Privacy Policy

Effective Date: Jan 2, 2020

  1. Introduction
  2. Information We Collect
  3. Use of Information We Collect
  4. Sharing Information with Third Parties
  5. Sharing What You Watch
  6. Advertising
  7. Your Choices, Including Opt-Out Options
  8. Security and Account Access
  9. Children
  10. Third-Party Access Points, Devices, and Links
  11. Deleting Your Hulu Account
  12. Applicable Law
  13. Changes to this Privacy Policy
  14. Questions/Contacting Us

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1. Introduction

Hulu, LLC (“Hulu,” “we” or “us”) respects your privacy. This Privacy Policy explains the collection, use, and sharing of information from or about you in connection with your use of the Hulu Services. The term “Hulu Services” refers to our video service, including the selection of television shows, clips, movies, and other content we offer (collectively, the “Content”) and our player for viewing the Content (the “Video Player”), as well as any other products, features, tools, materials, or other services offered from time to time by Hulu through a variety of Access Points. The term “Access Points” refers to, collectively, the hulu.com website (the “Hulu Site”), applications, and other places through which the Hulu Services may be accessed, including websites and applications of Hulu’s third-party distribution partners and other websites where users or website operators are permitted to embed or have otherwise licensed the Video Player.

By viewing any Content or otherwise using the Hulu Services, whether you are a subscriber, other registered user, or a visitor who has not subscribed to or registered for the Hulu Services, you consent to the collection and use of information from or about you as explained in this Privacy Policy. If you do not consent to the collection and use of information from or about you in accordance with this Privacy Policy, then you may not use the Hulu Services.

Please note that the website addresses (i.e., URLs) included within this Privacy Policy may not function as hyperlinks on all the Access Points. To view this Privacy Policy with clickable hyperlinks, please visit the Hulu Site on your computer.

2. Information We Collect

Hulu may collect the following information from or about you:

Information You Provide To Us. We collect information you provide to us. For instance, when you register to use the Hulu Services, we may collect your name, email address, birth date, gender, credit card information, billing address, ZIP code, and other information. In addition, Hulu may collect information you provide to us when you respond to surveys, set your preferences, contact Hulu through customer service or by other means, or participate in promotions that Hulu may offer from time to time. Hulu also allows multiple profiles to be set up under one account, so we may collect information you provide to us if you create a profile.

Usage and Log Data. We collect information when you use the Hulu Services or view Hulu advertising outside of the Hulu Services. Examples of this information may include your IP address, device, browser and software characteristics (such as type and operating system), location (which may include precise location data), activity on the Hulu Services including information about the videos you view on Hulu (e.g., show titles and episode names), page views, ad data, referral URLs, network state, device identifiers or other unique identifiers such as advertising identifiers (e.g., “ad-ID” or “IDFA”) and identifiers associated with browser cookies (see our description of “Cookies and Local Storage” below), and carrier information.

Data Collected Through Cookies and Similar Technologies. Like many online services, we use various technologies to collect usage data and store preferences. These technologies are discussed below.

  • Cookies and Local Storage. One technology we use is called a cookie. A cookie is a small data file that is transferred to your computer’s hard disk. We may use both session cookies and persistent cookies to better understand how you interact with the Hulu Services or Hulu advertising published outside of the Hulu Services, to monitor aggregate usage by our users and web traffic routing on the Hulu Services, and to customize Content and advertising. These uses allow us to improve the Hulu Services. We may create a unique device or user ID for you and store it in a cookie so we can customize your experience based on your preferences.We may collect information through other kinds of local storage (also referred to as “Flash cookies”) and HTML5 local storage, including in connection with features such as volume/mute settings for the Video Player. Because these technologies are similar to browser cookies, they are sometimes called “browser cookies,” even though they may be stored in different parts of your computer.Most Internet browsers automatically accept cookies. You can instruct your browser, by changing its settings, to stop accepting cookies or to prompt you before accepting a cookie from the websites you visit. For information about disabling cookies or deleting information contained in Flash cookies, please visit Adobe.com Manage, disable Local Shared Objects. Please note that disabling cookies or deleting information contained in cookies or Flash cookies may interfere with the performance and features of the Hulu Services, including the Video Player. For example, we may not be able to store your preferences or login information or customize the Content and advertising to your viewing habits.
  • Web Beacons or Pixels. In addition to cookies, we may use other technologies such as web beacons or pixel tags, which can be embedded in web pages, videos, or emails, to collect certain types of information from your browser or device, check whether you have viewed a particular web page, ad, or email message, and determine, among other things, the time and date on which you viewed the Content, the IP address of your computer, and the URL of the web page from which the Content was viewed.
  • Mobile Device Identifiers and Software Development Kits (“SDKs”). We may use or work with third parties including our business partners and service providers who use mobile SDKs to collect information, such as advertising identifiers (e.g., “ad-ID” or “IDFA”) and information related to how mobile devices interact with the Hulu Services. An SDK is computer code that app developers can include in their apps to enable ads to be shown, data to be collected and related services and functionality to be implemented. A mobile SDK is in effect the mobile app version of a pixel tag or beacon. We may use this technology, for instance, to analyze how you interact with Content and advertisements and to enable analytics or other features through mobile devices.

The use of these various technologies in connection with advertising on the Hulu Services is explained further below. To learn about opting out of interest-based or online behavioral advertising, please see the information we have provided in Section 7 (“Your Choices, Including Opt-Out Options”).

Account and Profile Data from Third-Party Services. If you choose to log-in, access or otherwise connect to the Hulu Services, or contact Hulu, through a third-party service (such as Facebook), we may, for example, collect your user ID and user name associated with that service, as well as any information you make public using that service. We may also collect information you have authorized the service to share with us (such as your user ID, billing information, public profile information, email address, birthday, friends list, pages you have “liked” and other account and profile data).

Third-Party Data. We may collect information about you from other sources, such as data aggregators, public databases, and our business partners. Examples of this may include information (whether identified, de-identified or anonymous, and whether collected online or offline) about your interests, demographic data, purchasing behavior, and your activities online (such as websites visited and advertisements viewed).

We may combine the information we collect from or about you and use it in the manner described in this Privacy Policy or as otherwise permitted by law.

3. Use of Information We Collect

Use in General. We use the information we collect from or about you in order to help deliver a first-class user experience. Our use of this information may include the following:

  • providing the Hulu Services;
  • contacting you, including for promotional purposes;
  • customizing the Content and advertising you view and evaluating how well the Content and advertising perform;
  • identifying Content you share;
  • customizing recommendations;
  • conducting research;
  • compiling aggregate data for internal and external business purposes;
  • preventing potentially illegal or harmful activities, including fraud;
  • protecting your and our rights;
  • other uses in accordance with our Terms of Use; and
  • any other purpose that is disclosed to you at the time we collect the information or that is related to a request made by you.

Use of Payment Information. We use payment information, such as credit card numbers and billing ZIP code, to help provide the Hulu Services. For example, we use payment information to process payments from a subscriber (we use a third-party payment processor to do this), to retrieve account information for a subscriber, to determine whether a subscriber is eligible for promotions, and to detect abuse of the Hulu Services.

Use of Precise Location Data. In order to access certain Hulu Services from your mobile device, you may be required to share your device’s precise location data (e.g., latitude and longitude) with us. In addition to providing you with certain Hulu Services, this also enables us to serve you Content related to your local area such as news and sports, depending on your subscription. This data may also be used to tailor advertising to you based on your location. To learn more about your choices with respect to our collection and use of precise location data, please see the information we have provided in Section 7 (“Your Choices, Including Opt-Out Options”).

Use of Aggregate or De-Identified Information. In addition to the individual data use described in this Privacy Policy, we may aggregate information about you and other individuals together, or otherwise “de-identify” the information about you (which means that the information does not identify you personally).

We may use information in these forms for any legitimate business purpose, including for research and analysis, administration of the Hulu Services, advertising (e.g., improving our targeting efforts), and promotional purposes.

4. Sharing Information with Third Parties

We may share information collected from or about you with third parties as explained further below, including business partners, social networking services, service providers, advertisers, and other companies that are not affiliated with Hulu.

Business Partners. We work with a number of business partners who help us offer the Hulu Services, including, for example, our content programmers, distributors, and corporate owners. We may share information collected from or about you with such business partners.

Social Networking Services. When you choose to share information with social networking services about your activities on the Hulu Services, including shows you watch or like on Hulu, information about you and your activities will be shared with that social network.

  • Sharing with Facebook. In addition to Hulu collecting certain information from Facebook (as described in Section 2 (“Information We Collect”), if you connect your Hulu and Facebook accounts, you may choose to share information about your activities on the Hulu Services with Facebook and its users, including publishing shows you watch to Facebook. If you visit Hulu while logged into Facebook, then Facebook may be able to identify your browser and associate the technical information provided by your web browser with other information that Facebook already has about you. In addition, when you choose to share information about your activities on the Hulu Services with Facebook, Hulu may send information about you to Facebook. Facebook may make that information visible to Facebook users in accordance with applicable law, Facebook’s data policy, and your Facebook privacy settings. We recommend that you familiarize yourself with Facebook’s data policy and privacy controls.

Service Providers. We may share the information collected from or about you with companies that provide services to us and our business partners, including companies that assist with payment processing, analytics, data processing and management (e.g., to facilitate our targeted advertising and marketing efforts), account management, hosting, customer and technical support, marketing (e.g., email, online or direct mail communications) and other services.

  • Your Browsers and Devices. We may work with service providers who use information collected from or about you to help us identify the browsers and devices you use for various purposes, including for targeted advertising, analytics, attribution, and measurement purposes. For example, these service providers (along with Hulu) may use your activity on one browser or device to serve you with more tailored advertising on another browser or device. In connection with your use of browsers and devices, please note that certain opt out choices you have as described in Section 7 (“Your Choices, Including Opt-Out Options”) apply only to the specific browser or device from which you opt out.

Advertisers and Advertising-Related Service Providers. We may share the information collected from or about you in encrypted, aggregated, or de-identified forms with advertisers and service providers that perform advertising-related services for us and our business partners in order to tailor advertisements, measure and improve advertising effectiveness, and enable other enhancements. This information includes your use of the Hulu Services, websites you visited, advertisements you viewed, and your other activities online.

Audience Measurement Providers. Our business partners, such as content programmers, as well as our advertisers, seek to measure the performance of their creative material across many platforms, including the Hulu Services. Accordingly, Hulu may permit the use of third-party measurement software that enables third parties (such as Nielsen) to include your viewing on the Hulu Services in calculating measurement statistics such as TV Ratings. To learn more about your choices with respect to Nielsen measurement software, please see the information we have provided in Section 7 (“Your Choices, Including Opt-Out Options”).

Third Parties When Required By Law or When Necessary to Protect Your or Our Rights. In some instances, we may disclose information from or about you without providing you a choice. For example, we may disclose your information in the following ways: to protect the legal rights of Hulu and our affiliates or partners, and each of our respective equity holders, directors, officers, employees, agents, and business partners; to protect the safety and security of users of the Hulu Services or third parties; to enforce our Terms of Use; to protect against fraud; for risk management purposes; and to comply with or respond to the law or legal process or a request for cooperation by a government entity, whether or not legally required. If you notify us that you believe your legal rights have been violated by Hulu or another user of the Hulu Services, we may provide the information that you provide to us to others to the extent that we believe it is necessary to evaluate and respond to your complaint.

Third Parties in Connection with Certain Transactions. If we sell all or part of our business, make a transfer of assets, or otherwise might be involved in a change of control transaction, or in the event of bankruptcy, we may transfer information from or about you to one or more third parties as part of the transaction, including the due diligence process.

Parties with Your Consent or When You Otherwise Choose to Share. In addition to the sharing described in this Privacy Policy, we may share any information from or about you with any party when we have your consent or when you otherwise choose to share such information, including as set forth below in Section 5 (“Sharing What You Watch”).

Also, certain functions within the Hulu Services may give you the option to share information about your activities on the Hulu Services, for example, by email, text message, social networking, or other sharing function.

5. Sharing What You Watch

We may ask for your consent to Hulu sharing information about the videos you view on Hulu (e.g., show titles and episode names) (“Viewing Information”) together with your personal information that we may collect (e.g., name, address, email address, and precise location data) with our content programmers, service providers, and other third parties set forth in Section 4 (“Sharing Information with Third Parties”). This information may help Hulu or these third parties personalize your experience by providing you with more tailored content, features, and ads on Hulu as well as on other platforms and services. Please note that we request consent on a per-profile basis (i.e., for each profile) and therefore the consent provided for one profile does not apply to the consent of any other profile associated with the account. To learn how to view or change your consent preference, please see the information we have provided in Section 7 (“Your Choices, Including Opt-Out Options”). For clarity, even if you have not consented to Hulu sharing Viewing Information together with your personal information, we may still share information collected from or about you as otherwise permitted in this Privacy Policy.

For example, we may still share Viewing Information together with account or device information that does not personally identify you (such as IP address and advertising identifiers).

6. Advertising

We advertise Hulu both on the Hulu Services as well as on other platforms and services. We also display advertisements from other companies on the Hulu Services, often enabling users to interact with the advertisements or click through to websites or other properties owned or operated by other companies. This section provides additional information about the collection and use of information from or about you in connection with such advertising.

Use of Cookies and Similar Technology in Third-Party Advertising. Advertisers, advertising technology companies, and service providers that perform advertising-related services for Hulu and our business partners may use cookies and similar technologies (including for example those described in Section 2 (“Information We Collect”)) to collect information from or about you through the Hulu Services in order to tailor advertisements, measure advertising effectiveness, and enable other enhancements. This information may relate to your use of the Hulu Services, websites you visited, advertisements you viewed, and your other activities online. Advertising that is based on information collected from or about you across websites, applications and other platforms over time is known as interest-based or online behavioral advertising.

Viewing Ads. When you view an advertisement, whether or not you click on it, or when you interact with an advertisement, the advertiser, advertising technology companies, and service providers that perform advertising-related services for us and our business partners may collect some information from or about you. The information practices of these third parties are governed by their own privacy policies and are not governed by this Privacy Policy. Please be aware that Hulu does not notify you when you have chosen to click through to another website or property when using the Hulu Services. We recommend that you familiarize yourself with the privacy policies of such websites or properties to determine how they use or share any information they separately collect from you.

To learn about opting out of interest-based or online behavioral advertising, please see the information we have provided in Section 7 (“Your Choices, Including Opt-Out Options”).

7. Your Choices, Including Opt-Out Options

You have the following choices regarding how we and third parties use certain information collected from or about you. Hulu is committed to complying with the Digital Advertising Alliance (“DAA”) Self-Regulatory Principles for Online Behavioral Advertising and the DAA Application of Self-Regulatory Principles for the Mobile Environment.

  • Opt-Out from Promotional Communications.
    • You may opt out of receiving promotional communications from Hulu by accessing your account and clicking on “Manage Email Notifications.” You may also opt out of certain promotional communications by clicking the “unsubscribe” link in a particular promotional communication. Please note that you cannot opt out from receiving all communications from Hulu, including administrative messages, service announcements, and messages regarding the terms and conditions of your account because those may contain important information.
    • You can choose to receive push notifications from Hulu on your device. If you do not wish to receive push notifications, you can use your device’s settings to turn them off.
  • Opt-Out from Nielsen Measurement.
    • The Hulu Services may feature Nielsen proprietary measurement software, which will enable you to contribute to market research, such as Nielsen TV Ratings. To learn more about the information that Nielsen software may collect, please see the Nielsen Digital Measurement Privacy Policy at http://www.nielsen.com/digitalprivacy. In it you will find information about your choices with regard to Nielsen measurement software on the Hulu Site. For your choices with regard to Nielsen measurement software on our mobile application, please visit “About Nielsen Measurement” in our mobile application’s settings. We may also feature Nielsen measurement software such as Nielsen Digital Ad Ratings (DAR) when you stream Hulu on your television through streaming media players, smart TVs, Chromecast, Blu-ray players, gaming consoles and similar devices (collectively, “Living Room Devices”). Nielsen DAR on Living Room Devices allows Nielsen to measure the performance of ad campaigns viewed by our registered users. For your choices with regard to Nielsen DAR when you use Hulu on a Living Room Device, please visit the Hulu Site on your computer and click “Manage Nielsen Measurement” on the “Your Account” page.
  • Opt-Out Options for Third-Party Online Behavioral or Interest-Based Advertising on Websites (including Mobile Websites).
    • Some of the third parties that collect information from or about you on the Hulu Services in order to provide more relevant advertising to you on websites participate in the DAA Self-Regulatory Program for Online Behavioral Advertising. This program offers a centralized location where users can make choices about the use of their information for online behavioral advertising. To learn more and to make choices about the use of your information for online behavioral advertising on websites, please visit the Digital Advertising Alliance WebChoices tool. Please note that if you opt out of online behavioral advertising using this method, this opt-out will only apply to the specific browser or device from which you opt out.
    • In addition, some of the advertisers, advertising technology companies, and service providers that perform advertising-related services for us and our business partners may be members of the Network Advertising Initiative (“NAI”), a cooperative of online marketing companies that offers a centralized tool for opting out of interest-based advertising delivered by each of its member companies. If you would like to obtain more information about interest-based advertising and the NAI and make choices about their members’ use of information from or about you on websites, please visit the NAI’s opt-out of interest-based advertising page. Please note that if you opt out of interest-based advertising using this method, this opt-out will only apply to the specific browser or device from which you opt out.
    • Hulu also offers its users the ability to make choices about the use of their information for ad targeting on websites. To learn more and exercise your opt-out choices on Hulu, please visit the “About Ads” link at the bottom of the Hulu Site.
    • There is currently no consensus among industry participants as to what “Do Not Track” means and how to respond to “Do Not Track” browser signals. As such, we do not respond to such signals. Instead, to opt-out of website-based third-party interest-based or online behavioral advertising, please exercise one of the choices listed above.
  • Opt-Out Options for Third-Party Online Behavioral or Interest-Based Advertising within Mobile Applications.
    • Some of the third parties that collect information from or about you on the Hulu Services in order to provide more relevant advertising to you within mobile applications participate in the DAA Self-Regulatory Program for Online Behavioral Advertising. This program offers a mobile application called the “AppChoices,” which provides a centralized location where users can make choices about the use of their information for online behavioral advertising within the mobile application environment. The AppChoices application can be downloaded from your mobile device at www.aboutads.info/appchoices or from your device’s app store. Please note that if you opt out of online behavioral advertising using this method, this opt-out will only apply to your mobile device.
    • On your mobile device, you may also go to your device settings and select “Limit Ad Tracking” (for iOS devices) or “Opt out of Interest-Based Ads” (for Android devices), which will allow you to limit our use of information collected from or about your mobile device (such as precise location data) for the purposes of serving online behavioral advertising to you.
  • Opt-Out from Collection of Precise Location Data from Your Mobile Device
    • You can opt out of our collection of precise location data from your mobile device in your device settings, for example, by disabling “Location Services” for the Hulu application in your iOS device’s settings. Please note that by opting out of our collection of precise location data, your access to the Hulu Services on your mobile device may be limited depending on your subscription.
  • Options for Sharing What You Watch
    • As set forth in Section 5 (“Sharing What You Watch”), we may ask for your consent to Hulu sharing your Viewing Information together with your personal information with our content programmers, service providers, and other third parties. If we have asked for your consent, you may view or change your consent preference by logging into Hulu on your computer, going to your account settings, and editing your profile. If you would like to consent to Hulu sharing your Viewing Information together with your personal information, set your “Manage Video Sharing” preference to “Yes.” If you would like to withdraw your consent, set your “Manage Video Sharing” preference to “No.” You can change your consent on a case-by-case basis by changing your “Manage Video Sharing” preference before viewing a video. Please allow us a few minutes to process any changes to your preference.
  • Additional Choices for California Residents
    • If you are a California resident, you may be entitled to request certain information regarding our disclosure, if any, of personal information (such as your name and contact information) to third parties who wish to contact you or send you promotional information about their products and services directly (as compared to when the third party is acting on our behalf or you have provided your personal information as part of a co-promotion by Hulu and the third party). If you are a California resident and would like to request a copy of information regarding our disclosure to third parties for their direct marketing purposes in the preceding calendar year, please send us a letter at Attention: Legal Department, Hulu, LLC, 2500 Broadway, 2nd Floor, Santa Monica, CA 90404.
    • If you are a California resident under the age of 18 and a registered user of the Hulu Services, you may request and obtain removal of content or information you have publicly posted on the Hulu Services. To make this request, please email us at privacy@hulu.com and include a detailed description of the specific content or information you would like to remove.
      Please note that this removal does not ensure complete or comprehensive removal of the content or information posted on the Hulu Services by you as there may be circumstances in which the law does not require or allow removal.

8. Security and Account Access

We use a variety of physical, technical, and administrative measures to safeguard information in our possession against loss, theft and unauthorized use, disclosure, and modification. For example, we take steps to limit access to sensitive information from or about you to those Hulu employees, agents, and contractors who have a legitimate business reason to access such information. We also use measures like encryption and hashing to help protect sensitive information when in transmission.

Despite these efforts, please note that there is always a possibility that a breach in data transmission or storage may occur. We want you to feel confident in our security when using the Hulu Services, but we cannot guarantee the security of any information from or about you 100% of the time. Please refer to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission’s website for information on how to protect yourself from identity theft.

Please note that if you allow others to use your account (including others you permit to set up profiles under your account), they may be able to view information about your account or any of the profiles under your account, including information about the videos you view and your email address.

9. Children

Children under 13 years of age are not permitted to register with Hulu. The Hulu Services are not intended to be used by children without involvement and approval of a parent or guardian.

10. Third-Party Access Points, Devices, and Links

The Hulu Services may be provided through third-party websites, applications and other means of access operated by other companies (collectively, “Third-Party Access Points”). For example, you can access the Hulu Services through websites of our distributors. In addition, you may launch a Third-Party Access Point using various devices such as mobile devices and Living Room Devices. The Hulu Services also may contain links to third-party websites or applications.

None of these Third-Party Access Points, devices, websites or applications are operated by us, even if they contain our name or logo, and we are not responsible for the privacy practices of their operators. Accordingly, we recommend that you review their privacy policies.

11. Deleting Your Hulu Account

You may delete your Hulu account, in accordance with our Terms of Use, or via the link accessible on the Account page. You must cancel your subscription before you are able to delete your account.

Please note that, after you delete your account, we may retain some information from or about you in accordance with applicable law, including for various legal, operational, accounting, and auditing purposes.

12. Applicable Law

Hulu is headquartered in the U.S. and the Hulu Services are intended for users in the U.S.

By viewing any Content or otherwise using the Hulu Services, you consent to the transfer of information to the U.S. to the extent applicable, and the collection, storage, and processing of information under U.S. laws.

13. Changes to this Privacy Policy

From time to time, we may revise this Privacy Policy to reflect changes in the law or the Hulu Services or for other reasons. Therefore, it is important to check the effective date posted at the top of the Privacy Policy each time you visit the Hulu Site or use any of the Hulu Services to ensure you are familiar with our most updated policies and practices. If we make any material change to this Privacy Policy, we will notify you by posting a notice on the Hulu Site. If you are a registered user, we will also send an email to the email address that you most recently provided to us prior to the material change taking effect. Accordingly, please keep your account information, including email address, updated.

Any material change to this Privacy Policy will be effective automatically 30 days after the revised Privacy Policy is first posted or, for users who register or otherwise provide opt-in consent during this 30-day period, at the time of registration or consent, as applicable.

14. Questions/Contacting Us

At Hulu, we expect that our first-class customer support team will be able to resolve most issues you may have using the Hulu Services. You can find answers to frequently asked questions or contact our customer support team by going to our help center. In addition, if you have any questions regarding this Privacy Policy, you may email us at privacy@hulu.com or contact us by mail addressed to:

Attention: Legal Department
Hulu, LLC
2500 Broadway, 2nd Floor
Santa Monica, CA 90404

Thank you for taking the time to read this Privacy Policy. We hope you enjoy the Hulu Services!