Privacy Policy

Last Updated: Nov. 9, 2026

This Privacy Policy describes how Pro Publica, Inc. (“ProPublica,” “we,” “us,” or “our”) processes personal information about you. This Privacy Policy applies to personal information collected by us when you access our website (propublica.org) or any other website, mobile site, application, service, email, newsletter, platform or other tools that link to this Privacy Policy (collectively, the “Sites”), use our app, subscribe to our newsletter or RSS feed, donate to us, engage with us on social media, or otherwise interact with us online (collectively, the “Services”). Please note, ProPublica is a non-profit organization and is exempt from certain state law privacy obligations based on this status. 

Please read this Privacy Policy carefully to understand our policies and practices.  By using the Sites and Services or providing your personal information to us, you consent to the use of your information in accordance with this Privacy Policy.  If you do not agree with any term in this Privacy Policy, you should not access and use the Sites or Services or provide your personal information.

Contact: If you have any questions, please contact us at: Legal Department, ProPublica, 155 Avenue of the Americas, 13th Floor, New York, NY 10013, or via email at [email protected].

For purposes of this Privacy Policy, “personal information” means information that identifies, relates to, describes, is reasonably capable of being associated with, or could reasonably be linked, directly or indirectly, with you, and includes “personal data” and similar terms as defined under any applicable privacy laws.

1. Categories of Personal Information We Collect About You

Depending on your interaction and relationship with us, we collect the below categories of personal information: 

• Contact Information.  We may collect full name, mailing address, email address, phone number, company name. 
• Financial and Donation Information.  We may collect the amount, date, payment method, campaign or appeal supported, check scan. If you choose to donate by credit card, your credit card information, payment card number, payment card expiration date and CVV code are collected through a third-party payment gateway and are not accessible to or stored by us. We may collect and store limited payment card information, including the last four digits of your card number and the card expiration date. Please note that our donations page is hosted and operated via GoFundMe such that GoFundMe also receives your information when you make a donation to ProPublica.
• Demographic Information.  We may collect your age range, location and language preference, donor/prospect giving capacity, interests, connections, and other information about you/your interests.
• Commercial Transaction and Interaction Information.  We may collect information about your commercial transactions, whether you attend our events and the frequency of your attendance, donation histories, and similar information. 
• Online Behavior, Internet and Device Data.  Like most websites and apps, we automatically collect certain information about your use of our Sites and Services via automated web technologies and tracking technologies. This information can include your browsing behavior while on the Sites and Services, including pages and articles views, information or items searched for, browsing time, download errors, and page interactions, URLs of websites you visited immediately before accessing our Sites or Services, your interaction with our emails, such as when you click on a link in an email, and your interaction with our advertising providers, including ads you were shown, how often, when and where they were shown, and whether you took any action, such as clicking on the ad. Likewise, we may automatically collect certain information about your device or Internet usage via automated web technologies. This information could include type of device or browser you are using, time zone setting, browser plug-ins and operating system information, your IP address, and unique numeric identifiers associated with your device or browser, and your approximate geolocation as revealed by your IP address or other information. 

As explained in Section 6 below, we also implement analytics and advertising technology from third parties that allows third parties to collect these types of information.

• Preference Information and Survey Responses.  We may collect preferred name for acknowledgments, anonymity requests, opt-in/opt-out status, preferred contact method, reason for donation(s), other causes supported, and other survey responses.
• Geolocation Data.  We may collect your imprecise location information, including general region or area based on the IP address from which you access our Services.  
• Inference-Based Data.  We may use information from the categories of personal information described above in order to create inferences about you, to reflect your preferences, characteristics, behavior, and attitude. We may combine information we obtain from different sources and platforms, and may combine publicly available information and information from third parties with information we collect, to create inferences and profiles about you.  
• Sensitive Personal Information.  Depending on how you interact with us, we may collect limited sensitive personal information, such as racial or  ethnic origin, religious or philosophical beliefs, political opinions, potentially account log-in credentials, and other information that may be treated as sensitive under applicable law. 

We do not knowingly sell sensitive personal information, or use your sensitive personal information to make inferences about you for advertising purposes.

2. How We Collect Your Personal Information

We collect personal information identified in Section 1 in the following ways:

• Directly From You.  We collect personal information about you that you choose to provide directly to us or to our service providers that collect personal information on our behalf when you use our Services, make a purchase, communicate with us, or otherwise provide information to us. 
• Automatically Via Cookies and Web Technologies.  Like most websites and apps, when you access or use our Sites and Services, we or our third-party vendors automatically collect certain information about you or your use of our Sites and Services via automated means such as cookies, pixels, beacons, javascript, invisible tags, and similar technologies. This includes device and browser information, marketing information, and usage information (e.g., the date and time of your visit, the pages you view immediately before and after you access our Services, the areas or pages of our Services that you visit, the amount of time you spend viewing or using our Services, keystrokes, mouse movements, form field entries, recordings of chat sessions or your use of and inputs to other AI-supported tools, and other use and overall engagement with our Services). 
• From Other Third Parties. We may also collect personal information about you from other sources and third parties, such as our business partners, marketing/advertising/analytics providers, social media platforms, and other companies. We may add this information to the information you provided to us or which we have already collected from you via our Services. We may also receive information you choose to submit through social media platforms or other third-party services, such as Meta lead forms, including your contact information and any responses you provide in the form. 
• We may combine personal information that we collect from you through different interactions with us, information we collect automatically through the Sites and Services, information collected offline, and information we receive from third parties. We use, disclose, and protect combined personal information as described in this Privacy Policy. 

3. How We Use Your Personal Information

We use your personal information for the following purposes:

• To Provide You with Our Sites and Services, including, to process donations, send our newsletters, communicate with you, and provide you with relevant information about our Services and Sites.
• For Journalistic Purposes, including research and analysis. When we collect information during our reporting, including through our callouts, we will only use this information to support our journalism work. 
• For Transactional Purposes, including to fulfill your donation, send confirmation and updates, provide requested Services, respond to service requests and inquiries, and administer your online account.
• For Our Business Operations, including for maintaining records, planning, budgeting, fundraising, outreach, database administration, surveys, evaluations, reports, compliance, regulatory, audit, investigative and disciplinary purposes and other ethics and compliance reporting tools, and to otherwise support our business operations.
• For Analytical and Advertising Purposes, including to analyze preferences, trends, and statistics, recognize you over time, and provide personalized digital advertising and marketing messages. This includes “targeted advertising” and may be considered a “sale” of personal information as defined by applicable law.
• To Personalize Our Services to You to ensure that content from our Sites and Services is presented in the most effective manner for you and for your computer, including personalizing the content presented to you on our Sites and Services based on your past interactions with the Sites and Services, your location, or other information.
• For Fundraising and Promotional Purposes to deliver content to you via the Sites, Services, newsletters, emails and otherwise, to improve our outreach and fundraising efforts, create social media posts or advertisements, and to provide you with information about us, including personalized fundraising communications. We may use information you submit through a lead form or similar advertising feature to send you the information, newsletters, event invitations, fundraising communications, or other follow-up described in the form, subject to your choices and applicable law.
• For Maintenance and Improvement of our Sites and Services and to help us diagnose technical and service problems.
• For Security and Fraud Prevention, including to detect and prevent cyberattacks or unauthorized activities, protect against or deter fraudulent, illegal, or harmful actions, and maintain the safety, security, and integrity of our Sites, Services and systems.
• For Legal and Compliance Purposes to enforce our legal rights and ensure we comply with our legal obligations, including reporting requirements, and to defend ourselves in legal proceedings, and to protect our company and our property, employees, and others through legal proceedings.
• To Carry Out Sales and Business Transactions in which information held by us is among the assets transferred or is otherwise relevant to the evaluation, negotiation, or completion of the transaction.
• For Other Purposes for which you provide your personal information, with your consent, or as we may describe and disclose to you at the point of collection. 

We may also de-identify or aggregate personal information so that it no longer reasonably identifies you, and use or disclose that information to others. Where we maintain de-identified information, we will take reasonable measures to ensure it cannot be associated with you, will maintain and use it only in de-identified form, and will not attempt to re-identify it, except as permitted by applicable law.

4. Retention

We retain personal information for as long as reasonably necessary to provide the Sites and Services, process donations, send communications you request, support our business, fundraising, analytics, security, and operational purposes, comply with legal obligations, resolve disputes, enforce agreements, and maintain appropriate records. What this means in practice may vary by category of information and by the context in which the information was collected. 

5. To Whom We Disclose Your Personal Information

Depending on how you interact with us, we may disclose each of the categories of personal information described in Section 1 above to the categories of recipients listed below for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy. 

• To our Service Providers who support the operation of our Services, Sites, and our business (including, for example, cloud hosting, payment processing, email delivery, marketing, donor webpage and database management, insurance, operating systems and platforms, and donor support services). In some cases, the vendor or service provider may directly collect the information from you on our behalf. 
• To our Professional Advisors such as lawyers, bankers, tax consultants, auditors, and insurers where necessary.
• To Analytics and Advertising Providers, including social media platforms and networks, who provide analytics or marketing and advertising services to us. The section below concerning How We Use Cookies, Targeted Advertising, Analytics, and Other Tracking Technologies explains additional ways we may disclose information to Analytics and Advertising Providers. We may also disclose contact information or other information you provide through lead forms to social media platforms and networks, such as Meta, to create or manage custom or lookalike audiences, retarget advertising, or measure conversions, subject to your opt-out rights where required by law.
• To Parties to Corporate Transactions.  We may share your personal information with potential transaction parties and their advisors in the event we consider or  engage in any reorganization, conversion, collaboration, merger, sale, joint venture, assignment, transfer, disposition of assets, or similar organizational transaction involving all or any portion of our operations, assets, or programs. 
• Governmental, Regulatory, and Public Authorities. We may disclose your personal information to government and law enforcement authorities, in each case to comply with legal or regulatory obligations or requests. If you make a donation of $5,000 or more, we will list your name and address in our Form 990 filings with the IRS, or other regulators, as required by law, and we will publish these filings on our website. We treat information identifying donors, supporters, volunteers, and similar members of the ProPublica community as sensitive to our mission and handle it in accordance with applicable law and our internal confidentiality practices.
• Other Third Parties. We may disclose your personal information to other parties at your direction or with your consent, where required by law, or as we believe necessary or appropriate either to: (i) comply with applicable law; (ii) protect our operations and those of any of our affiliates; (iii) investigate and prevent against fraud; (iv) protect our rights, privacy, safety, or property and/or those of others; or (v) allow us to pursue available remedies or limit damages that we may sustain.

6. Your Privacy Choices and State Privacy Rights

Residents of Colorado, Delaware, Maryland, Minnesota, Montana, New Jersey, and Oregon have rights regarding their personal information, subject to applicable limitations and exceptions:

• Right to Know and Access. You may have the right to confirm whether we process your personal information and to access the personal information we process about you, including the categories of personal information we collect, the categories of sources, the purposes for processing, inferences we derive from your personal information, the categories of personal information we disclose, and the categories of third parties to whom we disclose it.
• Right to Data Portability. You may have the right to receive a copy of certain personal information in a portable and, to the extent technically feasible, readily usable format.
• Right to Delete. You may have the right to request that we delete personal information we have collected from or about you, subject to certain exceptions.
• Right to Correct. You may have the right to correct inaccurate personal information we maintain about you, taking into account the nature of the information and the purposes for which we process it.
• Right to Request Categories of Third Parties. You may have the right to request a list of the categories of third parties with which we disclose or sell your personal information.
• Right to Request a List of Third Parties. You may have the right to request a list of the specific third parties to which we have disclosed your personal information.
• Right to Opt Out of Sale, Sharing, and Targeted Advertising. We use and disclose personal information through Cookies and similar technologies for analytics and advertising purposes, which may be considered a “sale” or “sharing” of personal information or “targeted advertising” under certain state privacy laws. You may have the right to opt out of these activities.

Exercising the right to opt out.  To opt out of the sale or sharing of your personal information or its processing for targeted advertising, please email [email protected]. You may also choose to enable a tool that automatically communicates your opt-out preferences to all businesses that you interact with online. If you enable a browser-based opt-out preference signal, such as the GPC, upon receipt or detection, we will treat the signal as a valid request to opt out of sale, sharing, or targeted advertising linked to that browser and, where we can do so, consumer profiles that we have associated with that browser. Please note that if you use different browsers or browser profiles, you will have to enable the signal on each one that you use. 

Exercising other rights.  To exercise any other privacy right or revoke consent, please contact us at [email protected] with “Your Privacy Rights” in the subject line. To protect the confidentiality of yours and others’ personal information, we will only complete your request when your identity has been verified (other than for requests to opt out). We will seek to match the information in your request to the personal information we maintain about you. As part of our verification process, we may ask you to: submit additional information, use identity verification services to assist, or, if you have set up an account on our website, to sign into your account as part of our identity verification process. Where permitted under applicable law, we may decline a request if we are unable to verify your identity (or an agent’s authority to make the request) and confirm the personal information we maintain relates to you.

Authorized agents. You may designate an authorized agent to submit requests on your behalf using the methods described in this section. However, we may require written proof of the agent’s permission to do so and verify your identity directly with you where permitted. 

Right to appeal. To appeal a refusal to take action on your request, please contact [email protected] with “Privacy Rights Appeal” in the subject line. If you are unsatisfied with the way that we have handled your appeal, you may have the right to complain to your state’s attorney general.

We will not discriminate or retaliate against you for exercising a privacy right. Exercising a privacy right may affect our ability to provide a requested service if that service requires personal information that we do not collect or maintain, or if deletion or restriction prevents us from completing the requested interaction.

We do not offer financial incentives, loyalty programs, or similar programs in exchange for personal information unless we describe the program terms at the time of collection or enrollment. We sometimes offer payment to individuals for consumer or product research, or similar participation, and we will describe any material terms when we make the offer.

7. How We and Third Parties Use Cookies, Targeted Advertising, Analytics, and Other Tracking Technologies

Cookies and Tracking Technologies

Our Sites and Services (including our website, newsletters, emails and app) use automated means to collect data such as tracking technologies, cookies, pixels, beacons, javascript, invisible tags, and similar technologies (collectively “Cookies”). These typically involve pieces of information or code transferred to or accessed from your computer or mobile device to store, share, and track information about you or your device. These Cookies automatically collect information when you use our Sites and Services or open our emails. Some of the Cookies used with our Site and Services are provided by third-parties, including third-party advertising, analytics and social media companies, and allow these third-parties to receive the same information about you as we receive.

These Cookies allow us, and third-party advertising, analytics and social media companies, to understand how users navigate to and around our Sites and Services, view different pages and email messages, access content and request Services. They allow us and our advertising partners to serve you targeted advertising on our Sites and websites and platforms other than on the Sites.  

Cookies also enable you to be remembered when using a specific computer or device to interact with websites and online services and can be used to manage a range of features and content as well as storing searches and presenting personalized content. We may use them, for example, to keep track of your preferences and profile information and collect general usage and volume statistical information.

By accessing and using our Sites, you consent to the use of our Cookies and their collection and disclosure of information about you as described in this policy.

If you want to remove or block Cookies, you may be able to update your browser settings. You can find instructions on how to manage Cookies on different types of web browsers at www.allaboutcookies.org. To learn more about interest-based advertising, tracking technologies, and how to opt out, you can visit http://www.aboutads.info/choices.  

Our Use of Google Analytics

We use analytics services from several companies, including analytics services provided by Google Analytics. If you would like more information on how Google uses data when you visit or use our Site, please visit www.google.com/policies/privacy/partners. If you would like to opt-out, Google provides an opt-out tool which is available at https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.

Our Use of Targeted Advertising 

The advertisers we use may participate in programs that provide simple ways to opt out of ad targeting across the internet. You can opt out of such targeted advertising through the following programs:

• The Digital Advertising Alliance

Our Use of Session Replay Technology

We may use session replay technology on our Sites and Services. Session replay technology, also referred to as session playback or user experience (UX) replay, collects information regarding records and tracks your interactions with a website or application. It then transforms those logged user events (such as mouse movements, clicks, page visits, scrolling, tapping, etc.) into a reproduction of what you actually did on the website or application. We use session replays for quality control, customer service, fraud prevention and security, and marketing purposes. Our session replay technology is owned and operated by a third-party who acts as our service provider. The information collected by this technology may be collected by, transferred to, and stored by our third-party service provider.

8. Managing Your Email, Phone, and/or Text Message Preferences

Emails.  You can opt out of our newsletter or fundraising emails by using the “unsubscribe” link or mechanism noted in communications you receive from us. You may also request to opt out of fundraising emails by contacting us at [email protected]. You may request to opt out of newsletters by contacting us at [email protected]. Once we process your request, we will cease using the information for such purposes at no charge to you. However, if you opt out of getting newsletter or fundraising messages, you will continue to receive messages from us about your relationship with us or donations where required or permitted by law.

Phone Calls and Text Messages.  If you do not want to receive fundraising phone calls or text messages from us, please inform us that you no longer want to receive calls from us when you receive a call from us, or reply STOP to a text message from us. You can also opt-out by contacting us at [email protected].

9. Links to Other Websites

Our Sites and Services may include links to other websites or applications whose privacy practices may differ from ours. If you submit personal information to any of those websites or applications, your information is governed by their privacy policies. We encourage you to carefully read the privacy policy of any website you visit or application that you use.

10. Children’s Privacy

Our Sites and Services are intended for a general audience and are not directed to children under the age of 18. Certain Services, including tools that collect or transmit sports betting account data, are intended only for adults 18 and older. We may receive information from individuals under 18 through reporting, callouts, or other project-specific submissions, and we use that information for the purpose for which it was submitted and as otherwise described in this Privacy Policy. We do not knowingly sell or share personal information of individuals under 18 or use such information for targeted advertising. If we become aware that we have inadvertently collected or stored personal information from a child under age 18, we will delete that information to the extent required by applicable law. 

11. Security

We maintain reasonable administrative, technical, and physical safeguards designed to protect the confidentiality, integrity, and accessibility of personal information appropriate to the nature and volume of the information we process. However, no method of data transfer over the Internet or electronic storage is 100% secure. We cannot guarantee your information’s absolute security and encourage you to use websites and share information with caution.

We do not collect or store the full credit or debit card or other payment information that you provide in the context of the Sites or Services. Payments made on the Sites or Services using a credit or debit card are made directly through a third-party payment gateway provider. 

12. Processing in the United States 

The servers we use are located in the United States. Our Sites and Services are designed for and targeted to United States audiences and are governed in accordance with United States law. If you are accessing our Sites or Services from outside the United States, please be aware that information we obtain about you will be processed in the United States by us or our service providers or affiliates.  

By using the Sites or our Services, you acknowledge your personal information may be transferred to and processed in jurisdictions outside your own.  

Please be aware that the data protection laws and regulations that apply to your personal information transferred to the United States or other jurisdictions may be different from the laws in your country of residence. The United States may not afford the same level of protection as laws in your own country. 

13. Updates to Our Privacy Policy

From time to time we may change our Privacy Policy. We will post an updated copy on the Site where this appears, and the “Last Updated” legend above indicates when this Privacy Policy was last revised. Where required by applicable law, if we make material changes to this Privacy Policy or to our privacy practices, we will provide additional notice and where appropriate, obtain your opt-in consent if we use personal information that we previously collected about you for a purpose that is materially different from the purposes we described in the version of our Privacy Policy applicable to you at the time we collected that personal information. Any changes will become effective when we post the revised Privacy Policy on any of our Sites, unless a different effective date is stated in the notice.