Automattic Privacy Policy changes — 20100430_rev01

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- We don't ask you for personal information unless we truly need it. (We can't stand services that ask you for things like your gender or income level for no apparent reason.)

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- We don't share your personal information with anyone except to comply with the law, develop our products, or protect our rights.

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- We don't store personal information on our servers unless required for the on-going operation of one of our services.

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- In our blogging products, we aim to make it as simple as possible for you to control what's visible to the public, seen by search engines, kept private, and permanently deleted.

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Below is our privacy policy which incorporates these goals:

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Below is our privacy policy which incorporates these goals: (Note, we've decided to make this privacy policy available under a **Creative Commons Sharealike** license, which means you're more than welcome to steal it and repurpose it for your own use, just make sure to replace references to us with ones to you, and if you want we'd appreciate a link to WordPress.com somewhere on your site. We spent a lot of money and time on the below, and other people shouldn't need to do the same.)

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(Note, we've decided to make this privacy policy available under a **Creative Commons Sharealike** license, which means you're more than welcome to steal it and repurpose it for your own use, just make sure to replace references to us with ones to you, and if you want we'd appreciate a link to WordPress.com somewhere on your site. We spent a lot of money and time on the below, and other people shouldn't need to do the same.)

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Automattic Inc. ("**Automattic**") operates several websites including [automattic.com](http://www.automattic.com/), [wordpress.com](http://www.wordpress.com/), [gravatar.com](http://www.gravatar.com/), [intensedebate.com](http://www.intensedebate.com/), and [akismet.com](http://www.akismet.com/). It is Automattic's policy to respect your privacy regarding any information we may collect while operating our websites.

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### Website Visitors

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Like most website operators, Automattic collects non-personally-identifying information of the sort that web browsers and servers typically make available, such as the browser type, language preference, referring site, and the date and time of each visitor request. Automattic's purpose in collecting non-personally identifying information is to better understand how Automattic's visitors use its website. From time to time, Automattic may release non-personally-identifying information in the aggregate, e.g., by publishing a report on trends in the usage of its website.

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Automattic also collects potentially personally-identifying information like Internet Protocol (IP) addresses. Automattic does not use such information to identify its visitors, however, and does not disclose such information, other than under the same circumstances that it uses and discloses personally-identifying information, as described below.

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### Gathering of Personally-Identifying Information

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Certain visitors to Automattic's websites choose to interact with Automattic in ways that require Automattic to gather personally-identifying information. The amount and type of information that Automattic gathers depends on the nature of the interaction. For example, we ask visitors who sign up for a blog at [wordpress.com](http://www.wordpress.com/) to provide a username and email address. Those who engage in transactions with Automattic - by purchasing access to the Akismet comment spam prevention service, for example - are asked to provide additional information, including as necessary the personal and financial information required to process those transactions. In each case, Automattic collects such information only insofar as is necessary or appropriate to fulfill the purpose of the visitor's interaction with Automattic. Automattic does not disclose personally-identifying information other than as described below. And visitors can always refuse to supply personally-identifying information, with the caveat that it may prevent them from engaging in certain website-related activities.

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Certain visitors to Automattic's websites choose to interact with Automattic in ways that require Automattic to gather personally-identifying information. The amount and type of information that Automattic gathers depends on the nature of the interaction. For example, we ask visitors who sign up for a blog at [WordPress.com](http://www.wordpress.com/) to provide a username and email address. Those who engage in transactions with Automattic - by purchasing access to the Akismet comment spam prevention service, for example - are asked to provide additional information, including as necessary the personal and financial information required to process those transactions. In each case, Automattic collects such information only insofar as is necessary or appropriate to fulfill the purpose of the visitor's interaction with Automattic. Automattic does not disclose personally-identifying information other than as described below. And visitors can always refuse to supply personally-identifying information, with the caveat that it may prevent them from engaging in certain website-related activities.

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### Aggregated Statistics

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Automattic may collect statistics about the behavior of visitors to its websites. For instance, Automattic may monitor the most popular blogs on the WordPress.com site or use spam screened by the Akismet service to help identify spam. Automattic may display this information publicly or provide it to others. However, Automattic does not disclose personally-identifying information other than as described below.

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### Protection of Certain Personally-Identifying Information

 - We don't ask you for personal information unless we truly need it. (We can't stand services that ask you for things like your gender or income level for no apparent reason.)
 - We don't share your personal information with anyone except to comply with the law, develop our products, or protect our rights.
 - We don't store personal information on our servers unless required for the on-going operation of one of our services.
 - In our blogging products, we aim to make it as simple as possible for you to control what's visible to the public, seen by search engines, kept private, and permanently deleted.
+Below is our privacy policy which incorporates these goals:
+Below is our privacy policy which incorporates these goals: (Note, we've decided to make this privacy policy available under a **Creative Commons Sharealike** license, which means you're more than welcome to steal it and repurpose it for your own use, just make sure to replace references to us with ones to you, and if you want we'd appreciate a link to WordPress.com somewhere on your site. We spent a lot of money and time on the below, and other people shouldn't need to do the same.)
+ (Note, we've decided to make this privacy policy available under a **Creative Commons Sharealike** license, which means you're more than welcome to steal it and repurpose it for your own use, just make sure to replace references to us with ones to you, and if you want we'd appreciate a link to WordPress.com somewhere on your site. We spent a lot of money and time on the below, and other people shouldn't need to do the same.)
 Automattic Inc. ("**Automattic**") operates several websites including [automattic.com](http://www.automattic.com/), [wordpress.com](http://www.wordpress.com/), [gravatar.com](http://www.gravatar.com/), [intensedebate.com](http://www.intensedebate.com/), and [akismet.com](http://www.akismet.com/). It is Automattic's policy to respect your privacy regarding any information we may collect while operating our websites.
 ### Website Visitors
 Like most website operators, Automattic collects non-personally-identifying information of the sort that web browsers and servers typically make available, such as the browser type, language preference, referring site, and the date and time of each visitor request. Automattic's purpose in collecting non-personally identifying information is to better understand how Automattic's visitors use its website. From time to time, Automattic may release non-personally-identifying information in the aggregate, e.g., by publishing a report on trends in the usage of its website.
 Automattic also collects potentially personally-identifying information like Internet Protocol (IP) addresses. Automattic does not use such information to identify its visitors, however, and does not disclose such information, other than under the same circumstances that it uses and discloses personally-identifying information, as described below.
 ### Gathering of Personally-Identifying Information
+Certain visitors to Automattic's websites choose to interact with Automattic in ways that require Automattic to gather personally-identifying information. The amount and type of information that Automattic gathers depends on the nature of the interaction. For example, we ask visitors who sign up for a blog at [wordpress.com](http://www.wordpress.com/) to provide a username and email address. Those who engage in transactions with Automattic - by purchasing access to the Akismet comment spam prevention service, for example - are asked to provide additional information, including as necessary the personal and financial information required to process those transactions. In each case, Automattic collects such information only insofar as is necessary or appropriate to fulfill the purpose of the visitor's interaction with Automattic. Automattic does not disclose personally-identifying information other than as described below. And visitors can always refuse to supply personally-identifying information, with the caveat that it may prevent them from engaging in certain website-related activities.
+Certain visitors to Automattic's websites choose to interact with Automattic in ways that require Automattic to gather personally-identifying information. The amount and type of information that Automattic gathers depends on the nature of the interaction. For example, we ask visitors who sign up for a blog at [WordPress.com](http://www.wordpress.com/) to provide a username and email address. Those who engage in transactions with Automattic - by purchasing access to the Akismet comment spam prevention service, for example - are asked to provide additional information, including as necessary the personal and financial information required to process those transactions. In each case, Automattic collects such information only insofar as is necessary or appropriate to fulfill the purpose of the visitor's interaction with Automattic. Automattic does not disclose personally-identifying information other than as described below. And visitors can always refuse to supply personally-identifying information, with the caveat that it may prevent them from engaging in certain website-related activities.
 ### Aggregated Statistics
 Automattic may collect statistics about the behavior of visitors to its websites. For instance, Automattic may monitor the most popular blogs on the WordPress.com site or use spam screened by the Akismet service to help identify spam. Automattic may display this information publicly or provide it to others. However, Automattic does not disclose personally-identifying information other than as described below.
 ### Protection of Certain Personally-Identifying Information
 ### Comments
 Comments and other content submitted to our Akismet anti-spam service are not saved on our servers unless they were marked as false positives, in which case we store them long enough to use them to improve the service to avoid future false positives.
 ### Privacy Policy Changes
+Although most changes are likely to be minor, Automattic may change its Privacy Policy from time to time, and in Automattic's sole discretion. Automattic encourages visitors to frequently check this page for any changes to its Privacy Policy. If you have a wordpress.com account, you should also check your blog's dashboard for alerts to these changes. Your continued use of this site after any change in this Privacy Policy will constitute your acceptance of such change.
+Although most changes are likely to be minor, Automattic may change its Privacy Policy from time to time, and in Automattic's sole discretion. Automattic encourages visitors to frequently check this page for any changes to its Privacy Policy. If you have a WordPress.com account, you should also check your blog's dashboard for alerts to these changes. Your continued use of this site after any change in this Privacy Policy will constitute your acceptance of such change.
+Last updated: 10/2009
+If you have questions about accessing or correcting your personal data please contact our [support team](http://support.wordpress.com/).

Privacy Policy

Full text changes — 20091210_rev01 to 20100430_rev01