User Notices of The Seattle Times Company

Privacy Policy

Last Updated: July 9, 2026

We are strongly committed to letting you know how we will collect and use your personal information. The policies below are applicable to Seattle Times Company network of websites, including the seattletimes.com, company.seattletimes.com, and the various NW classified websites (including any versions optimized for viewing on a wireless or tablet device); all email newsletters published or distributed by The Seattle Times; all apps published by The Seattle Times; and all other interactive features, services, and communications provided by The Seattle Times, including the Services as such term is defined in the Terms of Service (“Sites”), however accessed and/or used, that are operated by us, made available by us, or produced and maintained by Seattle Times Company (collectively “The Seattle Times” or “we”, “us”, or “our”). We have established this privacy policy (“Privacy Policy”) to let you know the kinds of personal information we may gather during your visit to these Sites, why we gather your information, what we use your personal information for, when we might disclose your personal information, and how you can manage your personal information.

Please be advised that the practices described in this Privacy Policy apply only to information gathered online at our Sites. It does not apply to information that you may submit to us offline, or to Sites maintained by other companies or organizations to which we may link or who may link to us.

By visiting our Sites, you are accepting the practices described in our Privacy Policy. If you do not agree to the terms of this Privacy Policy, please do not use the Sites. We reserve the right to modify or amend the terms of our Privacy Policy from time to time without notice. Your continued use of our Sites following the posting of changes to these terms will mean you accept those changes. If we intend to apply the modifications or amendments to this Privacy Policy retroactively or to personal information already in our possession, we will provide you with notice of the modifications or amendments.

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or don't see your concerns addressed here, you should contact us by email at webmaster@seattletimes.com or use one of the other contact methods listed below.

Table of Contents

Controllers of Personal Information

Any personal information provided to or to be gathered by The Seattle Times is controlled primarily by Seattle Times Company, 221 Yale Ave N Suite 500, Seattle, WA 98109.

What Information About Me Is Collected and Stored?

We collect two basic types of information from you in conjunction with your use of the Sites, personal information and non-personal information. Personal information is information that you may supply to us, as described more fully below, i.e., when you subscribe, place an order, complete a survey, register for a Site or any part thereof, enter a contest, upload content, participate in a community, or provide your e-mail address. Personal information is any information that can individually identify you and includes, among other things, your name, e-mail address, telephone number, postal address, credit card, billing and contact information. Non-personal information includes information that does not personally identify you, but it may include tracking and usage information about your location, demographics, use of the Sites and the Internet.

  • Personal Information

    As a general matter, you can browse the Sites without submitting your personal information to us. However, there are a number of circumstances in which you may supply us with your personal information. The following lists the most common ways in which we may collect your personal information.

    • Registration for an account on the Sites
    • Sign up to receive e-mail newsletters or e-mail alerts from us
    • Sign up to receive e-mail offers from The Seattle Times or The Seattle Times partners
    • Request for customer service or other assistance
    • Participation in surveys, panels, or market research
    • Participation in special events and promotions
    • Purchases on the Sites, including subscriptions to The Seattle Times publications and services
    • Posting a resume on the Sites
    • Placing an order for online or print classified advertisements
    • Entry in contests or sweepstakes
    • Participation on social media accounts involving The Seattle Times, our Sites and our brands
    • Participation in communities, chat rooms and comment threads, other fora, and other interactive services
    • Submission of user generated content on any part of the Sites that permit it
    • Submission of a job application
    • Any other place on the Sites where you knowingly volunteer personal information

  • Collection of Personal Information From or Through Social Media Sites

    When you interact with any The Seattle Times property page or account on a social media platform, such as Facebook, Instagram, X (formerly known as Twitter), TikTok, LinkedIn, YouTube, or Pinterest, we may collect the personal information that you make available to us on that page or account including your account ID or “handle.” However, we will comply with the privacy policies of the corresponding social media platform and we will only collect and store such personal information that we are permitted to collect by these social media platforms. If you choose to link or login to your The Seattle Times account with or through a social networking service, The Seattle Times and that service may disclose certain information about you and your activities. With your consent, we also may disclose information about your activities, including what you view on the Sites, with that social network's users.

  • Non-Personal Information

    In addition, when you interact with the Sites, we may collect certain information that does not identify you individually and our servers may automatically keep an activity log of your use of our Sites (“Non-Personal Information”). Generally, we collect and store the following categories of Non-Personal Information:

    • Demographic data such as age, gender, and five digit zip code as part of collecting personal information
    • Neighborhood information
    • Device information about your computer, mobile device, or other device that you use to access the Sites. This information may include IP address, geolocation information, unique device identifiers, browser type, browser language, and other transactional information.
    • Usage information about your use of the Sites. This information includes a reading history of the pages you view. We use this information to provide you a more customized experience on the Sites.
    • Additional “traffic data” such as time of access, date of access, software crash reports, session identification number, access times, and referring website addresses.
    • Your search terms and search results.
    • Other information regarding your use of the Sites.
    • Information collected through cookies, tags, pixels, and similar technologies. This information includes browsing activity on our Sites and across third-party websites and applications, along with behavioral and contextual signals used to develop anonymous audience personas for advertising and analytics purposes.

  • Collection of Your Source IP Address/Location Information

    We collect and store your device's source IP address which may disclose the location of your device at the time you access the Sites. Advertisements and certain content may be directed to you as a result of this data.

    In addition, in some cases the Sites can deliver content based on your current location if you choose to enable that feature. If you enable that feature, your current location will be stored locally on your device which will be used by the Sites to serve you certain content tied to your location. If you elect to have your location-based searches saved to your history, we will store such information on our servers.

  • Collection of Personal and Non-Personal Information From Other Sources

    We also may collect and store information about you that we receive from other sources (including by us from our offline interactions with you) to, among other things, enable us to update and correct the information contained in our database and to better customize your experience on the Sites.

  • Use of Cookies and Other Tracking Technologies

    We use cookies and other technologies to provide features on our Sites. We also partner with other companies that use these technologies to collect information about your use of our Sites and your interaction with advertisements served on our behalf. The types of cookies and tracking technologies our partners use can be categorized as:

    Essential (or Strictly Necessary): These technologies are required for our Sites to operate and to provide you with the features or services that you have requested. They allow you to navigate our Sites and use its services and features (e.g., cookies that help you stay logged in). Without these technologies, our Sites will not run smoothly and certain services or features may not even be available.

    Analytics: These technologies help us to understand how visitors interact with our Sites by collecting and reporting information about how you and your device interact with the Sites.

    Personalization: These technologies allow us to serve relevant advertising to you on other websites or apps.

    Marketing: These items are used to deliver advertising that is more relevant to you and your interests. They may also be used to limit the number of times you see an advertisement and measure the effectiveness of advertising campaigns. Advertising networks usually place them with the website operator’s permission.

    For a list of these partners with more information about their use of your information and any options they may make available regarding tracking, please click here.

Is Personal Information Collected From Children?

Unless otherwise disclosed during collection and with parent or guardian consent (for instance, in some of the educational areas on our Sites), The Seattle Times does not knowingly collect personal identifiable information from children under 13 years of age. If you are under 13 years of age you should not provide personally identifiable information to The Seattle Times without providing us with consent from your parents. If The Seattle Times discovers that a child under the age of 13 has provided The Seattle Times with personally identifiable information and we do not have parental consent, The Seattle Times will immediately delete that child's information from the Sites.

How Do We Use Your Information?

We use the information we learn from you to help us personalize and continually improve your experience on the Sites. We may use your Personal and Non-Personal Information in the following ways:

  • General Uses

    • Provide you with the content, products and services you request
    • Post your user generated content to our Sites as you request
    • Communicate with you about your account or transactions with us and send you information about features and enhancements on or to our Sites
    • Communicate with you about changes to our policies
    • Communicate with you about your comment to a story or topic
    • Personalize content and experiences on our Sites, including providing you recommendations based on your preferences
    • Send you newsletters, offers and promotions for our products and services, third party products and services, or special events by e-mail, text, or other another medium
    • Provide you with advertising including advertising based on your activity on our Sites or activity on third party sites and applications
    • Administer our loyalty programs
    • Administer contests, sweepstakes, promotions, and surveys
    • Optimize or improve our products, services and operations
    • Detect, investigate, and prevent activities that may violate our policies or be illegal
    • Perform statistical, demographic, and marketing analyses of users of the Sites and their purchasing patterns
    • Develop anonymous audience personas using demographic, behavioral, and contextual signals to personalize advertising experiences, measure campaign performance, and support advertising platforms, including but not limited to Meta Ads, Reddit, Programmatic DSPs, and Google. This information does not include your name or other direct personal identifiers.

  • Combination of Your Personal Information

    We use the information from one portion of the Sites on other portions of Sites in our network of Sites, all of which are owned and operated by The Seattle Times, and we may combine information gathered from multiple portions of the Sites into a single customer record. We also use and/or combine information that we collect off-line or we collect or receive from third party sources to enhance, expand, and check the accuracy of your customer records.

  • Use of Your Location Information

    Specifically, we use your location information to:

    • Provide you with the products and services you request
    • Personalize content and experiences on our Sites, including providing you recommendations based on your preferences
    • Personalize your newsletters, offers and promotions for our products and services, third party products and services, or special events
    • Personalize the advertising you receive, including advertising based on your activity on our Sites or activity on third party sites and applications
    • Optimize or improve our products, services and operations
    • Detect, investigate, and prevent activities that may violate our policies or be illegal
    • Perform statistical, demographic, and marketing analyses of users of the Sites and their purchasing patterns

Who Do We Provide Your Information To?

Except as disclosed in this Privacy Policy, we do not disclose information about your Personal Information collected online to any companies not part of the Seattle Times Company or its subsidiaries or related entities. Although, as disclosed below, we may provide your information to our partners, in no event will we sell or rent your Personal Information as part of a customer list or similar transaction.

  • Third-Party Agents

    We have third party agents, subsidiaries, affiliates and partners that perform functions on our behalf, such as hosting, billing, content syndication, content management tools, social media integration, marketing, analytics, customer service, fraud protection, etc. These entities have access to the Personal Information needed to perform their functions and are contractually obligated to maintain the confidentiality and security of that Personal Information. They are restricted from using, selling, distributing or altering this data in any way other than to provide the requested services to the Sites.

  • Business Partners and Third Parties

    We may disclose your Personal Information with our business partners or co-marketers from time to time. We may also disclose your Personal Information with third parties that provide products and services that we think you may be interested in. Although our treatment of your Personal Information is governed by this Privacy Policy, the business partner or third party's treatment of your Personal Information will be governed by the business partner or third party's privacy policy. You may withdraw your consent to our sharing of your Personal Information with business partners and third parties at any time by following the opt-out process described below.

  • Emergency Situations

    We may also use or disclose Personal Information if required to do so by law or in the good-faith belief that such action is necessary to (a) conform to applicable law or comply with legal process served on us or the Sites; (b) protect and defend our rights or property, the Sites or our users, and (c) act under emergency circumstances to protect the personal safety of us, our affiliates, agents, or the users of the Sites or the public.

  • Use of Non-Personal Information

    We may disclose Non-Personal Information (or other information, other than Personal Information) in any other manner that we deem appropriate or necessary. Among other things, we will disclose Non-Personal Information to third parties to help us determine how people use parts of the Sites and who our users are so we can improve our Sites. We will also disclose Non-Personal Information to our partners and other third parties about how our users collectively use the Sites.

What Steps Are Taken To Keep Personal Information Secure?

We are concerned about ensuring the security of your Personal Information. Personal Information collected by our Sites are stored in secure operating environments that are not available to the public. Our security procedures mean that we may occasionally request proof of identity before we disclose your Personal Information to you. Please understand, however, that while we try our best to safeguard your Personal Information once we receive it, no transmission of data over the Internet or any other public network can be guaranteed to be 100% secure.

Your Obligations to Keep Your Access Rights Secure

You promise to: (a) provide true, accurate, current and complete information about yourself and your business as prompted by a Website's registration form (such information being the "Registration Data") and (b) maintain and promptly update the Registration Data to keep it true, accurate, current and complete. If you provide any information that is untrue, inaccurate, not current or incomplete, or The Seattle Times has reasonable grounds to suspect that such information is untrue, inaccurate, not current or incomplete, The Seattle Times has the right to suspend or terminate your account and refuse any and all current or future use of the Sites (or any portion thereof). You are entirely responsible for the security and confidentiality of your password and account. Furthermore, you are entirely responsible for any and all activities that occur under your account.

What Happens When I Link To or From Another Website?

These Sites may contain links to other websites operated by affiliates of The Seattle Times or third parties. Please be advised that the practices described in this Privacy Policy for Seattle Times do not apply to information gathered through these other websites. We are not responsible for the actions and privacy policies of third parties and other websites.

What About Contests, Sweepstakes or Games?

When we run a contest or sweepstakes or game relating to our Sites, it will be accompanied by a set of rules. The rules for each contest, sweepstakes or game will specify how the information gathered from you for entry will be used and disclosed if it is different than as described in this Privacy Policy. In conjunction with your entry in such contest or sweepstakes, Personal Information will be collected only if you voluntarily submit it to.

Public Areas, Chat Rooms, Reviews, and Community Areas

Please remember that any information you disclose in public areas, such as message boards or feedback sections, becomes public and anyone may take and use that information. Please be careful about what you disclose and do not post any Personal Information that you expect to keep private. Please consult the applicable guidelines, if any, for use of our chat rooms and other community areas for more information.

Governing Law

These Sites are published in the United States. We attempt to protect the Personal Information of all users of our Sites and we attempt to comply with local data protection and consumer rights laws to the extent they may apply to the The Seattle Times services, but our family of Sites are located and targeted to United States citizens and our policies are directed at compliance with those laws. If you are uncertain whether this privacy policy conflicts with the applicable local privacy laws where you are located, you should not submit your Personal Information to The Seattle Times.

Assignment

We may change our ownership or corporate organization while providing the Sites and services. We may also sell certain assets associated with the Sites. As a result, please be aware that in such event we may transfer some or all of your information to a company acquiring all or part of our assets or to another company with which we have merged. Under such circumstances we would, to the extent possible, require the acquiring party to follow the practices described in this Privacy Policy, as it may be amended from time to time. Nevertheless, we cannot promise that an acquiring company or the merged company will have the same privacy practices or treat your information the same as described in this Privacy Policy.

Changes to This Policy

As our Sites continue to develop, we may add new services and features to our Sites. In the event that these additions affect our Privacy Policy, this document will be updated appropriately. We will post those changes prominently so that you will always know what information we gather, how we might use that information and whether we will disclose it to anyone. We do, however, recommend that you read this Privacy Policy each time you use our Sites in case you missed our notice of changes to the Privacy Policy. We will not, however, materially change our policies and practices to make them less protective of Personal Information we have previously collected from you without your express consent.

How Do I Opt-Out or Correct Information About Me

You may always opt-out of receiving future e-mail messages and newsletters from The Seattle Times. We provide you with the opportunity to opt-out of receiving communications from us by going into your profile settings and choosing the appropriate options. To opt-out, you can also send us a message at webmaster@seattletimes.com.

Your Legal Rights

The law gives you rights related to your personal information. To make a request to exercise your rights, please use the contact information below. Individuals from different states or countries or jurisdictions may have different rights. We reserve the ability to limit our response to your request to exercise your rights based on the law that is applicable to you.

General Rights:

  • Withdraw consent: If we have collected personal information with your consent, you have the right to withdraw that consent at any time.
  • Access/Right to Know: You have the right to request access to personal information we collected about you and information regarding the source of that personal information, the purposes for which we collect it, and the third parties and service providers to whom we disclose it.
  • Correction: You have the right to request that we correct the personal information we hold about you if it is inaccurate or incomplete.
  • Deletion: You have the right to request that we erase data we have collected from you. Please note that we may have a reason to deny your deletion request or delete data in a more limited way than you anticipated, e.g., because of a legal obligation to retain it.
  • Portability: You have the right, in certain circumstances, to request that we provide your personal information to you in a format that can be transferred to another entity.
  • Restrict Processing: You have the right, in certain circumstances, to request that we limit our processing of your personal information if you are contesting the accuracy of your personal information; asserting that our processing is unlawful; asserting that we need to keep the information for reasons related to the establishment, exercise, or defense of legal claims, or you object to our processing.
  • Object: You have the right to object to our processing if we are processing your personal information based on legitimate interests, using your personal information for direct marketing (including profiling), or processing your personal information for purposes of scientific or historical research and statistics.
  • Automated Decision making : You have the right, in certain circumstances, not to be subject to a decision based solely on automated processing, including profiling, which produces legal effects on you.

Privacy Disclosures for Specific Jurisdictions

California

California “Shine the Light” Law

California residents are entitled once a year, free of charge, to request and obtain certain information regarding our disclosure, if any, of certain categories of personal information to third parties for their own direct marketing purposes in the preceding calendar year. If you are a California resident and wish to obtain information about our compliance with this law, please email us at webmaster@seattletimes.com contact us at 206.624.7323 or send us a letter to P.O. Box 70. Seattle, WA 98111. Requests must include “California Privacy Rights Request” in the first line of the description and include your name, street address, city, state, and ZIP code. Please note that we are not required to respond to requests made by means other than through the provided email address, phone number or mail address.

California Consumer Privacy Act (“CCPA”)

The California Consumer Privacy Act (“CCPA”) provides California residents with rights to receive certain disclosures regarding the collection, use, and disclosure of information about them, as well as rights to know/access, correct, delete, and limit disclosure of personal information. You have the right to be free from discrimination based on your exercise of your CCPA rights. To the extent that we collect personal information that is subject to the CCPA, that information, our practices, and your rights are described below.

Notice at Collection Regarding the Categories of Personal Information Collected

You have the right to receive notice of certain information about our data collection, use, and disclosure. The following table summarizes the categories of personal information we collect; the categories of sources of that information; whether we disclose, sell, or share that information to service providers or third parties, respectively; and the criteria we use to determine the retention period for such information. The categories we use to describe personal information are those enumerated in the CCPA. We collect this personal information for the purposes described above in “How Do We Use Your Information.”

Category Information Type Source We disclose to: We sell to/share with:
Identifiers
  • Contact information or personal characteristics (name; email address; postal address; telephone number; signature)
  • Social media handles
 You; Our social media pages; Third party subscription service providers Service Providers Business Partners
Financial Information
  • Payment card data
  • Credit information
 You Service Providers Not Sold/Shared
Protected Classifications and Other Sensitive Data
  • Date of Birth
  • Gender
 You Service Providers Not Sold/Shared
Commercial Information
  • Transaction information
  • Billing and payment records
  • Order history
 You Service Providers Not Sold/Shared
Geolocation Information
  • Coarse (information that describes location at ZIP code-level or less precision)
You; our analytics and advertising partners Service Providers Advertising partners (coarse location only)
Internet or Electronic Network Activity Information
  • IP address
  • Device identifier (e.g., MAC)
  • Advertising identifier (e.g., IDFA, AAID)
  • Information provided in URL string (e.g., search keywords)
  • Cookie or tracking pixel information
  • Information about your interaction with our website, app, email correspondence, or products
  • Browsing history
  • Search history
  • Diagnostic information (e.g., crash logs, performance data)
 You; our analytics and advertising partners Service Providers Advertising partners
Professional or Employment-Related Information
  • Current employer
  • Job title
 You Service Providers Not Sold/Shared
Education Information
  • Education history
  • Level of education
 You Service Providers Not Sold/Shared
Content of Communications
  • Contents of phone calls, emails, or text message
  • Photos
 You Service Providers Not Sold/Shared

We determine the retention period for each of the categories of personal information listed above based on (1) the length of time we need to retain the information to achieve the business or commercial purpose for which it was obtained, (2) any legal or regulatory requirements applicable to such information, (3) internal operational needs, and (4) any need for the information based on any actual or anticipated investigation or litigation.

Entities to whom we disclose information for business purposes are service providers, which are companies that we engage to conduct activities on our behalf. We restrict service providers from using personal information for any purpose that is not related to our engagement.

Entities to whom we “sell” or with whom we “share” information are third parties. Under the CCPA, a business “sells” personal information when it discloses personal information to a company for monetary or other benefit. A company may be considered a third party either because we disclose personal information to the company for something other than an enumerated business purpose under California law, or because its contract does not restrict it from using personal information for purposes unrelated to the service it provides to us. A business “shares” personal information when it discloses personal information to a company for purposes of cross-context behavioral advertising.

Your Rights Under the CCPA

Opt out of sale or sharing of personal information: You have the right to opt out of our sale or sharing of your personal information to third parties. To exercise this right, please visit our Do Not Sell My Personal Information webpage or contact us. Your right to opt out does not apply to our disclosure of personal information to service providers.

Know and request access to and correction or deletion of personal information: You have the right to request access to personal information collected about you and information regarding the source of that personal information, the purposes for which we collect it, and the third parties and service providers to whom we sell, share, or disclose it. You also have the right to request in certain circumstances that we correct personal information that we have collected about you and to delete personal information that we have collected directly from you. Please contact us to exercise these rights.

Other States

Residents of certain other states may have the following rights when using the Sites:

  • Opt out of “sales” of personal information and use of their personal information for “targeted advertising,” as those terms are defined under applicable law. To exercise this right, please visit our Do Not Sell My Personal Information webpage or contact us.
  • Opt out of “profiling” under certain circumstances, as defined under applicable law.
  • Confirm processing of and access to personal information under certain circumstances, as defined under applicable law.
  • Correct personal information under certain circumstances, as defined under applicable law.
  • Delete personal information under certain circumstances, as defined under applicable law.

Residents of these states can exercise their rights by contacting us using one of the methods listed below. Residents of these states also have the right to appeal a denial of their request by contacting us as described in the notice of denial.

Individuals Located in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom, and Switzerland:

If you are a resident of the EEA or Switzerland, the following information applies.

  • Purposes of processing and legal basis for processing: As explained above, we process personal information in various ways depending upon your use of our Sites. We process personal information on the following legal bases: (1) with your consent; (2) as necessary to perform our agreement to provide Sites; and (3) as necessary for our legitimate interests in providing the Sites where those interests do not override your fundamental rights and freedoms related to data privacy.
  • Right to lodge a complaint: Users that reside in the EEA or Switzerland have the right to lodge a complaint about our data collection and processing actions with the supervisory authority concerned. Contact details for data protection authorities are available here.
  • Transfers: Personal information we collect may be transferred to, and stored and processed in, the United States or any other country in which we or our affiliates or subcontractors maintain facilities. We ensure that transfers of personal information to a third country or an international organization are subject to appropriate safeguards as described in Article 46 of the GDPR.

Your Options to Control Your Personal Information

Verification Procedures: We must verify your identity for everyone's protection, so we may require you to provide us with verification information prior to accessing any records containing personal information about you. We do this by:

  • Asking you to provide personal identifiers we can match against information we may have collected from you previously and confirm your request using the email or telephone account stated in the request.

If you are a California resident, you may authorize another individual or a business registered with the California Secretary of State, called an authorized agent, to make requests on your behalf. We will require the authorized agent and you to each verify your identities.

We will use the information you provide for verification only for the purpose of verification. We may have a reason under the law why we do not have to respond to your request, or respond to it in a more limited way than you anticipated. If we do, we will explain that to you in our response.

Marketing and Other Communications: If at any time you would like to unsubscribe from receiving future emails, you can click the unsubscribe link at the bottom of any email communication, or contact us using the contact information below and we will promptly remove you from all marketing correspondence.

Interest-Based Advertising; Cookie Management; and Do Not Track: Interest-based advertising is the collection of information across different websites and/or different devices for the purpose of tailoring advertising based on preferences or interests known or inferred from the information collected.

The Seattle Times serves advertising on the Sites and we partner with third parties to use the information you make available to us when you interact with our Sites to provide you with advertising that is more relevant to you after you leave our Sites. You may limit such third parties' information collection by using our cookie management control panel. You can learn more about ad serving companies and the options available to limit their collection and use of your information by visiting the websites for the Network Advertising Initiative, the Digital Advertising Alliance, and the European Interactive Digital Advertising Initiative. Similarly, you can learn about your options to opt-out of mobile app tracking by certain advertising networks through your device settings and by resetting the advertiser ID on your Apple or Android device.

Please note that opting-out of advertising networks services does not mean that you will not receive advertising while using our Sites or on other websites, nor will it prevent the receipt of interest-based advertising from third parties that do not participate in these programs. It will, however, exclude you from interest-based advertising conducted through participating networks, as provided by their policies and choice mechanisms. If you delete your cookies, you may also delete your opt-out preferences.

Contact Us

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or don't see your concerns addressed here, you should contact us:

Email: webmaster@seattletimes.com

Phone: 206.624.7323

Mail:
The Seattle Times Company
221 Yale Ave N Suite 500
Seattle, WA 98109

Our Consumer Data Request Form is available here.