At Etsy, we value our community. You trust us with your information, and we’re serious about that responsibility. We believe in transparency, and we’re committed to being upfront about our privacy practices, including how we treat personal information we collect or receive. We know you care about your privacy, too, so we provide settings that allow you to control how certain information is used on Etsy. This policy explains our privacy practices for Etsy.com and services provided by Etsy, Inc. (“Etsy”).
Current version published: February 7, 2012
Verified Best Practices
Etsy has been awarded TRUSTe's Privacy Seal. This signifies our privacy policy and practices have been reviewed for compliance with TRUSTe's program requirements, including transparency, accountability and choice regarding the collection and use of your personal information. If you have questions or concerns regarding our privacy policy or practices, please contact us at legal@etsy.com. If you are not satisfied with our response you can contact TRUSTe. The TRUSTe program covers only information that is collected through Etsy.com and does not cover information that may be collected through our mobile applications.
Etsy complies with the US - EU & US - Swiss Safe Harbor Frameworks as set forth by the US Department of Commerce regarding the collection, use and retention of personal data from the European Union and Switzerland.
Information Collected or Received
Etsy will not sell or disclose your name, email address or other personal information to third parties without your explicit consent, except as specified in this policy.
As an Etsy member you are required to provide a valid email address at registration and choose a username or alias that may represent your identity on Etsy.
Depending on which services you choose to use, Etsy may require additional information, such as a shop name, billing information (including billing address, phone number, credit card information), a mobile telephone number, a physical mailing address, and/or payment information. As a shop owner if you choose to enable direct checkout, Etsy may require information such as your social security number or tax ID, date of birth, bank account information and/or credit card information in order to verify your identity and provide this service to you.
You may optionally choose to provide your full name and other personal information (such as birthday, gender, location) to be publicly displayed in connection to your account and activity.
Your username, Etsy ID or alias is publicly displayed and connected to your Etsy activity. Other people may see your date joined, feedback, ratings, profile information, items listed for sale, shop pages, sold item listings, and comments in community spaces.
Etsy automatically receives and records some information from your browser when you visit the site, such as your IP address, cookies and data about which pages you visit on the site through the use of log files provided by our third-party tracking-utility partners. This information helps us analyze and understand how the site works for members and visitors.
Some members or visitors may connect to or register an Etsy account using an external third-party application, such as Facebook, or an app developed using the Etsy API. Etsy may receive some data from those connected third-party applications. Connecting your Etsy account to third-party applications or services is optional, and when you connect your account to an external app, you will be given the opportunity to grant permission. You can revoke your permission under your Etsy account settings.
Etsy uses the information described in this policy to provide and improve our services and products, for billing, for identification and authentication purposes, to contact members or interested parties, and for general research and aggregate reporting.
Etsy’s Terms of Use require all account owners to be at least 18 years of age (or have the permission and supervision of a responsible parent or legal guardian), therefore, this policy does not discuss use of our site or services by minors.
Choice & Control
We know members of our community value having control over their own information, and therefore Etsy gives you the choice of providing, editing or removing certain information, as well as choice over how we contact you.
You may change or correct your Etsy account information (except your username) at any time. You may remove certain optional information you no longer wish to be publicly visible, such as your full name.
For various reasons, Etsy may contact you about our services or your activity. Some of these messages are required, service-related messages for members. Other messages are not required, and you can control which optional messages you choose to receive by changing your settings in your account. Learn more in the Messages from Etsy section of this policy.
If you have optionally connected your account to an external, third-party application, such as Facebook, or an app developed using the Etsy API, you can remove permission for the app by changing your account settings.
If you no longer wish to use Etsy’s services or receive service-related messages, then you may close your account. Learn how to close your account.
Findability
Etsy offers a contact-importer feature to help you identify people you know on Etsy and invite others to join. You may connect directly with your email service provider to import your contacts to Etsy; we do not retain the login information for your email service. You may be able to search for people you know by email address or phone number on the site or by connecting to your mobile phone's contact list via a mobile application. Finding your friends on Etsy helps you connect with them in community features like Etsy Circles. When you add contacts to your Etsy Circle, they will automatically receive an email notification (unless a member has opted-out of receiving this type of email). If you do not want your contacts to be able to find you on Etsy through your email address or phone number, you may opt-out through your account settings. If you do not wish to be located on Etsy via your full name, you may remove your name from your public account information. It is not possible to opt-out of being found via your username.
Messages from Etsy
On occasion, Etsy will send you messages. The default, required form of communication is email. If you sign up for SMS notifications, Etsy may also contact you by text message when applicable. In some situations, Etsy may send you physical mail; you can decline physical mail from Etsy in your account settings.
Some messages from Etsy are service-related and required for members. Examples of service-related messages include, but are not limited to: a welcome/confirmation email when you register your account, notification of an order, or correspondence with Etsy’s support team. These messages are not promotional in nature. You may not opt-out of receiving service-related messages from Etsy, unless you close your account.
As a member, Etsy may also send you messages related to certain features on the site or your activity. Etsy may also send you news or updates about changes to our site or services. By default, members will receive these messages via email, but you may choose to opt-out of getting certain emails under your account settings.
Etsy offers optional email newsletters. You must opt-in or subscribe to begin receiving newsletters, and subscription is available to both members and non-members. Members may subscribe or unsubscribe from optional newsletters under your account settings or by following the instructions contained in the newsletter emails. Non-members may subscribe by providing an email address, which will only be used by Etsy for these newsletters. Non-members may unsubscribe from newsletters by following the instructions contained in the newsletter emails.
Members may share with their friends links to Etsy using a convenient “Email” feature on certain pages. If you choose to use this share by email feature, Etsy will ask for the information needed to send the message, such as your friend's email address. Etsy will then automatically send your friend an email, inviting your friend to visit the site. We won’t use your friend’s email address for any other purpose. Your friend may opt-out of receiving future similar sharing emails from Etsy by following the instructions in the email.
A contact-importer feature is available to help you locate and connect with your friends and contacts who may be members of Etsy. If someone in your contact list is not already a member, you may invite them to join Etsy. You may preview the invitation before Etsy generates and sends it. Recipients of invitations may opt out of receiving future invitations by following instructions in the invitation message.
Community
Etsy is both a marketplace and a community. We offer several features that allow members to connect and communicate in public or semi-public spaces, such as Forums, Teams, Circles and multimedia chat events. Please use common sense and good judgement when posting in these community spaces or sharing your personal information with others on Etsy. Be aware that any personal information you submit there can be read, collected, or used by others, or could be used to send you unsolicited messages. Etsy generally does not remove content from community spaces, and your posts may remain public after your account is closed. You are responsible for the personal information you choose to post in community spaces on Etsy.
Another Etsy member may add you to their Etsy Circle to receive updates about your public site activity (like public Treasury lists and public Favorites). You may choose to make certain activities private in your account settings. After a member has added you to their Circle, you have the option to block that member if you do not wish to share your updates with that specific person.
Information Sharing & Disclosure
We want to respect your privacy. Etsy will not sell or disclose your name, email address or other personal information to third parties without your explicit consent, except as specified in this policy.
Etsy limits access to your personal information to employees who we believe reasonably need to come into contact with that information to provide products or services to you or in order to do their jobs.
As part of the buying and selling process, Etsy will share information between the two members involved in the transaction. You may obtain another Etsy member's email address, shipping address, payment information, and/or other information. As described in Etsy's Terms of Use, you have a limited license to use this information only for Etsy-related communications or for Etsy-facilitated transactions. Etsy has not granted you a license to use the information for unsolicited commercial messages. Without express consent from that person, you must not add any Etsy member to your email or physical mailing list.
Etsy may release your personal information to a third-party in order comply with a subpoena or other similar legal procedure, or when we believe in good faith that such disclosure is necessary to comply with the law; prevent imminent physical harm or financial loss; or investigate or take action regarding illegal activities, suspected fraud, or violations of Etsy's Terms of Use. We may disclose personally identifiable information to parties in compliance with our Copyright and Intellectual Property Policy, as we in our sole discretion believe necessary or appropriate in connection with an investigation of fraud, intellectual property infringement, piracy, or other unlawful activity. In such events, Etsy may disclose name, address, country, phone number, email address and company name.
Etsy is affiliated with a variety of businesses and works closely with them. These businesses may offer promotions or sell items or services to you through Etsy’s services. Etsy may also provide services or sell products jointly with affiliated businesses. Due to the nature of our business model, when an affiliated business is associated with your transaction, we may share information that is related to such transaction with that affiliated business. Etsy may share aggregated demographic information with business partners.
Etsy employs other companies and people to perform tasks on our behalf, and we need to share your information with them to provide products and services to you. Examples include but are not limited to fulfilling orders, processing payments, handling billing disputes and collections, analyzing data, providing marketing assistance and providing customer service. Etsy may partner with third-party services for fraud prevention and/or identity verification.
In some cases, Etsy may choose to buy or sell assets. In these types of transactions, member information is typically one of the business assets that is transferred. Etsy will transfer information about you if Etsy is acquired by or merged with another company. In this event, Etsy will notify you by email or by putting a prominent notice on the site before information about you is transferred and becomes subject to a different privacy policy.
When you a load a page on Etsy that has a social plug-in from a third-party site or service, such as a Like or Send button, you are also loading content from that third-party site. That site may request cookies directly from your browser. These interactions are subject to the privacy policy of the third-party site.
We can only speak for ourselves; this policy does not apply to the practices of third parties that Etsy does not own or control, or individuals that Etsy does not employ or manage. If you provide your information to others on Etsy or throughout the Internet, different rules may apply to the use or disclosure of the information you provide to them. Etsy does not control the privacy policies of third parties, and you are subject to the privacy policies of those third parties where applicable. Etsy is not responsible for the privacy or security practices of other websites on the Internet, even those linked to or from the Etsy site. We encourage you to ask questions before you disclose your personal information to others.
Cookies & Tracking Technologies
Etsy uses a variety of technologies to help us better understand how people use our site and services.
A cookie is a small data file sent from a web site to your browser that is stored on your computer's hard drive. Etsy uses our own cookies for a number of purposes, including to access your information when you sign in; keep track of preferences you specify; display the most appropriate content based on your interests and activity on Etsy; estimate and report Etsy's total audience size and traffic; conduct research to improve our content and services. You can configure your browser's settings to reflect your preference to accept or reject cookies. If you reject all cookies, you will not be able to take full advantage of Etsy's services.
We employ a software technology called clear gifs (a.k.a. web beacons or web bugs) to help us better manage content on our site by informing us what content is effective. Clear gifs are tiny graphics with a unique identifier similar in function to cookies, and are used to track the online movements of web users. In contrast to cookies, which are stored on a user's computer hard drive, clear gifs are embedded invisibly on web pages and are about the size of the period at the end of this sentence. We do not tie the information gathered by clear gifs to your personally identifiable information.
We use Flash cookies (a.k.a local shared objects or LSOs) to store some of your viewing preferences on our site. Flash cookies are used to collect and store information, but differ from browser cookies in the amount, type and manner in which data is stored. Etsy does not tie the information gathered by Flash cookies to your personally identifiable information.
Etsy may partner with third-party services who may use various tracking technologies, such as browser cookies or Flash cookies, to provide certain services or features. These technologies allow a partner to recognize your computer each time you visit Etsy, but do not allow access to personally identifiable information from Etsy. Etsy does not have access or control over these third-party technologies, and they are not covered by our privacy statement.
Security
The security of your personal information is important to us. Your Etsy account information is protected by a password. It is important that you protect against unauthorized access of your account and information by choosing your password carefully, and keeping your password and computer secure by signing out after using our services. Etsy encrypts sensitive information (such as credit card number) using secure socket layer technology (SSL). Etsy follows generally accepted industry standards to protect the personal information submitted to us, both during transmission and once Etsy receives it. No method of transmission over the Internet, or method of electronic storage, is 100% secure. Therefore, while we strive to use commercially acceptable means to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee its absolute security.
Data Retention
Etsy will retain your information for as long as your account is active or as needed to provide you services. If you no longer want Etsy to use your information to provide you services, you may close your account. Etsy will retain and use your information as necessary to comply with our legal obligations, resolve disputes, and enforce our agreements.
Privacy Policy Changes
Etsy reserves the right to modify this privacy statement at any time, so please review it periodically. We’ll communicate changes by posting a notice on the site. If we make material changes to this policy you will be notified here, by email, or other places Etsy deems appropriate.
Contact Etsy
If you have questions or suggestions you can contact Etsy’s support team via our Help site, by sending an email to legal@etsy.com, or writing to: Etsy Support Team - Privacy Policy; 55 Washington Street, Suite 512; Brooklyn, NY 11201; telephone: (718) 855-7955.