Reddit.
Reddit built its empire on user-generated content, and now it's selling that content to AI companies for over $200 million in licensing deals with Google, OpenAI, and others §1. The FTC opened an inquiry into these deals in March 2024 §2, but Reddit pressed ahead — data licensing generated $130 million in 2024 alone, roughly 10% of total revenue §1. In September 2023, Reddit removed the ability to opt out of ad personalization based on your activity §3, consolidating two separate toggles into one and eliminating user choice for most of the world. The policy claims "we don't sell your personal data to third parties," but your posts, comments, and votes are being packaged and sold to train AI models that will regurgitate your words without credit or compensation. On the positive side, Reddit doesn't require a real name, deletes IP addresses after 100 days §4, and lets you browse without an account. But the UK's ICO hit Reddit with a £14.47 million fine in February 2026 for failing to protect children's data — they had no age verification until July 2025 and never ran a data protection impact assessment §5. The 2023 phishing breach exposed 80GB of internal data to the BlackCat ransomware gang §6. Reddit says "privacy is a right," but when your 20-year archive becomes the most-cited source in AI models §1, that right starts looking more like a revenue stream.
TL;DR — 8 answers.
The eight things you actually want to know, at a glance.
The questions, answered.
No legalese. Every answer the way your most cynical friend would put it.
Do they sell your data?
Reddit says it doesn't "sell personal data to third parties, including data brokers." But it licenses your public content — posts, comments, votes — to Google ($60M/yr) and OpenAI (~$70M/yr) for AI training, generating $130 million in 2024 [[S1]]. Whether you call that "selling" or "licensing," your words are the product.
Are they tracking you on other sites?
Reddit receives data from third-party integrations and advertisers, including via Reddit Embeds on other sites, its advertising SDK, and audience measurement partners. If an advertiser uses Reddit's ad technology, Reddit gets information about what you do on the advertiser's site or app [[S7]].
Can your data train their AI?
Absolutely, and they're getting paid for it. Reddit has signed licensing deals worth $203 million with Google and OpenAI to let them train AI models on Reddit's 20-year archive of user content [[S1]]. Reddit is now the most-cited source in AI models — three times more than Wikipedia. There is no opt-out for having your public posts used this way.
Who can see what you do?
Public posts and comments: everyone, including search engines, AI chatbots like ChatGPT, and anyone with API access [[S4]]. Private messages and chats are not public. Your profile, karma, communities, and activity are all visible. Reddit also shares data with LLM providers to compile and summarize public content.
Can you delete everything?
You can delete your account, but posts and comments remain visible unless you individually delete each one first [[S4]]. And content already licensed to AI companies? Already in the training data — deletion doesn't unwind that. Reddit also retains some data after deletion for legal and security purposes.
Do they honor your opt-out?
In September 2023, Reddit removed the ability to opt out of ad personalization based on your on-platform activity for most users [[S3]]. Opt-out controls remain in "select countries" (likely EU/GDPR regions). GPC is honored only in some jurisdictions — the policy says "if you have an account and visit our site with an opt-out preference signal, we will treat that as an opt-out request" but only in some jurisdictions [[S4]]. DNT is explicitly ignored.
Special handling for minors?
Reddit's terms require users to be 13+, but until July 2025 there was no age verification at all — just a self-declaration [[S5]]. The UK ICO fined them £14.47 million in February 2026 for processing children's data without a lawful basis. Reddit says it doesn't knowingly sell/share data of users under 16, but the enforcement history suggests the protections came too late.
Been fined for this before?
£14.47 million (UK ICO, February 2026) for unlawfully processing children's personal data and failing to implement age verification [[S5]]. The FTC also opened an inquiry in March 2024 into Reddit's AI data licensing practices [[S2]]. In 2023, the BlackCat ransomware gang stole 80GB of data after a phishing attack and demanded $4.5 million [[S6]].
At a glance, honestly.
Eight signals, color-coded. Like a model card for a machine — except the machine is reading your data.
The Privacy Label, honestly.
An Apple-style label for what's collected and a Cranor-style back-of-pack for what they do with it. Every cell links to the exact line in their policy.
The receipts, translated.
Five of the worst clauses, lifted verbatim. Strikethroughs are theirs. Marginalia is ours.
Dark patterns spotted.
Tricks the policy and surrounding UX use to make you "consent" without really consenting.
Your rights, by where you live.
Same company, wildly different rights depending on your jurisdiction. Direct links to the specific opt-out / delete / access flows.
- ✓ Right of access
- ✓ Right to rectification
- ✓ Right to erasure
- ✓ Right to data portability
- ✓ Right to restrict processing
- ✓ Right to object to processing
- ✓ Right to withdraw consent
- ✓ Right to lodge complaint with supervisory authority
Source: §4
- ✓ Right to know
- ✓ Right to delete
- ✓ Right to correct
- ✓ Right to opt-out of sale/sharing
- ✓ Right to limit use of sensitive info
- ✓ Right to non-discrimination
Source: §4
The actual sources.
Every claim above is anchored to a line in the policy we analyzed. Click any section ID to view it in context.
SOURCE: https://www.reddit.com/policies/privacy-policy · POLICY VERSION: 2026-05-26 · SNAPSHOT HASH: manual-pdf
- §1Reddit AI data licensing deals (Google, OpenAI) — Columbia Journalism Review / multiple sources"Reddit's 20-year warehouse of user-generated content has positioned it as the most cited domain for AI training. Data licensing generated $130 million in 2024 — roughly 10% of total revenue. Reddit disclosed licensing agreements with Google and OpenAI worth $203 million."
- §2FTC inquiry into Reddit's AI data licensing practices (March 2024)"Reddit disclosed in an SEC filing that it had received a letter from the FTC advising that the FTC's staff was conducting a non-public inquiry focused on the company's sale, licensing, or sharing of user-generated content with third parties to train AI models."
- §3TechCrunch — Reddit removing ad personalization opt-out (September 28, 2023)"Reddit is removing the ability to opt out of ad personalization based on your activity on the platform. The company said it would still have opt-out controls in 'select countries' without specifying which ones."
- §4Reddit Privacy Policy (effective July 1, 2026; last revised May 26, 2026)"We don't sell your personal data to third parties, including data brokers. ... LLM providers who help us compile and summarize public content for relevant search results on Reddit."
- §5UK ICO — £14.47M fine against Reddit for children's privacy failures (24 February 2026)"The ICO fined Reddit £14.47m for unlawfully processing the personal data of under-13s and failing to implement effective age verification measures. Reddit did not have measures in place to check the age of users accessing its platform until July 2025."
- §6Reddit February 2023 data breach — phishing attack / BlackCat ransomware (Huntress / TechCrunch)"The breach exposed internal documents, code, and limited advertiser information. The BlackCat ransomware gang demanded a ransom of $4.5 million after stealing 80GB of data through a phishing attack that compromised an employee's credentials."
- §7Reddit Privacy Policy — Cookies, integrations, and audience measurement"If an advertiser incorporates Reddit's ad technology, Reddit may receive limited information about your activity on the advertiser's site or app, such as whether you bought something from the advertiser. We partner with service providers that perform audience measurement to learn demographic information about the population that uses Reddit."