Privacy Policy and Other Terms

The importance of privacy is something we know a little bit about at ProPublica (formally, Pro Publica, Inc.). We’ve covered the ways in which businesses and government have breached the privacy and trust of consumers and citizens, and we think hard about how we protect the privacy of our sources. We hold ourselves to a high standard on these issues. ProPublica is an independent, nonprofit newsroom that produces investigative journalism in the public interest. Please note that this policy may be updated from time to time.

We have developed our site, applications, and related services so that you can visit without identifying yourself or revealing any personal information to us. We do not track visitors to our site as they access other sites. We offer an Onion site for those looking to further secure their connection.

We do use tools for analytics, communication, and fundraising that track information about your use of our website. These tools record information including details about your browser, operating system or device, your IP address, information about the links you click, and other details of your activity. This information is not linked to your personally identifying information, such as your name, address or email address, unless you have specifically provided us with that information.

If you do choose to provide us with your personally identifying information, ProPublica is the only organization that has access to the information we collect, unless specifically disclosed when you are asked to provide it. (You can see some examples of this on the sign up for our Trump, Inc. newsletter, which is a partnership with WNYC, or on the reporting callouts being conducted with our Local Reporting Network partners.)

When you choose to become a newsletter subscriber, data store customer, or donor, we use Salesforce and Sailthru to manage this information. Sailthru places a cookie on your computer when you visit our website, and if you have provided us with an email address, we receive information about your personal use of our website and newsletter products. ProPublica limits access to all such user data for the purposes of newsletters, fundraising, and customer service only, and we require our employees with access to these systems to use modern authentication methods.

ProPublica does not share, trade, sell, or otherwise release donors’ personal information to any third parties. This includes all donor information that is obtained both online and offline. Donors who contribute more than $5,000 will appear in our 990 filings with the IRS, as required by law, but otherwise, we do not disclose donor information without your explicit consent.

When you choose to download the ProPublica application from the Apple Store or Google Play, those services assign your device a unique ID; that device token is used to provide optional notifications and provide log details about crashes or application errors, in order to maintain high level of application responsiveness and reliability. ProPublica uses Firebase, a Google product, to collect and manage this data. ProPublica receives only aggregated, anonymized data related to the use of such applications.

ProPublica’s website does use cookies. (A cookie is a small amount of data — sent to your browser from a web server and stored on your computer’s hard drive — that may be accessed when you use a website.)

ProPublica uses a simple cookie for the sole purpose of determining whether you have previously seen our newsletter sign-up form. It does not collect any personally identifiable or other data about you and is not linked to any other information or used for advertising. You may refuse or accept cookies at any time by activating settings on your browser. (However, blocking cookies may cause some elements of our website not to function properly; for example, you may see our newsletter sign-up form on every page of our website.)

In most cases, all of the data collected by these cookies remains private and cannot be shared with anyone else. For example, the two main services we use to manage our communication with donors and newsletter subscribers — Classy, which allows us to take donations on our website, and Sailthru, which allows us to send email communications — place cookies that collect data about your use of our website. Only ProPublica has access to that data, and we have described how we use that data above. ProPublica does not process or store credit card information used to make donations on our website.

Other services — such as those that measure traffic, prevent fake sign-ups, serve relevant banner ads, and provide social media conveniences such as sharing articles — place cookies on your computer that collect information about your browsing behavior on our website and other websites, including click stream and browser information. We don’t have any way of knowing how such services handle the resulting data internally. Here are the services whose cookies you can find on ProPublica.org:

Banner ads served by Vox Media's Concert Ad Network, Google AdSense, and other programmatic ad networks, using Google Ad Manager. These networks collect additional information about your browsing behavior, such as the ads that you have seen and the topics of ads you click on.
reCAPTCHA, an anti-spam system from Google, which we use to prevent fake newsletter sign-ups. You are bound by Google’s Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.
Google Analytics, which we use to measure site traffic. You can opt out of Google’s collection and processing of data related to use of ProPublica’s site and services by going to https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.
Chartbeat, which helps us see traffic patterns in real time.
Stripe, which we use to take payment on the ProPublica Data Store. (ProPublica does not itself process or store credit card information related to such transactions.)
We occasionally use Google Maps to illustrate stories. On these pages, you are additionally bound by the Google Maps/Google Earth Additional Terms of Service.
We occasionally embed videos hosted by YouTube and Vimeo.

We have updated our website over the years, and some older articles may also have cookies from the following services:

Typekit, owned by Adobe Systems Inc., and other cloud-based typeface services.
Sharing buttons for Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google+, which use the standard scripts provided by each company.

Some of the third-party services providers and/or Advertisers may be members of the Network Advertising Initiative (“NAI”) or the Digital Advertising Alliance (“DAA”) Self-Regulatory Program for Online Behavioral Advertising. You can visit here, which provides information regarding targeted advertising and the “opt-out” procedures of NAI members. You can opt-out of the use of your behavioral data used by DAA members to serve you interest-based advertising on third-party sites here.

If you are accessing the Services through an application (i.e., mobile phone or tablet) you can download the AppChoices application from your device’s application store (i.e., Google Play, Apple App Store, and Amazon Store). This DAA application allows participating companies to offer an opt-out of customized advertisements that are based on predictions about your interests generated from your application usage. For more information, visit here.

Please note opting out through these mechanisms does not opt you out of being served advertising. You will continue to receive generic ads while online or on your device.

We use reasonable measures to help protect the information we possess. You should understand that that no data storage system or data transmitted over the Internet can be guaranteed to be completely secure. You provide us with this data at your own risk. To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, ProPublica does not accept liability for unintentional disclosure.

The servers we use are located in the United States. Our site and services are designed for and targeted to United States audiences and are governed in accordance with United States law. If you are located outside of the U.S., by sending us your data you consent to its transfer to and storage within the United States.

Protecting the privacy of young children is important to us. Our site and services are not directed to children under 13 (or other age as required by local law), and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children. If you learn that your child has provided us with personal information without your consent, you may contact us. If we learn that we have collected any personal information in violation of applicable law, we will promptly take steps to delete such information

By using the site and services or providing personal information to us, you agree that we may communicate with you electronically regarding security, privacy, and administrative issues related to such use. If we learn of a security system’s breach, we may attempt to notify you electronically by posting a notice, by mail or by sending an email to you.

We may share your information in connection with a substantial corporate transaction, such as an acquisition, a merger, consolidation, asset sale, or in the unlikely event of the bankruptcy.

If we believe it is reasonably necessary, we may read, preserve, and disclose your information to comply with the law, including to respond to law enforcement; to protect and defend ourselves or others; and to stop any activity that we consider illegal, unethical, or legally actionable. If we receive a subpoena, warrant, discovery order, or other request or order from a law enforcement agency, court, other governmental entity, or litigant that seeks your data, we will make reasonable attempts to direct the requesting party to seek the data directly from you. Nothing in this policy is intended to limit any legal defenses or objections that you have to a third party’s (including a government’s) request to disclose your information.

By accessing ProPublica’s site, applications, or other services, you agree to be legally bound by and comply with this policy. If you do not agree to comply with this policy, you are not authorized to use this site.

Copyright

We respect the intellectual property of others. If you believe that your work has been copied — by us or by any third party on our site — in a manner that constitutes copyright infringement, please provide our copyright agent the written information specified below. Please note that this procedure is exclusively for notifying us that your copyrighted material has been infringed.

An electronic or physical signature of the person authorized to act on behalf of the owner of the copyright interest;
A description of the copyrighted work that you claim has been infringed upon;
A description of where the material that you claim is infringing is located on our site, including the URL of the page on which it appears;
Your address, telephone number and e-mail address;
A statement by you that you have a good-faith belief that the disputed use is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent or the law; and
A statement by you, made under penalty of perjury, that the above information in your notice is accurate and that you are the copyright owner or authorized to act on the copyright owner’s behalf.

Reader-Submitted Content

By giving ProPublica permission to use your Content, you agree to the following:

You confirm that you are the creator or owner of the Content, or that you have the right to grant permission to share it with ProPublica. In addition, you confirm that you have all the necessary rights and permissions to grant us this license for its use.
Aside from the license granted herein, you retain the copyright to the Content.
You hereby grant ProPublica the following perpetual and irrevocable non-exclusive rights in the Content: the right to reproduce, display, distribute, perform and transmit the Content, as modified by ProPublica, throughout the world, in any media now known or later developed, in connection with the business or promotion of the business of ProPublica, including such use by ProPublica’s partners and affiliates, and including the right to incorporate the Content into a larger work created by ProPublica.
The Content may appear, in whole or in part, and without limitation, on ProPublica’s website, apps, social media accounts, other ProPublica-branded platforms, third-party archives, or in videos or films in perpetuity.
You understand that you will receive no payment or royalty for any use under this agreement; that ProPublica is under no obligation to use, edit or distribute the Content; and that you have no right to inspect or approve any use of the Content.

Trademarks

ProPublica trademarks, service marks, and logos used in connection with the site and services are trademarks of ProPublica in the United States and other countries. ProPublica reserves all rights to these marks. You may not use any ProPublica marks or logos without ProPublica’s prior written consent. All other trademarks and service marks appearing on the digital platforms are the property of their respective owners and should be used only with prior written consent from the appropriate owner.

Links and Frames

You may link to the home page of our site as long as the link does not cast us in a false or misleading light. You may not frame the content of our site.

Links to Other Web Sites

Our site may contain links to other websites that we think may be of interest to you. We have no control over these other sites or their content. You should be aware of when you leave our site for another, and you should remember that other sites are governed by their own user agreements and privacy policies, which you should be sure to read.

Disclaimers and Limitation of Liability

ALTHOUGH WE TAKE REASONABLE STEPS TO PREVENT THE INTRODUCTION OF VIRUSES, WORMS, “TROJAN HORSES” OR OTHER DESTRUCTIVE MATERIALS TO OUR SITE, WE DO NOT GUARANTEE OR WARRANT THAT OUR SITE OR MATERIALS THAT MAY BE DOWNLOADED FROM OUR SITE ARE FREE FROM SUCH DESTRUCTIVE FEATURES. WE ARE NOT LIABLE FOR ANY DAMAGES OR HARM ATTRIBUTABLE TO SUCH FEATURES. WE ARE NOT LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, LOSS OR INJURY BASED ON ERRORS, OMISSIONS, INTERRUPTIONS, OR OTHER INACCURACIES IN OUR SITE, NOR FOR ANY CLAIM, LOSS, OR INJURY THAT RESULTS FROM YOUR USE OF THIS SITE OR YOUR BREACH OF ANY PROVISION OF THIS POLICY.

Termination

We reserve the right to terminate the site and this policy at any time without notice for any reason, including, in the case of the policy, for your violation of any of its provisions. The Limitation of Liability and Governing Law Sections of this policy and your agreement to it shall survive any such termination.

Governing Law

This policy and your agreement to it will be governed by the laws of the State of New York applicable to contracts made and performed there without regard to its conflicts of law principles. You agree to submit to the exclusive jurisdiction of the state and federal courts sitting in the State and County of New York and waive any jurisdictional, venue, or inconvenient forum objections to such courts.

Contact Information

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or our practices, or if you wish to reach our Copyright Agent, you may contact us:

ProPublica
Attention: General Counsel
155 Avenue of the Americas, 13th Floor
New York, NY 10013
Fax: 212-785-2634
Email: [email protected]

Last updated March 2, 2021

Privacy Policy and Other Terms