Pinterest treats your content, data, and feedback as assets it can freely use to make money — training AI models, serving targeted ads, and monetizing your posts — all without paying you anything, and your content can persist even after you delete your account. The platform shares detailed information about you with advertisers like Facebook and Google, tracks your activity across the wider web, builds inferred profiles about your life, and may even scan your face for age verification. If something goes wrong, Pinterest's legal exposure to you is capped at just $100, and you've waived your right to sue them as part of a group by agreeing to mandatory private arbitration. While some opt-out tools and privacy signals are honored, the overall terms heavily favor Pinterest's commercial interests over your control, privacy, and legal rights.
Last analyzed
Heads up: this analysis is AI-generated, can be incomplete or wrong, and is not legal advice. Use it as a starting point and read the original document before you agree — see our Terms.
Clause-by-clause breakdown
Every clause we flagged in Pinterest's agreement, with what it means for you.
You must use private arbitration and cannot join class-action lawsuits.
“Arbitration: If we haven't been able to resolve the dispute through the mandatory processes above, you and we each agree to resolve any claim, dispute, or controversy arising out of or relating to these Terms or the Service through binding arbitration or, for qualifying claims, in small claims court. The arbitrator will have authority to issue any remedies authorized by law. Arbitration is a more informal way to resolve our disagreements than a lawsuit in court. By accepting these Terms, you agree that the U.S. Federal Arbitration Act governs the interpretation and enforcement of this Section, and that you and Pinterest are each waiving the right to a trial by jury or to participate in a class action. The arbitrator also has exclusive authority to resolve any dispute relating to the interpretation, applicability, or enforceability of this binding arbitration agreement, including any dispute regarding arbitrability. All disputes must be brought in the party's individual capacity, and not as a member in any class or representative proceeding. You agree that, by entering into these Terms, you are waiving the right to a trial by jury or to participate in a class action. If you are a consumer in the EEA, Switzerland, or the United Kingdom (UK), Section 11 doesn't apply to you.”
Quoted verbatim from the agreement What this means: By agreeing to Pinterest's Terms, you give up your right to sue Pinterest in court or join a class-action lawsuit. All disputes must go through private arbitration instead. This means if Pinterest harms many users in the same way, each person must fight their case individually — making it far less practical to pursue small claims. EEA, Swiss, and UK users are exempt from this clause.
What you can do: If you are a US user, review whether you can opt out of arbitration — the Terms do not mention an opt-out window, so check Pinterest's current arbitration policy carefully. EEA/UK/Swiss users are not subject to this clause.
Pinterest shares your data with Facebook, Google, and others for ads.
“Advertise Pinterest products and services to you on other sites and apps. To do this, we disclose information such as cookie IDs, your IP address, or a hashed version of your email address to third parties, such as Facebook Ads, Google Marketing Platform, and others who may combine that information with other information they already have about you and deliver ads about Pinterest to you. Some of these activities may be considered "targeted advertising" "sharing" or "selling" as those terms are defined under certain state privacy laws in the US. You can opt out of Pinterest using and disclosing your information for these purposes. To do so, visit your Privacy and Data Settings.”
Quoted verbatim from the agreement What this means: Pinterest shares your cookie IDs, IP address, and hashed email with companies like Facebook and Google so they can target you with ads across the internet. These third parties can combine Pinterest's data with their own profiles on you. This is acknowledged as potentially constituting a "sale" or "sharing" of personal data under US state privacy laws. An opt-out exists in Privacy and Data Settings, but it is not the default.
What you can do: Go to your Pinterest Privacy and Data Settings and opt out of targeted advertising and data sharing. If you are in a US state with privacy rights (e.g., California), you can also submit a formal opt-out request.
Continuing to use Pinterest after a policy update means you've agreed to it.
“We may revise, add, or remove any or all portions of these Terms from time to time and the most current version will always be posted on our website. Unless otherwise required by law, we'll notify you of any material changes to these Terms before any update enters into effect. Your continued access to or use of Pinterest after such an update constitutes your binding acceptance of such changes.”
Quoted verbatim from the agreement What this means: Pinterest can change its Terms at any time. While it promises to notify you of material changes beforehand, simply continuing to use Pinterest after the change takes effect counts as your legal agreement to the new terms — even if you never actively reviewed or accepted them. This means your rights can be reduced without you ever clicking "I agree."
What you can do: Watch for notification emails from Pinterest about Terms changes. If you disagree with a change, stop using Pinterest before the new Terms take effect to avoid being bound by them.
Pinterest can monetize your posts and owes you no payment.
“By providing any User Content on the Service, you grant us and our affiliates and service providers, and our users, a non-exclusive, royalty-free, transferable, sublicensable, worldwide license to use, store, publicly perform or display, reproduce, save, modify, create derivative works, monetize, download, translate and distribute your User Content, including for the purpose of promoting and redistributing part or all of the Pinterest Service. Nothing in these Terms: (i) entitles you to any payments or the right to share in any revenue from any monetization of User Content”
Quoted verbatim from the agreement What this means: When you post anything on Pinterest — photos, videos, descriptions — you grant Pinterest a broad, worldwide, royalty-free license to use, modify, monetize, and distribute that content. Pinterest can make money from your content and owes you nothing in return. This license extends to Pinterest's affiliates, service providers, and other users.
What you can do: Only post content you are comfortable with Pinterest using commercially and indefinitely. Avoid posting proprietary or sensitive creative work if you want to retain full control over its commercial use.
Your photos and posts train Pinterest's AI models, past and present.
“Improve the products and services of our family of companies and offer new features. For example, using information to train, develop and improve our technology such as our machine learning models, regardless of when Pins were posted. This includes, for example, Pinterest's body type technology, which is trained on images in Pins posted to our Services. Pinterest also has features that are supported by generative artificial intelligence technology.”
Quoted verbatim from the agreement What this means: Pinterest uses your posts — including images you've uploaded — to train its AI and machine learning models, and this applies to content posted at any point in time, not just going forward. Your photos may be used to train systems like Pinterest's body type recognition technology. There is no clear opt-out described for this specific use of your content.
What you can do: Review your Privacy and Data Settings for any available controls on how your data is used for AI training. Be mindful that images you post may be used to train AI models indefinitely.
Your content can persist even after you delete your account.
“Following termination or deactivation of your account, or User Content removal from Pinterest, we may keep your User Content for a reasonable period of time for backup, archival, or audit purposes. We and our users may retain and continue to use, store, display, reproduce, save, modify, create derivative works, perform, and distribute any of your User Content that you or other users have stored or shared on Pinterest.”
Quoted verbatim from the agreement What this means: Even after you delete your account or remove your content, Pinterest and other users who saved your content can continue to use, store, and distribute it. The phrase "reasonable period of time" for Pinterest's own retention is vague and undefined. Content that others have saved or shared may never be fully removed.
What you can do: Understand that once content is shared on Pinterest and saved by others, it cannot be fully retracted. Before posting sensitive content, consider whether you are comfortable with it potentially persisting indefinitely.
Pinterest's maximum financial liability to you is just $100.
“To the maximum extent permitted by law, we shall not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential or punitive damages, or any loss of profits or revenues, whether incurred directly or indirectly, or any loss of data, use, goodwill, or other intangible losses, resulting from (a) your access to or use of or inability to access or use the Service; (b) any conduct or content of any third party on the Service, including without limitation, any defamatory, offensive or illegal conduct of other users or third parties; or (c) unauthorized access, use or alteration of your transmissions or content. In no event shall our aggregate liability for all claims relating to the Service exceed one hundred U.S. dollars (U.S. $100.00).”
Quoted verbatim from the agreement What this means: Pinterest caps its total financial liability to you at $100, regardless of the harm caused. This means even if Pinterest's negligence leads to a serious data breach or significant harm, you can only recover $100 in damages. EEA and UK consumers are exempt from this cap under a separate clause.
What you can do: If you are in the EEA or UK, this cap does not apply to you. US users should be aware that their legal remedies against Pinterest are severely limited financially.
Pinterest keeps your data forever if your account is banned.
“If we disable an account for violating our Terms, we also preserve information about that user for safety, security and integrity purposes.”
Quoted verbatim from the agreement What this means: If Pinterest bans your account for a Terms violation, it keeps your personal data indefinitely for safety and integrity purposes. There is no stated time limit on this retention. This means even if you later dispute the ban, your data remains stored with no clear deletion path.
What you can do: If your account is disabled and you believe it was in error, contact Pinterest support to appeal. There is no guaranteed deletion right for data retained under this provision.
Pinterest may scan your face and compare it to a government ID.
“Conduct age verification, as appropriate. This may include facial age estimation and matching your face against a government ID.”
Quoted verbatim from the agreement What this means: Pinterest may collect and process biometric data — specifically your facial image — for age verification purposes. This can involve comparing your face against a government-issued ID. Biometric data is among the most sensitive categories of personal information, and its collection carries significant privacy risks if mishandled.
What you can do: Be aware that age verification on Pinterest may involve facial recognition. Check Pinterest's current age verification process and whether you can use alternative verification methods.
Pinterest infers your education and profession from your browsing habits.
“Usage data and inferences: When you're on our Services, we use your activity—such as which Pins you click on, terms you search for, boards you create, and any text that you add in a comment or description—along with other information you've provided when you first signed up and information from our partners and advertisers to make inferences about you and your preferences. For example, if you create a board about travel, we may infer you are a travel enthusiast. We may also infer other information, such as your education or professional experience.”
Quoted verbatim from the agreement What this means: Pinterest builds a detailed profile of you by inferring personal attributes — including your education and professional background — from your activity on the platform. These inferences go beyond what you explicitly share and are used to personalize content and ads. This profiling happens automatically and continuously as you use the service.
What you can do: Visit your Privacy and Data Settings to review and limit how Pinterest uses your data for personalization and ad targeting.
Pinterest tracks your purchases and browsing on other websites too.
“We also receive information about you and your activity outside Pinterest from our affiliates, advertisers, partners and other third parties we work with. Advertisers or other partners: Online advertisers or third parties provide information to us about you to measure, report on or improve the performance of ads on Pinterest, or to help us better understand what kinds of ads to show you on Pinterest. For example, we may receive information about your visits to an advertiser's site, or purchases you made from them, or information about your interests from a third-party service, which we might use to help show you ads on the Service. Sometimes we get this information through the Pinterest Tag (a piece of code an advertiser puts on their site), which delivers insights to us and our ad partners about actions that a person takes on their website after viewing an ad on our Services.”
Quoted verbatim from the agreement What this means: Pinterest tracks your activity on other websites — not just on Pinterest itself — through tools like the Pinterest Tag embedded on advertiser sites. Advertisers report back to Pinterest what you bought or browsed on their sites. This off-platform tracking feeds into the profile Pinterest builds about you for ad targeting.
What you can do: Use browser privacy tools or ad blockers to limit cross-site tracking. Opt out of interest-based advertising in your Pinterest Privacy and Data Settings.
Pinterest can terminate your account with limited notice or explanation.
“We may terminate or suspend your right to access or use Pinterest for any violation of these Terms. Where appropriate, we will provide you with written notice and you may appeal a decision you think was made in error. We reserve the right to refuse service to anyone and will provide notice of termination where appropriate.”
Quoted verbatim from the agreement What this means: Pinterest can suspend or terminate your account for violating its Terms, but also reserves the right to refuse service to anyone — a broad power with no defined criteria. Notice is only provided "where appropriate," meaning it is not guaranteed. This gives Pinterest wide discretion to remove users with limited accountability.
What you can do: Familiarize yourself with Pinterest's Community Guidelines and Enforcement policies to reduce the risk of account suspension. If your account is suspended, use the appeals process described in the Help Center.
Pinterest can use your ideas and feedback without paying you.
“If you choose to submit comments, ideas, or feedback, you agree that we have no obligation to keep your feedback confidential or to compensate you for the feedback. Do not submit any feedback that is confidential or owned by any third party. By accepting your submission, we don't waive any rights to use similar or related feedback previously known to us, or developed by our employees, or obtained from sources other than you.”
Quoted verbatim from the agreement What this means: Any feedback, ideas, or suggestions you send to Pinterest become freely usable by Pinterest without any obligation to pay you or keep them confidential. Pinterest can use your ideas to build new features and owes you nothing for them. This is a standard clause but means you should never share proprietary ideas through feedback channels.
What you can do: Avoid submitting feedback that contains confidential business ideas or proprietary concepts, as Pinterest has no obligation to protect or compensate you for them.
Pinterest can transfer your agreement to another company without your consent.
“These Terms, and any rights and licenses granted hereunder, may not be transferred or assigned by you, but may be assigned by us without restriction. Any attempted transfer or assignment in violation hereof shall be null and void. In case of such an assignment by us, you are entitled to terminate the agreement with immediate effect by deactivating your account. We will provide you with reasonable notice of any such assignment.”
Quoted verbatim from the agreement What this means: Pinterest can transfer your account agreement — and all the rights it holds over your data and content — to another company at any time without needing your consent. You are only entitled to close your account if this happens. This means a company you've never agreed to deal with could end up holding your data and content rights.
What you can do: Monitor Pinterest communications for any notice of assignment. If Pinterest is acquired or transfers its rights, you have the right to deactivate your account immediately.
Pinterest sends your identifiers to Facebook and Google for ad targeting.
“Advertise Pinterest products and services to you on other sites and apps. To do this, we disclose information such as cookie IDs, your IP address, or a hashed version of your email address to third parties, such as Facebook Ads, Google Marketing Platform, and others who may combine that information with other information they already have about you and deliver ads about Pinterest to you.”
Quoted verbatim from the agreement What this means: Pinterest sends your cookie ID, IP address, and hashed email to Facebook, Google, and other ad platforms so they can target you with Pinterest ads on their own services. These third parties can then combine this data with everything else they already know about you, creating richer profiles. This happens by default and requires you to actively opt out.
What you can do: Visit Pinterest's Privacy and Data Settings to opt out of off-platform advertising. You can also check your ad settings on Facebook and Google to limit how they use data received from third parties.
Pinterest keeps your activity logs for over two years for ad targeting.
“We keep account information, like your name, email address, and password, for as long as your account is in existence because we need it to operate your account. We generally keep log data for a period of 25 months to provide our Services to you, to make Pinterest safe, improve our product features, and to deliver ads that are relevant, interesting and personal to you.”
Quoted verbatim from the agreement What this means: Pinterest retains your core account information for the entire life of your account, and keeps detailed log data — including your browsing and activity records — for 25 months. Log data is used not just for safety but also for ad targeting, meaning your activity history is kept for over two years to serve you ads.
What you can do: If you want Pinterest to stop retaining your data, you can delete your account via Settings. Note that some data may be retained for legal reasons even after deletion.
You can opt out of targeted advertising in your Privacy Settings.
“You can opt out of Pinterest using and disclosing your information for these purposes. To do so, visit your Privacy and Data Settings.”
Quoted verbatim from the agreement What this means: Pinterest does provide an opt-out mechanism for targeted advertising and data sharing in its Privacy and Data Settings. This is a meaningful user protection, as it gives users some control over how their data is used for ad personalization both on and off Pinterest.
What you can do: Visit Pinterest's Privacy and Data Settings to exercise your opt-out rights for targeted advertising and data sharing.
You can delete your Pinterest account at any time.
“You may also terminate or delete your account at any time. You can learn how to delete your account in our Help Center.”
Quoted verbatim from the agreement What this means: Pinterest explicitly allows users to delete their accounts at any time. This is a basic but important user right that is clearly stated in the Terms of Service.
What you can do: If you wish to stop using Pinterest, you can delete your account via the Help Center. Note that some content shared by others may persist after deletion.
Pinterest respects the Global Privacy Control opt-out browser signal.
“For users who reside in certain U.S. states and have enabled an opt-out preferences signal (such as Global Privacy Control), we will respect this preference when you use Pinterest.”
Quoted verbatim from the agreement What this means: Pinterest honors the Global Privacy Control (GPC) browser signal, which automatically tells websites you want to opt out of data selling and sharing. This means users with GPC-enabled browsers get automatic opt-out protection without having to manually change Pinterest settings.
What you can do: Enable Global Privacy Control in a compatible browser (such as Firefox or Brave) to automatically opt out of Pinterest's data sharing and selling when you visit the site.
Pinterest does not sell data collected during sales calls or emails.
“Pinterest does not "sell" or "share" your personal information or sensitive personal information as defined under U.S. and state laws.”
Quoted verbatim from the agreement What this means: In the context of the Sales Privacy Policy (which covers interactions between Pinterest sales staff and business contacts), Pinterest explicitly states it does not sell or share personal information. This is a narrow but clear commitment for that specific context — it does not apply to the general consumer Privacy Policy, where sharing for advertising purposes is described separately.
What you can do: Note this protection applies only to data collected during sales interactions (calls, emails with Pinterest personnel), not to your general Pinterest user account data.
Frequently asked questions
Is Pinterest's Terms & Conditions agreement fair?
- BeforeYouClick grades Pinterest E on an A–E scale, where A is the fairest. Its agreement contains 8 critical clauses, 8 warnings and 4 good practices.
What are the biggest problems with Pinterest's terms?
- The most serious clauses we flagged are: Forced Arbitration and Class-Action Ban, Personal Data Shared With Ad Networks and Policy Changes Bind You Automatically.
How long does it take to read Pinterest's terms?
- Pinterest's agreement takes about 49 minutes to read in full, across 20 clauses we reviewed. The summary on this page covers the same ground in under a minute.
When was Pinterest's agreement last analyzed?
- We last read Pinterest's Terms & Conditions on July 3, 2026. Companies change their terms without notice, so check the original document for the current version.
Is this analysis legal advice?
- No. This analysis is AI-generated, can be incomplete or wrong, and is not legal advice. Use it as a starting point and read the original agreement before you agree to it.
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