Reddit offers some meaningful privacy rights and says it does not sell personal data, but these are outweighed by the platform’s public-by-default nature, broad perpetual content license including AI training, extensive data use for ads and recommendations, indefinite retention flexibility, and strong liability and venue protections for Reddit.
Reddit’s legal terms reflect a large public social platform: most content and profile activity is public by default, the service uses broad data collection for personalization and ads, and it gives itself extensive rights over user content, including AI training. On the positive side, Reddit says browsing can be anonymous, it does not sell personal data, and it offers access, deletion, correction, portability, and appeal mechanisms for privacy requests.
Points of interest
Posts, comments, profile details, and timestamps can be visible to anyone, including search engines and AI tools. Using Reddit can expose your activity far beyond the platform itself.
"Our communities are largely public and anyone can see your profile, posts, and comments."
You keep ownership, but Reddit gets a worldwide, irrevocable, perpetual license to use, modify, distribute, and sublicense your content. That makes it hard to meaningfully withdraw posted material later.
"you grant us a worldwide, royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable, non-exclusive, transferable, and sublicensable license"
Reddit’s content license expressly allows use of your posts and related content to train AI and machine learning models. Users who post publicly are helping power downstream AI uses.
"this license includes the right to use Your Content to train AI and machine learning models"
Reddit collects account, device, usage, IP-based location, messages, transactions, media, and inferred data. This supports recommendations, analytics, and targeted advertising.
"We collect account details, device and usage data, IP-based location, messages, transactions, submitted media, cookies, and inferences"
Your information may be used for personalized ads on Reddit and to advertise Reddit services to you on other sites and apps. This expands tracking and profiling beyond your immediate use of the service.
"Provide you with relevant advertising, including personalized advertising on Reddit; Advertise Reddit Services to you on other sites and apps"
U.S. users generally must bring disputes in San Francisco under California law after trying to resolve issues informally. This can make legal action more expensive and inconvenient.
"all disputes related to these Terms or the Services will be brought solely in the federal or state courts located in San Francisco, California"
Reddit provides the service as-is and sharply limits what users can recover, generally capping liability at $100 or what you paid in the prior six months. That leaves users with little recourse if things go wrong.
"THE SERVICES ARE PROVIDED “AS IS”... IN NO EVENT WILL THE AGGREGATE LIABILITY... EXCEED THE GREATER OF ONE HUNDRED U.S. DOLLARS ($100)"
You can browse without an account, Reddit does not require your real name, and it says it does not track precise location. That is a meaningful privacy benefit compared with many social platforms.
"If you want to just browse, you don’t need an account... we don’t require you to give us your real name. We don’t track your precise location."
Reddit states it does not sell personal data to third parties or data brokers. While it still shares public content and uses advertising, this is a useful limit.
"We don’t sell your personal data to third parties, including data brokers."
Reddit offers mechanisms to request a copy of your data, deletion, correction, portability, and appeals for denied requests, with broader rights depending on location. This gives users practical control tools.
"anyone can request a copy of their data, account deletion... If we deny your request, you may appeal our decision"
Reddit keeps data as long as it considers necessary and may retain identifiers from suspended or banned accounts. In practice, some data may persist even after enforcement actions or account closure.
"We store the information we collect for as long as it is necessary... we may store the identifiers used to create the account"
Reddit can change its terms and privacy policy, and continued use means you accept the revisions. Material changes may be notified, but not every change requires direct consent.
"By continuing to access or use the Services on or after the Effective Date of the revised Terms, you agree to be bound by the revised Terms."
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Documents
Terms of Service
source ↗- •You must be at least 13, meet your country’s minimum age, be legally able to agree, and not be permanently suspended.
- •You are responsible for your account activity and security, and you cannot sell or transfer your account without Reddit’s written permission.
- •You may use Reddit under a limited, revocable license, but you cannot reverse engineer it, scrape it without permission, or use it unlawfully.
- •You keep ownership of content you post, but grant Reddit a worldwide, perpetual license to use, distribute, modify, and train AI on it.
- •Reddit may remove content, limit monetization, suspend moderators, or suspend or terminate accounts at any time, including for rule violations.
- •Reddit collects, uses, and shares your information under its Privacy Policy, and personalizes recommendations based on your activity, subscriptions, and settings.
- •Third-party links, products, and ads may appear on Reddit, and Reddit is not responsible for third-party content or transactions.
- •If you claim infringement, Reddit offers copyright and trademark reporting and counter-notice procedures, and may terminate repeat infringers.
- •Paid features may have extra terms under Reddit’s Econ, Preview, Advertising, Developer, or other additional terms, depending on the service used.
- •Reddit provides the service as-is, limits liability, requires informal dispute efforts first, and U.S. users generally must sue in San Francisco under California law.
Privacy Policy
source ↗- •Reddit is largely public, so your profile, posts, comments, username, and timestamps can be visible to anyone, search engines, and third-party tools.
- •You can browse without an account, Reddit says it does not require your real name, and it does not track your precise location.
- •Reddit collects account details, device and usage data, IP-based location, messages, transactions, submitted media, cookies, and inferences for recommendations, ads, and analytics.
- •Reddit uses your information to run and improve services, personalize content and ads, measure advertising, provide support, send notices, and enforce rules and law.
- •Reddit says it does not sell personal data to third parties, but it shares public content through APIs, embeds, moderator tools, and some third-party developer services.
- •Reddit keeps data as long as needed for its purposes or legal reasons, and may retain identifiers from banned accounts to prevent new accounts.
- •You can request access, deletion, correction, portability, restriction, objection, consent withdrawal, and some ad opt-outs, depending on where you live.
- •Reddit processes and stores data in the United States and other countries, using Standard Contractual Clauses and Data Privacy Framework commitments for certain transfers.
- •Children under 13 cannot use Reddit, and users outside the United States must meet their country’s minimum age to create an account.
- •Reddit may change this policy and may notify users of material changes; continuing to use Reddit after changes means accepting the revised policy.
