Stack Overflow

StackOverflow is a question-and-answer forum for computer science related issues.

5.6/10

How we calculate ratings →

Handling

Does the policy allow personally-targeted or behavioral marketing? Yes

0/10

Does the service allow you to permanently delete your personal data? Yes, using an automated mechanism

5/5

Does the service allow third-party access to private personal data? Yes

0/10

This may come in the form of outright data sharing or by using local third-party analytics software (such as Google Analytics, which collects a plethora of user information).

Note that whether the policy allows sharing aggregated user data does not affect this question.

If the personal data is encrypted when it passes through the third-party, it does not count as third-party access (as the data is inaccessible to that party).

If personal data has been made public by, for example, posting it to a blog, it does not count as private personal information (and is therefore not considered by this question).

Score

Yes

The policy allows sharing personal data with third parties (not just critical service providers), and does not explicitly list the third parties.

Yes, all parties specified (including non-critical service providers such as advertisers)

30%

Yes, not all parties specified (but only to critical service providers)

70%

Yes, all parties specified (only to critical service providers)

80%

100%

Citation

Stack Overflow partners with third parties to display advertisements on our public Network and within our Talent Platform. These partnerships provide third parties access to the developer community to promote themselves or services and to provide you with visibility into companies and third parties seeking to recruit you for employment opportunities, and for other purposes. In providing this opportunity, Stack Overflow and its third party partners may collect and use your personal information to tailor your advertising experience to suit your interests, skills, as well as to monitor your account activity in order to optimize our Products and Services.

When does the policy allow law enforcement access to personal data? Only when required by a court order or subpoena

4/5

Score

Always

This includes cases in which law enforcement either runs the service or has a known backdoor into (or relationship with) the service.

Not specified

When reasonably requested

60%

Only when required by a court order or subpoena

80%

N/A (no personal data to share)

The service would have no personal data to share with law enforcement.

100%

Never (special legal jurisdiction)

The service operates in a jurisdiction in which sharing data with law enforcement is never required.

100%

Citation

Stack Overflow will not disclose your personal information to legal authorities except where such disclosure is by lawful request, including to meet legitimate national security or law enforcement demands (including a subpoena, court order, or other lawful legal demand by a legal authority with lawful jurisdiction).

Transparency

Does the policy outline the service's general security practices? Yes

2/3

Score

Somewhat

The policy provides only a very vague overview of its security practices.

30%

Yes

60%

Yes, including audits

"Reviews," "monitoring," etc. also count as audits.

80%

Yes, including independent audits

Independent "reviews," "monitoring," etc. also count as independent audits.

100%

N/A

The service doesn't collect any personal information.

100%

Citation

Security is important to us and we know it is important to you. Stack Overflow follows generally accepted standards to protect your personal information when processing, transferring, and storing your personal information including Transport Layer Security (“TLS”), by restricting your personal data when we do not need to access it and by keeping your personal data only as necessary to perform our legitimate business interests.

Is the policy's history made available? Yes, with revisions or a changelog

5/5

Does the policy require users to be notified in case of a data breach? Not necessarily

0/7

Will affected users be notified when the policy is meaningfully changed? Yes

5/5

Collection

Does the service collect personal data from third parties? No

10/10

Is it clear why the service collects the personal data that it does? Yes

10/10

Does the service allow the user to control whether personal data is collected or used for non-critical purposes? On an opt-out basis, but only for some non-critical data/uses

3/10

Some services allow users to opt-out or opt-in to of non-critical collection or use of personal data, such as collecting data for personalized advertisements.

Score

On an opt-out basis, but only for some non-critical data/uses

30%

On an opt-out basis, for all non-critical data/uses

60%

On an opt-in basis

60%

N/A (no data used for non-critical purposes)

100%

Citation

Privacy is a guiding principle of all Stack Overflow Products and Services and we value your privacy. To this end, we provide you with the ability to control how your information is stored, and what information is collected. You may change or correct your account settings, and choose not to share certain information by creating a pseudonymous account. Additionally, much of the data we collect is voluntary and your choice entirely to provide us or not. You may also remove certain optional information that you no longer wish to be publicly displayed, such as your photo, or job history. In the event Stack Overflow decides to provide additional opt-out or opt-in mechanisms under the Privacy Shield Framework, the mechanisms will be clear, conspicuous, and readily available for you to exercise your choice.

Does the policy list the personal data it collects? Yes, generally

7/10

Score

The policy does not claim to not collect personal data, but it also doesn't provide any meaningful insight into the types of personal data it collects.

Only summarily

The policy uses overly vague language to provide a summary of the types of collected personal data.

30%

Yes, generally

All general categories of collected personal data are listed, though not all types of personal data are explicitly mentioned (for example, the list might use a phrase like 'such as' when listing types of personal data).

70%

Yes, exhaustively

All types of collected personal data are listed specifically

100%

N/A (no personal data is collected)

100%

Citation

We collect information such as your username, password, email address, IP address (collected at each site visit).
...
...we collect a record of your communications with us and other third parties that are accessible to chat participants and certain authorized third parties. Other account information and usage information including your IP address and browser data...
...
we collect certain personal information on you the account holder (or account unregistered job seeker)
...
Data from advertising technologies like cookies, web beacons, pixels, ad tags, and browser/device identifiers
Information you have provided to us directly including profile information, your Developer Story, and in limited instances your job history
Usage analytics including your visits to the Network, browsing and search history
Information from our advertising partners (e.g., device type and location)
...
On behalf of the Entity, we collect Company or Entity name, Team Representative name, the names of authorized users, and you may elect to provide a Company or Team logo, trademark, or photo for account association purposes.
...
Stack Overflow collects certain application metadata

Last Updated

June 24, 2020

Sources

Source #1 ↗

Contributors

YuriiStasiuk