2022: July 1 – Dec 31

The information below represents the number of requests we received from users exercising their privacy rights between July 1, 2022 and December 31, 2022. We honor users’ requests to access the data we have collected about them, to delete data we have collected about them, and to opt out of having their data sold (through the operation of our advertising program).

Access Requests

Notes

  • Compared to the previous reporting period, the average time to process an Access Requests (in days) was faster by 2.6 days (13.8%).
  • Automattic honors Access Requests from any source or location. It does not restrict Access Requests to individuals residing in the EU or California. Automattic has never denied an Access Request from one of its users.
  • We do not require individuals who submit Access Requests to disclose their location as part of their request. The geographic numbers reported above are our best guess as to which region/law a request is submitted under.

Deletion Requests

Notes

  • Compared to the previous reporting period, the number of support requests about deleting content increased by 8,267 (63.5%). By region, requests from EU/GDPR dropped by 53 (39.8%).
  • The deletion of data is tied to our account closure process, which can only be triggered by the logged in account owner or administrator. Because this process is self-service, we do not have data on the full number of users who desired to delete their personal information from our service. The above numbers only represent the total number of deletion requests opened privately with our support team.
  • Automattic does not deny deletion requests for any verified and logged in account owners. Deletion requests submitted to support are occasionally denied when an individual has lost access to their account and is unable to verify their ownership, or if we are legally required to maintain a copy of someone’s personal information.
  • Automattic vigorously defends the speech rights of its site owners. We do not honor deletion requests submitted by third parties in an attempt to censor the content published on our service unless the content is found to violate our Terms of Service. We will, upon request of the third party, pass complaints on to site owners (who are the controllers of the data published on their own site).
  • When an account is closed we retain the account data for 30 days, then fully purge it from our systems. For this reason, the length of time it takes to honor a deletion request is always 30 days.

Requests to Opt Out of Data Sales

Notes

  • Compared to the previous reporting period, the number of requests to opt out of data sales increased by 332,444 (3,472.7%).
  • The number of requests to opt out of data sales was 50% less (340,825) compared to the reporting period of July 1 – December 31, 2021.
  • We show ads on some of our users’ sites and some of our own sites. The revenue generated from these ads allow us to offer free access to some of our services because we don’t want money to be an obstacle to having a voice. As part of our advertising program, we — and our users — use cookies to share certain device identifiers and information about browsing activities with our advertising partners. These disclosures may be considered a “sale” of information under the CCPA, and we have a clear process to allow users to opt out.
  • Opting out of personalized ads is a self-service request that is automatic and immediate. For this reason, the average duration of time to honor an opt-out request is always zero (0) days.