What Does Pinterest Collect? Key Privacy Facts Users Should Know

Quick Summary

What They Collect: Profile, uploads, device/log data, location, contacts, and advertiser-supplied signals.
How They Use & Share It: Personalization, targeted ads, analytics; shared with advertisers, vendors, affiliates, and law enforcement.
Your Rights: Access, correct, delete, portability, withdraw consent, opt out of targeted ads where available.

Why You Should Care About Pinterest's Privacy Practices

Pinterest collects high-risk data like photos, precise location (if enabled), and contacts—this increases privacy and re-identification risks.
Profiling and targeted ads may follow you off-site, impacting ad targeting, pricing, and content recommendations in everyday browsing.
Pinterest is a large, widely used visual discovery platform integrated across sites/apps, meaning data collection can affect your daily online experience.
Archived copies and international transfers mean deleted data may persist or be accessible under different legal regimes—consider privacy settings and opt-outs.

Privacy Highlights

What They Collect

Account information (name, email, birthday, gender, country, interests, preferred language)
User content and files (Pins, photos, uploads, messages, comments)
Demographic information (age, gender, optional race/ethnicity for business accounts)
Feedback data (comments, support communications, submitted ideas/feedback)
Profile information (public profile, boards, saved items)

How They Share Data

Business affiliates and corporate family (subsidiaries, affiliates)
Service providers and vendors (security consultants, analytics vendors, hosting)
Third-party partners and advertisers (ad networks, marketing platforms like Facebook Ads, Google Marketing Platform)
Advertising partners (partners that receive cookie IDs, hashed emails, IP for ad targeting/offsite ads)

Data Retention

Pinterest keeps information only as long as needed to provide the Service and to fulfill described purposes; when no longer needed they remove or depersonalize data, but may retain copies for backups, legal obligations, or archival/audit purposes

Your Rights

Access data (request a copy in portable format)
Rectify data (edit profile and correct information)
Erase or limit processing (delete account, 'Delete your data and account' workflow)
Object to processing (opt-out of targeted advertising/sharing/sale where applicable)

Detailed Analysis

Concerning Practices

Shares data with advertisers and third-party ad partners for on- and off-site targeted advertising
Collects extensive personal data including photos, precise location (if enabled), contacts, and inferences for profiling
Uses data to create inferences and profile users for personalized content and targeted ads (profiling for ad delivery)
Transfers data internationally, including to the United States, where protections may differ from home country protections
Retains certain copies (backup/archival/audit) after account deletion and can depersonalize rather than fully delete some datasets
Shares user-level ad interaction data with advertisers depending on location and settings (possible individual-level disclosures)
User control is limited for some practices (you'll still see ads; opting out removes offsite-informed ads but not all ads)

Personal Data Types

Account information (name, email, birthday, gender, country, interests, preferred language) User content and files (Pins, photos, uploads, messages, comments) Demographic information (age, gender, optional race/ethnicity for business accounts) Feedback data (comments, support communications, submitted ideas/feedback) Profile information (public profile, boards, saved items) Sales and marketing data (advertiser-supplied data, offsite browsing signals, Pinterest Tag data) Support data (customer service communications and related records) Browser information (log data, IP address, browser type, settings) Geolocation information (approximate via IP; precise if enabled on device) Service usage information (activity on the platform, search terms, saved items, inferences about interests) Website usage data (cookies, cookie IDs, interactions with Save button and embedded features) Information from other users (contacts you sync, publicly visible content) Publicly available information (content you post publicly; data accessible via APIs)

Tracking Methods

Essential cookies (site functionality and preferences) Analytics cookies (usage and performance measurement) Advertising cookies (ad personalization and tracking across sites) Social media cookies / third-party trackers (integration with Facebook, Google, others) Pixel tags / tracking tags (Pinterest Tag and similar conversion/measurement pixels) Web beacons and similar technologies (grouped under 'similar technologies') Local storage (browser local storage / device storage for preferences and tracking signals)

Third Parties

Business affiliates and corporate family (subsidiaries, affiliates) Service providers and vendors (security consultants, analytics vendors, hosting) Third-party partners and advertisers (ad networks, marketing platforms like Facebook Ads, Google Marketing Platform) Advertising partners (partners that receive cookie IDs, hashed emails, IP for ad targeting/offsite ads) Technical service partners (marketing firms and technical integration partners) Researchers (independent researchers meeting criteria; data-sharing for societal-harm research) Government authorities and law enforcement (disclosures in response to legal requests)

User Controls

Access data (request a copy in portable format) Rectify data (edit profile and correct information) Erase or limit processing (delete account, 'Delete your data and account' workflow) Object to processing (opt-out of targeted advertising/sharing/sale where applicable) Data portability (downloadable/portable format available) Withdraw consent (where processing is based on consent) Opt-out of marketing (unsubscribe from promotional emails; privacy & data settings to control ads) Delete account (close account via settings; some copies may remain for backups/archives)

Pinterest Privacy Summary