What personally identifiable information does whatthefuck.com collect from me?

whatthefuck.com collects information in several ways from different parts of our network of web sites.

Some personal information is gathered when you register. During registration, whatthefuck.com asks for your name, email address, birth date, gender, zip code, occupation and personal information. The more information you volunteer (and the more accurate it is), the better we are able to customize your experience. Once you register you are no longer anonymous to whatthefuck.com - you are given a user ID and are able to take full advantage of whatthefuck.com's... features. In addition to registration we may ask you for personal information at other times, including (but not limited to) when you enter a sweepstakes, contest or promotion sponsored by whatthefuck.com and/or any partners; when you make a purchase using whatthefuck.com; when you sign up for a web site; and when you report a problem with one of our sites or services. If you contact whatthefuck.com we may keep a record of that correspondence. whatthefuck.com also occasionally asks users to complete surveys that we use for research purposes. Wherever whatthefuck.com collects personal information we make an effort to include a link to this Privacy Policy on that page.



What are cookies and how does whatthefuck.com use them?

As part of offering and providing customizable and personalized services, whatthefuck.com uses cookies to store and sometimes track information about you. A cookie is a small amount of data that is sent to your browser from a web server and stored on your computer's hard drive. All sites on whatthefuck.com where you are prompted to log-in or that are customizable require that you accept cookies. (See "What are my choices regarding collection, use and distribution of my information?" for more information on cookies.) Generally, we use cookies to:

(1) Estimate our audience size. Each browser accessing whatthefuck.com is given a unique cookie which is then used to determine the extent of repeat usage, usage by a registered user versus by an unregistered user, and to help target advertisements based on user interests and behavior.
(2) Track your progress and number of entries in some of our promotions, sweepstakes and contests. When a whatthefuck.com-hosted promotion uses cookies, the information written to the cookie indicates the player's progress through the promotion, and may be used to track entries, submissions, and status in prize drawings.
(3) Measure certain traffic patterns, which areas of whatthefuck.com's site you have visited, and your visiting patterns in the aggregate. We use this research to understand how our users' habits are similar or different from one another so that we can make each new experience on whatthefuck.com a better one. We may use this information to better personalize the content, banners, and promotions that you and other users may see on our site. whatthefuck.com also collects IP addresses for system administration and to report aggregate information to our advertisers. In addition, whatthefuck.com Mail includes IP addresses in outgoing mail message headers.



How does whatthefuck.com use my information?

whatthefuck.com's primary goal in collecting personal information is to provide you, the user, with a customized experience on our network of sites. This includes personalization services, interactive communications, online shopping and many other types of services, most of which are completely free to you. In order to provide services free of charge, we display advertisements. By knowing a little about you, whatthefuck.com is able to deliver more relevant advertisements and content, and hence better service, to you. In our role of delivering targeted advertisements, whatthefuck.com plays the middleman. Advertisers give us an advertisement and tell us the type of audience they want to reach (for example, males over 35 years old). whatthefuck.com takes the advertisement and displays it to users meeting that criteria. In this process, the advertiser never has access to individual account information. Only whatthefuck.com has access to individuals' accounts. This kind of advertisement targeting is done with banner ads, if ever. You will only receive special offers via email from whatthefuck.com if you have indicated in your account preferences that you would like to receive them. You can change your account preferences at any time.
whatthefuck.com does research on our users' demographics, interests, and behavior based on the information provided to us upon registration, during a promotion, from our server log files or from surveys. We do this to better understand and serve our users. This research is compiled and analyzed on an aggregated basis. whatthefuck.com may share this aggregated data with advertisers or business partners.



Who is collecting information?

When you are on a whatthefuck.com site and are asked for personal information, you are sharing that information with whatthefuck.com alone, unless it is specifically stated otherwise. If data is being collected and/or maintained by any company other than whatthefuck.com, you will be notified prior to the time of the data collection or transfer. If you do not want your data to be shared, you can choose not to allow the transfer by not using that particular service. Promotions that run on whatthefuck.com may be sponsored by companies other than whatthefuck.com or may be cosponsored by whatthefuck.com and another company. Some or all data collected during a promotion may be shared with the sponsor. If data will be shared, you will be notified prior to the time of data collection or transfer. You can decide not to participate in the promotion if you don't want your data to be shared. Please be aware that whatthefuck.com advertisers or web sites that have links on our site may collect personally identifiable information about you. The information practices of those web sites linked to whatthefuck.com are not covered by this privacy statement.



With whom does whatthefuck.com share my information?

As a general rule, whatthefuck.com will not disclose any of your personally identifiable information except when we have your permission or under special circumstances, such as when we believe in good faith that the law requires it or under the circumstances described below. The following describes some of the ways that your information may be disclosed.

Business Partners & Sponsors: whatthefuck.com may disclose your personal information to business partners or sponsors, but this is specifically described to you prior to data collection or prior to transferring the data. Details of shared use can be found in specific Terms of Service or Use Agreements, and sweepstakes and promotions rules. Some or all data collected during a whatthefuck.com promotion may be shared with a sponsor. If personally identifying data about you will be shared, we will tell you before we collect or transfer the data.
Many promotions offer opportunities to request additional information from sponsors. By requesting more information, you give whatthefuck.com permission to transfer your personal information to the sponsor so they can fulfill your request. In many instances, only your email address will be shared. If more information will be shared with the sponsor, you will be notified prior to the transfer.
whatthefuck.com shopping: If you make a purchase from whatthefuck.com, the information obtained during your visit to those stores, and the information you give such as your credit card number and contact information, is provided to the merchants. This is to enable transactions to take place.
Third Party Data & Data in the Aggregate: Under confidentiality agreements, whatthefuck.com may match user information with third party data. Also, whatthefuck.com discloses aggregated user statistics (for example, 45% of our users are female) in order to describe our services to prospective partners, advertisers, and other third parties, and for other lawful purposes. Other: whatthefuck.com may also disclose account information in special cases when we have reason to believe that disclosing this information is necessary to identify, contact or bring legal action against someone who may be violating whatthefuck.com's Terms of Service or may be causing injury to or interference with (either intentionally or unintentionally) whatthefuck.com's rights or property, other whatthefuck.com users, or anyone else that could be harmed by such activities. whatthefuck.com may disclose or access account information when we believe in good faith that the law requires it and for administrative and other purposes that we deem necessary to maintain, service, and improve our products and services.



What are my choices regarding collection, use, and distribution of my information?

whatthefuck.com may, from time to time, send you email regarding our products and services. In addition, if you indicated upon registration that you are interested in receiving offers or information from whatthefuck.com and our partners, we may occasionally send you direct mail about products and services that we feel may be of interest to you. Only whatthefuck.com (or agents working on behalf of whatthefuck.com and under confidentiality agreements) will send you these direct mailings and only if you indicated that you do not object to these offers. If you do not want to receive such mailings, simply tell us when you give us your personal information. Or, at any time you can easily edit your whatthefuck.com Account Information to no longer receive such offers and mailings. You will need your whatthefuck.com ID and Password in order to access your whatthefuck.com Account Information.
On some types of whatthefuck.com promotions, we will ask for your email address in order to update you on your score, entries, and status in prize drawings. When you participate in these types of promotions, you automatically receive promotion-related email, unless you choose the no-email option that some promotions offer. Occasionally these promotion-related email messages may include targeted advertisements.
You also have choices with respect to cookies. By modifying your browser preferences, you have the choice to accept all cookies, to be notified when a cookie is set, or to reject all cookies. If you choose to reject all cookies you will be unable to use those whatthefuck.com services that require registration in order to participate.



What is whatthefuck.com's policy on allowing me to update, correct, or delete my personally identifiable information?

You may edit your whatthefuck.com Account Information and your public whatthefuck.com Profile at any time by using your whatthefuck.com ID and password. If you have forgotten your password, pleaserequest a new password. For all other problems signing in to whatthefuck.com, please click here and complete this form.
Your whatthefuck.com account can be deleted or deactivated, but doing so will result in not being able to access any members-only area of the whatthefuck.com network, including your whatthefuck.com email.