Privacy Policy

Effective Date: March 1, 2025

We value transparency and care about your privacy when you use our Surf application and services – a Flipboard product that runs on the federated social web (collectively, “Surf,” “we,” “our,” “us”). Please read this privacy policy carefully; it explains how we collect, use, and share your information to help you make informed decisions when you use Surf. You may contact privacy@surf.social or Legal Department Surf, 555, Bryant Street #352, Palo Alto, CA 94301 with any questions you might have about this privacy policy or the processing of your personal information.

Please be aware that when you engage in social actions on Surf some of your information (e.g., your public profile, the content you post, and your interactions with content posted by others) may be replicated and shared throughout Mastodon and other decentralized networks (such as BlueSky) through a process called federation. Once your information is federated, we do not have direct control over how other servers on may handle your information, and their data protection practices may vary subject to different terms and conditions and privacy policies.

1. Overview

The following is a high-level summary of our data practices. Please review the entirety of the Privacy Policy for additional details.

The Information We Collect. We collect information such as contact and account information, profile information, content and interactions, information about your content preferences, and device, internet and network activity information within Surf only. Please note, Surf is designed for public conversation. The information in your public profile and the information you post and interact with through Surf is made public.

How We Use Your Information. We may use this information solely: (1) to enable you, other Surf users, and users of other servers and applications to connect and interact; (2) to personalize Surf with your preferences and interests; (3) to understand how Surf is used so we can improve Surf; (4) to enforce our terms and policies; (5) with your consent; (6) for security, safety, and due diligence purposes; (7) as otherwise necessary to provide you with Surf, such as sending you non-transactional communications (e.g., our newsletters), push notifications, other communications you request, and transactional communications about your account, changes to our policies and terms, and your support requests; and (8) for other permissible purposes as requested by you or as required or allowed under applicable law. We may also use information for other purposes disclosed to you at the time of collection.

How We Retain Personal Information. We may keep this information as long as it is necessary or relevant for the practices described in this Privacy Policy.

How We Collect Information. We collect information when you provide it to us, when we collect it automatically through your use of Surf, or when other parties provide it to us.

When We Share Your Personal Information. We do not sell, trade, or otherwise transfer to third parties your personally identifiable information. This does not include disclosures of information about you which we share (1) with our trusted service providers to provide Surf; (2) with other parties when necessary for compliance with law, to enforce our terms and policies; (3) to protect our and others’ rights, property, and safety; and (4) as part of a merger, acquisition, or other similar business transaction related to some or all of our assets.

Your Privacy Rights. Depending on where you live, you may have the right to access, correct, and delete your personal information, and certain jurisdictions may have additional requirements for our processing of your personal information.

Other Choices You Have. You have the right to (1) delete your account, (2) control the non-transactional communications, push notifications, and offers we send; and (3) disable cookies and similar technologies.

Security. We use industry standard security measures to protect your information.

Data Storage Outside the EEA and International Transfer. We transfer, store, and process information outside the EEA, in particular, in the United States. By using Surf, you consent to such transfer, storage, and processing.

Links to Third Party Sites. We may link to sites operated by third parties whom we do not control and who process information in accordance with their own privacy policy.

Minor Children. Surf is not intended for minors under the age of 18.

Changes to this Privacy Policy. We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time and will inform you of material changes.

Contact. If you have any questions regarding our privacy practices, please contact us at: privacy@surf.social or Legal Department Surf, 555 Bryant Street #352 Palo Alto, CA 94301.

2. Notice at Collection: The Information We Collect

We collect the following limited categories of personal information when you visit, use, or interact with Surf:

  • Contact and Account Information, including email address, username and password.
  • Profile Information, including the profile picture, biography, display name, avatar, and the name of the server on which you are registered. This information is always public and available to everyone.
  • Content and Interactions, such as posts, comments, subscriptions (accounts followed), subscribers (account followers), likes, mentions, favorites, and boosts. This information is generally public and available to everyone. We make a good faith effort to limit the post to “followers only” or “mentioned people only” on our server when you select that option. However, messages directed to individuals on other servers may become more broadly available to the extent permitted by those servers, as well as on this one if you or the recipients choose to share the message publicly.
  • Information about your Content Preferences, if you choose to provide it to enable the creation of custom feeds on Surf (e.g., you can manage the types of content that you see based on your preference settings).
  • Device, Internet and Network Activity Information, such as IP address, browser type, operating system, device information, and usage information within Surf (e.g., pages visited, posts viewed, links clicked, and search terms) that we use solely to provide and improve Surf.

3. Notice at Collection: How We Use Your Information

We use the categories of information described above solely as follows:

  • To enable users of Surf and users of other servers and applications to connect and interact;
  • To personalize Surf, and recommend relevant content and/or other users that may be of interest to you;
  • To learn about how you and others are using Surf to make improvements;
  • To find and remove content and users that violate our policies;
  • To otherwise provide Surf (e.g., managing your account, answering support requests, notifying you about content you might be interested in, sending you push notifications and non-transactional communications about Surf (such as our newsletters), and communicating with you about your account, activities on Surf, policy changes, and any other communications you request);
  • For security, safety, and due diligence purposes;
  • As required by law, or as we may notify you at the time of collection.

We only use your account credentials to provide you with access to your Surf account and enable interactions with your linked accounts.

4. Notice at Collection: How We Retain Personal Information

We keep personal information as long as it is necessary or relevant for the practices described in this privacy policy, including, for example, for legal compliance, dispute resolution, contract enforcement, backup, archival, and other internal operations purposes. This includes data you or others provide to us and data generated from your use of Surf. We also keep information as otherwise required by law.

If you submit a request to exercise one of your privacy rights, we retain records of those requests so we can comply with them and so that we can demonstrate that we have complied. Please note that your public information on Surf can be replicated and shared on other servers where it may be subject to different terms and conditions and privacy policies. In such cases, your data may continue to appear on the internet even after it has been removed from our server.

5. How We Collect Information

We collect personal information about you from the following sources:

  • We collect information directly from you (e.g., when you contact us, and when you create or customize your account profile).
  • We collect information automatically when you use Surf (e.g., we use cookies and similar technologies to collect device, internet and network activity information solely to provide and improve Surf. For more information about our use of cookies and your choices, please read the section titled “Other Choices You Have” below).
  • We collect information from other parties (e.g. you may direct another party’s social networking application to share information with us).

6. When We Share Your Personal Information

Aside from information that has been federated as described above, we do not share your personal information with third parties (or otherwise sell, trade, or transfer your personal information to third parties). When we say “third parties” we mean companies who would act without restriction and could use your personal information for their own business purposes.

We only provide access to or share your personal information with our trusted service providers who perform data storage, security, and fraud prevention services on our behalf. These service providers are prohibited from using your information for other purposes. A list of our service providers is available at here . We may also release your information when we believe release is appropriate to comply with the law, enforce our site policies, or protect ours or others’ rights, property, or safety. We may also share your information in connection with a merger, acquisition, reorganization or sale of assets in the event of a bankruptcy (if we sell, transfer or otherwise share some or all of our assets).

When you authorize an application to use your account, depending on the scope of permissions you approve, it may access your public profile information, your following list, your followers, your lists, all your posts, and your favorites. Applications can never access your e-mail address or password.

We may use de-identified or aggregate information for our internal purposes, and we do not attempt to re-identify you using this information.

7. Your Privacy Rights

Depending on where you live, you may have the following rights regarding your personal information (each of which are subject to various exceptions and limitations):

  • Access. You can request, up to two times every 12 months, that we disclose to you the specific pieces of personal information we have collected about you.
  • Correct. You have the right to request correction of your inaccurate personal information.
  • Delete. You can request that we delete the personal information that we maintain about you from our servers. Please note if you delete content on Surf, we will request that other servers delete the content from their servers, but due to the nature of the distributed system, we cannot guarantee that they will honor such requests. [LL16]

You may also exercise the rights above by contacting us at privacy@surf.social and we will consider your request in accordance with applicable laws.

We will take reasonable steps to verify your identity prior to responding to your requests. For example, we may utilize a third-party verification provider to assist with verifying your identity. The verification steps may vary depending on the sensitivity of the personal information and whether you have an account with us.

You can designate an authorized agent to submit requests on your behalf. However, we will require written proof of the agent’s permission to do so, and we will need to verify your identity directly.

8. Additional Information

U.S. Users

If you are located in the United States (U.S.), the following additional information applies to you:

  • Non-discrimination. We will not discriminate against you based on your exercise of any of the rights described in the “Your Privacy Rights” section of this privacy policy.
  • Appeals. You have the right to appeal decisions concerning your ability to exercise your consumer rights. Please contact us at privacy@surf.social to request an appeal concerning decisions on your consumer request.
  • Notice at Collection Disclosure: For our notice at collection, see the above sections of this privacy policy titled: The Information We Collect, How We Use Your Information, and Retention Periods. We do not sell or share your personal information with third parties for purposes of targeted advertising.

EEA and UK Users

If you are located in the European Economic Area (EEA) or the United Kingdom (UK), the following additional information applies to you:

  • Legal Grounds for Processing Information. Our legal basis for collecting and using the personal information described above will depend on the personal information concerned and the specific context in which we collect it. Our lawful bases include where: (a) you have given consent to the processing for one or more specific purposes, either to us or to our service providers, partners, or customers; (b) processing is necessary for the performance of a contract with you (e.g., to fulfill your request or provide Surf that you have requested); (c) processing is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation; or (d) processing is necessary for the purposes of the legitimate interests pursued by us or a third party, and your interests and fundamental rights and freedoms do not override those interests.
  • Your EEA/UK Privacy Rights. In addition to the rights described in the “Your Privacy Rights” section of this privacy policy, you the following rights: The right to request access to certain information we hold about you (in a portable format, if technically feasible); The right to object to or restrict our processing of your personal information; The right to withdraw your consent to processing your personal information. Please note that withdrawing your consent does not affect the lawfulness of processing based on consent before its withdrawal.

Surf is a data controller for the purposes of this Privacy Policy.

Please find more information on your rights on the website of the European Data Protection Supervisor.

To exercise any of these rights, please contact our Data Protection Officer at privacy@surf.social.

9. Other Choices You Have

Account Deletion. To delete your account and learn what that means, navigate to the account deletion section in the Surf application settings and follow the instructions there.

Non-Transactional Communications. To stop receiving non-transactional emails from us (such as our newsletters), you can follow the instructions in any non-transactional message you get from us. Even if you opt out of getting non-transactional messages, we will still send you transactional messages. These include responses to your questions.

When you use any of our services that send push notifications or offers to your mobile device, you can change your preferences through the settings on your mobile device and/or in the applicable mobile service.

Cookies and Similar Technologies. Cookies are small data files stored on your hard drive by a website.We use only the following types of cookies:

  • Essential cookies. These are cookies that are required for Surf to function. They are used to ensure the safety, security, and integrity of Surf, as well as to enable users to navigate Surf and use its features. Without these cookies, we could not log you into Surf. These cookies are often session-specific, which means they expire after your visit to Surf has ended.
  • Functionality Cookies. These cookies allow Surf to remember the choices that you make, such as your username, language preference, or the region that you are in. These cookies will typically remain on your device until you choose to clear them.

You may disable cookies by activating the setting on your browser that allows you to refuse the setting of all or some cookies. However, if you use your browser settings to disable all cookies (including essential cookies) you may not be able to access all or parts of Surf.

Because we do not track your online activity, please also note that at this time our website does not recognize automated browser signals regarding tracking mechanisms, which may include “Do Not Track” instructions.

10. Security

The Internet is not 100% secure. We use standard security measures. We cannot promise that your use of our websites, apps, or services will be completely safe. Any transmission of your data to Surf is at your own risk. We encourage you to use caution when using the Internet.

11. Data Storage Outside the EEA and International Transfer

As a California-based company, we store and use personal information outside the EEA. Surf is offered globally so it is necessary to transfer your information internationally, in particular, to the United States where our servers are located. The data protection and other laws of other countries, such as the United States, may not be as comprehensive as those in your country. By using Surf, you consent to such transfer, storing and processing. We rely on multiple legal bases to lawfully transfer personal information internationally. These include EU Commission approved model contractual clauses, which require certain privacy and security protections. To ensure adequate protection of personal information in cross-border transfer and/or processing, we use appropriate safeguards as allowed under applicable law or regulation.

12. Links to Third Party Sites

We may link to external sites that are not operated by us. Please be aware that we have no control over the content and policies of those sites and cannot accept responsibility or liability for their respective privacy practices.

13. Minor Children

Surf not intended for minors under the age of 18. We do not knowingly collect information from anyone under the age of 18. If you are a parent or legal guardian and think your minor under the age of 18 has given us information, you can contact us at privacy@surf.social.

14. Changes to This Privacy Policy

We reserve the right to make changes to this privacy policy from time to time and will inform you of material changes to the processing of your personal information.

15. Contact

We’d love to hear your questions, concerns and feedback about this privacy policy. If you have suggestions for us, let us know at privacy@surf.social. You can also write to us at the address below:

Legal Department Surf, 555 Bryant Street #352 Palo Alto, CA 94301

For EEA and UK users, if you feel you haven’t received a timely or satisfactory response from us with respect to a question or complaint related to this policy, you may raise the issue with data protection authority in your country, without prejudice to any other rights you may have. A list of data protection authorities is available at https://ec.europa.eu/newsroom/article29/items/612080.