The Motley Fool is announcing some changes and updates to our privacy policies to bring us into compliance with the European Union's new General Data Protection Regulation (or GDPR, for short). These changes are effective as of May 25th, 2018.
Chances are good that you've seen a bunch of emails, announcements, and press releases about privacy policy update in the last few days as everyone (us included!) has hustled to get things ready for the EU-imposed deadlines. So we figured we'd give you a little background on GDPR and then explain what we're doing.
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What is GDPR, and why should I care?
Given the timing, it's reasonable to think that GDPR is a response to news reports about how peoples' data has been used by some online tech companies. But in fact, GDPR has been percolating for seven years. The regulation is designed to give EU citizens more transparency into and control over their data. That includes the ability to delete their data so companies can't use it for marketing purposes. If you want more information on GDPR and its impacts, the Guardian has a solid breakdown.
"Ok," you may be thinking, "I'm not an EU citizen. Why should I care?"
That's where our privacy policy updates come in -- because, in addition to becoming GDPR-compliant for our European readers, we've decided to take this opportunity to extend additional protections to all site visitors.
What we're doing for everyone
There are a raft of smaller updates to our privacy policy (you can read the full policy here), but the two major ones we want to call out are sections four and ten.
Section four identifies three simple ways for anyone to opt out of marketing communications from The Motley Fool. One is to change the settings on your account (if you're logged in to Fool.com right now while reading this, just go to https://www.fool.com/account/, go to 'preferences', and then click 'email settings'). A second is to hit the 'unsubscribe' link at the bottom of any marketing email sent to you. The third is to email us directly at: [email protected].
Section ten explains how we're using those same three simple communication avenues to enable you to easily change your information or close your account. Let's say, for example, that you're a Motley Fool Stock Advisor member who is switching email addresses. You would go to https://www.fool.com/account/ and click 'email address,' then fill in your new one. If you would rather not receive emails from a newsletter service you've paid for detailing information included in your subscription (things like new stock picks, analysis from the team, updates on companies, interviews, etc.), you can hit 'unsubscribe' to be removed from future emails. And if you want your entire account to be closed so it's impossible to log in, email [email protected].
We want you to know your rights and to have the information you need to make the privacy decisions that are best for your circumstances. So be sure to check out the full privacy policy and to review your account settings (make sure you're logged in so you can see them) so we can ensure that we're communicating with you in the ways you want us to.
And, one more time, you can read our full privacy policy here.
