When you check your GitHub account today, you’ll see an announcement letting you know that we’ve updated our Privacy Statement. Check it out!

Before we get into what’s new, rest assured that your information is still safe and sound. We have not made any substantive changes to the way we handle your information. For example, we still . . .

  • don’t sell your personal information to any third parties for their commercial purposes;
  • don’t have advertising on GitHub;
  • only require a small amount of information; and
  • only use your information for the purpose of providing services to you.

What’s changed

The new Privacy Statement clarifies quite a few things about how GitHub uses data, and how we permit third parties to use your information. For example, the new Privacy Statement describes how people such as researchers or archivists can use your public information on GitHub.com, and it explains that third parties using public information must respect our users’ choices. The new Privacy Statement now also includes a statement regarding tracking—we don’t track your web browsing off our site, and we don’t let third parties track you on GitHub.

Privacy Shield compliance

With this updated Privacy Statement, we’ve also applied for certification with the new EU–US Privacy Shield Framework. Privacy Shield is an agreement between the US Department of Commerce and the European Commission that provides companies in both the United States and the European Union a mechanism to comply with EU data protection requirements when transferring personal data from the EU to the US. We expect to receive our certification shortly, and we currently comply with the Privacy Shield Principles to protect all our users’ information.

Protecting our users

Although the Privacy Shield is only directed to users in the European Union, GitHub is committed to protecting all our users equally, regardless of where you live. So we are extending Privacy Shield’s benefits to all our users, including access to a free independent arbitration provider for privacy disputes.

Please take a few minutes to look over the new Privacy Statement, and please reach out if you have any questions.

Tags: