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Privacy policy

SNAP

Privacy Policy | Snapchat Privacy

D

Risk score

58of 100

In short

  • This privacy policy tells you how Snap collects, uses, and shares your personal data to run Snapchat and show you ads.
  • You are agreeing to let Snap use your information across its various services, including Bitmoji and SPECS, even if those services operate differently than the main app.
  • The policy explains that while you have some controls, your data is shared with many third parties for advertising and business purposes.

What you accept

If you use this site

Everyday words for the material promises and rights you give up. Each line includes a quote from the document.

Fineprint cannot see whether you agreed. This page is posted on their site. Open the original if you need to know how they say it applies.

  1. 01

    You are agreeing to allow Snap to process your personal data to provide a personalized experience, including showing you relevant content and advertisements.

    Other products, stores, or brands

    “That’s why we’re upfront with how we process it. For example, we process your information to provide you a more personalized experience, including to show you content and information that is most relevant to your experience, as well as more relevant advertisements.”
  2. 02

    You are agreeing that Snap may share your information with service providers, business partners, and integrated partners to facilitate payments, measure ad performance, or provide features like OpenTable.

    Other companies

    “We share your information with our service providers, who process that information on our behalf... We share your information with business and integrated partners in order to provide the Services. For example, you can use OpenTable within Snapchat to reserve a table.”
  3. 03

    You are agreeing that your data may be transferred and processed in countries outside of where you live, such as the United States.

    Other products, stores, or brands

    “Our Services connect you with your friends around the world. To make that possible, we may collect your personal information from, transfer it to, and store and process it in the United States or other countries outside of where you live.”

What it can cost you

Downsides we could quote

Quoted clauses that can affect your privacy, money, or right to go to court — including terms that follow you to other products.

Highest-cost clauses first

High cost

Tracking you across apps

You are agreeing to let Snap use information from advertisers and third parties to target and personalize ads.

“We also use your information to avoid showing you ads you probably won’t be interested in. For example, if a ticketing site tells us you’ve previously bought tickets for a movie — we can stop showing you ads for it. You can learn about the different types of advertising and your choices about which ads you receive here.”

What that means: Your activity on other websites and apps influences the ads you see in Snapchat.

Snap collects data from third-party sources, such as ticketing sites, to target ads based on your purchase history and interests outside the app.

Medium cost

Location or sensitive-data over-collection

You are agreeing to permit collection of precise location, contacts, and media if you grant device permissions.

“If you’ve explicitly granted device-level permissions, device information may also include information about your device phonebook (contacts and related information), images and other information from your device’s camera, photos, and microphone... and precise location information (precise location through methods like GPS signals).”

What that means: Your precise physical location and private media files are accessible to the app if you enable permissions.

The policy allows collection of precise location via GPS and access to contacts, camera, and microphone if you grant permission.

Medium cost

Third parties handle data you submit

You are agreeing to let Snap share your data with service providers who process it on their behalf.

“We share your information with our service providers, who process that information on our behalf. For example, we rely on such Service Providers to facilitate payments, measure and optimize the performance of ads, or protect the services.”

What that means: Your payment and usage data is handled by external companies Snap hired to run parts of the service.

Data is passed to third-party vendors who handle payments and ad measurement without direct user selection for each vendor.

Medium cost

Indefinite retention

You are agreeing to let Snap keep your data as long as they need it to provide services or comply with laws.

“As a general rule, we keep information as long as you tell us to, and otherwise as long as we need it to provide our Services, or as required by law... whether we retain your data depends on the specific feature, your settings, and how you’re using the Services.”

What that means: Some of your data may be kept longer than you expect if Snap determines it is needed for service operation or legal compliance.

Snap retains data indefinitely based on its own needs, legitimate interests, or legal obligations, rather than a fixed short timeframe.

Medium cost

Terms follow you to parks, stores, and other products

You are agreeing to apply these privacy terms to all Snap products, including Bitmoji and SPECS.

“This Policy covers our Snapchat app as well as our other products, services, and features, such as Bitmoji, SPECS, and our advertising and commerce initiatives.”

What that means: Using Bitmoji or Spectacles subjects your data to the same collection and sharing practices as Snapchat.

A single privacy policy governs Snapchat and associated products like Bitmoji and Spectacles (SPECS).

Medium cost

Cookie consent that favors Accept

You are agreeing to cookie tracking unless you manually configure your browser to reject them.

“Most web browsers are set to accept cookies by default. If you prefer, you can usually remove or reject browser cookies through the settings on your browser or device. Keep in mind, though, that removing or rejecting cookies could affect the availability and functionality of our Services.”

What that means: You may be automatically tracked via cookies unless you actively change browser settings.

Cookies are accepted by default, and rejecting them may limit service functionality, discouraging rejection.

Lower cost

Unilateral changes with little or no notice

You are agreeing to accept changes to the privacy policy as notified by Snap on their website or app.

“We may change this Privacy Policy from time to time. But when we do, we’ll let you know one way or another. Sometimes, we’ll let you know by revising the date at the top of the Privacy Policy that’s available on our website and mobile application.”

What that means: Terms regarding your data usage can change without you having to actively click 'Agree' again.

Snap can update the policy and notify users by simply changing the effective date or providing an in-app notice, without requiring explicit new consent.

Where this can follow you

Names that appear in this document for other apps, parks, stores, or brands. A click here can be used there.

  • Stores

If these terms already apply to you

Keep this list. Fineprint cannot undo or cancel something you already agreed to at the company.

We cannot see Agree on their site. With Premium, tap “I accepted these terms” if you already agreed to what Snap asks.