This Privacy Policy explains how your personal information is collected, used, and disclosed by Something Awful.

This Privacy Policy applies to the Something Awful website, and its associated forum and any subdomains (collectively, our "Service"). By accessing or using our Service, you signify that you have read, understood, and agree to our collection, storage, use, and disclosure of your personal information as described in this Privacy Policy and our Terms of Service.

This policy was last updated as of October 31, 2024.

Definitions and Key Terms

To help explain things as clearly as possible in this Privacy Policy, every time any of these terms are referenced, are strictly defined as:

• Cookie: small amount of data generated by a website and saved by your web browser. It is used to identify your browser and remember information about you such as your language preference or login information.
• Company: when this policy mentions "Company," "we," "us," or "our," it refers to Something Awful LLC, which is responsible for your information under this Privacy Policy.
• Country: where Something Awful or the owners/founders of Something Awful are based, the United States.
• User: refers to the person that signs up to use the Something Awful forums to read, post on or otherwise interact with other users.
• Device: any internet connected device such as a phone, tablet, computer or any other device that can be used to visit Something Awful and use the services.
• IP address: Every device connected to the Internet is assigned a number known as an Internet protocol (IP) address. These numbers are usually assigned in geographic blocks. An IP address can often be used, including by Personnel, to identify the location from which a device is connecting to the Internet and as one of the ways in which a user can be identified.
• Personnel: refers to those individuals who are engaged by Something Awful as forum administrators or are under contract to perform services for payment, but does not include volunteer forum moderators
• Personal Data: any information provided by a user or that directly, indirectly, or in connection with other information - including a username or IP address - allows for the identification or identifiability of a natural person.
• Service: refers to the forums, frontpage, and other web content provided by Something Awful.
• Third-party service: refers to web service providers, advertisers, contest sponsors, promotional and marketing partners (if any), and embedded links to outside media.
• Website: Something Awful's site, which can be accessed via this URL: somethingawful.com
• You: a person or entity that has registered for or interacted with Something Awful to use the Service.
  

What Information Do We Collect?

We collect and use information from you when you register or otherwise make a purchase on our website. This includes information to process your payment. We do not store any of the following information.

• Name
• Address
• Debit/credit card numbers

Additionally, we collect and retain information when you login to our website, post on our website, register on our site, purchase an upgrade or send a personal message via the website.

• Username
• Password
• Email Address
• IP Address

Additionally, we collect but do not retain IP addresses of unregistered users for the purposes of tracking browsing sessions.

When does Something Awful use user information from third parties?

Something Awful does not use user information from third parties except as necessary to process payments, including accessing partial credit card numbers where necessary to resolve account issues.

Do we share the information we collect with third parties?

In the event of a sale or transfer as a going concern we may share or transfer your personal and non-personal information to our successors in interest. Something Awful does not use user information from third parties except as necessary to process payments, including accessing partial credit card numbers where necessary to resolve account issues.

We may engage trusted third party service providers to perform functions and provide services to us, such as hosting and maintaining our servers and the website, database storage and management, e-mail management, credit card processing, and to process embedded content from external sites such as X/Twitter and YouTube. We may share your personal information, such as your ip address, with these third parties strictly as necessary to enable them to perform these services for us and for you.

We may also disclose personal and non-personal information about you to government or law enforcement officials or private parties as we, in our sole discretion, believe necessary or appropriate in order to respond to claims, legal process (including subpoenas), to protect our rights and interests or those of a third party, the safety of the public or any person, to prevent or stop any illegal activity, or to otherwise comply with applicable court orders, laws, rules and regulations.

Where and when is information collected from users and end users?

Something Awful will collect personal information that you submit to us as part of registering your account, and that you post on the Something Awful Forums.

How Do We Use The Information We Collect?

Any of the information we collect from you may be used in one of the following ways:

• To administer our website
• To provide customer service, such as when responding to service and support requests
• To process transactions
• To send emails when necessary

How Do We Use Your Email Address?

By submitting your email address on this website, you agree to receive emails from us. We only use your email address when necessary for website administration, such as where necessary for Personnel to contact Users.

How Long Do We Keep Your Information?

We keep information posted on the website and sent or received as a Private Message indefinitely to provide a complete record of forums posts and Private Messages.

How Do We Protect Your Information?

We implement a variety of security measures to maintain the safety of your personal information when you place an order or enter, submit, or access your personal information. We offer the use of a secure server. All supplied sensitive/credit information is transmitted via Secure Socket Layer (SSL) technology and then encrypted into our Payment gateway providers database only to be accessible by payment gateway employees with special access rights to such systems, and are required to keep the information confidential. No SA personnel other than the site owner have any communication with the payment gateway provider. We do not store credit card information on our server. We cannot, however, ensure or warrant the absolute security of any information you transmit to Something Awful or guarantee that your information on the Service may not be accessed, disclosed, altered, or destroyed by a breach of any of our physical, technical, or managerial safeguards.

Could my information be transferred to other countries?

Something Awful is incorporated in the United States and all information is hosted in the United States.

Information collected via our website and through direct interactions with you, such as by emails to Personnel, will be viewed from time to time by Personnel located throughout the world, and may be viewed and hosted anywhere in the world, including countries that may not have laws of general applicability regulating the use and transfer of such data. To the fullest extent allowed by applicable law, by using any of the above, you voluntarily consent to the trans-border transfer and hosting of such information.

Is the information collected through the Something Awful Service secure?

We take precautions to protect the security of your information. We have physical, technical, and managerial procedures to help safeguard, prevent unauthorized access, maintain data security, and correctly use your information. However, neither people nor security systems are foolproof, including encryption systems. In addition, people can commit intentional crimes, make mistakes or fail to follow policies. Therefore, while we use reasonable efforts to protect your personal information, we cannot guarantee its absolute security. If applicable law imposes any non-disclaimable duty to protect your personal information, you agree that intentional misconduct will be the standards used to measure our compliance with that duty.

Can I update or correct my information?

You can contact us or use the relevant parts of the website in order to (1) update or correct your information, (2) change your preferences with respect to communications and other information you receive from us, or (3) cancel your account. Such updates, corrections, changes and deletions will have no effect on other information that we maintain to protect your privacy and security and we may take reasonable steps (such as requesting a unique password) to verify your identity before granting you profile access or making corrections. You are responsible for maintaining the secrecy of your unique password and account information at all times.

Such updates, corrections, changes and deletions will have no effect on other information that we maintain, or information that we have provided to third parties in accordance with this Privacy Policy prior to such update, correction, change or deletion.

You should be aware that it is not technologically possible to remove each and every record of the information you have provided to us from our system. The need to back up our systems to protect information from inadvertent loss means that a copy of your information may exist in a non-erasable form that will be difficult or impossible for us to locate.

Sale of Business

We reserve the right to transfer information to a third party in the event of a sale, merger or other transfer of all or substantially all of the assets of Something Awful, or that portion of Something Awful to which the Service relates, or in the event that we discontinue our business or file a petition or have filed against us a petition in bankruptcy, reorganization or similar proceeding, provided that the third party agrees to adhere to the terms of this Privacy Policy.

Governing Law

This Privacy Policy is governed by the laws of United States without regard to its conflict of laws provision. You consent to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts in connection with any action or dispute arising between the parties under or in connection with this Privacy Policy.

The laws of United States, excluding its conflicts of law rules, shall govern this Agreement and your use of the website. Your use of the website may also be subject to other local, state, national, or international laws.

By using Something Awful or contacting us directly, you signify your acceptance of this Privacy Policy. If you do not agree to this Privacy Policy, you should not engage with our website, or use our services. Continued use of the website, direct engagement with us, or following the posting of changes to this Privacy Policy that do not significantly affect the use or disclosure of your personal information will mean that you accept those changes.

Your Consent

We've updated our Privacy Policy to provide you with transparency into what is being stored when you visit our site and how it's being used. By using Something Awful, registering an account, or making a purchase, you hereby consent to our Privacy Policy and agree to its terms.

Links to Other Websites

This Privacy Policy applies only to the Service. The Service may contain links to other websites not operated or controlled by Something Awful. We are not responsible for the content, accuracy or opinions expressed in such websites, and such websites are not investigated, monitored or checked for accuracy or completeness by us. Please remember that when you use a link to go from the Service to another website, our Privacy Policy is no longer in effect. Your browsing and interaction on any other website, including those that have a link on our platform, is subject to that website's own rules and policies. Such third parties may use their own cookies or other methods to collect information about you.

Advertising

This website contains third party advertisements and links to third party sites. Something Awful does not make any representation as to the accuracy or suitability of any of the information contained in those advertisements or sites and does not accept any responsibility or liability for the conduct or content of those advertisements and sites and the offerings made by the third parties. Something Awful does not use user data to target third party advertisements or links to third party sites.

Cookies

Something Awful uses cookies to identify users of the website and confirm that they are a registered user. A cookie is a small piece of data stored on your computer or mobile device by your web browser. We use cookies to enhance the performance and functionality of our website but they are non-essential to its use. However, without these cookies, you will be required to enter your login details every time you visit the website as we will not be able to remember that you have logged in previously. Most web browsers can be set to disable the use of cookies. If you disable cookies, you may not be able to access functionality on our website correctly or at all.

We never place Personally Identifiable Information in cookies.

We do not use cookies to target advertising or identify you for the purposes of advertising to you based on any of your personal characteristics.

Blocking and disabling cookies and similar technologies

Wherever you're located you may also set your browser to block cookies and similar technologies, but this action may block our essential cookies and prevent our website from functioning properly. You should also be aware that you may also lose some saved information (e.g. saved login details) if you block cookies on your browser. Different browsers make different controls available to you. Disabling a cookie or category of cookie does not delete the cookie from your browser. You will need to do this yourself from within your browser. If you would like to delete a cookie, you should visit your browser's help menu for more information.

Payment Details

In respect to any credit card or other payment processing details you have provided us, we commit that this confidential information will be stored in the most secure manner possible.

Childrens' Privacy

We do not permit anyone under the age of 13 to use this forum. We do not knowingly collect personally identifiable information from anyone under the age of 13. If you are a parent or guardian and you are aware that your child has provided us with Personal Data, please contact us. If we become aware that we have collected Personal Data from anyone under the age of 13 without verification of parental consent, we may take steps to remove that information from our servers.

Changes To Our Privacy Policy

We may change our Service and policies, and we may need to make changes to this Privacy Policy so that they accurately reflect our Service and policies. Unless otherwise required by law, we will notify you (for example, through our Service) before we make changes to this Privacy Policy and give you an opportunity to review them before they go into effect. Then, if you continue to use the Service, you will be bound by the updated Privacy Policy.

Third-Party Services

We may display, include or make available third-party content (including data, information, applications and other products services) or provide links to third-party websites or services ("Third- Party Services").

You acknowledge and agree that Something Awful shall not be responsible for any Third-Party Services, including their accuracy, completeness, timeliness, validity, copyright compliance, legality, decency, quality or any other aspect thereof. Something Awful does not assume and shall not have any liability or responsibility to you or any other person or entity for any Third-Party Services.

Third-Party Services and links thereto are provided solely as a convenience to you and you access and use them entirely at your own risk and subject to such third parties' terms and conditions.

Tracking Technologies

We use cookies as described above. We record IP Addresses for each access to the Service and may use it to attempt to identify Users where necessary for administration.

Posting certain types of links will result in the display of embedded content that may share the ip address of the poster with the linked site, including but not limited to links to www.youtube.com and www.twitter.com.

Information about General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)

We may collect and use information from you if you are from the European Economic Area (EEA), and in this section of our Privacy Policy we explain exactly how and why this data is collected, and how we maintain this data under protection from being replicated or used in the wrong way.

What is GDPR?

GDPR is an EU-wide privacy and data protection law that regulates how EU residents' data is protected by companies and enhances the control the EU residents have over their personal data.

What is personal data?

Personal data is any data that relates to an identifiable or identified individual. GDPR covers a broad spectrum of information that could be used on its own, or in combination with other pieces of information, to identify a person. Personal data extends beyond a person's name or email address. Some examples include financial information, political opinions, genetic data, biometric data, IP addresses, physical address, sexual orientation, and ethnicity.

The Data Protection Principles include requirements such as:

• Personal data collected must be processed in a fair, legal, and transparent way and should only be used in a way that a person would reasonably expect.
• Personal data should only be collected to fulfill a specific purpose and it should only be used for that purpose. Organizations must specify why they need the personal data when they collect it.
• Personal data should be held no longer than necessary to fulfill its purpose.
• People covered by the GDPR have the right to access their own personal data. They can also request a copy of their data, and that their data be updated, deleted, restricted, or moved to another organization.

Why is GDPR important?

GDPR adds some new requirements regarding how companies should protect individuals' personal data that they collect and process. It also raises the stakes for compliance by increasing enforcement and imposing greater fines for breach.

Individual Data Subject's Rights - Data Access, Portability and Deletion

We are committed to helping our users meet the data subject rights requirements of GDPR. Something Awful processes or stores all personal data in DPA compliant vendors. As a web forum we store all posts and private messages indefinitely.

California Online Privacy Protection Act (CalOPPA)

CalOPPA requires us to disclose categories of Personal Information we collect and how we use it, the categories of sources from whom we collect Personal Information, and the third parties with whom we share it, which we have explained above.

CalOPPA users have the following rights:

• Right to Know and Access. You may submit a verifiable request for information regarding the: (1) categories of Personal Information we collect, use, or share; (2) purposes for which categories of Personal Information are collected or used by us; (3) categories of sources from which we collect Personal Information; and (4) specific pieces of Personal Information we have collected about you.
• Right to Equal Service. We will not discriminate against you if you exercise your privacy rights.
• Right to Delete. You may submit a verifiable request to close your account and we will delete Personal Information about you that we have collected.

If you make a request, we have one month to respond to you. If you would like to exercise any of these rights, please contact us.

We do not sell the Personal Information of our users.

Contact Us

Don't hesitate to contact us if you have any questions: Private Message any admin via the something awful PM system, or email [email protected]