an opt-out preference signal, such as the GPC signal. If we detect that your browser or device is transmitting an opt-out preference signal, that browser or device will be opted out of the use of Tracking Technologies that result in a sale or sharing or use of your Personal Information for targeted advertising.
• Restrict the use and disclosure of sensitive Personal Information to only what is necessary for providing our Services:
  
  • You can make this request through our Limit Use and Disclosure of Sensitive Personal Information form available here or through the “Your Privacy Choices” link in the footer or navigation menu in the upper left corner of the web site.
• Non-Discrimination
• Know how long we retain your Personal Information (see Section 12, Data Retention)
• Know what categories of Personal Information we collect, the categories of source, the business purposes, and the categories of third parties with whom the information may be shared or sold (See the table below)

CCPA Table of Information California Residents Have a Right to Know:

 

Categories of Personal Information*	Examples of Personal Information*	Source(s)	Purpose(s)**
Contact Information, Account Information	Name, email address, phone number, address, password	User Provided	Providing our Services Monitoring our Services Responding to Inquiries and Fulfilling Requests Communicating with You Improving our Services Personalizing our Services. Advertising and Marketing to You Providing Customer Service Supporting Business Operations Enforcing Agreements Safety and Security Fulfilling Other Purposes
Donation Information***	Name, country, postal code, donation amount, and financial or bank information (processed and stored by our payment processor, Stripe, https://stripe.com/privacy)	User Provided	Facilitating Donations Personalizing our Services Advertising and Marketing to You Safety and Security
User-Generated Content, Feedback	Information, content, or comments that you submit to us, such as comments, photos, videos, audio, and text, whether submitted through online forms or social media platforms, by email, by phone, by mail, in surveys, or otherwise	User Provided	Providing our Services Responding to Inquiries and Fulfilling Requests Communicating with You Improving our Services Personalizing our Services Advertising and Marketing to You Providing Customer Service Supporting Business Operations Enforcing Agreements Safety and Security Fulfilling Other Purposes
Internet and Service Usage Information, Device Information and Identifiers	IP address (which we may associate with your domain name or that of your Internet access provider or wireless carrier, and your location); unique ID number associated with your device; other unique identifiers such as advertising identifiers; web browser and operating system information; language of your device; wireless connections you are using; referring page that linked you to us; your activities, including browsing and transaction history; Pages, content, and ads you view or click on during your use of our Services, and when and for how long you do so; the next web site you visit after leaving our web site; and search terms you enter on our Services or a referral site.	Automatically Collected	Providing our Services Monitoring our Services Improving our Services Personalizing our Services Advertising and Marketing to You Supporting Business Operations Enforcing Agreements Safety and Security Fulfilling Other Purposes
Location Data	Approximate location inferred from IP address or geographic location from mobile device if you have consented to location services generally through your device’s settings or accepted our request for geolocation access.	Automatically Collected	Providing our Services Monitoring our Services Improving our Services Personalizing our Services Advertising and Marketing to You Supporting Business Operations Enforcing Agreements Safety and security Fulfilling Other Purposes
Information from Public and Commercial Sources	This information may be obtained online, offline, or through publicly available resources. We may combine this information with information you provide and other data we already have about you.	Provided by Third Parties (such as our affiliates, business partners, service providers, and other third parties)	Providing our Services Monitoring our Services Improving our Services Personalizing our Services Advertising and Marketing to You Supporting Business Operations Enforcing Agreements Safety and security Fulfilling Other Purposes
Social Media Information	The information we may receive from these third parties is governed by the privacy settings, policies and/or procedures of the applicable platforms.	Provided by Third Parties (social media platforms when you interact with us on those platforms or access our social media content)	Providing our Services Monitoring our Services Improving our Services Personalizing our Services Advertising and Marketing to You Supporting Business Operations Enforcing Agreements Safety and security Fulfilling Other Purposes

* For additional information about the categories of personal information we collect, please see Section 1, “What Personal Information May We Collect and How?”

** For additional information about the purposes for which we collect personal information, please see Section 2 “How May We Use Your Personal Information?”

*** Financial and bank information required when making donations may be considered “sensitive” under certain laws, and we process this information in accordance with applicable laws.

California’s Shine the Light Law: Pursuant to Section 1798.83 of the California Civil Code, residents of California have the right to obtain certain information about the types of Personal Information that companies with whom they have an established business relationship (and that are not otherwise exempt) have shared with third parties for direct marketing purposes during the preceding calendar year, including the names and addresses of those third parties, and examples of the types of services or products marketed by those third parties. If you wish to submit a request pursuant to Section 1798.83, go here.

10.   CHILDREN'S PRIVACY

Our Services are not intended for use by individuals under the age of 18. We do not knowingly allow anyone under 18 to register for an account, submit Personal Information or User Content, make purchases, or otherwise interact with the Services in a meaningful way. We do not knowingly collect Personal Information from individuals under 18. If we become aware that we have inadvertently collected Personal Information from someone under this age, we will delete it in accordance with applicable law. These restrictions apply globally, regardless of whether local laws (such as the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) in the United States or the GDPR in the European Economic Area) might otherwise allow younger individuals to consent to data collection under certain conditions.

If you believe that a person under 18 has provided us with Personal Information or is using our Services in violation of this policy, please contact us at [email protected] so we can take appropriate action.

11.   OUR LEGAL BASES FOR USE OF YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION

Certain data privacy laws, such as those in the European Economic Area (EEA), the United Kingdom (UK), and other jurisdictions, require us to explain the legal grounds on which we rely when processing your Personal Information. Where these laws apply, we may rely on one or more of the following legal bases:

• Consent: We may process your Personal Information where you have given us your clear, informed consent to do so, such as when you opt in to receive marketing emails. Where we rely on consent, you may withdraw it at any time. (see Section 9, Your Personal Information Choices).
• Contractual Necessity: We may process your Personal Information when it is necessary to enter into or perform a contract with you. This includes, for example, processing of Personal Information required to provide you with access to our Services or to respond to your service-related requests.
• Legal Obligation: We may process your Personal Information where we are required to do so by law, such as for tax, accounting, or compliance purposes, or to respond to valid legal requests.
• Legitimate Interests: We may process your Personal Information where it is necessary for our legitimate interests, or those of a third party, and where such interests are not overridden by your rights and freedoms. Our legitimate interests include:
  
  • Providing, maintaining, and improving our Services
  • Understanding and analyzing how users interact with our Services
  • Enhancing user experience and developing new features
  • Detecting and preventing fraud, abuse, and security threats
  • Marketing and promoting our content and Services
  • Conducting business operations, compliance, and risk management
  • Ensuring the security of our systems and networks

Note: we rely on legitimate interests, you may object, and we will assess whether those interests override your rights or whether we must stop processing.

12. DATA RETENTION

We retain your Personal Information for as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes for which it was collected, including to provide our Services, comply with legal obligations, resolve disputes, enforce our agreements, and protect our legal rights.

If you have an account with us, we will retain your Personal Information for the duration of your account’s active status. If your account is closed or becomes inactive, or if you do not have an account, we will retain your Personal Information only for as long as we have a legitimate business, legal, or regulatory reason to do so.

Once retention is no longer necessary, we will securely delete or de-identify your Personal Information so that it can no longer be used to identify you.

13. CONTACT US

To submit requests to Opt Out of Sale and Sharing/Processing of Personal Information for Targeted Ads and Requests to Access, Correct, or Delete Personal Information, whether for yourself or as an authorized agent, please follow the instructions provided in the “Your Personal Information Rights and Choices” section (Section 9). Alternatively, you may contact us by phone at 212.621.1599.

If you have any questions or comments about our privacy practices, you may contact us as follows:

By email: [email protected]

New York Office: The Associated Press, 200 Liberty Street, New York, NY 10281

212.621.1599 or 212.621.1500

London Office: The Associated Press Television News Limited, The Interchange, Oval

Road, Camden Lock, London, NW1 7DZ

(44-20) 7482-7400

Please note that people located in some countries, such as the EEA or the UK, have the right to lodge a complaint with an applicable supervisory authority.

We aim to resolve any question or concern you have about our use of your information.