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Privacy Policy

Last Updated On: March 15, 2019

At Investopedia, we respect your privacy, and we understand the importance of the information you entrust to us. This Privacy Policy describes our practices concerning the information collected by Investopedia, LLC (an IAC Publishing, LLC business) (“Investopedia”, “we”, “us”, “our”) through the use of (i) our Investopedia website (the “Website”) and (ii) our Investopedia mobile applications (collectively, the “Services”).

This Privacy Policy applies to all personal information we collect or process about you.  Personal information is information, or a combination of pieces of information, that could reasonably allow you to be identified. 

Below we describe what information we collect when you use our Services, how we protect that information, how long we retain it, with whom we share it, and what your privacy options are. By using the Services, you consent to our collection and use of your information as described in this Privacy Policy. The Privacy Policy is incorporated by reference into and is made a part of the Terms of Service.

We will continue to evaluate this Privacy Policy against new technologies, business practices, and our users’ needs, and may make changes to the Privacy Policy accordingly. Please check this page periodically for updates. If we make any material changes to this Privacy Policy, we will post the updated Privacy Policy here, along with its effective date, and for material changes will notify you by email or by means of a notice on our Website. Your continued use of the Services after our posting of changes to this Privacy Policy means that you agree to be bound by such changes.

Our Services are intended for general audiences over the age of 16 years old. We do not knowingly collect information from children under the age of 16 years old. 

1. Information We Collect About You

We collect personal information about you from a variety of sources, including from you directly (e.g. when you contact us or sign up for an account), information we generate about you in the course of our relationship with you (e.g. data collected from cookies and other similar technologies which is described in our Cookie Policy, and information we collect about you r from other sources, including commercially available sources, such as public databases (where permitted by law). 

Information You Provide To Us:

You may provide personal information to us, if you choose to:

  • submit a help request, a customer services inquiry or other inquiry to us, or fill in any other forms for the purposes of receiving our Services;
  • participate in some of the features accessible via the Services (for example, message boards, games, surveys, polls, promotions, contests, sweepstakes or other incentives);
  • participate in any Services that require registration;
  • enroll in any of our Webinars and/or Courses;
  • sign up to receive any information and/or services from any third party provider or partner using our Website (If you submit information to a third party provider or partner, please note that their use and disclosure of your information is subject to their own privacy policy);
  • contact us about employment opportunities; 
  • otherwise use the Services in a manner that you have requested.

Depending on which of these or any other Services you use, the personal information you provide may include:

  • personal details (e.g. name, date of birth, professional title, company name, and household income, investment interests, retirement information, information about your educational background ); 
  • contact details (e.g. phone number, email address, postal address, or mobile number);
  • account details (e.g. user name and password);
  • transaction details (e.g. when you make a purchase or respond to offers);
  • communications (e.g. when you participate or post material in message boards or forums, participate in polls or surveys, write a review or provide a testimonial, or contact us with a question, comment, or request); or
  • professional information (e.g. if you are a Financial Advisor participating in our Advisor Insights program, information about your credentials, including, without limitation, broker CRD number, professional website URL, biographical information, licences and designations, and profile picture).

Please be aware, that by posting information to message boards, chat groups or social networking facilities available via the Services, you will be making this information available to other users of these Services to the public. You should be careful about revealing any sensitive details about yourself.

If you purchase Courses through the Investopedia Academy, please note that we do not currently collect or retain credit card numbers internally. We partner with third party payment providers. All direct payment gateways are required to adhere to the standards set by PCI-DSS as managed by the PCI Security Standards Council, which is a joint effort of brands like Visa, MasterCard, American Express and Discover. PCI-DSS requirements are intended to promote the secure handling of credit card information.

Email Referral:

We also have features that allow you to send an email to yourself and/or others about an item on our site. If you choose to use our email referral service, you will be required to provide the e-mail address or addresses that will be used in the notification. Upon form submission an email will be generated to your recipient(s) inviting them to visit the URL you have recommended. We do not store this information other than for the sole purpose of sending this one-time e-mail.

Information Collected Via Automated Technologies and Interactions:

When you use the Services, we may automatically collect  information via automatic means about your computer or device, your preference settings, your location, and your activities, including:

  • IP address of your computer;
  • Unique mobile device identifiers;
  • Technical information about your computer or mobile device such as type of device, mobile device ID number, screen resolution, web browser information, and operating system or platform;
  • Your preferences and settings (time zone, language, etc.);
  • Internet provider or mobile carrier name;
  • The URL of the last webpage you visited before visiting the Website;
  • Information about your activity on the Services (e.g., your search queries, mis-formatted DNS entries, search results selected, clicks, pages viewed, search history, comments, forms filled out and submitted, how often you use the Services);
  • Information we generate as a result of your use of the Services (e.g. our understanding of your interests as a result of your use of the Services and whether you are a regular or occasional user of the Services); and
  • If you are using a mobile device, your mobile device’s geographic location (specific geographic location if you’ve enabled collection of that information, or general geographic location automatically). Please see the section “Mobile Device Location Information” below for further information.

Third Parties

Third-parties who provide us with products and services may also place cookies, ad tags and/or beacons that collect the information outlined above in order to provide us with products and services including: 

  • Analytics tools (e.g., Google Analytics) allowing us to analyze the performance of our Services.
  • Service features and functionalities such as those that enable videos to be played and you to connect to your social media accounts.
  • Advertisers and ad networks allowing the delivery of targeted advertisements. 

These third parties may also collect information about you from other sources and combine it with other information collected about you from third party websites not affiliated with us. For example, advertiser and advertising networks, as well as data analytics companies who service them, may participate in online behavioral advertising and track your activity across various sites and/or devices where they display ads and record your activities, so they can show ads that they consider relevant to you. 

Do Not Track: Do Not Track (“DNT”) is an optional browser setting that allows you to express your preferences regarding tracking by advertisers and other third-parties. DNT is a way for users to inform websites and services that they do not want certain information about their webpage visits collected over time and across websites or online services.

We are committed to providing you with meaningful choices about the information collected on our website for third party purposes, and that is why we provide the Network Advertising Initiative and the Digital Advertising Alliance opt-out links above. However, we do not recognize or respond to browser-initiated DNT signals, as the Internet industry is currently still working toward defining exactly what DNT means, what it means to comply with DNT, and a common approach to responding to DNT. However, our Cookie Policy provides information and opt-out links to help you control the collection of information about you on our Website.

These third parties may also provide us with information about your interactions with their products and services and/or activities on third party websites. For example, use of Service functions that connect to your social media account (e.g., Facebook Connect) may permit us access to your social network profile information, including your first name, last name, gender, birth date and email address, in accordance with your settings on the social network. If you choose to post information to your social media account via the Services, you will be making this information available to other users of these Services. We encourage you to be careful about revealing any sensitive details about yourself via our Services or otherwise.

2. How We Use Your Personal Information And The Basis On Which We Use It

We may use the information we collect from and about you for the following purposes:

  • Identification and authentication: We use your identification information to verify your identity and/or eligibility for our Services when you access and use our Services and to ensure the security of your personal information. This is so we can comply with our obligations to you.  
  • Improving our Services: We analyze information about how you use our Services to provide an improved experience for our customers, including product testing, site analytics, and personalizing content to your interests. It is in our legitimate business interests to use the information provided to us for this purpose, so we can understand any issues with our Services and improve them.  
  • Understanding our users: We also analyze information about our users in order to understand our users (their demographics, what you do on our Services, what features you like, how they use them etc.). It is in our legitimate business interests to use the information provided to us for this purpose, so we can understand our users and improve our Services.
  • Operating the Services: We process your personal information to administer our Services, diagnose technical problems, provide customer support, complete your transactions, and otherwise manage our business. This is so that we can comply with our contractual obligations to you.
  • Communicating with you: We may use your personal information when we communicate with you, for example if we are sending you communications that you have requested, communications which relate to Services you have purchased or enrolled in, which may be of interest to you in accordance with your preferences, if we are providing information about changes to the terms and conditions, if you contact us with questions, or to provide you with customer support. It is in our legitimate interests that we are able to provide you with appropriate information, responses and provide you with notices about our Services. Please see the section “Reviewing, changing or deleting information” for further information about how you can control these communications.
  • Marketing: We may use your personal information to build a profile about you and place you into particular marketing segments in order to understand your preferences better and to appropriately personalize the marketing messages we send to you. It is in our legitimate interest to provide you with more relevant and interesting advertising messages, and inform our marketing strategy. We may use automated decision-making to deliver tailored advertisements based on your personal information. Where necessary, we will obtain your consent before sending such marketing messages. 
  • Exercising our rights: We may use your personal information to exercise our legal rights where it is necessary to do so, for example to detect, prevent, and respond to fraud claims, intellectual property infringement claims or violations of law or our Terms of Use.
  • Complying with our obligations: We may process your personal information in order to, for example, carry out fraud prevention checks or comply with other legal or regulatory requirements, where this is explicitly required by law. 
  • Customizing your experience: When you use the Services, we may use your personal information to improve your experience of the Services, such as by providing interactive or personalized elements on the Services and providing you with content based on your interests. We may use automated decision-making to customize your experience based on your personal information. 
  • Compensating our partners: We may process your personal information for purposes of calculating compensation to be paid to our third party product/service providers and distributors and to analyze usage across products, services and distribution partner/channel. It is in our legitimate interest to appropriately determine amounts to be paid to our partners and inform our product roadmap and distribution strategy.
  • Delivering prizes: may use your personal information to deliver prizes in connection with contests and sweepstakes, deliver perks earned in connection with certain incentive programs, or otherwise facilitate the use of our Services.
  • In Connection with Webinars and Courses: In addition to the uses described above, if you are enrolled in and/or take any of our Webinars and/or Courses, we may use the registration information you provide, including personally identifiable information, to use through your Account for managing and processing purposes, including but not limited to tracking attendance, progress and completion of Course and/or Webinar. As part of our management and processing of each Course and/or Webinar, we may use this information to proctor exams, projects, and other assessments for each Course and/or Webinar. For example, as part of a Webinar that provides CE credits, we will use certain information collected from you in order to verify your identity, or to monitor your performance during the exam to confirm that you are abiding by the rules or requirements for obtaining CE credits. We may share such information that we collect from you when you participate in a Course with the company (if any) and/or lecturer(s) who provided, taught, managed, sponsored, or otherwise oversaw that Webinar or Course, and, where applicable, you will be subject to such third party’s privacy policies; and (ii) that third party may use the personally identifiable information you provide for its own marketing purposes.

We may also aggregate and de-identify your information in such a way that you may not reasonably be re-identified by us or any other company, and may use this information for any other purpose.

3. How We Share The Information We Collect

We will not share the personal information we collect about you with any third party except as indicated below or when we inform you and give you an opportunity to opt out of having your personal information shared. We will share your information in the following ways:

  • Our suppliers, subcontractors and business partners: (“service providers”): We may share your data with our services providers and business partners who perform marketing services and other business operations for us for the purposes set forth above. For example, we may partner with companies to process secure payments, fulfill orders, optimize services, serve online behavioral advertising, send newsletters and marketing messages, support email and messaging services, and analyze information. These service providers are required to treat the data in accordance with confidentiality requirements.
  • Service requests: We enable you to request information and/or services from third party service providers or partners by filling out a registration, information request, or similar service request form for specific services from them (e.g., filling in a sponsored partner’s form to identify your retirement risk profile and/or submitting a request with such information for more information from that partner or another party). When you fill out and submit a service request form through our Website, you consent to our providing your personal information and request to the third party provider and/or partner. Sharing this information with the party provider and/or partner allows them to contact you using the contact information you provided. Additionally, we have other contractual partners that that utilize their own service provider to supplement our offering, and we share your information with them in order to attempt to provide the services requested.
  • Webinars/Courses: We may share certain information with third parties that enable us to provide you the Webinars and/or Courses. For example, but not as a limitation, our Webinar and Course platforms may be hosted by third parties who will use your information to allow you to access the Webinar and/or Course. We also use third party payment providers who will use your information to process payment, subject to their own privacy policies. Additionally, for any continuing education eligible Webinar, we will share information provided to us as well as information regarding your completion of such Webinar with the organization issuing continuing education certificates, including without limitation, for the purpose of verifying your eligibility for the continuing education credits. We may also use third party customer service platform providers in order to help us provide customer service capabilities in connection with your use of one or more of our Services, including without limitation the Webinars and/or Courses. 
  • Group Companies: We may share your information with our affiliates, which are entities under common ownership or control of our ultimate parent company, IAC/InterActiveCorp for marketing purposes, security, optimization of products and services, and internal reporting. We do this for the purposes set out above. 
  • Where required by law: We may disclose your information with law enforcement agencies, courts, other government authorities, or other third parties when we believe in good faith that such disclosure is appropriate in order to investigate, prevent, or take action regarding possible illegal activities, suspected fraud, situations involving potential threats to the physical safety of any person, violations of this Privacy Policy or the Terms of Service for the Services you accessed, and/or to protect the rights and property of Investopedia, our employees, users and the public, or to comply with a legal or regulatory obligations. This may involve the sharing of your information with law enforcement, government agencies, courts, and/or other organizations.
  • In the context of a transaction: we may share your personal information with potential transaction partners, service providers, advisors and other third parties in connection with the consideration, negotiations, or completion of a corporate transaction in which we are acquired by or merged with another company or we sell or transfer or all or a portion of our assets or business. 
  • Advertisers and advertising networks: Advertisers and advertising networks place ads on our Website. These companies may collect information, such as your computer’s IP address, browser information, and mobile device ID as you use our Website and Services. These companies, as well as data analytics companies who service them, may also use cookies, pixel tags, mobile device advertising IDs and other similar technologies to collect this information when you visit our Website (for example, web pages visited), as described in our Cookie Policy.  They use the data to enable them to track your activity across various sites where they display ads and record your activities, so they can show ads that they consider relevant to you. We neither have access to, nor does this Privacy Policy govern, the use of cookies or other tracking technologies that may be placed on your computer, mobile phone, or other device you use to access the Services by non-affiliated, third-party ad technology, ad servers, ad networks or any other non-affiliated third parties. 

In cases of onward transfer to third parties of data of EU or Swiss individuals received pursuant to the EU-US or the Swiss-US Privacy Shield, Investopedia is potentially liable.

4. Your Rights and Your Privacy Choices 

You have certain rights regarding the personal information we hold about you, subject to local law. These may include the rights to access, correct, delete, restrict, or object to our use of, or receive a portable copy in usable electronic format of your personal information. You may also have a right to lodge a complaint with your local data protection or privacy regulator. 

You also have choices when it comes to the privacy practices described in this Privacy Policy. A few of those choices are set forth below and others are available in our Cookie Policy. 

Choices relating to information we collect: We may be required by law to collect certain personal information about you or as a consequence of any contractual relationship we have with you. Failure to provide this information may prevent us from providing certain Services or all of the Services to you. 

Online behavioral advertising: You may opt-out of third party advertising-related cookies, pixel tags, and web beacons, in which case our advertising should not be targeted to you. You will continue to see advertisements on the Website. However, they will not be tailored to you. You can choose to opt-out through these (and other) websites:

  • Network Advertising Initiative (https://www.networkadvertising.org/)
  • Digital Advertising Alliance (https://www.aboutads.info/consumers)
  • Your Online Choices (https://www.youronlinechoices.com/)

Mobile devices

  • Advertising: When using a mobile application you may receive tailored in-application advertisements. Each operating system, iOS for Apple phones, Android for Android devices and Windows for Microsoft devices provides its own instructions on how to prevent the delivery of tailored in-application advertisements. You may review the support materials and/or the privacy settings for the respective operating systems in order to opt-out of tailored in-application advertisements. For any other devices and/or operating systems, please visit the privacy settings for the applicable device or contact the applicable platform operator. We do not control how the applicable platform operator allows you to control receiving tailored in-application ads; thus, you should contact the platform provider if the above options are no longer available. Note that you may opt out of tracking and receiving tailored advertisements on your mobile device by some mobile advertising companies and other similar entities by downloading the App Choices app at www.aboutads.info/appchoices
  • Location Information: When you use one of our location-enabled services (for example, when you access Services from a mobile device), we may need to collect and process information about your specific GPS location (including the latitude, longitude or altitude of your mobile device) and the time the location information was recorded, and we may use that information to customize the Services with location-based information, advertising, and features. Some of these services require your personal data for the feature to work and we associate location data with your device ID and other information we hold about you. You can stop your location information from being collected by disabling this function within the settings available on your device. In connection with currency conversion functionality found on our site (if applicable), "By using our website, you (the visitor) agree to allow third parties to process your IP address, in order to determine your location for the purpose of currency conversion. You also agree to have that currency stored in a session cookie in your browser (a temporary cookie which gets automatically removed when you close your browser). We do this in order for the selected currency to remain selected and consistent when browsing our website so that the prices can convert to your (the visitor) local currency."

We encourage you to contact us at the contact information set forth below to update or correct your information if it changes or if the personal information we hold about you is inaccurate. Where you have provided your consent to any use of your personal information, you can withdraw this consent at any time.

Please note that we may require additional information from you in order to honor your requests.

If you would like to discuss or exercise any rights you may have under law, please contact us at the contact information set forth below.

5. Automated Decisions About You

When you use the Services, we may make automated decisions about you based on your personal information in the following circumstances: 

  • To deliver personalized offers, discounts, or recommendations based on your shopping history, viewing history, and browsing history, and 
  • To serve you with ads based on various factors such as the content of the page you are visiting, information you provide such as your age or gender, your searches, demographic data, user-generated content and other information that you provide to us. These ads may be based on your current activity or your activity over time and may be tailored to your interests.

6. Right to Access, Review, Change or Delete Information

To access, review, change or delete personal information we have collected from you, please visit our Privacy Center page and send a message to our Support team. To make changes to your account, you may also login to your account and visit the Manage Profile page.

Your specific rights regarding access, review, revision, or deletion of your information is dictated by local laws. 

Legal rights applicable to personal data collected in the EEA. Pursuant to the EU General Data Protection Regulation (Regulation 2016/679) natural persons (called data subjects) are afforded certain rights regarding their personal data, including the right access, correct, delete, restrict or object to our use of, and receive a portable copy in a usable electronic format of your personal information. You also have the right withdraw any consent that you have previously provided to us and to lodge a complaint with your local data protection or privacy regulator.

If you would like to exercise any of the rights outlined above, and the law of your jurisdiction requires us to honor that request, please send your request in writing to the address in the “Contact Us” section below. To assist us in processing your request in timely manner, please make your request in English if you are able to do so. Your request should include any information relevant to your request, including, without limitation: (i) your name, email and postal address; (ii) the specific right you are asserting (e.g., removal); and (iii) if you are requesting removal, a brief explanation of why you believe such information should be removed. 

To help us prevent fraudulent removal requests, please also include a legible copy of a document that verifies your identity. You need not provide a government-issued document; a utility bill or similar mailing will suffice. You may also obscure parts of the document such as identifying numbers so long as the document continues to clearly identify you. If you are making the request on behalf of another person, please indicate your relationship to that person and provide evidence of your authority to make such request. All requests for removal will be reviewed by Investopedia’s legal and compliance team and we reserve the right, in compliance with applicable laws, to accept or reject, or make further inquiries regarding, any requests.

You will not have to pay a fee to access your personal data (or to exercise any of the other rights). However, we may charge a reasonable fee if your request is clearly unfounded, repetitive or excessive. Alternatively, we may refuse to comply with your request in these circumstances.

We try to respond to all legitimate requests within one month. Occasionally it may take us longer than a month if your request is particularly complex or you have made a number of requests. In this case, we will notify you and keep you updated.

7. How We Protect Your Information

We take the security of your information seriously, and use appropriate technical and organizational measures to protect your information against unauthorized or unlawful processing and against accidental loss, destruction or damage. We also limit access to information about you t employees who reasonably need access to it to provide products and services to you, or in order to do their jobs. However, because no security can be 100% effective, we cannot completely guarantee the security of any information we have collected from you.

8. Retention of Your Information

We retain the information we collect about and from you for as long as necessary to fulfill the purpose we collected it for and for the purpose of satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements. To determine the appropriate retention period for personal information we process, we consider the amount, nature, and sensitivity of the personal data, the potential risk of harm from unauthorized use or disclosure of your information, the purposes for which we process your personal data and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means, and the applicable legal, accounting, or reporting requirements. In some circumstances we may choose to aggregate and de-identify you information in such a way that you may not reasonably be re-identified by us or any other company in which case we may use this information indefinitely without further notice to you.

In some circumstances you can ask us to delete your date: see Right to Access, Review, Change or Delete Your Information. 

9. Use Outside the United States of America

The Website and any Investopedia mobile applications are controlled and offered by Investopedia, LLC from the United States of America and, regardless of your place of residence, your use of them is governed by the law of the State of New York, USA. Investopedia makes no representations that the Website and any Investopedia mobile applications are appropriate for use in other locations or are legal in all jurisdictions. Those who access or use the Website and any Investopedia mobile applications from other locations do so at their own risk and are responsible for compliance with local law. You consent to the transfer and processing of your data in the United States of America and any other jurisdiction throughout the world. As a U.S. company, this Privacy Policy is provided in English. 

10. Linked Sites and Advertisements

The Services may contain links to third-party websites. We are not responsible for the privacy practices or the content of those third-party websites. We have relationships with third-party providers to provide content, products, services, and functionality through the Services. Such providers may collect information from you directly, in which case the provider’s privacy policy (which may differ from this Privacy Policy) would apply. If you have any questions regarding the privacy policy of any of our providers, you should contact the provider directly for more information.

11. Your California Privacy Rights

If you are a resident of the State of California, under the California Civil Code, you have the right to request from companies conducting business in California a list of all third parties to which the company has disclosed personal information during the preceding year for direct marketing purposes. Alternatively, the law provides that if a company has a Privacy Policy that gives either an opt-out (which we may sometimes refer to as "unsubscribe") or opt-in choice for use of your personal information by third parties (such as advertisers or affiliated companies) for marketing purposes, the company may instead provide you with information on how to exercise your disclosure choice options. Investopedia qualifies for the alternative option; it has a comprehensive Privacy Policy and provides you with details on how you may either opt-out or opt-in to the use of your personal information by third parties for direct marketing purposes. Therefore, we are not required to maintain or disclose a list of the third parties that received your personal information for marketing purposes during the preceding year. If you are a California resident and request information about how to exercise your third party disclosure choices you must send a request to the following address with a preference on how our response to your request should be sent (email or postal mail). Send an email to us at [email protected], or you may contact us via regular mail at: Investopedia, LLC, 119 West 40th Street, 8th Floor, New York, NY 10018, Attn: Your California Privacy Rights c/o Privacy Administrator. All requests sent via regular mail must be labeled "Your California Privacy Rights" on the envelope or post card and clearly stated on the actual request. For all requests, please include your name, street address, city, state, and zip code (your street address is optional if you wish to receive a response to your request via email. Please include your zip code for our own recordkeeping).

12. International Data Transfer

If you are receiving the Services from outside the United States, your personal data will be transferred to and stored in our servers in the U.S. By using the Services, you consent to our collection and use of your data as described in this Privacy Policy. 

Further, if you are receiving the Services from the European Economic Area (the “EEA”) we note that your information may be transferred to, stored, and processed in a country that is not regarded as providing the same level of protection for personal information as the laws of your home country, and may be available to the government of those countries under a lawful order made in those countries. 

We have put in place appropriate safeguards (such as contractual commitments) in accordance with applicable legal requirements to provide adequate protections for your personal information. For further details, see European Commission: Model contracts for the transfer of personal data to third countries. We may also transfer data to the U.S. under the Privacy Shield framework which requires them to provide similar protection to personal data shared between the EU and the US. 

13. EU-US Privacy Shield Framework and Swiss-US Privacy Shield Framework

The Website complies with the EU-US Privacy Shield Framework and the Swiss-US Privacy Shield Framework as set forth by the U.S. Department of Commerce regarding the collection, use, and retention of personal information from European Union and Switzerland to the United States, respectively. Investopedia has certified to the Department of Commerce that it adheres to the Privacy Shield Principles.  If there is any conflict between the terms in this Privacy Policy and the Privacy Shield Principles, the Privacy Shield Principles shall govern. To learn more about the Privacy Shield program, and to view Investopedia’s certification for the Website and mobile applications, please visit https://www.privacyshield.gov

In compliance with the EU-US and Swiss-US Privacy Shield Principles, Investopedia commits to resolve complaints about your privacy and our collection or use of your personal information. European Union or Swiss individuals with inquiries or complaints regarding this Privacy Policy should first contact us at the address set forth in the “Contact Us” section below.

Investopedia has further committed to refer unresolved privacy complaints regarding the Website or mobile applications under the EU- US and Swiss-US Privacy Shield Principles to an independent dispute resolution mechanism, the BBB EU PRIVACY SHIELD, a non-profit alternative dispute resolution provider located in the United States and, operated by the Council of Better Business Bureaus. If you do not receive timely acknowledgment of your complaint, or if your complaint is not satisfactorily addressed by us, please visit the BBB EU PRIVACY SHIELD web site at www.bbb.org/EU-privacy-shield/for-eu-consumers/ for more information and to file a complaint.

Please note that if your complaint is not resolved through the channels listed in this Privacy Policy, under limited circumstances, a binding arbitration option may be available before a Privacy Shield Panel.

Investopedia is subject to the investigatory and enforcement powers of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

14. Contact Us

If you have questions or concerns regarding the way in which your personal information has been used, or if you want to opt-out of having your personal information shared with third parties or for any purpose that is materially different than the purpose you shared it with us please send a request to the following address with a preference on how our response to your request should be sent (email or postal mail). 

Investopedia, LLC
Attn: Your Privacy Rights
Lead Counsel
119 West 40th Street, 8th Floor
New York NY 10025
[email protected]

All requests sent via regular mail must be labeled "Your Privacy Rights" on the envelope or post card and clearly stated on the actual request. For all requests, please include your name, street address, city, state, and zip code (your street address is optional if you wish to receive a response to your request via email. Please include your zip code for our own recordkeeping).

Investopedia is the controller (as provided under the laws applicable to EEA jurisdictions) responsible for all the personal information we collect and process. We are represented in the EU by our affiliate, IAC Search & Media UK, Ltd., which can be contacted at:

[email protected]

If you have questions or concerns regarding the way in which your personal information collected in the EEA is processed or transferred, please contact our Data Protection Officer at: 

IAC Publishing
Data Protection Officer
555 12th Street, Suite 300
Oakland, CA 94607
[email protected]

We are committed to working with you to obtain a fair resolution of any complaint or concern about privacy. If, however, you believe that we have not been able to assist with your complaint or concern, you may have the right to make a complaint to the data protection authority of your country of residence. 

Cookie Policy

Last Updated On: May 25, 2018

We use cookies, pixel tags, web beacons, mobile device IDs and similar files or technologies to collect and store the information we automatically collect about your computer, device, and Service usage. We use the term "cookies" in this policy to refer to cookies and all such similar technologies that collect information automatically when you are using our Services.

If you do not accept the use of these cookies, please disable them using the instructions in this cookie policy.

In this Cookies Policy, we use the term Investopedia (and "we", "us" and "our") to refer Investopedia, LLC (an IAC Publishing, LLC business).

What is a cookie?

Cookies are text files containing small amounts of information which are downloaded to your computer or mobile device when you visit a website. Cookies are then sent back to the originating website on each subsequent visit, or to another website that recognizes that cookie. Cookies are widely used in order to make websites work, or to work more efficiently, as well as to provide information to the owners of the site

Cookies do lots of different jobs, like letting you navigate between pages efficiently, remembering your preferences, and generally improving the user experience. Cookies may tell us, for example, whether you have visited our Services before or whether you are a new visitor. They can also help to ensure that adverts you see online are more relevant to you and your interests.

There are two broad categories of cookies:

  • First party cookies, served directly by us to your computer or mobile device.
  • Third party cookies, which are served by a third party on our behalf. We use third party cookies for functionality, performance / analytics, advertising and social media purposes.

Cookies can remain on your computer or mobile device for different periods of time. Some cookies are 'session cookies', meaning that they exist only while your browser is open. These are deleted automatically once you close your browser. Other cookies are 'permanent cookies', meaning that they survive after your browser is closed. They can be used by websites to recognize your computer when you open your browser and browse the Internet again.

How do we use cookies?

We use cookies to:

  • track traffic flow and patterns of travel in connection with our Services;
  • understand the total number of visitors to our sites on an ongoing basis and the types of internet browsers (e.g. Chrome, Safari or Internet Explorer), operating systems (e.g. Windows or MacOS), and screen resolutions used by our visitors;
  • monitor the performance of our Services and to continually improve them;
  • customize and enhance your online experience; and
  • enable Investopedia and third-party advertising both on and off this website.

We also use a third party, such as comScore, parse.ly, and Google Analytics to gather general information about how people use our website for the purposes of website optimization and analytics. 

What types of cookies do we use?

The types of cookies used by us and our partners in connection with the Services can be classified into one of five categories, namely 'essential website cookies', 'functionality cookies', 'analytics and performance cookies', 'advertising cookies', and ' social media cookies'. We've set out some further information about each category, and the purposes of the cookies we and third parties set in the following table.

Type of cookie What it does How to block
Cookies necessary for essential website purposes These cookies are essential to provide you with services available through this website and to use some of its features. Please see the instructions set out in 'How to control or delete cookies' below.
Functionality Cookies Functionality cookies record information about choices you've made and allow us to tailor the website to you. These cookies mean that when you continue to use or come back to the Services, we can provide you with our services as you have asked for them to be provided. For example, these cookies allow us to offer store accessibility options. Please see the instructions set out in 'How to control or delete cookies' below.
Performance / Analytics Cookies

We use performance/analytics cookies to analyze how the website is accessed, used, or is performing in order to provide you with a better user experience and to maintain, operate and continually improve the website. For example, these cookies allow us to:

  1. Better understand our website visitors so that we can improve how we present our content;
  2. Test different design ideas for particular pages, such as our homepage;
  3. Collect information about site visitors such as where they are located and what browsers they are using;
  4. Determine the number of unique users of the website;
  5. Improve the website by measuring any errors that occur; and
  6. Conduct research and diagnostics to improve product offerings.

To see an overview of privacy at Google and how to opt out of certain Google practices, visit https://www.google.com/intl/en/policies/privacy

Please also see the instructions set out in 'How to control or delete cookies' below.

Advertising and Tracking Cookies

As you use our website, you will notice that it features advertising. We allow third party advertising companies to place cookies on our website. These cookies enable such companies to track your activity across various sites where they display ads and record your activities so they can show ads that they consider relevant to you as you browse the web. These cookies are anonymous -- they store information about the content you are browsing, but not about who you are.

Cookies also allow us and third parties to know whether you've seen an ad or a type of ad, and how long it has been since you've last seen it. This information is used for frequency capping purposes, to help tailor the ads you see, and to measure the effectiveness of ads.

All the ad companies or networks that we work with have their own privacy policies and offer a mechanism for users to opt out tracking and behavioral targeting available through the ad itself or through the opt out mechanisms listed in the 'How to control or delete cookies' section below.
Social Media Cookies On some pages of our website, third parties that provide applications through our website may set their own anonymous cookies in order to track the success of their applications or customize applications for you. For example, when you share an article using a social media sharing button on our website (e.g., Facebook, Twitter, or Google Plus), the social network that has created the button will record that you have done this. Because of how cookies work, we cannot access these cookies, nor can the third parties access the data in cookies used by Investopedia. Some pages of our website may also contain embedded content, such as video content from YouTube, and these sites may set their own cookies. Please see the instructions set out in 'How to control or delete cookies' below.

How to control or delete cookies

You have the right to choose whether or not to accept cookies and we have explained how you can exercise this right below. However, please note that if you choose to refuse cookies you may not be able to use the full functionality of our websites.

  • Most browsers allow you to change your cookie settings. These settings will typically be found in the “options” or “preferences” menu of your browser.
  • If you only want to limit third party advertising cookies, you can turn such cookies off by using self-regulatory programs such as Your Online Choices, Network Advertising Initiative, or Digital Advertising Alliance. 

If you are in the European Union you can manage your cookie settings by clicking on the link below:

Cookie Settings

Need More Information?

If you would like to find out more about cookies and their use on the Internet, you may find the following links useful:

  • All About Cookies
  • youronlinechoices.com

Cookies that have been set in the past

If you have disabled one or more Cookies, we may still use information collected from cookies prior to your disabled preference being set, however, we will stop using the disabled cookie to collect any further information.

Contact us

If you have any questions or comments about this cookies policy, or privacy matters generally, please contact us via email here or the address provided below:

Investopedia, LLC 
Attn: Lead Counsel 
119 West 40th Street, 8th Floor
New York, NY 10018
[email protected]