Buzzsprout - Privacy Policy

Higher Pixels, dba Buzzsprout, provides the Buzzsprout product (www.buzzsprout.com) and Buzzsprout Ads (www.buzzsprout.com/ads), together referred to as the Buzzsprout Services. Buzzsprout is committed to protecting the privacy and data of those who visit the buzzsprout.com website, use the Buzzsprout Services, and listen to podcast episodes served from Buzzsprout servers.

The data you put into Buzzsprout is yours. We’ll only ever access your account to help you with a problem or fix a software issue. We log access to accounts by IP address. This allows us to verify that no unauthorized access has happened for as long as the logs are kept.

Podcast Listener Privacy

Buzzsprout believes protecting online privacy is important and that extends to podcast listeners. When you listen to a podcast served directly from Buzzsprout's servers, you can be assured your privacy is being respected. Buzzsprout only collects the minimum data necessary to validate a download, understand the application that was used to initiate the download, and get a general sense of where in the world that download was delivered.

Buzzsprout does NOT use listener data to:

  • Programmatically target advertisements
  • Track and/or identify individuals
  • Create interest-based profiles
  • Combine data pools to associate audience demographics
  • Sell listener data to anyone for any purpose

What data does Buzzsprout collect from listeners on third-party distribution channels?

When a podcast episode is downloaded through any third-party distribution channel, listener data is recorded for analysis.

  • IP Address
  • User Agent
  • Referring URL (in some cases)

The data above is retrieved directly from server logs. Buzzsprout does not, by default, utilize any 3rd party tracking technologies on media downloads1.

Why is this listener data collected?

It's important for you to know not only what we collect, but why we collect it. Buzzsprout only collects listener data for the following three reasons.

  1. To provide anonymized statistics to our customers
  2. To discover and prevent fraudulent/illegal behavior
  3. To comply with any legal obligation(s)

Sub-Processors Agreements

For performance and redundancy, we direct some listener traffic through the AWS CloudFront and Cloudflare networks. To perform this role, they have access to the same basic listener data as Buzzsprout. We have reviewed their privacy policies and have determined they are in line with the values of Buzzsprout.

Links are provided for your convenience:

What else can you do to protect your privacy as a podcast listener?

  1. Use a podcast app like Overcast that prioritizes listener privacy
  2. Ask your favorite podcasters where they host their podcast to ensure they are respecting your privacy
  3. Opt-out of interest-based tracking-based advertising (doesn't help much with podcasting apps 😢)

1 Buzzsprout customers may choose to use one or more prefix URL's on their media files. While Buzzsprout does not encourage this, we currently don't prevent it either. If a podcast uses a media prefix URL, then the provider of that prefix can also track listener data.

Your Personal Information

We collect the email addresses of those who communicate with us via email. When you browse our marketing pages, we track that for analytical purposes (conversion rates and testing new designs). We'll also store any information you voluntarily submit (for example, filling out a survey) for the duration of the research project or as long as it makes sense.

When you sign up for Buzzsprout Services, we ask for your name and email address. This allows us to personalize your new account, and send you invoices, updates, or contact you concerning your account. We’ll never give nor sell your personal information to third parties.

When We Will Share Your Info

  • To provide you products or services you’ve requested. Only done with your permission.
  • To investigate, prevent, or take action regarding illegal activities, suspected fraud, situations involving potential threats to the physical safety of any person, violations of our Terms of Service, or as otherwise required by law.
  • If Buzzsprout or Higher Pixels is acquired by or merged with another company. We have no plans to sell or merge, but if it happens, we’ll notify you before your info is transferred and becomes subject to a different privacy policy.

Law Enforcement

Higher Pixels won’t provide data to law enforcement without a court order. Should that happen, we’ll attempt to inform you of the request unless we’re legally prevented from doing so.

Use of Cookies

When you use the Buzzsprout Services we and our vendors may use “cookies”, “web beacons”, and similar devices to track your activities. These small pieces of information are stored on your hard drive, not on the Buzzsprout website.

We use cookies to help you navigate the Buzzsprout website and Buzzsprout Services as easily as possible, and to remember information about your current session. We do not use this technology to spy on you or otherwise invade your privacy. You can disable cookies and tracking technologies through your web browser, however doing so may render the Buzzsprout Services unusable.

Security and Storage

The Buzzsprout website and Buzzsprout Services have industry standard security measures in place to protect the loss, misuse, and alteration of the information under our control. While there is no such thing as "perfect security" on the Internet, we will take all reasonable steps to ensure the safety of your information.

All data is encrypted via SSL/TLS when transmitted between our servers and your browser. Our database data isn’t encrypted (because it needs to be available quickly), but we go to great lengths to secure your data at rest.

Buzzsprout Services. We will not sell or share this data with any third-parties or use this data to compete with you or advertise to your clients/listeners.

Deleted Data

When you cancel your account, we delete all data associated with your account from our production database. We do keep backups, designed for catastrophic system recovery, for 30 days. The backups are purged on a rolling 30 day cycle. When an account is deleted, none of your personal data will remain on our servers past 30 days. Anything you delete from your account while it’s active will also be purged from the backups at day 30.

EU-US and Swiss-US Customers

Please see our EU-US and Swiss-US Privacy Shield policy.

Corrections and Updates

Higher Pixels allows consumers who use the Buzzsprout Services to update or modify their information by clicking on the My Account link in the Buzzsprout navigation menu.

California Online Privacy Protection Act Compliance

Buzzsprout complies with the California Online Privacy Protection Act. We therefore will not distribute your personal information to outside parties without your consent.

Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act Compliance

We never collect or maintain information at our website from those we actually know are under 13, and no part of our website is structured to attract anyone under 13.

Changes and Questions

Amendments to this statement will be posted to this URL and will be effective when posted. Your continued use of this site following the posting of any amendment, modification, or change shall constitute your acceptance of the amendment. We’ll notify you about significant changes by emailing the account owner or by placing a prominent notice on our site. If you have any questions about this privacy statement or your dealings with the Buzzsprout website, Buzzsprout Service or Buzzsprout Ads Service, you can contact us at support@buzzsprout.com.