Privacy Policy

Updated: July 10, 2024

Introduction
TED is a global community, welcoming people from every discipline and culture who seek a deeper understanding of the world. While gathering information about the people who use TED.com, our mobile apps, platforms and related sites (collectively referred to as “TED Sites”), we take your privacy very seriously and make every effort to safeguard your personal data. This privacy policy is intended to inform you of what information we collect, how this information is used and what steps we take to protect this information, as well as providing you a process to update, change or delete your personal data.

By using TED Sites, you agree to our privacy policy. If you wish to update your personal information or any specific consent that you have provided to TED on any of TED Sites, please contact TED at [email protected].

Privacy policy sections

What information we collect
How we use your data
Steps we take to protect your privacy
Our GDPR update

What information we collect

We collect three (3) types of information:

Personal information that you provide directly to us when you create an account, sign up with a subscription to TED, and save items to your profile or submit information through a form based on a specific request or purpose.
Data collected automatically such as tracking information, IP addresses or other data related to usage on TED Sites.
Cookies, to help us understand what areas of TED Sites are most useful and interesting to our audience.

We collect some information to help customize your experience based on your previous activities on TED.com.

Information you provide directly to us

Account information

At account registration, you provide personal information, such as your name, email address and password, and you have the option to provide other information. If you create an account through a user profile (such as Facebook, or other social media sites), then your information is sent from your profile to use in accordance with our privacy policy. We also collect information on your site activity when you favorite, save or watch talks.

We collect basic information you provide when you create a TED.com account or register for a conference. It's secure, and we'll never sell it.

Conference information

When required for TED Conference registration, we collect and process your personal information including your name, address, telephone number and email address, and other preferences such as profile, photos, workshop and activity choices. At times, you may be asked to provide additional information, such as payment to provide under a secure conference registration process. When you provide your credit card number, it will only be shared with verified third parties who perform tasks required to complete the purchase transaction, and only the last four digits will be stored.

We need payment info to complete purchases, but we don't store credit cards except the last four digits.

TED online events

When using TED’s online event platform, we collect, process and in some cases display your personal information such as your TED profile text, badge information and photo to highlight, promote or share activity with those also participating in the event. TED may share elements of information with others in the TED community, partners, or future attendees to explain the nature of the different types of interactions that attendees can have in attending a virtual TED program.

TED shares some personal information collected during a virtual TED event with others to highlight, share and promote the event with others.

Masterclass information

When required for TED Masterclass, we collect and process your personal information including your name, address, telephone number, email address and other preferences, such as profile information, mobile app preferences, activity and logged information and details, such as prompts and notes collected within the Masterclass mobile app and/or your corresponding TED.com account. No personal payment information is collected, as it is only provided directly to the platform provider for TED Masterclass for consumers and via your organization for TED Masterclass for organizations.

This describes how TED collects information via our TED Masterclass app, available via App Store or Google play. TED may use the information from the TED account and the TED masterclass app combined to understand its users.

Subscriber information

When signing up as a subscriber to TED’s ad-free video content in TED’s iOS app, TED may collect your personal information to manage, store and process subscriber information, including your name, email address and if provided, your TED subscriber ID. No personal payment information is collected, as it is only provided directly to the platform provider for TED subscriptions where such subscriptions are available. TED does not collect, process or store any personal information from subscribers of TED ad-free video content through the iOS app unless a user contacts TED directly via support.

This describes how TED collects information via our subscribers membership, available via App Store or other third party platforms. TED may use the information to understand its users and to provide information about TED content and its community.

Member information

When signing up as a member, you agree to donate the specified amount on TED.com. By making the donation, TED processes your payment through a secured third party provider and does not collect or store your payment information. We collect your personal information to manage, store and process member information, including your name and amount of donation so that we can provide a receipt of any donations above $250.00 and send you member related information such as benefits and virtual events. In addition, we may provide your personal information such as emails to selected trusted partners to help us provide the benefits and specified options that are available to members, such as Amazon, Zoom, Fundraise Up and/or other trusted providers that are provided personal information by TED for membership purposes. Privacy terms for their sites are available and are linked where indicated for further review.

This describes how TED collects information via our member donation page. TED may use the information to understand its members and to provide information about membership benefits.

Data research

TED may conduct social science research from time to time related to an interesting idea, topic or concept that TED wishes to explore further, by using information provided directly through surveys or questionnaires. TED’s use of any personal information provided in this manner will be described to you at the time of the request. Your information will not be sold and TED will use the data solely for research purposes which may include sharing collected data with trusted third parties, such as academic researchers that work with TED on these projects. The data collected during research projects may be published in aggregate/anonymous form by TED and/or research partners. In these cases, no personally identifying information will be included.

Any personal information you provide for research purposes will not be sold and will be used for purposes of exploring an idea, topic or concept that TED is researching. Any additional use will be done only with explicit permission.

Comments and other public activities

We offer you opportunities to engage in public activities on TED.com. "Public activities" are any actions you take on TED Sites that are designed to be visible to other users -- including comments, recommendations and ratings. Your account is public by default. If you choose to engage in public activities, any personal information you upload may be read, collected or used by third parties. Please refer to the Community Guidelines about how to best take advantage of our interactive sites.

We are not responsible for any personally identifiable information you choose to submit in public forums. Information shared here may be used by others, potentially to send you unsolicited messages. If publicly posted information is not consistent with our terms of use, your content may be removed. For more information, see the TED.com Terms of Use.

Any personal information you post publicly is visible to all users. Be mindful of what you share, as we are not responsible for what happens with this information.

Use of Mighty Networks community sites

While on community sites, (such as one powered by Mighty Networks), TED provides a digital network where your postings, comments, or submissions on that site will be visible to other users. Please refer to the Mighty Networks privacy policy to adjust your settings. If you post within that community, any personal information you upload may be read, collected or used by other community members. Please refer to the About section within the site directly for additional guidelines and which information is shared or who to reach out to for questions.

TED provides community sites to help our members connect in ways that are engaging but use a third party platform, such as Mighty Networks. This describes how it works and that their privacy policy will apply when posting within that network.

Non-personal data collected automatically

Tracking information for our site

This type of information relates to how many views are counted for each TED Talk and how many times TED Talks are saved or favorited. Other areas of the site automatically stores non-personal information about the sites’ usage, popularity, and positive or negative impact. We perform statistical analyses of users of the site, and their viewing and participation patterns, for product development purposes and to generally inform advertisers about the nature of our audience.

We keep track of how often our audience engages with TED and do not share detailed contact information with our advertisers.

Device data

We may collect non-personal information about the computer, mobile device or other device you use to access TED Sites, such as IP address, geolocation information, unique device identifiers, browser type, browser language and other preferences automatically collected. Also, if using our TED Masterclass app, other personal information, including preferences and uploaded data may be collected and reviewed by TED to understand how you use the app.

We use non-personal information to help us understand how our audience views TED.

Data collected with cookies

Privacy Preferences

TED provides you the ability to change your privacy settings via Privacy Preferences to adjust the types of cookies that are collected by TED.com. While this may impact your user experience, you do have the option of turning certain cookies off.

Tracking usage

We use various technologies, such as Sailthru, Mixpanel and Google Analytics cookies, to help manage TED offerings, track the use of the content we provide, understand how our audiences are using our TED offerings, and to better personalize them. Another tool used in conjunction with cookies relates to the use of pixels, which are used on specific landing pages on TED.com to identify our users to help advertise on third party sites such as Facebook and LinkedIn to help grow our community.

To help improve site performance, TED also generates first-party cookies (which are based on TED’s use of analytic proxies and self-hosted tracking scripts) to track usage on our site. Collectively, the technologies we use across TED offerings include the list below.

standard web analytics information
behavioral advertising which allows third parties to collect cookies to help TED advertise offerings more efficiently
aggregated data about email click-through rates and video viewing
data collected through HTML cookies, flash cookies, web beacons and similar technologies
demographics and other details to help us customize our sites based on your preferences
data on view counts and video search functionality Cookies provide a mechanism for us to understand how you use the site over time so that we can provide you the best user experience according to your expressed preferences. We do not sell this information to any third party but may provide information to partners that assist us in updating, managing or maintaining our websites.

We use cookies to customize your experience. We do not sell data collected from cookies to any third party, but may provide information to partners to help us update and maintain our website.

Location information

We may collect and use your location data (such as your country) to provide a tailored, language-specific experience for your region, but we don’t collect any geolocation-specific data from you or your device. You can change the settings on your computer or mobile device to prevent your location data from being shared. If you wish to opt-out of tracking and cookies, please manage your privacy settings on your browser, or select other ways to turn off cookies and/or ad features.

We collect information about your location to provide you with the most localized experience possible, but never collect data from your device.

How we use your data

We use your data for limited purposes and do not sell it to any third parties. Specific uses are defined below.

TED processes information differently depending on how a user submits the information through our TED Sites. For questions, please email [email protected]

Learning about our Community

We may use the information provided by the TED Community to conduct research with trusted partners to explore ways to enrich fundraising and philanthropic efforts, such as The Audacious Project, Countdown, and other initiatives supported by donor contributions.

Providing Requested Services

We may use the data to fulfill your requests for services and information. For example, using your contact information to respond to your customer service requests, or to enable registration for one of our conferences.

Communication

We use data we collect to send email newsletters, or information about conferences and TED events (if you have opted in for this information) as well as enabling TED to invite users to provide feedback on their user experience on TED offerings. We may also use the data to send you email communications, such as information about your account or updates to the site. In addition, if you subscribe to any email newsletters, please note we will send you the newsletter you have signed up for and will personalize your experience on TED’s site based on your preferences. You will also have the option to unsubscribe at any time.

Enforcement

We may use the data to prevent illegal activities, to enforce the TED.com Terms of Use, or as otherwise required by law.

Personalization

TED connects Google Analytics client ID data with TED user ID data so that we can create a more personalized experience for users, even when not logged in. TED also uses Sailthru to help us understand preferences with respect to TED courses, podcasts, blog articles, TED talks, and other available content to determine what is most relevant to users based on their prior behavior, both individually and collectively, to help gauge which content is most relevant while accessing TED content on TED.com, the TED app, or retrieving via email or other channels.

Behavioral Advertising

In order to help TED better market on third party platforms, TED works with third parties to collect information about your use of our website so that TED can provide advertising about TED’s offerings (such as products and services) tailored to your interests, including free educational resources and content recommendations. That advertising may appear either on our website, on our apps, or on other websites.

TED Legitimate Business Purposes

There are certain requirements issued by General Data Protection Regulation that permits TED to process information as long as we meet certain criteria. Some of the processing occurs behind the scenes and in order to meet these requirements, TED has evaluated the legitimate interest exception and based on its criteria, TED has determined that we meet the exception as it relates to processing your data based on the relationship between you and TED. To ensure you are provided with information that benefits you, the TED community and our broader society, the personal information you submit to TED is processed to maintain our relationship and used to offer you access to a range of ideas worth sharing.

Program Specific Uses

In addition to the uses identified above, we may use your personal information for any other purposes disclosed to you at the time we collect your data or pursuant to your consent, such as applications for various TED programs, nomination forms and requests submitted by users including as defined below.