PRIVACY POLICY
November 4, 2014
Hulu provides an online video service offering a selection of television shows, movies, clips, and other content. These video services including our Hulu Plus Service, our video player, and any other features, tools, applications, materials, or other services, offered by Hulu on any website, device or platform are referred to collectively as the “Hulu Services.”
We invite you to click below to get answers to your questions regarding our Privacy Policy.
What kinds of information does Hulu collect from or about me and my activities?
Are there other parties collecting information from or about me that I should be aware of while using the Hulu Services?
How does Hulu use the information it collects from or about me?
With whom does Hulu share the information it collects from or about me?
How does Hulu use and share aggregate or non-personally identifiable information?
Do I have choices about Hulu's use and sharing of the information it collects from or about me?
How does Hulu protect the information it collects from or about me?
Does Hulu collect information from children under the age of 13?
Do any special considerations apply to visitors from outside the United States?
What happens when Hulu changes its Privacy Policy?
What technologies are used to understand how people use the Hulu Services?
How does Hulu work with social networks like Facebook?
How does third-party advertising on Hulu impact me?
Who can I contact if I have concerns about this Privacy Policy?
ABOUT HULU
Below you will find our updated Privacy Policy, effective as of November 4, 2014. This Privacy Policy covers the information collected from or about you and your activities when you use the Hulu Services. It also provides information about our relationships with certain third parties that provide services in connection with the Hulu Services. If you have any questions or concerns about our Privacy Policy, please let us know by emailing us at privacy@hulu.com or contacting us by mail at the address listed here.
INFORMATION COLLECTED FROM OR ABOUT YOU
What kinds of information does Hulu collect from or about me and my activities?
Generally speaking, we may collect the following information from or about you and your activities when you use the Hulu Services:
information you give us, including your name, email address, birth date, gender, and -if you subscribe to Hulu Plus - your credit card information;
information automatically collected when you use the Hulu Services, such as your location, your activity on the Hulu Services, and information collected via cookies, web beacons, or other technologies;
information from other commercially available sources, such as data aggregators and public databases, or our business partners, which may include your interests, purchasing behavior and your activities online, such as websites visited and advertisements viewed; and
if you connect your social networking account with your Hulu account, information from your social networking account as described below.
We may combine any or all of the information we collect from or about you and use it in the manner described in this Privacy Policy. Are there other parties collecting information from or about me that I should be aware of while using the Hulu Services?
Service Providers. Companies that provide services to us and our business partners - including companies that assist with payment processing, website, user, and business analytics, data processing, account management, advertising, and other services - may collect information from or about you. However, our agreements with these service providers limit the types of information these companies collect, how they may collect it, and how they may use it.
Other Websites and Platforms. The Hulu Services may be provided through Internet websites or other platforms operated by other companies. For example, you can access the Hulu Services currently on our business partners' websites and using Internet connected devices such as your Microsoft Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii, Roku Streaming Player, iPad or iPhone. Websites and platforms like these may be co-branded with our name or logo, but they are not operated or maintained by us, and we are not responsible for the privacy practices of the websites or platforms operated by third parties. If you are using the Hulu Services on another website or platform, you should check the privacy policy of the other website or platform to determine how it handles any information it collects from or about you.
Social Networking Services. You can use the Hulu Services with social networking services, such as Facebook and connect your Hulu account with your social networking account. When you choose to share information about your activities on the Hulu Services with social networking services, Hulu may send information about you to these services, including information about your use of the Hulu Services. Social networking services also may collect certain technical information about you, such as the IP address of the device you are using to access the Hulu Services and the URL of the page you are viewing. For more information about how Hulu works with social networking services such as Facebook, please click here.
Advertisers, Advertising Technology Companies, and Advertising-Related Service Providers. Hulu places advertisements both on and off the Hulu Services and also carries advertisements from other companies, often with the ability to click through to websites or properties run by these other companies. Advertisers, advertising technology companies, and service providers that perform advertising-related services for us and our business partners may use cookies, web beacons, and other technologies to collect information from or about you in order to tailor advertisements, measure advertising effectiveness, and enable other enhancements. For more information about third-party advertising and Hulu, please click here.
HOW WE USE THIS INFORMATION
How does Hulu use information it collects from or about me?
Payment Information. We only use payment information, such as credit card numbers, as necessary for completing a particular transaction or fulfilling a service (for example, processing payments from our Hulu Plus subscribers) and to prevent abuse of the Hulu Services.
Other Information. We use the other information we collect from or about you in order to establish and enhance our relationship with you and to help deliver a first-class user experience. Hulu's use of this information includes the following general purposes: contacting you; customizing the content and advertising you view; fulfilling your requests for products or services; identifying content you share when you use the Hulu Services; improving our services; conducting research; compiling aggregate data for internal and external business purposes; preventing potentially illegal activities; protecting our rights; other uses in accordance with our Terms of Use; and for any other purpose disclosed to you at the time we collect your information.
Promotional Communications. We may use your information to:
provide you with promotional information about Hulu's features, services, and other offerings that may be of interest to you; or
provide information or offers to you that are related to the Hulu Services on behalf of Hulu's business partners.
Information about your choices regarding promotional communications you receive from Hulu are described in the "Your Choices" section of this Privacy Policy. Recommendations and Advertising. We and service providers acting on behalf of us and our business partners may use the information collected from or about you, including your use of Hulu Services, to provide recommendations and advertisements on the Hulu Services and elsewhere on the web.
Other Purposes. In addition to the specific data use described in this Privacy Policy, we may also use the information collected from our about you for other purposes in aggregated or non-personally identifiable forms. This means that we will combine information about individuals together, or otherwise anonymize the information, so that no individual person is identifiable. We may use information in these forms for a variety of purposes, including for research or analysis, website administration, advertising, and promotional purposes.
HOW WE SHARE THIS INFORMATION
With whom does Hulu share the information it collects from or about me?
Other Hulu Users. The Hulu Services include social features that let you interact with other people who use them. Information that you voluntarily make public on the Hulu Services will be shared with other Hulu users. For example, if your Hulu username includes your real name, when you post a comment it will be associated with your real name. You can control the sharing of certain information contained in your Hulu profile or about your activities on the Hulu Services with others on the Privacy and Settings page.
Business Partners. We may share the information collected from or about you with our business partners, including advertisers and other companies that are not affiliated with Hulu, in aggregated or non-personally identifiable forms. Otherwise, except when such business partners are acting on our behalf or when you have provided your information as part of a co-branded promotion, we will obtain your consent before we share your contact information with them so that they may send you promotional information about their products and services directly.
Social Networking Services. You can use the Hulu Services on other social networking services such as Facebook, and connect your Hulu account with your social networking account. When you choose to share information about your activities on the Hulu Services with social networking services, Hulu may send information about you to these services, including information about your use of the Hulu Services. For more information about how Hulu works with social networking services such as Facebook, please click here.
Service Providers. We may also share the information collected from or about you with service providers that provide services to us and our business partners. For example, we may share your information with other people or entities in order to provide goods or services that you have requested or to complete a transaction at your request. We may also enter into agreements with outside companies that possess the technology that allows us to customize the advertising and marketing messages you receive while using the Hulu Services. Your information, including clickstream data about your use of the Hulu Services and other online activities, may be shared with these companies so this customization can be accomplished. However, our agreements with these service providers limit the types of information share with these companies and how they may use it. For more information about sharing in the context of third-party advertising, please see our discussion of Third-Party Advertising on Hulu.
Other Parties When Required By Law or When Necessary to Protect Your Rights or Ours. There may be instances when we may disclose your information without providing you with a choice in order to protect the legal rights of Hulu or its affiliates, and each of their respective investors, directors, officers, employees, agents, and suppliers; to protect the safety and security of users of the Hulu Services or to enforce our Terms of Use; to protect against fraud or for risk management purposes; or to comply with or respond to the law or legal process or a request for cooperation by a government entity, whether or not legally required. If you notify us that you believe your legal rights have been violated by Hulu or another user of the Hulu Services, we may provide the information that you provide to us to others to the extent that we believe it is necessary to evaluate and respond to your complaint. For instance, if you submit a notice of copyright infringement to us, we may send a copy to the person or entity who uploaded, stored, or transmitted the material addressed by the communication.
Other Parties In Connection With a Transfer of Assets. If we sell all or part of our business, or make a sale or transfer of assets, or are otherwise involved in a merger or business transfer, or in the unlikely event of bankruptcy, we may transfer your information to one or more third parties as part of that transaction.
Other Parties With Your Consent. In addition to the sharing described in this Privacy Policy, and only with your consent, we may share personally identifiable information about you, for example, your name, address, telephone number, or email address, with other parties.
Does Hulu share aggregate or non-personally identifiable information?
In addition to the specific data sharing practices described in this Privacy Policy, we may also share the information collected from or about you for other purposes in aggregated or non-personally identifiable forms. This means that we will combine information about individuals together, or otherwise anonymize the information, so that no individual person is identifiable. We may share information in these forms with various affiliated and unaffiliated entities, including our business partners. For example, we may share aggregate information with advertisers about the volume of use on the Hulu Services, the specific Hulu videos in which users are most interested, and the effectiveness of advertisements viewed on the Hulu Services (including the number of users who clicked on a particular advertisement). Also, we and our business partners use independent third parties to help measure viewing of content on Hulu, and these third parties may report statistics about viewing in aggregated or other non-personally identifiable forms.
YOUR CHOICES
Do I have choices about the use and sharing of the information collected from or about me?
You have choices about the use and sharing of certain information collected from or about you.
Other Hulu Users. Hulu's Privacy and Settings page gives you the option to control how certain information in your profile (other than your first and last name) and your activities are shared when you use the Hulu Services. You can change your privacy settings at any time on the Privacy and Settings page.
Business Partners: Except as otherwise described in this Privacy Policy, we will obtain your consent before we share your contact information with business partners, including advertisers and other companies not affiliated with Hulu, so that they may send you promotional information about their products and services directly. We also may offer co-branded promotions with these business partners. If you request information about or otherwise interact with one of these promotions (such as by entering a contest), we may share your contact information with the business partners identified in the promotion.
Social Networking Services. When you choose to connect your Hulu account with a social networking account such as Facebook, you may choose to share your information and activities with other users of that particular social network. We recommend that you familiarize yourself with the policies and privacy controls of these social networking services.
Hulu's Use of Your Information to Send You Promotional Materials. By visiting the Privacy and Settings page, you may opt out of receiving alerts or email updates from Hulu promoting our site or the products or services of our business partners, or notices about your queues or subscribed content. We updated these settings on November 19, 2010. If you affirmatively instructed us not to send you promotional materials prior to that date, we maintained that preference following the change. But if you didn’t give us an affirmative instruction and want to change your preference, you can do so on the Privacy and Settings page. Regardless of your choices with respect to promotional communications and updates regarding content, we may send you administrative messages, service announcements, terms and conditions of your account, or other similar communications, without offering you the opportunity to opt out of receiving them.
Hulu's Use of Information Collected From or About You from Websites You Visit Other than Hulu.com. Hulu may store information about websites you visit in browser cookies on your computer. If you don't want Hulu to store information about websites you visit other than Hulu.com using this browser, please visit our Opt-Out Page to set your preference.
Do Not Track. Hulu supports Do Not Track browser settings. If you enable Do Not Track settings in the browser you are using, Hulu will not store or use information about websites you visit using that browser other than Hulu.com. To learn more about Do Not Track, including how to turn on Do Not Track, visit http://allaboutdnt.com/.
Opting Out of Third-Party Behavioral Advertising. If you would like information about your choices with respect to third-party behavioral advertising, please click here.
Audience Measurement. Our business partners such as content owners, including advertisers, seek to measure the performance of their content across many platforms, including the Hulu Services. Accordingly, Hulu may permit the use of proprietary measurement software that would enable third parties such as Nielsen to include your viewing on the Hulu Services in calculating measurement statistics such as TV Ratings. In connection with Nielsen specifically, you can access more information about Nielsen's measurement software and learn about your choices, including opting out, by clicking here or visiting "About Nielsen Measurement" in your application's settings for viewing on mobile devices, or clicking here for viewing on websites.
Terminating Your Hulu Account. You may terminate your Hulu account, in accordance with our Terms of Use, via the link accessible on the Account page, or here. Hulu Plus subscribers should review our Terms of Use for our policies on cancellations and refunds. Please note that, if you terminate your account, we may retain some information about you.
SECURITY, KIDS, AND OTHER INFORMATION
How does Hulu protect the information it collects from or about me?
We use reasonable physical, technical, and administrative measures to safeguard information in our possession against loss, theft and unauthorized use, disclosure, or modification. For example, passwords and other sensitive information are encrypted in transit. We also take steps to ensure that only those Hulu employees, agents, and contractors who have a legitimate business reason to obtain access to your information are granted access.
When you enter sensitive information (such as credit card information on our order forms), we encrypt that information using secure sockets layer technology (SSL), an industry standard protocol for billing transmission in order to help protect the financial information you send us.
Despite these efforts, please note that no data transmission or storage can be guaranteed to be 100% secure. We want you to feel confident using the Hulu Services but we cannot ensure or warrant the security of any information you transmit to us. Please refer to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission's website for information on how to protect yourself from identity theft. Does Hulu collect information from children under the age of 13?
Hulu prohibits registration or subscription by, and will not knowingly collect personally identifiable information from, anyone under 13 years of age. Do any special considerations apply to visitors from outside the United States?
Hulu is an online video service based in the U.S., and our offices are headquartered in the U.S. Please be aware that information you provide to us or that we obtain as a result of your use of the Hulu Services may be processed and transferred to the U.S. and be subject to U.S. law. The privacy and data protection laws in the U.S. may not be equivalent to such laws in your country of residence. By using our website, participating in any of the Hulu Services, or by providing us with your information, you consent to this collection, transfer, storage, and processing of information to and in the U.S. What happens when Hulu changes its Privacy Policy?
From time to time, we may revise this Privacy Policy to reflect industry initiatives or changes in the law or changes to the scope of the Hulu Services or for other reasons. Therefore, it is important to check the effective date of the Privacy Policy posted at http://www.hulu.com/privacy each time you visit Hulu.com or use any of the Hulu Services to ensure you are familiar with the most updated policies and practices. If we make any material revisions to this Privacy Policy, we will notify you by posting notice on Hulu.com or by sending you an email to the email address you most recently provided to us prior to such revisions taking effect. If the material revisions concern practices where we have represented that we will obtain your consent to use or disclose your personally identifiable information, we will obtain your consent before taking any action inconsistent with those representations.
COOKIES, WEB BEACONS, AND OTHER TECHNOLOGIES
What technologies are used to understand how people use the Hulu Services?
We, along with advertising technology companies and service providers that provide services to us and our business partners, use a variety of technologies to learn more about how people use the Hulu Services and the Internet. This section provides more information about some of those technologies and how they work.
Cookies. Cookies are small bits of information that are stored in separate files within your computer's Internet browser. Cookies store information about your activities on a website or other platform. For example, cookies can store your session information for easy sign-in to a website or other platform you have previously visited. They enable us to make your use of the Hulu Services more enjoyable.
We, along with advertising technology companies and service providers that provide services to us and our business partners, may display targeted advertisements based on your activities and other information collected from or about you, such as your interests and your activities online. Cookies are one way that this kind of information is stored.
We, along with advertising technology companies and service providers that provide services to us and our business partners, may also use cookies and similar technologies to compile aggregate data about you and to relate your use of the Hulu Services to information obtained from you or from reputable third parties. For example, if you have asked us to send you information about our upcoming services or promotions, data about your activities on the Hulu Services, collected using cookies, may allow us to limit the materials we send you to items that we believe will be of interest to you.
You can configure your Internet browser to warn you each time a cookie is being sent or to refuse cookies completely. However, unless you accept cookies, you will not have access to certain Hulu Services.
Some advertisements displayed in connection with the Hulu Services may also access or place cookies on your Internet browser or use other technologies provided by third-party Internet advertisers, advertising technology companies, and service providers that perform advertising-related services. For more information on this topic, please see our discussion of Third Party Advertising on Hulu.
Other local storage. We, along with advertising technology companies and service providers that provide services to us and our business partners, use other kinds of local storage, such as Local Shared Objects (also referred to as "Flash cookies") and HTML5 local storage, in connection with the Hulu Services, including the video player. Sometimes called "browser cookies," these technologies are similar to the cookies discussed above in that they are stored on your computers and can be used to store certain information about your activities and preferences, such as your volume/mute settings. However, these objects are stored in different parts of your computer from ordinary browser cookies. Many Internet browsers allow you to disable HTML5 local storage or delete information contained in HTML5 local storage using browser controls. For information about disabling or deleting information contained in Local Shared Objects, please click here. Please note that disabling these technologies may interfere with the performance and features of the video player.
Web beacons. We, along with advertising technology companies and service providers that provide services to us and our business partners, may also use technologies that communicate information from your Internet browser or the Hulu video player to a web server, including so-called "pixel tags," "web beacons," "clear GIFs," or similar means (collectively, "Pixel Tags"). Pixel Tags, which can be embedded in web pages, videos, or emails, can allow a web server to read certain types of information from your browser, check whether you have viewed a particular web page or email message, and determine, among other things, the time and date on which you viewed the Pixel Tag, the IP address of your computer, and the URL of the web page from which the Pixel Tag was viewed. Pixel Tags are used to improve your Hulu experience, including to provide you with content, including advertisements, customized to your interests.
SOCIAL NETWORKING
How does Hulu work with social networks such as Facebook?
Hulu and Social Networking. If you choose to link your Hulu account with a social networking service, Hulu and that service may share certain information about you and your activities. You may choose to share information about your activities, including what you watch on Hulu, with that social network’s users.
Connecting with Facebook While Using the Hulu Services. Facebook and Hulu have developed a process that allows you to connect your Hulu account with your Facebook account. When you connect your accounts, you authorize Hulu and Facebook to share certain information about you with each other. When you connect your accounts, Hulu will automatically access the list of all your Facebook friends and import them to Hulu. In addition, if you visit Hulu while logged into Facebook, then Facebook may be able to identify you and to associate the technical information provided by your web browser with other information that Facebook already has about you.
Sharing on Facebook. If you connect your Hulu and Facebook accounts, you may choose to share information about your activities on the Hulu Services with Facebook and its users, including publishing your watch activity to Facebook. When you choose to share information about your activities on the Hulu Services with Facebook, Hulu may send information about you to Facebook, including information about your use of the Hulu Services. Facebook may make that information visible to Facebook users in accordance with applicable law, the Facebook Data Use Policy, and your Facebook privacy settings. We recommend that you familiarize yourself with Facebook's Data Use Policy and privacy controls.
THIRD-PARTY ADVERTISING ON HULU
How does third-party advertising on Hulu impact me?
Hulu carries advertisements from other companies, often with the ability to click through to websites or properties run by these other companies.
Clicking on or Viewing Ads. When you click on or view an advertisement, the advertiser, advertising technology companies, and service providers that perform advertising-related services for us and our business partners may collect some information from or about you. The information practices of these advertisers, advertising technology companies, and service providers that perform advertising-related services are governed by their own privacy policies and are not covered by this Privacy Policy. Please be aware that Hulu does not warn you when you have chosen to click through to another website or property when using the Hulu Services. We recommend that you familiarize yourself with the privacy policies of such websites or properties to determine how they handle any information they separately collect from you.
Use of Cookies and Other Technology in Third-Party Advertising. Advertisers, advertising technology companies, and service providers that perform advertising-related services for us and our business partners may use cookies, web beacons, and other technologies to collect information from or about you in order to tailor advertisements, measure advertising effectiveness, and enable other enhancements. This information includes your use of the Hulu Services, websites you visited, advertisements you viewed, and your other activities online. The information practices of these advertisers, advertising technology companies, and service providers that perform advertising-related services are governed by their own privacy policies and are not covered by this Privacy Policy.
Information Shared with Advertisers and Advertising-Related Service Providers. Hulu may share the information collected from or about you in aggregated or non-personally identifiable forms with advertisers and service providers that perform advertising-related services for us and our business partners in order to tailor advertisements, measure advertising effectiveness, and enable other enhancements. This information includes your use of the Hulu Services, websites you visited, advertisements you viewed, and your other activities online. However, our agreements with these advertisers and service providers that perform advertising-related services limit the types of information shared with these companies and how they may use it.
Opting Out of Third-Party Behavioral Advertising. Some of these advertisers, advertising technology companies, and service providers that perform advertising-related services for us and our business partners may be members of the Network Advertising Initiative ("NAI"), a cooperative of online marketing companies that offers a centralized tool for opting out of behavioral advertising delivered by each of its member companies. If you would like to obtain more information about the NAI and make choices about their members’ use of your information, please click here. Some of the third parties that collect information on the Hulu Services in order to provide more relevant advertising to you participate in the Self-Regulatory Program for Online Behavioral Advertising. This program offers a single location where users can make choices about the use of their information for ad targeting. To learn more, please click here.
QUESTIONS
Who can I contact if I have concerns about this Privacy Policy?
If you have concerns regarding this Privacy Policy, including if you believe that Hulu may have incorrect information for you, you may email us at privacy@hulu.com. You may also contact us by mail at: Attention: Legal Department
Hulu, LLC
2500 Broadway, 2nd Floor
Santa Monica, CA 90404 The privacy@hulu.com email address is used only for communications about our Privacy Policy. If you have general questions about the Hulu Services, please contact us through the "Contact Us" page on Hulu.com.
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