In general, group organizers set their own policies for member dues and event fees, including when a member is eligible for a refund.

Prohibited Payments

Meetup’s integrated payment processors cannot be used to process payments for the following activities:

• Adult content, escort services, or sex solicitation
• Drugs, alcohol, tobacco, drug paraphernalia, or similar items
• Gambling or betting
• Weapons, ammunition, or weaponry accessories
• Multi-level marketing businesses, pyramid or Ponzi schemes
• Unlawful activities or items, or the promotion of unlawful activities or items
  

Refund guidance for organizers

At a minimum, Meetup advises organizers to provide refunds to members under the following circumstances:

Annual member dues

• The group was closed (or a member was removed from the group) within 3 months of payment, and the member account is in good standing (e.g., not blocked from the platform); OR
• There have been no scheduled events within 3 months since a member paid to join the group, and the member account is in good standing.

Monthly member dues

• Refund a member’s most recent monthly member dues if the group was closed (or a member was removed from the group) within 1 week of payment, and the member account is in good standing.
• Refund a member’s most recent 3 months of monthly member dues if the group has not held an event within 3 months of payment, and the member account is in good standing.

Ticketing fees for upcoming events

• The group was closed before the event takes place, and the member account is in good standing; OR
• The event was rescheduled or canceled, the member can no longer attend the event, and the member account is in good standing; OR
• The member was removed from the group before the event takes place, and the member account is in good standing.

Refund guidance for members

Start by asking the organizer

To pursue a refund, start by requesting a refund from the organizer. Locate the transaction in question and select Contact organizer for refund. For more specific information, see this article in the Help Center.

Seeking assistance from Meetup

If the organizer does not issue a refund, you may contact Meetup’s Trust & Safety team to ask them to review the payment dispute.

Meetup can only issue a refund if a member has used our integrated payment processor, Stripe, to make the payment in question. Meetup cannot resolve disputes regarding payments that are made outside the Meetup platform, in cash, or using a payment processor other than Stripe. However, even when Meetup cannot issue a refund itself, our team may try to help you obtain a refund from the organizer.

Our team will issue a refund (if the payment was made through the Meetup platform using Stripe) or try to get you a refund from the organizer (if the payment was made any other way) under the following circumstances:

• Meetup advises an organizer to provide a refund in that situation (see Refund Guidance for Organizers); OR
• The refund policies for that specific group state that a refund is available under the circumstances, and the member account is in good standing; OR
• Meetup’s Trust & Safety team determines that the refund is in the best interest of maintaining the integrity of the Meetup platform, to moderate fraud, misuse, or risk.

What payments will Meetup not assist in refunding?

• Optional member fees - If dues are not required to join the group or attend an event, it is the member’s choice whether to pay the fees and Meetup will not assist in obtaining a refund.
• Member dues that automatically renew - Members agree to automatic renewal of member dues payments upon their initial payment to the group. Refunds will not be issued as a result of failure to turn off renewal.
• Fees for an event that didn’t meet your expectations - Meetup will not help you obtain a refund simply because an event did not meet your expectations.

In these situations, you can still request a refund from the organizer by locating the transaction in question and selecting Contact organizer for refund. For more specific information, see this article in the Help Center.

Back to Meetup

Terms of Service Overview

Below is an overview of our Terms of Service for our “Platform”, which means any website, application, or service we offer. You should read the complete Terms of Service because that document (and not this overview) is our legally binding agreement. The Terms of Service includes information about your legal rights and covers areas such as automatic subscription renewals, limitations of liability, resolution of disputes by mandatory arbitration rather than a judge or jury in a court of law, and a class action waiver.

Your Relationship with Meetup

• By using our Platform, you are agreeing to our Terms of Service. The Terms of Service are a legally binding agreement between you and Meetup.
• If you break the rules, we may suspend or terminate your account.
• We charge for certain aspects of our Platform, and some of these fees are billed on a regular and recurring basis (unless you disable auto-renewal or cancel your subscription).

Meetup Groups, Organizers and Members

• Organizers may establish membership criteria for their own Meetup groups. While there is probably a Meetup group out there for everyone, not every Meetup group is for you. If you can’t find the right group, you can easily start your own Meetup group.
• Organizers may charge fees for memberships or events.
• Using our Platform involves meeting real people and doing real things in the real world, which can sometimes lead to unexpected situations. We can’t control what happens in the real world, and we are not responsible for it. You should use common sense and good judgment when interacting with others.

Your Content and Content of Others

• You are responsible for your “Content”, which means any information, material, or other content posted to our Platform. Your Content must comply with our Terms of Service, which includes the Usage and Content Policies, Groups and Events Policies, Organizer and Leadership Standards, Member Restrictions, Payment Policies, Trademark Usage Guidelines, and API License Terms. Your Content is also subject to our Intellectual Property Dispute Policies.
• We do not own the Content that you post. However, we do require that you provide us a license to use this Content in order for us to operate, improve, promote, and protect Meetup and our Platform for the benefit of you and others.
• We are not responsible for Content that members post or the communications that members send using our Platform. We generally don’t review Content before it’s posted. If you see Content that violates our Terms of Service, you may report inappropriate Content to us.

Our Platform

• We try hard to make sure that our Platform is always available and working, but we cannot guarantee it will be. Occasionally things may not go exactly as planned. We apologize in advance for any inconvenience.
• We are continually improving our Platform. This means that we may modify or discontinue portions of our Platform.
• By using our Platform, you agree to the limitations of liability and release in our Terms of Service. You also agree to resolve any disputes you may have with us in the manner described in the Terms of Service. Unless you are based in the European Union, you agree to mandatory arbitration and waive your right to seek relief from a judge or jury in a court of law. Claims can only be brought individually, and not as part of a class action.
• You may be based in a country where the laws that apply provide for different or additional rights and obligations. These Terms of Service will point out areas of difference.

Terms of Service

Last Updated: 6/1/19
(view previous version: 3/28/17)

Our Terms of Service contain important information about your legal rights. To make it easier to understand, we have provided summaries and tips in these gray boxes. These summaries are not part of the official terms, and it is important for you to read the language in each section carefully.

1. This Agreement

Summary: You agree to follow some basic rules when using Meetup’s Platform. These rules are described in these Terms of Service, including the related policies and guidelines discussed below. We may change these rules.

1.1 The Agreement. Meetup enables you and other members to arrange offline, real-world Meetup groups and Meetup events. The terms “Meetup,” “we,” “us,” and “our” include Meetup, Inc. and our corporate parent, affiliates, or subsidiaries. We use the terms “you” and “your” to mean any person using our Platform, and any organization or person using the Platform on an organization’s behalf. We use the word “Platform” to mean any website, application, or service offered by Meetup, including content we offer and electronic communications we send. We provide our Platform to you subject to these Terms of Service. We use the terms “Terms of Service” and “Agreement” interchangeably to mean this document together with our Usage and Content Policies, Groups and Events Policies, Organizer and Leadership Standards, Member Restrictions, Payment Policies, Trademark Usage Guidelines, and API License Terms. Your use of the Platform signifies that you agree to this Agreement. If you are using the Platform for an organization, you agree to this Agreement on behalf of that organization, and represent you have authority to bind that organization to the terms contained in this Agreement. If you do not or are unable to agree to this Agreement, do not use our Platform.

Tip: We have included summaries and tips to provide an overview of some legal concepts and answer common questions, but the text of these summaries and tips are for your convenience only and do not have a legal effect.

Tip: These Terms of Service are an agreement between you and Meetup and not between you and any other member. For more information, see our FAQ page explaining the parties to our Terms of Service.

1.2 Revisions to this Agreement. We may modify this Agreement from time to time. When we do, we will provide notice to you by publishing the most current version and revising the date at the top of this page. If we make any material change to this Agreement, we will provide additional notice to you, such as by sending you an email or displaying a prominent notice on our Platform. By continuing to use the Platform after any changes come into effect, you agree to the revised Agreement. If you do not wish to accept the revised Agreement, you can close your account.

2. Your Account and Membership

Summary: You need to be at least 18 years old to use our Platform. Meetup organizers control the Content and membership of their Meetup groups. However, we may remove any Content you post or terminate your account at any time.

2.1 Eligibility. Our Platform is available to anyone who is at least 18 years old. You represent that you are at least 18. Additional eligibility requirements for a particular portion of our Platform may be set by any member who has the ability to moderate or manage that portion of our Platform. For example, the eligibility requirements for a Meetup group or Meetup event may be set by the organizers of that group.

2.2 Modification, Suspension, and Termination of Your Account. We may modify, suspend, or terminate your account or access to the Platform if, in our sole discretion, we determine that you have violated this Agreement, including any of the policies or guidelines that are part of this Agreement, that it is in the best interest of the Meetup community, or to protect our brand or Platform. When this happens, we will notify you of the reasons for the modification, suspension, or termination. We also may remove accounts of members who are inactive for an extended period of time. Please email policy@meetup.com if you believe the modification, suspension, or termination has occurred in error.

A member who has the ability to moderate or manage a particular portion of our Platform also has the ability, in his or her sole discretion, to modify, suspend, or terminate your access to that portion of the Platform.

2.3 Account Information and Security. When you register, you provide us with some basic information, including an email address and a password. Keep your email address and other account information current and accurate. Also, you agree to maintain the security and confidentiality of your password (or else we may need to disable your account). We strongly encourage you to choose a strong and unique password that is not shared with any other account or online service and practice other healthy password security habits to help avoid unauthorized access to your account. You alone are responsible for anything that happens from your failure to maintain that security and confidentiality, such as by sharing your account credentials with others. If someone is using your password or accessing your account without your permission, email us at abuse@meetup.com.

2.4 License to the Meetup Platform and Services. Subject to your compliance with this Agreement, Meetup grants you a limited, non-exclusive, revocable, non-sublicensable, non-transferable right to use the Platform in order to access and use the services and features that we make available to you.

3. Fees, Payments, and Offers

Summary: We charge for certain features on our Platform. If you’re a Meetup group organizer, you’re responsible for paying for organizer subscription fees related to your Meetup group. These fees are billed on a regular and recurring basis (unless you disable auto-renewal or cancel your subscription), and may change in the future. Additionally, some organizers charge money for participation in a Meetup group or Meetup event.

3.1 Fees Charged by Meetup. Use of some of the features on our Platform is free, and we charge fees for other features. We may in the future implement a new fee, or modify an existing fee, for certain current or future features of our Platform. If we implement a new or modified fee, we will give you notice in advance such as by posting changes on our Platform or sending you an email. You agree to pay those fees and any associated taxes for your continued use of the applicable service. Unless otherwise stated, all fees and all transactions are in U.S. dollars. Organizer subscriptions are non-transferable. Members based in the European Union or United Kingdom may cancel with a full refund within 14 days after signing up to our Platform. However, if you use the service, you may be charged for services provided during this 14-day period. Please note that this 14-day period begins when the service starts even if you are using a free trial. Users based in the European Union or United Kingdom can exercise their cancellation right by emailing us at policy@meetup.com. See the model cancellation form here.

3.2 Fees Charged by Organizers. Organizers may impose fees related to particular portions of the Platform, such as member dues for a Meetup group or an event fee for a Meetup event. We reserve the right to initiate refunds of fees paid to organizers, when appropriate, even in cases of fees paid through a third-party payment service. Refunds that we initiate, if any, will be governed by our Payment Policies. Organizers may also have their own refund policies, so long as they are consistent with and do not limit members’ ability to receive refunds under our Payment Policies. Payments made to organizers via the Platform are made through a third-party payment service provider. If a member pays a fee to an organizer via the Platform, the member authorizes the organizer (and the organizer’s applicable payment service provider) to charge the designated payment method for the total amount of the fees, including any applicable taxes and other charges. Certain types of fees charged by organizers may be billed on a recurring basis. If billed on a recurring basis, you authorize the organizer to charge the applicable fee to the designated payment method. You may cancel auto-renewal at any time.

Tip: You should use common sense in deciding whether to make a payment to any organizer. We cannot ensure that organizers will use payments as they promise or as you expect. You should check the refund policy of the Meetup group before making any payments to an organizer.

3.3 Payments to Meetup. Organizers are responsible for paying subscription and any other applicable fees to Meetup on time and through our approved payment methods. Organizers who allow their organizer subscription to lapse are subject to removal as the organizer of the Meetup groups associated with their account, and their Meetup group (along with all of the information and Content associated with or posted to that Meetup group) may be terminated or transferred to another member. You may only pay organizer fees to Meetup using a valid payment method acceptable to us, as specified via the Platform. If we terminate, suspend, or remove your account in connection with violation of this Agreement, we are not obligated to refund any organizer subscription fees paid to Meetup. In addition, if you paid your organizer fees through the Meetup app for iOS, your payment is subject to the Apple Media Services Terms and Conditions, and you will need to submit your request for a refund to Apple.    

You represent and warrant that you are authorized to use the payment method you designate via the Platform. You authorize us (and our designated third-party payment processors) to charge your designated payment method for the total amount of any fees you owe to Meetup, including any applicable taxes and other charges. If the payment method cannot be verified, is invalid, or is otherwise not acceptable to us, your payment may be suspended or cancelled. We reserve the right to adjust, or to instruct our payment processors to make adjustments to a payment that has already been requested or received, in order to correct errors or mistakes, or to issue refunds, in accordance with our Payment Policies.

Tip: To learn more about organizer subscriptions and what happens if they expire, see this FAQ on Expired Plans.

3.4 Automatic Subscription Renewals. Fees for certain aspects of our Platform may be billed on either a recurring basis or on a one-time basis. If billed on a recurring basis, the fees are payable in advance of the applicable period specified via the Platform with no refunds. We will automatically bill you for each renewal period until cancellation. By purchasing any feature or other aspect of our Platform for which we charge, you authorize us to keep your payment current by charging the applicable fee to your credit card account (or any other means of payment used by you). While you may cancel auto-renewal or cancel your subscription at any time, refunds will be issued solely pursuant to our Subscription Refund Policy.

Tip: To cancel your organizer subscription, see this FAQ on Modifying Subscriptions.

3.5 Free Trials. We may offer free trials of subscriptions and other products on our Platform. We will inform you of the length of the free trial, your renewal period, and the date and amount of your first payment. After your free trial ends, your paid subscription will begin and we will automatically bill you for each renewal period until cancellation. You can cancel automatic subscription renewals at any time according to the terms and procedures described above. Users based in the European Union are entitled to cancel with a full refund within 14 days after signing up to our Platform by emailing us at policy@meetup.com. See the model cancellation form here. Please note that this 14-day period begins when the free trial starts.

3.6 Third Party Payment Processors. An organizer that uses the Platform to accept payments from other members must comply with the terms and conditions of the third party provider of the applicable payment service used to receive the payment. Meetup does not provide those payment services, is not a party to your agreement with the applicable third-party provider, and will not be liable or responsible for your use of those third-party payment services.

3.7 Invoices from Third Parties. In line with the tax laws of the country where an organizer is using the Platform, an organizer may receive Meetup invoices from a third party provider. Such third party provider invoicing does not in any way impact the rights and obligations agreed to in this Agreement, nor does it impact the fee being charged for the use of the Platform.

4. Your Content and Privacy

Summary: You are responsible for the Content you post on our Platform or send to us. You give us a license to use this Content to operate, improve, promote, and protect Meetup and our Platform. Our Privacy Policy explains how we collect and use information you provide about yourself and the information that may be associated with you, and explains the limited ways we may share this information.

4.1 Your Content. You are responsible for the Content that you post to the Platform or otherwise provide to Meetup. We use the word “Content” to mean the information, material, and any other content that you post to the Platform or otherwise send to us. Examples of your Content include:

• The material that organizers and members typically post to the Platform, such as information about Meetup groups and Meetup events, comments, and photos;
• All feedback, suggestions, and other communications that you send or direct to Meetup.

By being responsible for your Content, you agree, among other things, that:

• You have all the permissions, rights, and licenses needed (including under copyrights, trademarks, contract rights, privacy rights, or publicity rights) to provide the Content to the Platform and to Meetup;
• Your Content does not include personal, private or confidential information belonging to others; and
• Your Content does not otherwise violate the rights of any individual or entity.

You also agree that you and your Content comply with this Agreement, including our Usage and Content Policies, Groups and Events Policies, Organizer and Leadership Standards, Member Restrictions, Intellectual Property Policies, Trademark Usage Guidelines, and API License Terms. You also agree that we may remove the metadata associated with your Content.

Tip: Search engines can see public areas of the Platform. Your Content within these areas, such as the name and location that you provide during registration, and your membership in public Meetup groups, may appear in search results. Our Platform is designed so that search engines cannot see your Content that is within restricted areas of the Platform, such as private Meetup groups. You can find additional information on our FAQ about Search Engine Visibility.

4.2 Content License from You. We do not claim ownership of your Content. However, to enable us to operate, improve, promote, and protect Meetup and our Platform, and to ensure we do not violate any rights you may have in your Content, you hereby grant Meetup a non-exclusive, worldwide, perpetual, irrevocable, royalty-free, sublicensable, transferable right and license (including a waiver of any moral rights) to use, host, store, reproduce, modify, publish, publicly display, publicly perform, distribute, and create derivative works of, your Content and to commercialize and exploit the copyright, trademark, publicity, and database rights you have in your Content. This license would permit your Content to remain on the Platform, even after you cease to be a member of a Meetup group or of the Platform.

Tip: This license doesn’t give us ownership of any of your Content. It simply gives us and members the right to use it on or related to the Platform. This license continues even if you close your account, because it’s necessary for us to operate the Platform.

4.3 Privacy. Meetup collects registration and other information about you through our Platform. Please refer to our Privacy Policy and Cookie Policy for details on how we collect, use, and disclose this information. These policies do not govern use of information that you provide to third parties, such as to organizers and other members of Meetup’s Platform.

Tip: Meetup has no control over how other members may use information that you provide to them, so you should exercise common sense and good judgment when sharing information with others on our Platform.

5. Your Use of Our Platform

Summary: We require that you follow our policies and guidelines when using our Platform. We have no responsibility for Content that anyone posts to our Platform.

5.1 Our Policies, Guidelines and Applicable Laws. When you use our Platform, we require that you follow the Usage and Content Policies, Groups and Events Policies, Organizer and Leadership Standards, Member Restrictions, Payment Policies, Trademark Usage Guidelines, and API License Terms. You also agree to comply with all applicable laws, rules and regulations, and to not violate or infringe the rights of any third party.

In addition, your access to and use of some areas or features of the Platform may be subject to additional terms, policies, standards or guidelines (“Additional Terms”). You may be required to accept these Additional Terms before you can access these Platform areas and features. If there is a conflict between the Terms of Service and the Additional Terms, those Additional Terms will govern your access to and use of that Platform area or feature, unless otherwise specified in the Additional Terms.

When the Platform uses third party services to provide certain features and services for our members, our members may be required to comply with the terms of service that apply to these features and services. For example, some areas of our Platform feature mapping services provided by Google Maps and Google Earth. When you use these mapping services on the Platform, you agree to be bound by the Google Maps/Google Earth Additional Terms of Service.

If you do not comply, we may modify, suspend, or terminate your account or access to the Platform, in our sole discretion, and we will provide you with reasons for the modification, suspension, or termination. Please email policy@meetup.com if you believe the modification, suspension, or termination has occurred in error.

5.2 Content of Others. Meetup does not control the Content of other members. When we become aware of inappropriate Content on our Platform, we reserve the right to investigate and take appropriate action, but we do not have any obligation to monitor, nor do we take responsibility for, the Content of other members.

5.3 Interactions with Others. Meetup is not a party to any offline arrangements made through our Platform. Meetup does not conduct or require background checks on members and does not attempt to verify the truth or accuracy of statements made by members. Meetup makes no representations or warranties concerning the conduct or Content of any members or their interactions with you.

Tip: Exercise common sense and good judgment when using our Platform and interacting with other members, both on our Platform and at Meetup events. If you have a concern regarding other members, you can report it to abuse@meetup.com.

5.4 Prohibited Uses of the Platform. Our Platform contains proprietary and confidential information and is protected by intellectual property and other laws. Unless we expressly permit it through this Agreement, you agree that you will not, either directly or indirectly (a) use, host, store, reproduce, modify, publish, publicly display, publicly perform, distribute, or create derivative works of the Platform, or any portion of the Platform; (b) remove or alter the proprietary notices on the Platform; (c) reverse engineer, disassemble, decompile, or attempt to discover the source code or structure, sequence, and organization of the Platform; and (d) rent, lease, resell, distribute, or use the Platform for commercial purposes that are not contemplated by this Agreement. You also agree that you will not use the Platform to solicit or collect (i) personal data from others except as necessary for the administration of or participation in a group or event or (ii) sensitive personal data, as defined or treated as such under applicable law (including, by way of example only, health information and social security numbers and other government identifiers). In addition, you agree that you will comply with the export control laws of your local jurisdiction. You also represent and warrant that you are not located in a country that is subject to a U.S. government embargo or that has been designated by the U.S. government as a “terrorist supporting” country, and that you are not listed on any U.S. government list of prohibited or restricted parties. If you are a developer working with our API, you should review our API License Terms.

5.5 Platform Safety and Security. You agree that you will not, either directly or indirectly, (a) extract data from the Platform for a commercial purpose not permitted by these Terms of Service, whether through use of an automated system or software, and whether operated by a third party or otherwise (“screen scraping,” “data scraping,” or “web scraping”); (b) engage in any activity  that interferes with or disrupts, that is designed to interfere with or disrupt, or imposes undue burdens on the Platform or its systems.

You agree to use, retain, and otherwise process personal data collected from the Platform in accordance with applicable laws, rules, and regulations and solely for purposes of administering and participating in Meetup groups and Meetup events. Without limitation, you agree to provide notice to individuals about your processing of their personal data, to obtain any necessary consents, and to respond to requests made by individuals as required by applicable law. You also agree to safeguard such data from unauthorized access or processing. You must delete such personal data once it is no longer strictly necessary for the administration of a Meetup group or Meetup event or promptly following a request from Meetup, and you will promptly certify to such deletion. 

5.6 Platform Modifications. We work hard to continuously improve our Platform. This means that we may modify or discontinue portions or all of our Platform with or without notice and without liability to you or any third party.

5.7 Third Party Sites and Services. The Platform contains links to third party sites, and is integrated with various third party services, applications and sites that may make available to you their content and products. We don’t control these third parties and aren’t responsible for those sites or services or their content or products. These third parties may have their own terms and policies, and your use of them will be governed by those terms and policies. You do not have a license to use the intellectual property of third parties merely by way of your access to our Platform.

6. Release

Summary: To the full extent permitted by applicable law, you agree not to hold us responsible for anything that happens related to transactions with third parties, member interactions, or in connection with a Meetup group or Meetup event. You also agree not to hold organizers responsible for their negligence in connection with their Content, a Meetup group, or Meetup event.

To the full extent permitted by applicable law, you agree to release us and our officers, directors, shareholders, agents, employees, consultants, corporate parent, affiliates, subsidiaries, sponsors, and other third-party partners ( “Meetup Parties”) from claims, demands, and damages (direct and consequential) (“Claims”), arising out of or in any way connected with any transaction with a third party, your interactions with other members, or in connection with a Meetup group or a Meetup event. You also agree, to the full extent permitted by applicable law, to release organizers from Claims based on an organizer’s negligence arising out of or in any way connected with their Content, a Meetup group, or a Meetup event. The law in some countries and states do not allow the release, so these limits may not apply to you. You waive and relinquish all rights and benefits that you have or may have under Section 1542 of the California Civil Code or any similar provision of statutory or non-statutory law of any other jurisdiction to the fullest extent permitted by law.

You acknowledge that some Meetup events carry inherent dangers, such as the risk of illness, bodily injury, disability, or death. By participating in these events, you understand and agree that you have freely chosen to assume these risks.

7. Indemnification

Summary: To the full extent permitted by applicable law, you agree to reimburse us if we get sued in connection with your use of our Platform.

To the full extent permitted by applicable law, you agree to indemnify, defend and hold all Meetup Parties harmless from any Claims, made by any third party due to or arising out of (a) your violations of this Agreement, (b) your use, misuse, or abuse of our Platform, (c) your Content, (d) your violation of any law, statute, ordinance or regulation or the rights of a third party, or (e) your participation or conduct in a Meetup group or a Meetup event that violates this Agreement. You agree to promptly notify us of any third party Claims, cooperate with all Meetup Parties in defending such Claims, and pay all fees, costs and expenses associated with defending such Claims (including, but not limited to, attorneys’ fees). You agree not to settle any Claim without our prior written consent.

8. Warranty Disclaimer and Limitation of Liability

Summary: Our Platform is provided to you “as is” and we make no warranties of any kind with respect to our Platform. Our liability in connection with the Platform is limited to the fees you paid to us in the 12 months preceding the claim or $100, whichever is greater.

8.1 Warranty Disclaimer. Our Platform is provided to you “as is” and on an “as available” basis. To the full extent permitted by applicable law, we disclaim all warranties and conditions of any kind, including but not limited to statutory warranties, and the implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement. We also disclaim any warranties regarding (a) the reliability, timeliness, accuracy, and performance of our Platform, (b) any information, advice, services, or goods obtained through or advertised on our Platform or by us, as well as for any information or advice received through any links to other websites or resources provided through our Platform, (c) the results that may be obtained from the Platform, and (d) the correction of any errors in the Platform, (e) any material or data obtained through the use of our Platform, and (f) dealings with or as the result of the presence of marketing partners or other third parties on or located through our Platform. You may have additional rights under the law of the country in which you are based. You agree that the duration of such additional rights will be limited to the full extent permitted by such law.

8.2 Limitation of Liability. To the full extent permitted by applicable law, you agree that in no event shall any Meetup Parties be liable for any direct, indirect, incidental, special, or consequential damages, including but not limited to, damages for loss of profits, goodwill, use, data, or other intangible losses (even if any Meetup Parties have been advised of the possibility of such damages) arising out of or in connection with (a) our Platform or this Agreement or the inability to use our Platform (however arising, including our negligence), (b) statements or conduct of or transactions with any member or third party on the Platform, (c) your use of our Platform or transportation to or from Meetup events, attendance at Meetup events, participation in or exclusion from Meetup groups or Meetup events and the actions of you or others at Meetup events, or (d) any other matter relating to the Platform. Our liability to you or any third parties in any circumstance is limited to the greater of $100 or the amount of fees, if any, you paid to us in the 12 months prior to the action that may give rise to liability. The limitations set forth above in this Section 8 will not limit or exclude liability for our gross negligence, fraud, or intentional, malicious, or reckless misconduct. Some laws do not allow the limitation or exclusion of liability, so these limits may not apply to you. If you are a member based in the EU, you have legal remedies if we cause you loss by our breach or non-performance of our legal obligations, or by our negligence, and these terms do not affect those statutory remedies.

9. Dispute Resolution

Summary: If you have a dispute with Meetup, you agree to try to work it out directly with us first. If we can’t work it out, with limited exceptions, you must submit any dispute with us to a neutral arbitrator instead of taking the claim to a court of law. Claims can only be brought individually, and not as part of a class action. Members based in the European Union may have additional or different rights, as provided by applicable law. Meetup has no obligation to get involved with any disputes you have with other members, although we may try to facilitate a resolution.

9.1 Informal Resolution. Before making any claim, you and Meetup agree to try to resolve any disputes through good faith discussions. We use the term “claim” in this Section 9 to mean any dispute, claim or controversy arising out of or relating to your use of our Platform or this Agreement, including your participation in Meetup events. You or Meetup may initiate this process by sending written notice according to Section 11.2 describing the dispute and your proposed resolution. In the event that we cannot resolve the issue within 30 business days following receipt of the initial notice, you or Meetup may bring a claim in accordance with this Section 9. Members based in the European Union may have additional or different rights, as provided by applicable law.

9.2 Arbitration Agreement. The arbitration procedures described in this Section 9.2 applies to all members, except for members who are based in the European Union. Section 9.6 sets out the dispute resolution procedures that apply to members who are based in the European Union.

a. Mandatory Arbitration. Except as set forth in Section 9.3, you agree to submit any claim to JAMS, Inc., or its successor (“JAMS”) for final and binding arbitration. In arbitration, certain rights that you or we would have in court may not be available, such as discovery or appeal. You and Meetup are each expressly waiving any right to trial by judge or jury in a court of law. This agreement to arbitrate shall apply regardless of whether the claim arises during or after any termination of this Agreement or your relationship with Meetup.

b. Arbitration Time for Filing. Any claim subject to arbitration must be filed within one year after the date the party asserting the claim first knows or should know of the act, omission or default giving rise to the claim, or the shortest time period permitted by applicable law.

c. Arbitration Procedures. Either party may commence arbitration by filing a written demand for arbitration with JAMS, with a copy to the other party according to the notice procedures in Section 11.2. The arbitration will be conducted in accordance with JAMS Streamlined Arbitration Rules and Procedures and any other applicable rules that JAMS requires (“JAMS Rules”) that are in effect as of the demand for arbitration. You agree that the U.S. Federal Arbitration Act and federal arbitration law govern the interpretation and enforcement of these arbitration provisions. Any arbitration hearings will take place in New York County, New York or elsewhere as required by JAMS Rules. Your responsibility to pay any filing, administrative and arbitrator fees will be solely as set forth in the JAMS Rules. The parties will cooperate with JAMS and each other in scheduling the arbitration proceedings, and in selecting one arbitrator from the appropriate JAMS list with substantial experience in resolving intellectual property and contract disputes. The arbitrator shall follow this Agreement and, to the extent permitted by JAMS Rules, can award costs, fees, and expenses, including attorneys’ fees, to the prevailing party, except that the arbitrator shall not award declaratory or injunctive relief benefiting anyone but the parties to the arbitration. Judgment upon the award rendered by such arbitrator may be entered in any court of competent jurisdiction.

9.3 Exceptions. You or Meetup may assert claims, if they qualify, in small claims court in New York County, New York or any U.S. county where you live or work. You or Meetup may seek injunctive relief from a court of competent jurisdiction in New York County, New York as necessary to protect the intellectual property rights of you or Meetup pending the completion of arbitration. Meetup may take action in court or arbitration to collect any fees or recover damages for, or to seek injunctive relief relating to, Platform operations, or unauthorized use of our Platform or intellectual property. Nothing in this Section 9 shall diminish Meetup’s right to modify, suspend or terminate your account or access to our Platform under Section 2.2.

9.4 Arbitration Opt Out. You may decline to resolve disputes through arbitration by emailing us at arbitration-opt-out@meetup.com within 30 days of the date you first agree to this Agreement. Your email must include your full name, residential address, the email address registered to your Meetup account, and a clear statement that you want to opt out of arbitration. If you opt out according to this process, then Section 9.2 of this Agreement does not apply to you. This opt-out does not affect any other sections of this Agreement, such as Sections 9.3 (Exceptions), 9.5 (Class Action Waiver), 11.5 (Governing Law), 11.6 (Judicial Forum), and 11.7 (Time for Filing).

9.5 Class Action Waiver. You agree to resolve disputes with Meetup on an individual basis. You agree not to bring a claim as a plaintiff or a class member in a class, consolidated, or representative action. You are expressly waiving any right to participate in class actions, class arbitrations, private attorney general actions, and consolidation with other arbitrations.

9.6 Dispute Resolution Terms Applicable to Members Based in the EU. If you are a member based in the European Union, the mandatory provisions of the law of the country in which you are resident will apply. Nothing in this Agreement will affect your rights as a consumer to rely on the mandatory provisions of the local law that applies. If you are based in the European Union, the local laws in your European Union Member State may allow you to take legal action against Meetup in your Member State and to invoke certain local laws against Meetup. The European Commission provides for an online dispute resolution platform.

10. Intellectual Property

Summary: If you use Meetup’s trademark, be sure to follow our Trademark Usage Guidelines. Also, don’t infringe on anyone’s intellectual property. If you believe your intellectual property is being infringed somewhere on the Meetup Platform, please follow the procedures in our Intellectual Property Dispute Policies.

10.1 Intellectual Property of Meetup. Meetup trademarks, logos, service marks, and service names are the intellectual property of Meetup. Our Trademark Usage Guidelines explain how you may and may not use them. Our Platform, including our material on the Platform, are also our or our licensors’ intellectual property. Except as described in the Trademark Usage Guidelines, you agree not to use our intellectual property without our prior written consent.

10.2 Intellectual Property of Others. Meetup respects the intellectual property of others, and we expect our members to do the same. We may, in appropriate circumstances and in our discretion, remove or disable access to material that we believe may infringe on the intellectual property rights of others. We may also restrict or terminate access to our Platform to those who we believe to be repeat infringers. If you believe your intellectual property rights have been violated, please review our Intellectual Property Dispute Policies.

11. General Terms

Summary: This section contains terms we have added for miscellaneous purposes. Please continue to read this section carefully.

11.1 Translation. This Agreement was written in English. It was then translated into other languages. If there is any inconsistency between the English version and a translated version, the English language version controls. 

11.2 Notices. Except as otherwise stated in this Agreement or as expressly required by law, any notice to us shall be given by certified postal mail to Meetup, Inc., Attn: Legal Department, 632 Broadway, 10th Floor, New York, NY 10012, or by email to legal@meetup.com. Any notice to you shall be given to the most current email address in your account.

11.3 Entire Agreement. This Agreement, including the Usage and Content Policies, Groups and Events Policies, Organizer and Leadership Standards, Member Restrictions, Intellectual Property Policies, Trademark Usage Guidelines, and API License Terms, constitutes the entire agreement between you and Meetup, superseding any prior agreements between you and Meetup on such subject matter.

11.4 No Agency. No agency, partnership, joint venture, employee-employer or franchiser-franchisee relationship between you and Meetup is intended or created by this Agreement. A member of the Meetup Platform is not Meetup's representative or agent, and may not enter into an agreement on Meetup’s behalf.

11.5 Governing Law. This Agreement and the relationship between you and Meetup shall be governed by the laws of the State of New York without regard to its conflict of laws provisions, except as provided in Section 9.

11.6 Judicial Forum. If our agreement to arbitrate is found not to apply to you or your claim, or if you opt out of arbitration pursuant to Section 9.4, you and Meetup agree that any judicial proceedings (other than small claims actions) must be brought exclusively in the federal or state courts located in New York County, New York, and you and Meetup agree to venue and personal jurisdiction in those courts.

If you are a member based in the European Union, you may bring judicial proceedings against us arising from or in connection with this Agreement in your country of residence. In addition, for members based in the European Union, the European Commission provides for an online dispute resolution platform.

11.7 Time for Filing. Any claim not subject to arbitration must be commenced within one year after the date the party asserting the claim first knows or should know of the act, omission or default giving rise to the claim, or the shortest time period permitted by applicable law. This clause does not apply to you if you are based in the European Union.

11.8 Assignment. This Agreement is not assignable, transferable, or sublicensable by you except with Meetup’s prior written consent, but may be assigned or transferred by us to our corporate parent or any affiliate or subsidiary, or in connection with a merger, acquisition, corporate reorganization, sale of all or substantially all of Meetup’s assets, or similar transaction.

11.9 No Waiver. A party’s failure to exercise or enforce any right or provision of this Agreement shall not constitute a waiver of such right or provision and does not waive any right to act with respect to subsequent or similar breaches.

11.10 Severance. If any provision of this Agreement is found to be invalid by a court of competent jurisdiction, you and Meetup nevertheless agree that the court should endeavor to give effect to the parties’ intentions as reflected in the provision, and that the other provisions of this Agreement will remain in full force and effect.

11.11 Thank you. Please accept our wholehearted thanks for reading our Terms of Service.

11.12 Termination. If we terminate your account or access to our Platform, this Agreement terminates with respect to the member account that has been terminated, provided that the provisions listed in Section 11.13 will survive such termination.

11.13 Survival. Sections 3 (Fees, Payments, and Offers), 4.2 (Content License from You), 4.3 (Privacy), 6 (Release), 7 (Indemnification), 8 (Warranty Disclaimer and Limitation of Liability), 9 (Dispute Resolution), and 11 (General Terms) of this Agreement, and any other provisions necessary to give effect to these provisions, shall survive any termination or expiration of this Agreement.

11.14 Titles. The section titles in this Agreement are for convenience only and have no legal or contractual effect. The information in “Terms of Service Overview” section and in the “Tips” and “Summary” sections is also for convenience only and has no legal or contractual effect.

11.15 Violations. Please report any violations of this Agreement by a member or third party by sending an email to abuse@meetup.com.

This page is outdated. View the current version of the Terms of Service.

Meetup Terms of Service Agreement

Published: May 10, 2021 

Meetup offers an application programming interface (“Meetup API”). These Meetup API License Terms (“API License Terms”) govern the use of the Meetup API, and are in addition to the Meetup Terms of Service. Except as explicitly stated, the Meetup Terms of Service apply in full to all users of the Meetup API. In particular and for the avoidance of doubt, any terms herein are governed by the indemnification, limitation of liability, and dispute resolution terms set forth in Sections 7, 8, and 9 of the Meetup Terms of Service. All capitalized terms not defined herein have the meanings given to them in the Meetup Terms of Service. For more documentation on using our API see our API page.

1. These API License Terms

The terms “Meetup,” “we,” “us,” and “our” include Meetup, Inc. and our affiliates. We use the terms “you” and “your” to mean any individual or organization using the Meetup API. Your use of the Meetup API signifies that you agree to these API License Terms. If you are using the Meetup API for an organization, you agree to these API License Terms on behalf of that organization, and represent you have authority to bind that organization to the terms contained in these API License Terms. If you do not agree to these API License Terms, do not use the Meetup API.

2. Modification of these API License Terms

We may modify these API License Terms from time to time. When we do, we will provide notice to you by publishing the most current version and revising the date at the top of this page. If we make any material change to these API License Terms, we will provide additional notice to you, such as by sending you an email or displaying a prominent notice on the relevant portion of our Platform. By continuing to use the Meetup API after any changes come into effect, you agree to the revised API License Terms.

3. Registration and Meetup Pro Subscription

In order to use the Meetup API, you must have a Meetup Pro subscription and register to use the Meetup API here. You agree to provide accurate and truthful information in response to Meetup’s questions on the registration form. Meetup reserves the right to deny your use of the Meetup API for any reason, including but not limited to your failure to provide accurate and truthful responses to Meetup.

4. API License

Subject to Meetup’s authorization of your application to use the Meetup API and your compliance with these API License Terms, including the Meetup Terms of Service and the policies and guidelines that are part of the Meetup Terms of Service (such as our Trademark Usage Guidelines), Meetup grants to you a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, non-sublicensable, revocable license to use the Meetup API, including data or other Content made available via the Meetup API, solely to facilitate the development of applications related to Meetup events and groups using Platform data and developer tools. We refer to this license in these API License Terms as the “API License.”

5. Your Use

You agree to do the following in regard to your use of the Meetup API:

• Only use the Meetup API in accordance with the API documentation or other written instructions that we provide, and not attempt to circumvent any limitations or restrictions;
• Not create a security vulnerability for the Meetup Platform or systems, or for Meetup members, or otherwise test the vulnerability of Meetup’s Platform or systems, including by introducing any harmful, infringing, or unlawful data or material via the Meetup API, such as viruses or other malware;
• Not use the Meetup API for any commercial purpose without the express written consent of Meetup;
• Not undermine our commercial interests or make unreasonable commercial uses of the Meetup API, such as by substantially replicating our Platform or significant aspects of the Platform, to be determined in Meetup’s sole discretion;
• While you may charge for any application you develop (subject to Meetup’s consent), you may not sell, lease, or sublicense the Meetup API;
• If making an application available, provide and comply with a user agreement and a privacy policy that describes how you collect, share, use, and retain user information. Your privacy policy must be at least as protective of the personal information of Meetup’s members as is Meetup’s Privacy Policy;
• Protect any data you receive via the Meetup API against unauthorized access, use, or disclosure, and immediately report security issues or any breach of your user agreement or privacy policy (to the extent it may affect Meetup members) to api_license@meetup.com;
• Not abuse the availability of the Meetup API through excessive or unreasonable usage;
• Cache or store data you receive via the Meetup API consistent with, and only for the time permitted under, applicable laws, including data protection laws;
• Clearly indicate in the application that the application uses the Meetup API but is not verified by Meetup (note that you alone are responsible for your application); and
• Only use the most current version of the Meetup API. 

6. Availability and Changes to the API

Meetup makes no guarantees with respect to the availability or uptime of the Meetup API.  Meetup may conduct maintenance, make changes to the API, delete parts of the API, or stop providing the API at any time, with or without notice to you. Meetup may change the method of access to the API at any time.  

7. Reservation of Rights

Meetup reserves all rights not expressly granted under these API License Terms. While you retain your ownership rights in your application, we own the Meetup API, including all intellectual property rights associated with the Meetup API not otherwise granted to you under the API License.

8. Competitive Materials

You agree that Meetup may develop, acquire, or license materials that are competitive with, or similar to, your application or any other service or product that you provide.

9. Publicity

You grant us the right to use your company name, logo, and trademark for the purpose of publicizing your use of the Meetup API. You agree to obtain our written consent before publishing or using Meetup’s name, logo, or trademark.

10. Our Right to Monitor and Audit

You authorize us to monitor or audit your use of the Meetup API in order to verify your compliance with these API License Terms and to operate, improve, and protect the Platform. You agree to comply with any requests we make in the course of monitoring or auditing your use of the Meetup API.

11. Termination

We may terminate the Meetup API at any time for any reason. We may modify, suspend, or terminate your access to the Meetup API if we determine in our sole discretion that your use of the Meetup API undermines our commercial interests or for any other reason. This API License terminates automatically if (a) you violate any provision of these API License Terms, (b) we provide you with a written notice of termination, or (c) we discontinue your access to the Meetup API. You may terminate this API License by discontinuing your use of the Meetup API. If we provide you with any Meetup API information or documentation that is not generally available, you agree that those materials are confidential information that you must destroy following termination of the API License.

12. Severance

If any provision of these API License Terms is found to be invalid by a court of competent jurisdiction, you and Meetup nevertheless agree that the court should endeavor to give effect to the parties’ intentions as reflected in the provision, and that the other provisions of these API License Terms will remain in full force and effect.

13. Survival

All sections restricting your access to and use of any data you receive via the Meetup API will survive any termination of these API License Terms.

Last updated: July 22, 2019

These Sponsorship Program Organizer Terms of Service (“Sponsorship Program Organizer Terms”) are in addition to the Meetup Terms of Service, and except as explicitly stated, the Meetup Terms of Service apply in full to all organizers (“Sponsorship Program Organizers”) participating in the Sponsorship Program (“Program”). In particular and for the avoidance of doubt, any terms herein are governed by the indemnification, limitation of liability, and dispute resolution terms set forth in Sections 7, 8, and 9 of the Meetup Terms of Service. All capitalized terms not defined herein have the meanings given to them in the Meetup Terms of Service.

1. These Sponsorship Program Organizer Terms

1.1 The Program is a sponsorship program whereby Meetup pairs a sponsor (“Sponsor”) to a Meetup event hosted by a Sponsorship Program Organizer (“Sponsorship Program Events”). The terms “Meetup,” “we,” “us,” and “our” include Meetup, Inc. and our affiliates. We use the terms “you” and “your” to mean any Sponsorship Program Organizer participating in the Program. Your participation in the Program signifies that you agree to these Sponsorship Program Organizer Terms. If you are participating in the Program for an organization, you agree to these Sponsorship Program Organizer Terms on behalf of that organization, and represent you have authority to bind that organization to the terms contained in these Sponsorship Program Organizer Terms. If you do not agree to these Sponsorship Program Organizer Terms, do not participate in the Program.

1.2 We may modify these Sponsorship Program Organizer Terms from time to time. When we do, we will publish the most current version and revise the date at the top of this page. By continuing to participate in the Program after any changes come into effect, you agree to the revised Sponsorship Program Organizer Terms.

2. Sponsorship Program Organizers’ Responsibilities

2.1 Sponsorship Program Organizers must host their Sponsorship Program Event on the date and at the time and place listed in their Sponsorship Program Event listing.  Sponsorship Program Organizers may not change the date, time, or place of their Sponsorship Program Event without prior consent from Meetup.

2.2 Sponsorship Program Organizers are solely responsible for their Sponsorship Program Events and for complying with all laws, rules, and regulations that apply to their Sponsorship Program Events. In the event that licenses, permits, or registrations are needed for a Sponsorship Program Event, Sponsorship Program Organizers are solely responsible for obtaining such licenses, permits, or registrations. Sponsorship Program Organizers must host the Sponsorship Program Event in person and may not allow any third party to serve as a substitute.

2.3 Except for the sponsorship of Sponsorship Program Events made in accordance with these Sponsorship Program Organizer Terms, Sponsorship Program Organizers agree to refrain from directly or indirectly entering into any agreement or arrangement to receive any sponsorship for any group or event organized on or off the Platform by the Sponsors introduced to you through the Program. These obligations survive the termination or expiration of these Sponsorship Program Organizer Terms.

3. Meetup’s Right to Cancel the Sponsorship of Sponsorship Program Events

3.1 We may cancel the sponsorship of any pending Sponsorship Program Events if, in our sole discretion, we determine that you have violated these Sponsorship Program Organizer Terms, including any of the policies or guidelines that are part of these Sponsorship Program Organizer Terms, that it is in the best interest of the Meetup community, or to protect our brand or Platform. Furthermore, we may cancel the sponsorship of any pending Sponsorship Program Events if, in our sole discretion, we determine that (i) you have provided inaccurate or fraudulent information to Meetup or on the Platform regarding your Sponsorship Program Event, (ii) you fail to meet our applicable quality or eligibility criteria, or (iii) we receive complaints about your performance or conduct. When this happens, we will notify you of the reasons for the cancellation. If we cancel a pending Sponsorship Program Event, you will not be entitled to any compensation for the Sponsorship Program Event that was cancelled.

4. Severance

4.1 If any provision of these Sponsorship Program Organizer Terms is found to be invalid by a court of competent jurisdiction, you and Meetup nevertheless agree that the court should endeavor to give effect to the parties’ intentions as reflected in the provision, and that the other provisions of these Sponsorship Program Organizer Terms will remain in full force and effect.

5. Survival

5.1 All provisions in these Sponsorship Program Organizer Terms that by their nature should survive termination of these Sponsorship Program Organizer Terms will survive.

Effective: May 12, 2023

(View previous versions: 10/3/22, 10/1/21, 4/19/21)

Our Privacy Policy explains how Meetup collects, uses, and discloses information about you. The terms “Meetup,” “we,” “us,” and “our” include Meetup LLC and our affiliates. We use the terms “member,” “you,” and “your” to mean any person using our Platform or attending related events, including any organization or person using the Platform on an organization’s behalf. This Privacy Policy applies to the processing of information about members and other individuals that we collect when you use our “Platform,” which means any website, application, or services we offer, or when you communicate with us. For information about choices you may have under this policy, please see “Your Choices” below. This Privacy Policy does not apply to the information that you may provide to third parties, such as members, and others with whom you may share information about yourself. For more information about the scope of our Privacy Policy, please see Section 4.5. 

To make this Privacy Policy easier to understand, we have provided summaries below. These summaries are not part of the official policy. Even though we have provided summaries, it is important for you to read the entire policy carefully. If you wish to access any particular section of this Privacy Policy, use the list below to jump to that section.

1. Collection Of Information
2. Use Of Information
3. Sharing Of Information
4. Additional Details
5. Your Choices
6. Data Rights
7. California Privacy Rights
8. Information for Korean Residents
9. Contact Us

1. Collection Of Information

Summary: We collect information about you when you:

1. Create an account;
2. Use the Platform;
3. Attend an event;
4. Visit our website; and
5. Communicate with us.

We also collect information, such as usage statistics, by using cookies, server logs, and similar technologies.

If you elect to use certain features, we also collect information through other sources, such as social media services, invitations, and imported contacts.

1.1 Information You Provide to Us

We collect information that you provide directly to us. For example, we collect information that you provide when you create an account, choose interests or groups, fill out a form, or communicate with us. The types of information that we may collect include identifiers, such as your name, username, password, email address, postal address, and phone number; payment and commercial information, such as payment method data and purchases, if any; demographic information and any other personal information that you choose to provide, such as photos, choices of interests, gender, date of birth, groups, and professional or employment-related information, including your role, company, and years of experience. Certain information about yourself, such as gender and date of birth, is optional to provide. Your choice of groups is also optional, but we are required to process this information in order to administer your account, and to indicate that you are a member of the groups that you join. See Section 2 to learn how we will use the information that you provide to personalize our recommendations and other content to you.

On occasion, the information that you give us when you join a group may imply information about your beliefs, political views, health conditions, or your sexual identity. This, and other kinds of sensitive information, is given special protection in accordance with applicable law. Posting personal or sensitive information about others without their permission is against our Community Guidelines.

1.2 Information We Collect Automatically When You Use the Platform

When you use our Platform, we automatically collect internet and other electronic network activity information about you and other information, including:

1. Log Information: We collect log information about your use of the Platform, including the type of browser that you use; the time, duration, and frequency of your access; Platform pages viewed; your IP address; and the page you visited before visiting our Platform.
2. Device Information: We collect information about the computer or mobile device that you use to access our Platform, including the hardware model, operating system and version, unique device identifiers, and mobile network information.
3. Geolocation Information: We may collect information about the location of your device each time you use our Platform based on your consent to the collection of this information, such as when you enable location services.  For further information see Section 5.2.  We may also collect information, such as your IP address, that can sometimes be used to approximate your location based on your device settings.
4. Information Collected by Cookies and Other Tracking Technologies: We and our service providers collect information using various technologies, including cookies and pixel tags (which are also called clear GIFs, web beacons, or pixels). Cookies are small data files stored on your hard drive or in device memory that help us improve our Platform and your experience, and track usage of our Platform. Pixel tags are electronic images that may be used in our Platform or emails, and track usage of our Platform and effectiveness of communications. You can learn more about the types of cookies we and our service providers use by reading our Cookie Policy.
5. Other Information: Based on your consent, we may collect other information from your device, such as photos from your camera roll or calendar information you want to manage via the Platform.

1.3 Information We Collect From Other Sources

We may collect information about you from other sources, such as through certain features on the Platform you elect to use. We rely on these third parties to either have your consent or ensure that they are otherwise legally permitted or required to disclose your information to us. Examples include:

1. Social Media Services. If you register or log into your account through a third-party social media service, we will have access to some of your third-party account information from that service, including identifiers, such as your name and other information in that account, and used for purposes such as improving your Meetup recommendations. We may also have access to third-party account information if you use the Platform feature to share a link. See this article for more information on how to enable or disable the connection between our Platform and your third-party account.
2. Member Content. We may receive information about you when you or another member uploads photos or posts other content to the Platform. For further details about the rights over this information available to individuals, see Section 6.
3. Current or Future Corporate Affiliates. We may receive information about you from our current or future corporate parents, subsidiaries, or affiliates.
4. Information From Other Third-Party Sources. In order to provide you with more tailored recommendations, we may obtain information about you from publicly and commercially available sources, such as third-party publishers, advertising networks, and service providers that we use to manage ads on our and other sites, and other third parties as permitted by law. For more information about the data that we obtain from these providers, please contact us at privacy@meetup.com.

We may analyze and make inferences from the information we collect.

2. Use Of Information

Summary: We use information about you to: 

1. Operate, improve, promote, and protect Meetup and our Platform;
2. Communicate with you; and
3. Personalize content. 

2.1 Operating our Platform

We may use information about you described above for various business purposes related to operating our Platform, including to: 

1. Provide, maintain, and improve our Platform, including to process transactions, develop new products and services (for example, including you in tests or pilots of new or revised Platform functions, such as messaging or search functionality or using information about your usage of the Platform to develop new or revised messaging or search functionality), and manage the performance of our Platform;
2. Display information about you, for instance, your list of interests, which will be visible on your profile;
3. Personalize the Platform, for example, to suggest content in which we think you may be interested;
4. Allow you to share information about your use of the Platform through a third-party social media service, if you connect your account through that service (which you can turn off at any time) and to provide you with better recommendations;
5. Monitor and analyze trends, usage, and activities in connection with our Platform;
6. Detect, investigate, and prevent fraudulent transactions, abuse, and other illegal activities; to protect the rights, property, or safety of Meetup and others; to enforce compliance with our policies; and to comply with applicable law and government requests; and
7. Perform accounting and administrative tasks, and enforce or manage legal claims.

2.2 Communicating With You

We may use information about you for various business purposes related to communicating with you, including to:

1. Respond to your comments, questions, and requests, and provide customer service;
2. Communicate with you, in accordance with your account settings, about products, services, and events offered by us and others, to provide news and information that we think will be of interest to you, to conduct online surveys, to contact you about events on our Platform that are being held near your location, and to otherwise communicate with you in accordance with Section 2.3;
3. Notify you about communications of other members, in accordance with the communication preferences that you indicate in your account; and
4. Send you technical notices, updates, security alerts and support, and administrative messages.

2.3 Advertising And Other Uses

We may use information about you for various other business purposes, including to:

1. Provide content, features, or sponsorships that match member profiles or interests 
2. Deliver more relevant advertising to you on and off the Platform;
3. Facilitate contests and other promotions;
4. Send you marketing communications, subject to applicable law;
5. Combine with information that we collect for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy; and
6. Carry out any other purposes described to you at the time that we collected the information.

2.4 Legal Basis for Processing

If you are in a jurisdiction that requires a specific legal basis for processing personal data, our legal basis for collecting and using the information described above will depend on the type of information and the specific context in which we collect it.

1. We process information about you in order to provide our services in accordance with our Terms of Service, for example, to allow you to join groups or to display your profile to other members; to allow us to send you important service updates; and to perform a contract.
2. We also process information about you where it is in our legitimate interests to do so and not overridden by your rights (for example, in some cases for direct marketing, fraud prevention, network and information systems security, responding to your communications, the operation of networks of groups by the network administrators, and improving our Platform).
3. Sometimes you provide us with sensitive information about you; for instance, the mere fact of joining a certain group may indicate information about your health, religion, political views, or sexual identity. Joining such groups or posting information on the Platform about these topics is entirely voluntary and, depending on the settings of the group and your profile (e.g., public or private), our legal basis for processing any sensitive information is either that you manifestly make it public or your explicit consent.
4. In some cases, we may also have a legal obligation to process information about you, or may otherwise need the information to protect your vital interests or those of another person. For example, we may process information, if we believe doing so is required by, or in accordance with, applicable law, regulation, legal process, or audits.

3. Sharing Of Information

Summary: We do not share information about you except as described in this Privacy Policy. We may disclose personal information about you, including:

1. to members or social media services, depending on how you engage with the Platform.  Information that is public on our platform is accessible to others both on and off the Platform;
2. to our third-party service providers who help us to operate or improve our Platform;
3. when we work with third parties for analytics and to deliver targeted advertising to you on and off the Platform.  For more information, please see our Cookie Policy;
4. to authorities to comply with legal obligations or requests and to protect and defend our rights and property; 
5. to an affiliate or successor entity or otherwise as part of a corporate transaction; 
6. among our businesses and affiliated companies; and
7. when you direct us to share your information.  

We may also share information in a manner that does not identify you, such as de-identified or aggregated information. Such information is not subject to this Privacy Policy.

3.1 Through Our Platform

We share some of the information that we collect by displaying it on our Platform according to your member profile and account settings. Some information, such as username, is always public. Some information, such as interests, is public by default, but can be hidden on our Platform. Some information, such as group memberships, will always be visible to other members of that Meetup group, and may be public, depending on the settings of that group. We recommend that you check the group settings and what information will be available before joining the group to ensure that you are happy with the information that is visible to others. For more information, see this article on Account Privacy and Visibility and this article on Group Content Visibility. 

Information that is public on our Platform is visible to others on and off the Platform.

3.2 Group Networks

If you are a member of a group, this group may now or in the future become part of a network of groups known as a “Meetup Pro” network. Members who administer a Meetup Pro network, known as “network administrators” have access to the content within their groups, including information about group participants. Network administrators find it helpful to have access to the email addresses of organizers and other members of groups within their networks, to easily communicate with and administer the groups. Therefore, we will provide ways for you to share your email address with your group’s network administrator. See this article for more information about Network Administrators, Organizers, and their Members.

3.3 With Our Service Providers

We may use service providers in connection with operating and improving the Platform to assist with certain business purposes, such as payment processing, email transmission, conducting surveys or contests, data hosting, managing our ads, and some aspects of our technical and customer support. These service providers, which include data analytics providers (as discussed further in Section 3.5 below), may access, process, and store information about you on our behalf for the purposes we authorize, subject to confidentiality obligations.

3.4 With our Analytics and Advertising Partners

We may share information we have collected about you with others or allow others to use technologies (like cookies, web beacons, and device identifiers) that collect information about your use of the Platform and other websites and online services, to provide analytic services and to serve ads for Meetup.  For example, our Platform is affiliated with Freestar for the purposes of placing advertising on the Platform, and Freestar, will collect and use certain data for advertising purposes. To learn more about Freestar’s data usage, click here. See our Cookie Policy for details about these technologies and the information that they collect, use, or share, including how you may be able to control or disable these services.

Depending on where you live, you may have the right to opt-out of the sharing of your personal information for purposes of targeted advertising (targeting ads based on consumer activity across other sites and services). Meetup provides you the opportunity to opt-out of this sharing, as described in Section 5 below.

3.5 Following The Law And Protecting Meetup

We may access, preserve, and disclose information about you to government entities and other third parties, including the content of messages, if we believe disclosure is in accordance with, or required by, applicable law, regulation, legal process, or audits. We may also disclose information about you if we believe that your actions are inconsistent with our Terms of Service or related guidelines and policies, or if necessary to protect the rights, property, or safety of, or prevent fraud or abuse of, Meetup or others. 

3.6 Social Sharing And Other Tools

The Platform may offer social sharing features and other integrated tools which let you share actions that you take on our Platform with third-party services, and vice versa. Such features let you share information with your friends or the public, depending on the settings you have chosen with the service. For more information, see this article on Sharing Meetup events on Social Media and this article on Connecting your Social Media Account. The third-party services' use of the information will be governed by the third parties’ privacy policies, and we do not control the third parties’ use of the shared data. For more information about the purpose and scope of data collection and processing in connection with social sharing features, please review the privacy policies of the services that provide these features.

3.7 Affiliate Sharing And Merger, Sale, Or Other Asset Transfers

If Meetup is involved in a merger, acquisition, financing, reorganization, bankruptcy, or sale of our assets, information about you may be shared, sold, or transferred as part of that transaction. We may also share information about you with current or future corporate parents, subsidiaries, or affiliates.

3.8 Other Situations

We may de-identify or aggregate information about you and share it freely, so that you can no longer be identified. Such information is not subject to this Privacy Policy.

We may also share information about you with your consent or at your direction or where we are legally entitled to do so. For example, your information may be shared with event sponsors and others as described to you when you RSVP to an event.  Your information also is made available to other group members and event organizers when you RSVP for and participate in an event. 

4. Additional Details

Summary:

1. Meetup is based in and governed by U.S. law and we will be processing, transferring, and storing information in and to the U.S. and other countries.
2. We have implemented technical and organizational measures to protect your personal information. We cannot guarantee these controls will provide absolute security.
3. This Privacy Policy is periodically updated, and does not apply to third parties.

4.1 Transfer Of Information To The U.S. And Other Countries

Meetup is based in the United States. Information about you will be transferred to, and processed in, the U.S. and countries other than the country in which you are resident. These countries may have data protection laws that are different to the laws of your country and, in some cases, may not be as protective. We have taken appropriate safeguards, such as standard contractual clauses, to require that your information will remain protected in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

4.2 Security

We employ technical and organizational measures designed to protect your information that is under our control and that we process on your behalf from unauthorized access, collection, use, disclosure, copying, modification, or disposal, both during transmission and once we receive it. For example, we store all information that you provide to us on servers on which security controls are used. We train employees regarding our data privacy policies and procedures, and authorize employees to access personal information as required for their role. We use firewalls designed to protect against intruders and test for network vulnerabilities. However, no method of transmission over the internet or method of electronic storage is completely secure.

Where you have a password, which enables you to use our services, you are responsible for keeping this password complex, secure, and confidential. If you would like to update or change your password, you may select the “Forgot your password?” link on the login page. You will be sent an email that allows you to reset your password.

4.3 Data Retention

We may temporarily de-activate your account if you have not logged in for six months or more. You may contact us if you wish to reactivate your account.

We retain certain information that we collect from you while you visit or are a member of the Platform, and in certain cases where you have deleted your account, for the following business purposes:

1. So you can use our Platform;
2. To ensure that we do not communicate with you if you have asked us not to;
3. To provide you with a refund, if entitled;
4. To provide accurate accounting information to other members about the groups that they organize or administer, and associated memberships;
5. To better understand the traffic to our Platform so that we can provide all members with the best possible experience;
6. To detect and prevent abuse of our Platform, illegal activities and breaches of our Terms of Service; and
7. To comply with applicable legal, tax or accounting requirements.

When we have no ongoing legitimate business need to process your information, we will either delete it or take steps to de-identify or anonymize it in accordance with applicable law.

4.4 Policy Scope

This Privacy Policy does not apply to information that you have provided or made accessible to third parties, such as other members, including group organizers and network administrators, and others with whom you may share information about yourself. Our Platform may direct you to a third-party service, such as social media services, or a portion of our Platform may be controlled by a third party (typically through the use of a frame or pop-up window separate from other content on our Platform). Disclosure of information to these third parties is subject to the relevant third party’s privacy policy. We are not responsible for the third-party privacy policy or content, even if we link to those services from our Platform or if we share information with these third parties.

Members, including group organizers and network administrators, are directly responsible for complying with all requirements of applicable privacy laws in connection with the information that they obtain and process for the purposes of managing their contacts, organizing and communicating with groups, or administering networks.

4.5 Revisions To This Policy

We may modify this Privacy Policy from time to time. When we do, we will provide notice to you by publishing the most current version and revising the date at the top of this page. Depending on the circumstances, we may provide additional notice to you of changes to this Privacy Policy, such as by sending you an email or by displaying a prominent notice on our Platform.

5. Your Choices

Summary:

1. You can review and change information about you or deactivate your account in your account settings, but we may retain certain information.
2. You can remove photo tags if you wish.
3. Consult your device settings for information about how to deactivate location-based features at any time.
4. You have the right to opt out of receiving Meetup’s promotional messages, but you may still receive other non-promotional communications.

5.1 Your Choices: Account Information

You may update or correct your account information by editing your account settings or by sending a request to privacy@meetup.com as described in Section 6 and Section 7. You may deactivate your account by editing your account settings. You may also request deletion of your information as described in Section 6 and Section 7.  You will also be able to choose what information others see about you and who may contact you by using the Privacy Settings section in your Account.

5.2 Your Choices: Location Information

When you first access the Platform, depending on your device settings, we will collect information about your location, which we use to make better recommendations for groups and events in your area, and to improve our Platform. If you do not want us to collect information about your location, then you can prevent this by taking the following steps:

1. If using a mobile app, by changing the settings on your device.
2. If using our website, your approximate location information will be obtained via a cookie. Please refer to our Cookie Policy for additional information on how to manage our use of cookies.

Note that our Platform or its features may no longer function properly if you change your settings.

Your mobile device settings may also give you the option to choose whether to allow us to view your geolocation on a continuous basis, only when using the app, or never. Allowing us to view your geolocation when you are not using the app allows us to provide you with recommendations on a regular basis. Please refer to your device’s guide for additional information on how to adjust location services.

5.3 Your Choices: Cookies

We may use and allow others to use cookies, web beacons, device identifiers, and other technologies to collect information about your use of the Platform and other websites and online services. See our Cookie Policy for details about these technologies and the information that they collect, use, or share, including how you may be able to control or disable these services.

As stated above in Section 3.4, depending on where you live, you may have the right to opt out of the sharing or processing of your personal information for purposes of targeted advertising (targeting ads based on consumer activity across other sites and services), and you may be able to use your Cookie Settings to select cookies you would like to opt opt-out of, including those used for targeted advertising purposes.

5.4 Your Choices: Promotional Communications

You can control some of the messages that you receive from Meetup and other members by selecting the unsubscribe link in the message that you receive, or by adjusting the communication preferences in your account settings. We will also send you a link to these settings when you first sign up and in subsequent messages. If you opt out, we may still send you non-promotional messages, such as those about your account or our ongoing business relations. In addition, please consult the privacy policies of other members for information about how to control or opt out of promotional messages from them off the Platform.

5.5 Your Choices: Photo Tagging

You can tag photos of yourself and others. When a photo has been tagged it means that the name of that person will appear alongside the photo, and the tagged photo will appear on the tagged member’s group profile.

 We will notify you when another member has tagged your account in a photo or when additional comments are added to such photos. You can remove tags by selecting the “untag” option next to your name. You can also report inappropriate content to Meetup. You are responsible for obtaining permission from non-members to post a photo of them on the Platform.  

6. Data Rights

Summary:

1. You may have the right to exercise data protection rights, including to request that Meetup deletes, amends, or provides you access to your information.
2. You may have the right to opt out of the sharing or processing of your personal information for the purposes of targeted advertising.
3. You have the right to opt out of receiving Meetup’s promotional messages, but you may still receive other communications.
4. You can complain to your local data protection authority about the use of your information.

We respond to all requests that we receive from individuals who wish to exercise their data protection rights in accordance with applicable data protection laws. You can contact us with your request by sending an email to privacy@meetup.com. You can also request deletion of your account and personal information by:

• Filling out the form available in this Help Center article: "Request permanent deletion of your data." You must be logged in to your Meetup account to view this article and access the form.
• Clicking the “Delete account and personal information” link in your profile settings on the Meetup iOS app.

Organizers who want to delete their account and personal information from Meetup, should consult the Organizer Deletion Requests article in our Help Center for additional information, including information on how deleting your account will impact your groups. If you are an organizer, we will wait a few days to process your deletion request, and your request will be withdrawn if you create an event or RSVP to an event within 7 days of submitting your deletion request.

Rights that you may have, depending on the jurisdiction in which you live, may include:

• Accessing, correcting,  or requesting deletion of your information.

• Appealing a decision Meetup has made about an access, correction, or deletion request. 

• Opting out of the sharing of your personal information for targeted advertising. To exercise your right to opt-out of these kinds of advertising, please follow the instructions found in the “Opting Out” section of our Cookie Policy and as described in Section 5.3 above.

• Objecting to processing of your information, asking us to restrict processing of your information, or requesting the portability of your information.

• Opting out from receiving marketing communications that we send you at any time. You can exercise this right by selecting the “unsubscribe” or “opt-out” link in the marketing emails we send you. Additionally, you may update your email preferences by changing the settings in your account.

• Withdrawing your consent at any time if we have collected and processed your information with your consent. Withdrawing your consent will not affect the lawfulness of any processing that we conducted prior to your withdrawal, nor will it affect processing of your information conducted in reliance on lawful processing grounds other than consent.

• Complaining to a data protection authority about our collection and use of your information. For more information, please contact your local data protection authority. Contact details for data protection authorities in the European Union are available here.

Note that Meetup is a controller of your information. Other members, such as group organizers and network administrators, may also act as controllers of your information. You should contact these members if you have any questions about how they use information that you have provided to them.

We will not discriminate against you for exercising your rights and choices, although some of the functionality and features available on the Platform may change or no longer be available to you.  

7. California Privacy Rights

During the preceding 12 months, Meetup has collected, used, and shared the categories of personal information described above in this Privacy Policy. We do not consider the ways we share your information as a “sale” for purposes of California law. California residents have certain rights to access, correct and delete their personal information and to request transparency about our privacy practices.  If you would like to access or delete your information, or otherwise exercise your rights under the CCPA, please see Section 6. Once we receive your request, we may verify it by requesting information sufficient to confirm your identity, including by asking you for additional information. If you choose to exercise your rights, we will not charge you different prices or provide different quality of services for exercising your rights unless those differences are permitted by law. 

If you are a California resident and would like to use an agent registered with the California Secretary of State to exercise your rights, we may request evidence that you have provided such agent with power of attorney or that the agent otherwise has valid written authority to submit requests to exercise rights on your behalf.  

Do-Not-Track Signals. Some mobile and web browsers transmit "do-not-track" signals. Because of differences in how web browsers incorporate and activate this feature, it is not always clear whether users intend for these signals to be transmitted, or whether they even are aware of them. We currently do not take action in response to these signals.

8. Information for Korean Residents

If you are a resident in the Republic of Korea, you can find specific information on how we use your personal information here.

9. Contact Us

Summary: If you have any questions, you can contact us at privacy@meetup.com.

Under European data protection law, the controller of your information is Meetup LLC.

If you have any questions or complaints about this Privacy Policy or how we use your information, please contact privacy@meetup.com.

If you are located in the European Economic Area, you can also contact Meetup’s GDPR representative:

VeraSafe Ireland Ltd.
Unit 3D North Point House
North Point Business Park
New Mallow Road
Cork T23AT2P
Ireland
Contact form: https://verasafe.com/public-resources/contact-data-protection-representative

If you are located in the United Kingdom, you can also contact Meetup’s UK GDPR representative:

VeraSafe United Kingdom Ltd.
37 Albert Embankment
London SE1 7TL
United Kingdom
Contact form: https://verasafe.com/public-resources/contact-data-protection-representative

Last Updated: October 3, 2022

(View previous version: 3/28/17)

As described in our Privacy Policy, we and our partners use cookies and other technologies to provide our Platform and to enhance your experience. This Cookie Policy sets out some further detail on how and why we use these technologies on our Platform, which includes any website, application, or service we offer. The terms "Meetup," "we," "us," and "our" include Meetup LLC and our affiliates. 

Cookies

What Cookies Are. Cookies are small data files which are downloaded to your device when you visit a website either for the duration of your visit (a ‘session cookie’) or for repeat visits (a ‘persistent cookie’). Cookies are then sent back to the originating website on each subsequent visit, or to another website that recognizes that cookie. Cookies are useful because they allow us to recognize your browser or device, which helps in the efficient operation of our services. Other similar files such as clear GIFs, web beacons and pixel tags work in the same way and we use the word ‘cookie’ in this policy to refer to all files that collect information in this way. A cookie cannot read data off your hard drive or read cookie files created by other websites.

Cookies set by the website operator are called "first party cookies". Cookies set by parties other than the website operator are called "third party cookies". The parties that set third party cookies can recognize your web browser both when it visits our Platform and when it visits certain other websites where the third party’s cookies are also present. Data collected pursuant to first party cookies can also be shared with third parties.

More information on cookies and their use can be found at www.aboutcookies.org or www.allaboutcookies.org.

How We Use Cookies

Cookies serve a variety of functions, like enabling us to remember certain information you provide to us as you navigate between pages on the Platform. We use cookies for the following purposes:

Authentication: We need to use cookies to enable you to log into secure areas of our Platform. In addition, we may employ third-party services that may use cookies to help you sign into their services from our Platform.

Services, features, and preferences: We use cookies to provide functionality and help us deliver our products and services according to your preferences in the following ways.

To facilitate communications: We automatically receive information about communications sent and received using our Services.

To remember your settings and preferences: We use cookies to recognize your browser and remember your preferences (such as your preferred language). 

To improve performance: We use cookies to provide the best experience. For example, we use cookies to speed up the loading of our Services. 

To process payments: Our third-party payment processors, Stripe and PayPal, may use cookies as part of the payment flow.

Security: We use cookies to support or enable security features we have deployed, and to help us detect malicious activity and violations of our Terms of Service. These cookies help us prevent fraudulent use of login credentials.

Performance, Analytics and Research: We use cookies to help us analyze how the Platform is being accessed and used, and enable us to track performance of the Platform. This helps us to understand, improve, and research features and content on the Platform. We may also use other services, such as Google Analytics or other third-party cookies and related technologies, to assist with analyzing performance on our Platform. As part of providing these services, these partners may use cookies and the technologies described below to collect and store information about your device, such as time of visit, pages visited, time spent on each page of the Platform, links clicked and conversion information, IP address, browser, mobile network information, and type of operating system used.

Advertising: We and our third party advertising partners use cookies to display ads to you on our Platform and on third party websites or online services, to make those ads more relevant to your interests, and to analyze the effectiveness of ad campaigns. Our first party cookies record your visit to our Platform, the pages you have visited, and the links you have followed, so that we can share relevant ads about Meetup’s services and other products with you on our Platform and on third party websites or online services. Our advertising partners include advertisers, advertising service providers and third party publishers. They may collect cookie and other information about your activity across different websites, including our Platform, and across your different devices to infer your interests, develop personalized content and deliver ads that may be relevant to you. 

Duration of Cookies

Some cookies, known as "session cookies", will stay on your device only for as long as you are accessing our Platform. Others, known as "persistent cookies", are stored on your device for longer periods.

Other Technologies

Use of Other Technologies. We may allow others to provide analytics services and serve advertisements on our behalf. In addition to the uses of cookies described above, these entities may use other methods, such as the technologies described below, to collect information about your use of the Platform and other websites and online services.

Pixels tags. Pixel tags (which are also called clear GIFs, web beacons, or pixels), are small pieces of code that can be embedded on websites and emails. Pixels tags may be used to learn how you interact with our site pages and emails, and this information helps us and our partners provide you with a more tailored experience.

Device Identifiers. A device identifier is a unique label can be used to identify a mobile device. Device identifiers may be used to track, analyze and improve the performance of the Platform and ads delivered.

Local storage. Local storage is an industry-standard technology that enables the storage and retrieval of data on a computer, mobile phone or other device. Local storage may be used to store member preferences on devices.

Cookie Preferences

Depending on where you are located, you will have different options to control or opt out of the use of cookies.

Cookie Consent Management. For users in certain jurisdictions, such as the European Economic Area and the UK, we only use non-technically necessary cookies with your consent. If you are accessing our Platform from one of those countries, when you first land on our Platform you will be asked which cookies you consent to using. 

If you are accessing our Platform from another location, by using our Platform you consent to storage and access to cookies and other technologies on your device, in accordance with this Cookie Policy. 

Users in most jurisdictions can revise their choices at any time through the Cookie Settings. 

Note that because this choice is a cookie-based mechanism, there are limitations on whether it applies across devices or on other browsers.  

Device and Web Browser Settings. All users can control the use of cookies by following the instructions below: 

Most devices and web browsers are set to accept cookies by default. If you prefer, you may be able to remove or reject cookies. You can learn more about how to block cookies by visiting allaboutcookies.org. Please note that if you choose to remove or reject cookies, this could affect the availability and functionality of our Platform.

Third parties that use cookies and other tracking technologies to deliver targeted advertisements may offer you a way to prevent such targeted advertisements by opting out at the websites of industry groups such as the Digital Advertising Alliance, or if located in the European Union, the European Interactive Digital Advertising Alliance. You may also be able to control advertising cookies provided by publishers, for example Google's Ad Preference Manager. Your device may also include a feature that allows you to opt out of having certain information collected through apps used for behavioral advertising purposes. On a mobile device, this information is typically available under the “settings” function. For iOS devices, to limit interest-based ad tracking, go to Settings > Privacy > Advertising > Turn on “Limit Ad Tracking.” For Android devices, go to Settings > Google services > Ads > Turn on “Opt out of Ads Personalization." For iOS and Android, you can also reset the advertising identifier that is currently assigned to you. Note that even if you choose to opt out of receiving targeted advertising by a third party these tracking technologies may still collect data for other purposes including analytics and you will still see ads from us across the Internet, but the ads will not be targeted based on behavioral information about you and may therefore be less relevant to you and your interests.

Revisions to this Policy

We may modify this Cookie Policy from time to time. When we do, we will provide notice to you by publishing the most current version and revising the date at the top of this page. Depending on the circumstances, we may provide additional notice to you of changes to this Cookie Policy, such as by sending you an email or displaying a prominent notice on our Platform. By continuing to use the Platform after any changes come into effect, you agree to the revised Cookie Policy.

How to Contact Us

If you wish to contact us with any queries or concerns, please contact us at privacy@meetup.com.

If you are located in the European Economic Area, you can also contact Meetup’s GDPR representative:

VeraSafe Ireland Ltd.
Unit 3D North Point House
North Point Business Park
New Mallow Road
Cork T23AT2P
Ireland
+420 228 881 031
Contact form: https://verasafe.com/public-resources/contact-data-protection-representative

If you are located in the United Kingdom, you can also contact Meetup’s UK GDPR representative:

VeraSafe United Kingdom Ltd.
37 Albert Embankment
London SE1 7TL
United Kingdom
+44 (20) 4532 2003
Contact form: https://verasafe.com/public-resources/contact-data-protection-representative

Effective: April 19, 2021

This page is outdated. View the current version of the Privacy Policy.

Our Privacy Policy explains how Meetup collects, uses, and discloses information about you. The terms “Meetup,” “we,” “us,” and “our” include Meetup LLC and our affiliates. We use the terms “member,” “you,” and “your” to mean any person using our Platform or attending related events, including any organization or person using the Platform on an organization’s behalf. This Privacy Policy applies to the processing of information about members and other individuals that we collect when you use our “Platform,” which means any website, application, or services we offer, or when you communicate with us. For information about choices you may have under this policy, please see “Your Choices” below. This Privacy Policy does not apply to the information that you may provide to third parties, such as members, and others with whom you may share information about yourself. For more information about the scope of our Privacy Policy, please see Section 4.5. 

To make this Privacy Policy easier to understand, we have provided summaries below. These summaries are not part of the official policy. Even though we have provided summaries, it is important for you to read the entire policy carefully. If you wish to access any particular section of this Privacy Policy, use the list below to jump to that section.

1. Collection Of Information
2. Use Of Information
3. Sharing Of Information
4. Additional Details
5. Your Choices
6. Data Rights
7. California Privacy Rights
8. Contact Us 

1. Collection Of Information

Summary: We collect information about you when you:

1. Create an account;
2. Use the Platform;
3. Attend an event;
4. Visit our website; and
5. Communicate with us.

We also collect information, such as usage statistics, by using cookies, server logs, and similar technologies.

If you elect to use certain features, we also collect information through other sources, such as social media services, invitations, and imported contacts.

1.1 Information You Provide to Us

We collect information that you provide directly to us. For example, we collect information that you provide when you create an account, choose interests or groups, fill out a form, or communicate with us. The types of information that we may collect include identifiers, such as your name, username, password, email address, postal address, and phone number; payment and commercial information, such as payment method data and purchases, if any; demographic information and any other personal information that you choose to provide, such as photos, choices of interests, groups, and professional or employment-related information, including your role, company, and years of experience. Certain information about yourself is optional to provide. Your choice of groups is also optional, but we are required to process this information in order to administer your account, and to indicate that you are a member of the groups that you join. See Section 2 to learn how we will use the information that you provide to personalize our recommendations and other content to you.

On occasion, the information that you give us when you join a group may imply information about your beliefs, political views, health conditions, or your sexual identity. This, and other kinds of sensitive information, is given special protection in accordance with applicable law. Posting personal or sensitive information about others without their permission is against our Community Guidelines.

1.2 Information We Collect Automatically When You Use the Platform

When you use our Platform, we automatically collect internet and other electronic network activity information about you and other information, including:

1. Log Information: We collect log information about your use of the Platform, including the type of browser that you use; the time, duration, and frequency of your access; Platform pages viewed; your IP address; and the page you visited before visiting our Platform.
2. Device Information: We collect information about the computer or mobile device that you use to access our Platform, including the hardware model, operating system and version, unique device identifiers, and mobile network information.
3. Geolocation Information: We may collect information about the location of your device each time you use our Platform based on your consent to the collection of this information, such as when you enable location services.  For further information see Section 5.2.  We may also collect information, such as your IP address, that can sometimes be used to approximate your location based on your device settings.
4. Information Collected by Cookies and Other Tracking Technologies: We and our service providers collect information using various technologies, including cookies and pixel tags (which are also called clear GIFs, web beacons, or pixels). Cookies are small data files stored on your hard drive or in device memory that help us improve our Platform and your experience, and track usage of our Platform. Pixel tags are electronic images that may be used in our Platform or emails, and track usage of our Platform and effectiveness of communications. You can learn more about the types of cookies we and our service providers use by reading our Cookie Policy.
5. Other Information: Based on your consent, we may collect other information from your device, such as photos from your camera roll or calendar information you want to manage via the Platform.

1.3 Information We Collect From Other Sources

We may collect information about you from other sources, such as through certain features on the Platform you elect to use. We rely on these third parties to either have your consent or ensure that they are otherwise legally permitted or required to disclose your information to us. Examples include:

1. Social Media Services. If you register or log into your account through a third-party social media service, we will have access to some of your third-party account information from that service, including identifiers, such as your name and other information in that account, and used for purposes such as improving your Meetup recommendations. We may also have access to third-party account information if you use the Platform feature to share a link. See this article for more information on how to enable or disable the connection between our Platform and your third-party account.
2. Member Content. We may receive information about you when you or another member uploads photos or posts other content to the Platform. For further details about the rights over this information available to individuals, see Section 6.
3. Current or Future Corporate Affiliates. We may receive information about you from our current or future corporate parents, subsidiaries, or affiliates.
4. Information From Other Third-Party Sources. In order to provide you with more tailored recommendations, we may obtain information about you from publicly and commercially available sources, such as third-party publishers, advertising networks, and service providers that we use to manage our ads on other sites, and other third parties as permitted by law. For more information about the data that we obtain from these providers, please contact us at privacy@meetup.com.

We may analyze and make inferences from the information we collect.

2. Use Of Information

Summary: We use information about you to: 

1. Operate, improve, promote, and protect Meetup and our Platform;
2. Communicate with you; and
3. Personalize content. 

2.1 Operating our Platform

We may use information about you described above for various business purposes related to operating our Platform, including to: 

1. Provide, maintain, and improve our Platform, including to process transactions, develop new products and services (for example, including you in tests or pilots of new or revised Platform functions, such as messaging or search functionality or using information about your usage of the Platform to develop new or revised messaging or search functionality), and manage the performance of our Platform;
2. Display information about you, for instance, your list of interests, which will be visible on your profile;
3. Personalize the Platform, for example, to suggest content in which we think you may be interested;
4. Allow you to share information about your use of the Platform through a third-party social media service, if you connect your account through that service (which you can turn off at any time) and to provide you with better recommendations;
5. Monitor and analyze trends, usage, and activities in connection with our Platform;
6. Detect, investigate, and prevent fraudulent transactions, abuse, and other illegal activities; to protect the rights, property, or safety of Meetup and others; to enforce compliance with our policies; and to comply with applicable law and government requests; and
7. Perform accounting and administrative tasks, and enforce or manage legal claims.

2.2 Communicating With You

We may use information about you for various business purposes related to communicating with you, including to:

1. Respond to your comments, questions, and requests, and provide customer service;
2. Communicate with you, in accordance with your account settings, about products, services, and events offered by us and others, to provide news and information that we think will be of interest to you, to conduct online surveys, to contact you about events on our Platform that are being held near your location, and to otherwise communicate with you in accordance with Section 2.3;
3. Notify you about communications of other members, in accordance with the communication preferences that you indicate in your account; and
4. Send you technical notices, updates, security alerts and support, and administrative messages.

2.3 Advertising And Other Uses

We may use information about you for various other business purposes, including to:

1. Provide content, features, or sponsorships that match member profiles or interests;
2. Facilitate contests and other promotions;
3. Send you marketing communications, subject to applicable law;
4. Combine with information that we collect for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy; and
5. Carry out any other purposes described to you at the time that we collected the information.

2.4 Legal Basis for Processing

If you are in a jurisdiction that requires a specific legal basis for processing personal data, our legal basis for collecting and using the information described above will depend on the type of information and the specific context in which we collect it.

1. We process information about you in order to provide our services in accordance with our Terms of Service, for example, to allow you to join groups or to display your profile to other members; to allow us to send you important service updates; and to perform a contract.
2. We also process information about you where it is in our legitimate interests to do so and not overridden by your rights (for example, in some cases for direct marketing, fraud prevention, network and information systems security, responding to your communications, the operation of networks of groups by the network administrators, and improving our Platform).
3. Sometimes you provide us with sensitive information about you; for instance, the mere fact of joining a certain group may indicate information about your health, religion, political views, or sexual identity. Joining such groups or posting information on the Platform about these topics is entirely voluntary and, depending on the settings of the group and your profile (e.g., public or private), our legal basis for processing any sensitive information is either that you manifestly make it public or your explicit consent.
4. In some cases, we may also have a legal obligation to process information about you, or may otherwise need the information to protect your vital interests or those of another person. For example, we may process information, if we believe doing so is required by, or in accordance with, applicable law, regulation, legal process, or audits.

3. Sharing Of Information

Summary: We do not share information about you except as described in this Privacy Policy. We may disclose personal information about you, including:

1. to members or social media services, depending on how you engage with the Platform.  Information that is public on our platform is accessible to others both on and off the Platform;
2. to our third-party service providers who help us to operate or improve our Platform;
3. to authorities to comply with legal obligations or requests and to protect and defend our rights and property; 
4. to an affiliate or successor entity or otherwise as part of a corporate transaction; 
5. among our businesses and affiliated companies; and
6. when you direct us to share your information.  

We may also share information in a manner that does not identify you, such as de-identified or aggregated information. Such information is not subject to this Privacy Policy.

3.1 Through Our Platform

We share some of the information that we collect by displaying it on our Platform according to your member profile and account settings. Some information, such as username, is always public. Some information, such as interests, is public by default, but can be hidden on our Platform. Some information, such as group memberships, will always be visible to other members of that Meetup group, and may be public, depending on the settings of that group. We recommend that you check the group settings and what information will be available before joining the group to ensure that you are happy with the information that is visible to others. For more information, see this article on Account Privacy and Visibility and this article on Group Content Visibility. 

Information that is public on our Platform is visible to others on and off the Platform.

3.2 Group Networks

If you are a member of a group, this group may now or in the future become part of a network of groups known as a “Meetup Pro” network. Members who administer a Meetup Pro network, known as “network administrators” have access to the content within their groups, including information about group participants. Network administrators find it helpful to have access to the email addresses of organizers and other members of groups within their networks, to easily communicate with and administer the groups. Therefore, we will provide ways for you to share your email address with your group’s network administrator. See this article for more information about Network Administrators, Organizers, and their Members.

3.3 With Our Service Providers

We may use service providers in connection with operating and improving the Platform to assist with certain business purposes, such as payment processing, email transmission, conducting surveys or contests, data hosting, managing our ads, and some aspects of our technical and customer support. These service providers, which include data analytics providers, may access, process, and store information about you on our behalf for the purposes we authorize, subject to confidentiality obligations.

3.4 Following The Law And Protecting Meetup

We may access, preserve, and disclose information about you to government entities and other third parties, including the content of messages, if we believe disclosure is in accordance with, or required by, applicable law, regulation, legal process, or audits. We may also disclose information about you if we believe that your actions are inconsistent with our Terms of Service or related guidelines and policies, or if necessary to protect the rights, property, or safety of, or prevent fraud or abuse of, Meetup or others. 

3.5 Social Sharing And Other Tools

The Platform may offer social sharing features and other integrated tools which let you share actions that you take on our Platform with third-party services, and vice versa. Such features let you share information with your friends or the public, depending on the settings you have chosen with the service. For more information, see this article on Sharing Meetup events on Social Media and this article on Connecting your Social Media Account. The third-party services' use of the information will be governed by the third parties’ privacy policies, and we do not control the third parties’ use of the shared data. For more information about the purpose and scope of data collection and processing in connection with social sharing features, please review the privacy policies of the services that provide these features.

3.6 Affiliate Sharing And Merger, Sale, Or Other Asset Transfers

If Meetup is involved in a merger, acquisition, financing, reorganization, bankruptcy, or sale of our assets, information about you may be shared, sold, or transferred as part of that transaction. We may also share information about you with current or future corporate parents, subsidiaries, or affiliates.

3.7 Other Situations

We may de-identify or aggregate information about you and share it freely, so that you can no longer be identified. Such information is not subject to this Privacy Policy.

We may also share information about you with your consent or at your direction or where we are legally entitled to do so. For example, your information may be shared with event sponsors and others as described to you when you RSVP to an event.  Your information also is made available to other group members and event organizers when you RSVP for and participate in an event. 

4. Additional Details

Summary:

1. We may allow others to use technologies that collect information about you to provide analytic services and to serve ads for Meetup. You may be able to disable the collection or use of this information.
2. Meetup is based in and governed by U.S. law and we will be processing, transferring, and storing information in and to the U.S. and other countries.
3. We have implemented technical and organizational measures to protect your personal information. We cannot guarantee these controls will provide absolute security.
4. This Privacy Policy is periodically updated, and does not apply to third parties.

4.1 Analytics and Advertising Services Provided by Others

We and others may use cookies, web beacons, device identifiers, and other technologies to collect information about your use of the Platform and other websites and online services. See our Cookie Policy for details about these technologies and the information that they collect, use, or share, including how you may be able to control or disable these services.

4.2 Transfer Of Information To The U.S. And Other Countries

Meetup is based in the United States. Information about you will be transferred to, and processed in, the U.S. and countries other than the country in which you are resident. These countries may have data protection laws that are different to the laws of your country and, in some cases, may not be as protective. We have taken appropriate safeguards, such as standard contractual clauses, to require that your information will remain protected in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

4.3 Security

We employ technical and organizational measures designed to protect your information that is under our control and that we process on your behalf from unauthorized access, collection, use, disclosure, copying, modification, or disposal, both during transmission and once we receive it. For example, we store all information that you provide to us on servers on which security controls are used. We train employees regarding our data privacy policies and procedures, and authorize employees to access personal information as required for their role. We use firewalls designed to protect against intruders and test for network vulnerabilities. However, no method of transmission over the internet or method of electronic storage is completely secure.

Where you have a password, which enables you to use our services, you are responsible for keeping this password complex, secure, and confidential. If you would like to update or change your password, you may select the “Forgot your password?” link on the login page. You will be sent an email that allows you to reset your password.

4.4 Data Retention

We may temporarily de-activate your account if you have not logged in for six months or more. You may contact us if you wish to reactivate your account.

We retain certain information that we collect from you while you visit or are a member of the Platform, and in certain cases where you have deleted your account, for the following business purposes:

1. So you can use our Platform;
2. To ensure that we do not communicate with you if you have asked us not to;
3. To provide you with a refund, if entitled;
4. To provide accurate accounting information to other members about the groups that they organize or administer, and associated memberships;
5. To better understand the traffic to our Platform so that we can provide all members with the best possible experience;
6. To detect and prevent abuse of our Platform, illegal activities and breaches of our Terms of Service; and
7. To comply with applicable legal, tax or accounting requirements.

When we have no ongoing legitimate business need to process your information, we will either delete it or take steps to de-identify or anonymize it in accordance with applicable law.

4.5 Policy Scope

This Privacy Policy does not apply to information that you have provided or made accessible to third parties, such as other members, including group organizers and network administrators, and others with whom you may share information about yourself. Our Platform may direct you to a third-party service, such as social media services, or a portion of our Platform may be controlled by a third party (typically through the use of a frame or pop-up window separate from other content on our Platform). Disclosure of information to these third parties is subject to the relevant third party’s privacy policy. We are not responsible for the third-party privacy policy or content, even if we link to those services from our Platform or if we share information with these third parties.

Members, including group organizers and network administrators, are directly responsible for complying with all requirements of applicable privacy laws in connection with the information that they obtain and process for the purposes of managing their contacts, organizing and communicating with groups, or administering networks.

4.6 Revisions To This Policy

We may modify this Privacy Policy from time to time. When we do, we will provide notice to you by publishing the most current version and revising the date at the top of this page. If we make any material change to this policy, we will provide additional notice to you, such as by sending you an email or displaying a prominent notice on our Platform.

5. Your Choices

Summary:

1. You can review and change information about you or deactivate your account in your account settings, but we may retain certain information.
2. You can remove photo tags if you wish.
3. Consult your device settings for information about how to deactivate location-based features at any time.
4. You have the right to opt out of receiving Meetup’s promotional messages, but you may still receive other non-promotional communications.

5.1 Your Choices: Account Information

You may update or correct your account information by editing your account settings or by sending a request to privacy@meetup.com as described in Section 6 and Section 7. You may deactivate your account by editing your account settings. You may also request deletion of your information as described in Section 6 and Section 7.  You will also be able to choose what information others see about you and who may contact you by using the Privacy Settings section in your Account.

5.2 Your Choices: Location Information

When you first access the Platform, depending on your device settings, we will collect information about your location, which we use to make better recommendations for groups and events in your area, and to improve our Platform. If you do not want us to collect information about your location, then you can prevent this by taking the following steps:

1. If using a mobile app, by changing the settings on your device.
2. If using our website, your approximate location information will be obtained via a cookie. Please refer to our Cookie Policy for additional information on how to manage our use of cookies.

Note that our Platform or its features may no longer function properly if you change your settings.

Your mobile device settings may also give you the option to choose whether to allow us to view your geolocation on a continuous basis, only when using the app, or never. Allowing us to view your geolocation when you are not using the app allows us to provide you with recommendations on a regular basis. Please refer to your device’s guide for additional information on how to adjust location services.

5.3 Your Choices: Cookies

We may use and allow others to use cookies, web beacons, device identifiers, and other technologies to collect information about your use of the Platform and other websites and online services. See our Cookie Policy for details about these technologies and the information that they collect, use, or share, including how you may be able to control or disable these services.

5.4 Your Choices: Promotional Communications

You can control some of the messages that you receive from Meetup and other members by selecting the unsubscribe link in the message that you receive, or by adjusting the communication preferences in your account settings. We will also send you a link to these settings when you first sign up and in subsequent messages. If you opt out, we may still send you non-promotional messages, such as those about your account or our ongoing business relations. In addition, please consult the privacy policies of other members for information about how to control or opt out of promotional messages from them off the Platform.

5.5 Your Choices: Photo Tagging

You can tag photos of yourself and others. When a photo has been tagged it means that the name of that person will appear alongside the photo, and the tagged photo will appear on the tagged member’s group profile.

 We will notify you when another member has tagged your account in a photo or when additional comments are added to such photos. You can remove tags by selecting the “untag” option next to your name. You can also report inappropriate content to Meetup. You are responsible for obtaining permission from non-members to post a photo of them on the Platform.  

6. Data Rights

Summary:

1. You may have the right to exercise data protection rights, including to request that Meetup deletes, amends, or provides you access to your information.
2. You have the right to opt out of receiving Meetup’s promotional messages, but you may still receive other communications.
3. You can complain to your local data protection authority about the use of your information.

We respond to all requests that we receive from individuals who wish to exercise their data protection rights in accordance with applicable data protection laws. You can contact us with your request by sending an email to privacy@meetup.com. You can also request deletion of your account and personal information by filling out the form available in this Help Center article: "Request permanent deletion of your data." You must be logged in to your Meetup account to view this article and access the form.

.

Rights that you may have, depending on the jurisdiction in which you live, may include:

1. Accessing, correcting, updating, or requesting deletion of your information.
2. Objecting to processing of your information, asking us to restrict processing of your information, or requesting the portability of your information.
3. Opting out from receiving marketing communications that we send you at any time. You can exercise this right by selecting the “unsubscribe” or “opt-out” link in the marketing emails we send you. Additionally, you may update your email preferences by changing the settings in your account.
4. Withdrawing your consent at any time if we have collected and processed your information with your consent. Withdrawing your consent will not affect the lawfulness of any processing that we conducted prior to your withdrawal, nor will it affect processing of your information conducted in reliance on lawful processing grounds other than consent.
5. Complaining to a data protection authority about our collection and use of your information. For more information, please contact your local data protection authority. Contact details for data protection authorities in the European Union are available here.

Note that Meetup is a controller of your information. Other members, such as group organizers and network administrators, may also act as controllers of your information. You should contact these members if you have any questions about how they use information that you have provided to them.

7. California Privacy Rights

During the preceding 12 months, Meetup has collected, used, and shared the categories of personal information described above in this Privacy Policy. We do not consider the ways we share your information as a “sale” for purposes of California law. California residents have certain rights to access and delete their personal information and to request transparency about our privacy practices.  If you would like to access or delete your information, or otherwise exercise your rights under the CCPA, please see Section 6. Once we receive your request, we may verify it by requesting information sufficient to confirm your identity, including by asking you for additional information. Consistent with California law, if you choose to exercise your rights, we will not charge you different prices or provide different quality of services for exercising your rights unless those differences are permitted by law. If you would like to use an agent registered with the California Secretary of State to exercise your rights, we may request evidence that you have provided such agent with power of attorney or that the agent otherwise has valid written authority to submit requests to exercise rights on your behalf.  

8. Contact Us

Summary:

1. If you have any questions, you can contact us at privacy@meetup.com.

Under European data protection law, the controller of your information is Meetup LLC.

If you have any questions or complaints about this Privacy Policy or how we use your information, please contact privacy@meetup.com.

Anbieter im Sinne des § 5 TMG:

Meetup Inc. PO Box 4668, PMB 37895, New York, NY 10163-4668, USA

Handelsregisternr. (Delaware Corporation Division file no.): 3604676
Vertretungsberechtigter Geschäftsführer: David Siegel

Kontakt:

www.meetup.com

Telefon: +1 (646) 838-4815

Auf unseren Hilfeseiten finden Sie Antworten zu den gängigsten Fragestellungen. Bitte verwenden Sie ansonsten für die Kontaktaufnahme oder für technischen Support zu Meetup–Diensten unsere Kontakt-Webseite. Aufgrund der Vielzahl von Anfragen wird damit am besten sichergestellt, dass Ihre Anfrage gezielt und schnell zum zuständigen Mitarbeiter gelangt. Alternativ können Sie uns auch per E-Mail an anfragendeutschland@meetup.com kontaktieren.

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This page is outdated. View our current Privacy Policy.

Revision date: 10/1/21

(View previous version: 4/19/21)

Our Privacy Policy explains how Meetup collects, uses, and discloses information about you. The terms “Meetup,” “we,” “us,” and “our” include Meetup LLC and our affiliates. We use the terms “member,” “you,” and “your” to mean any person using our Platform or attending related events, including any organization or person using the Platform on an organization’s behalf. This Privacy Policy applies to the processing of information about members and other individuals that we collect when you use our “Platform,” which means any website, application, or services we offer, or when you communicate with us. For information about choices you may have under this policy, please see “Your Choices” below. This Privacy Policy does not apply to the information that you may provide to third parties, such as members, and others with whom you may share information about yourself. For more information about the scope of our Privacy Policy, please see Section 4.5. 

To make this Privacy Policy easier to understand, we have provided summaries below. These summaries are not part of the official policy. Even though we have provided summaries, it is important for you to read the entire policy carefully. If you wish to access any particular section of this Privacy Policy, use the list below to jump to that section.

1. Collection Of Information
2. Use Of Information
3. Sharing Of Information
4. Additional Details
5. Your Choices
6. Data Rights
7. California Privacy Rights
8. Contact Us

1. Collection Of Information

Summary:We collect information about you when you:

1. Create an account;
2. Use the Platform;
3. Attend an event;
4. Visit our website; and
5. Communicate with us.

We also collect information, such as usage statistics, by using cookies, server logs, and similar technologies.

If you elect to use certain features, we also collect information through other sources, such as social media services, invitations, and imported contacts.

1.1 Information You Provide to Us

We collect information that you provide directly to us. For example, we collect information that you provide when you create an account, choose interests or groups, fill out a form, or communicate with us. The types of information that we may collect include identifiers, such as your name, username, password, email address, postal address, and phone number; payment and commercial information, such as payment method data and purchases, if any; demographic information and any other personal information that you choose to provide, such as photos, choices of interests, groups, and professional or employment-related information, including your role, company, and years of experience. Certain information about yourself is optional to provide. Your choice of groups is also optional, but we are required to process this information in order to administer your account, and to indicate that you are a member of the groups that you join. See Section 2 to learn how we will use the information that you provide to personalize our recommendations and other content to you.

On occasion, the information that you give us when you join a group may imply information about your beliefs, political views, health conditions, or your sexual identity. This, and other kinds of sensitive information, is given special protection in accordance with applicable law. Posting personal or sensitive information about others without their permission is against our Community Guidelines.

1.2 Information We Collect Automatically When You Use the Platform

When you use our Platform, we automatically collect internet and other electronic network activity information about you and other information, including:

1. Log Information: We collect log information about your use of the Platform, including the type of browser that you use; the time, duration, and frequency of your access; Platform pages viewed; your IP address; and the page you visited before visiting our Platform.
2. Device Information: We collect information about the computer or mobile device that you use to access our Platform, including the hardware model, operating system and version, unique device identifiers, and mobile network information.
3. Geolocation Information: We may collect information about the location of your device each time you use our Platform based on your consent to the collection of this information, such as when you enable location services.  For further information see Section 5.2.  We may also collect information, such as your IP address, that can sometimes be used to approximate your location based on your device settings.
4. Information Collected by Cookies and Other Tracking Technologies: We and our service providers collect information using various technologies, including cookies and pixel tags (which are also called clear GIFs, web beacons, or pixels). Cookies are small data files stored on your hard drive or in device memory that help us improve our Platform and your experience, and track usage of our Platform. Pixel tags are electronic images that may be used in our Platform or emails, and track usage of our Platform and effectiveness of communications. You can learn more about the types of cookies we and our service providers use by reading our Cookie Policy.
5. Other Information: Based on your consent, we may collect other information from your device, such as photos from your camera roll or calendar information you want to manage via the Platform.

1.3 Information We Collect From Other Sources

We may collect information about you from other sources, such as through certain features on the Platform you elect to use. We rely on these third parties to either have your consent or ensure that they are otherwise legally permitted or required to disclose your information to us. Examples include:

1. Social Media Services. If you register or log into your account through a third-party social media service, we will have access to some of your third-party account information from that service, including identifiers, such as your name and other information in that account, and used for purposes such as improving your Meetup recommendations. We may also have access to third-party account information if you use the Platform feature to share a link. See this article for more information on how to enable or disable the connection between our Platform and your third-party account.
2. Member Content. We may receive information about you when you or another member uploads photos or posts other content to the Platform. For further details about the rights over this information available to individuals, see Section 6.
3. Current or Future Corporate Affiliates. We may receive information about you from our current or future corporate parents, subsidiaries, or affiliates.
4. Information From Other Third-Party Sources. In order to provide you with more tailored recommendations, we may obtain information about you from publicly and commercially available sources, such as third-party publishers, advertising networks, and service providers that we use to manage our ads on other sites, and other third parties as permitted by law. For more information about the data that we obtain from these providers, please contact us at privacy@meetup.com.

We may analyze and make inferences from the information we collect.

2. Use Of Information

Summary:We use information about you to: 

1. Operate, improve, promote, and protect Meetup and our Platform;
2. Communicate with you; and
3. Personalize content. 

2.1 Operating our Platform

We may use information about you described above for various business purposes related to operating our Platform, including to: 

1. Provide, maintain, and improve our Platform, including to process transactions, develop new products and services (for example, including you in tests or pilots of new or revised Platform functions, such as messaging or search functionality or using information about your usage of the Platform to develop new or revised messaging or search functionality), and manage the performance of our Platform;
2. Display information about you, for instance, your list of interests, which will be visible on your profile;
3. Personalize the Platform, for example, to suggest content in which we think you may be interested;
4. Allow you to share information about your use of the Platform through a third-party social media service, if you connect your account through that service (which you can turn off at any time) and to provide you with better recommendations;
5. Monitor and analyze trends, usage, and activities in connection with our Platform;
6. Detect, investigate, and prevent fraudulent transactions, abuse, and other illegal activities; to protect the rights, property, or safety of Meetup and others; to enforce compliance with our policies; and to comply with applicable law and government requests; and
7. Perform accounting and administrative tasks, and enforce or manage legal claims.

2.2 Communicating With You

We may use information about you for various business purposes related to communicating with you, including to:

1. Respond to your comments, questions, and requests, and provide customer service;
2. Communicate with you, in accordance with your account settings, about products, services, and events offered by us and others, to provide news and information that we think will be of interest to you, to conduct online surveys, to contact you about events on our Platform that are being held near your location, and to otherwise communicate with you in accordance with Section 2.3;
3. Notify you about communications of other members, in accordance with the communication preferences that you indicate in your account; and
4. Send you technical notices, updates, security alerts and support, and administrative messages.

2.3 Advertising And Other Uses

We may use information about you for various other business purposes, including to:

1. Provide content, features, or sponsorships that match member profiles or interests;
2. Facilitate contests and other promotions;
3. Send you marketing communications, subject to applicable law;
4. Combine with information that we collect for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy; and
5. Carry out any other purposes described to you at the time that we collected the information.

2.4 Legal Basis for Processing

If you are in a jurisdiction that requires a specific legal basis for processing personal data, our legal basis for collecting and using the information described above will depend on the type of information and the specific context in which we collect it.

1. We process information about you in order to provide our services in accordance with our Terms of Service, for example, to allow you to join groups or to display your profile to other members; to allow us to send you important service updates; and to perform a contract.
2. We also process information about you where it is in our legitimate interests to do so and not overridden by your rights (for example, in some cases for direct marketing, fraud prevention, network and information systems security, responding to your communications, the operation of networks of groups by the network administrators, and improving our Platform).
3. Sometimes you provide us with sensitive information about you; for instance, the mere fact of joining a certain group may indicate information about your health, religion, political views, or sexual identity. Joining such groups or posting information on the Platform about these topics is entirely voluntary and, depending on the settings of the group and your profile (e.g., public or private), our legal basis for processing any sensitive information is either that you manifestly make it public or your explicit consent.
4. In some cases, we may also have a legal obligation to process information about you, or may otherwise need the information to protect your vital interests or those of another person. For example, we may process information, if we believe doing so is required by, or in accordance with, applicable law, regulation, legal process, or audits.

3. Sharing Of Information

Summary:We do not share information about you except as described in this Privacy Policy.We may disclose personal information about you, including:

1. to members or social media services, depending on how you engage with the Platform.  Information that is public on our platform is accessible to others both on and off the Platform;
2. to our third-party service providers who help us to operate or improve our Platform;
3. to authorities to comply with legal obligations or requests and to protect and defend our rights and property; 
4. to an affiliate or successor entity or otherwise as part of a corporate transaction; 
5. among our businesses and affiliated companies; and
6. when you direct us to share your information.  

We may also share information in a manner that does not identify you, such as de-identified or aggregated information. Such information is not subject to this Privacy Policy.

3.1 Through Our Platform

We share some of the information that we collect by displaying it on our Platform according to your member profile and account settings. Some information, such as username, is always public. Some information, such as interests, is public by default, but can be hidden on our Platform. Some information, such as group memberships, will always be visible to other members of that Meetup group, and may be public, depending on the settings of that group. We recommend that you check the group settings and what information will be available before joining the group to ensure that you are happy with the information that is visible to others. For more information, see this article on Account Privacy and Visibility and this article on Group Content Visibility. 

Information that is public on our Platform is visible to others on and off the Platform.

3.2 Group Networks

If you are a member of a group, this group may now or in the future become part of a network of groups known as a “Meetup Pro” network. Members who administer a Meetup Pro network, known as “network administrators” have access to the content within their groups, including information about group participants. Network administrators find it helpful to have access to the email addresses of organizers and other members of groups within their networks, to easily communicate with and administer the groups. Therefore, we will provide ways for you to share your email address with your group’s network administrator. See this article for more information about Network Administrators, Organizers, and their Members.

3.3 With Our Service Providers

We may use service providers in connection with operating and improving the Platform to assist with certain business purposes, such as payment processing, email transmission, conducting surveys or contests, data hosting, managing our ads, and some aspects of our technical and customer support. These service providers, which include data analytics providers, may access, process, and store information about you on our behalf for the purposes we authorize, subject to confidentiality obligations.

3.4 Following The Law And Protecting Meetup

We may access, preserve, and disclose information about you to government entities and other third parties, including the content of messages, if we believe disclosure is in accordance with, or required by, applicable law, regulation, legal process, or audits. We may also disclose information about you if we believe that your actions are inconsistent with our Terms of Service or related guidelines and policies, or if necessary to protect the rights, property, or safety of, or prevent fraud or abuse of, Meetup or others. 

3.5 Social Sharing And Other Tools

The Platform may offer social sharing features and other integrated tools which let you share actions that you take on our Platform with third-party services, and vice versa. Such features let you share information with your friends or the public, depending on the settings you have chosen with the service. For more information, see this article on Sharing Meetup events on Social Media and this article on Connecting your Social Media Account. The third-party services' use of the information will be governed by the third parties’ privacy policies, and we do not control the third parties’ use of the shared data. For more information about the purpose and scope of data collection and processing in connection with social sharing features, please review the privacy policies of the services that provide these features.

3.6 Affiliate Sharing And Merger, Sale, Or Other Asset Transfers

If Meetup is involved in a merger, acquisition, financing, reorganization, bankruptcy, or sale of our assets, information about you may be shared, sold, or transferred as part of that transaction. We may also share information about you with current or future corporate parents, subsidiaries, or affiliates.

3.7 Other Situations

We may de-identify or aggregate information about you and share it freely, so that you can no longer be identified. Such information is not subject to this Privacy Policy.

We may also share information about you with your consent or at your direction or where we are legally entitled to do so. For example, your information may be shared with event sponsors and others as described to you when you RSVP to an event.  Your information also is made available to other group members and event organizers when you RSVP for and participate in an event. 

4. Additional Details

Summary:

1. We may allow others to use technologies that collect information about you to provide analytic services and to serve ads for Meetup. You may be able to disable the collection or use of this information.
2. Meetup is based in and governed by U.S. law and we will be processing, transferring, and storing information in and to the U.S. and other countries.
3. We have implemented technical and organizational measures to protect your personal information. We cannot guarantee these controls will provide absolute security.
4. This Privacy Policy is periodically updated, and does not apply to third parties.

4.1 Analytics and Advertising Services Provided by Others

We and others may use cookies, web beacons, device identifiers, and other technologies to collect information about your use of the Platform and other websites and online services. See ourCookie Policyfor details about these technologies and the information that they collect, use, or share, including how you may be able to control or disable these services.

4.2 Transfer Of Information To The U.S. And Other Countries

Meetup is based in the United States. Information about you will be transferred to, and processed in, the U.S. and countries other than the country in which you are resident. These countries may have data protection laws that are different to the laws of your country and, in some cases, may not be as protective. We have taken appropriate safeguards, such as standard contractual clauses, to require that your information will remain protected in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

4.3 Security

We employ technical and organizational measures designed to protect your information that is under our control and that we process on your behalf from unauthorized access, collection, use, disclosure, copying, modification, or disposal, both during transmission and once we receive it. For example, we store all information that you provide to us on servers on which security controls are used. We train employees regarding our data privacy policies and procedures, and authorize employees to access personal information as required for their role. We use firewalls designed to protect against intruders and test for network vulnerabilities. However, no method of transmission over the internet or method of electronic storage is completely secure.

Where you have a password, which enables you to use our services, you are responsible for keeping this password complex, secure, and confidential. If you would like to update or change your password, you may select the “Forgot your password?” link on the login page. You will be sent an email that allows you to reset your password.

4.4 Data Retention

We may temporarily de-activate your account if you have not logged in for six months or more. You may contact us if you wish to reactivate your account.

We retain certain information that we collect from you while you visit or are a member of the Platform, and in certain cases where you have deleted your account, for the following business purposes:

1. So you can use our Platform;
2. To ensure that we do not communicate with you if you have asked us not to;
3. To provide you with a refund, if entitled;
4. To provide accurate accounting information to other members about the groups that they organize or administer, and associated memberships;
5. To better understand the traffic to our Platform so that we can provide all members with the best possible experience;
6. To detect and prevent abuse of our Platform, illegal activities and breaches of our Terms of Service; and
7. To comply with applicable legal, tax or accounting requirements.

When we have no ongoing legitimate business need to process your information, we will either delete it or take steps to de-identify or anonymize it in accordance with applicable law.

4.5 Policy Scope

This Privacy Policy does not apply to information that you have provided or made accessible to third parties, such as other members, including group organizers and network administrators, and others with whom you may share information about yourself. Our Platform may direct you to a third-party service, such as social media services, or a portion of our Platform may be controlled by a third party (typically through the use of a frame or pop-up window separate from other content on our Platform). Disclosure of information to these third parties is subject to the relevant third party’s privacy policy. We are not responsible for the third-party privacy policy or content, even if we link to those services from our Platform or if we share information with these third parties.

Members, including group organizers and network administrators, are directly responsible for complying with all requirements of applicable privacy laws in connection with the information that they obtain and process for the purposes of managing their contacts, organizing and communicating with groups, or administering networks.

4.6 Revisions To This Policy

We may modify this Privacy Policy from time to time. When we do, we will provide notice to you by publishing the most current version and revising the date at the top of this page. If we make any material change to this policy, we will provide additional notice to you, such as by sending you an email or displaying a prominent notice on our Platform.

5. Your Choices

Summary:

1. You can review and change information about you or deactivate your account in your account settings, but we may retain certain information.
2. You can remove photo tags if you wish.
3. Consult your device settings for information about how to deactivate location-based features at any time.
4. You have the right to opt out of receiving Meetup’s promotional messages, but you may still receive other non-promotional communications.

5.1 Your Choices: Account Information

You may update or correct your account information by editing your account settings or by sending a request toprivacy@meetup.comas described in Section 6 and Section 7. You may deactivate your account by editing your account settings. You may also request deletion of your information as described in Section 6 and Section 7.  You will also be able to choose what information others see about you and who may contact you by using the Privacy Settings section in your Account.

5.2 Your Choices: Location Information

When you first access the Platform, depending on your device settings, we will collect information about your location, which we use to make better recommendations for groups and events in your area, and to improve our Platform. If you do not want us to collect information about your location, then you can prevent this by taking the following steps:

1. If using a mobile app, by changing the settings on your device.
2. If using our website, your approximate location information will be obtained via a cookie. Please refer to our Cookie Policy for additional information on how to manage our use of cookies.

Note that our Platform or its features may no longer function properly if you change your settings.

Your mobile device settings may also give you the option to choose whether to allow us to view your geolocation on a continuous basis, only when using the app, or never. Allowing us to view your geolocation when you are not using the app allows us to provide you with recommendations on a regular basis. Please refer to your device’s guide for additional information on how to adjust location services.

5.3 Your Choices: Cookies

We may use and allow others to use cookies, web beacons, device identifiers, and other technologies to collect information about your use of the Platform and other websites and online services. See our Cookie Policy for details about these technologies and the information that they collect, use, or share, including how you may be able to control or disable these services.

5.4 Your Choices: Promotional Communications

You can control some of the messages that you receive from Meetup and other members by selecting the unsubscribe link in the message that you receive, or by adjusting the communication preferences in your account settings. We will also send you a link to these settings when you first sign up and in subsequent messages. If you opt out, we may still send you non-promotional messages, such as those about your account or our ongoing business relations. In addition, please consult the privacy policies of other members for information about how to control or opt out of promotional messages from them off the Platform.

5.5 Your Choices: Photo Tagging

You can tag photos of yourself and others. When a photo has been tagged it means that the name of that person will appear alongside the photo, and the tagged photo will appear on the tagged member’s group profile.

 We will notify you when another member has tagged your account in a photo or when additional comments are added to such photos. You can remove tags by selecting the “untag” option next to your name. You can also report inappropriate content to Meetup. You are responsible for obtaining permission from non-members to post a photo of them on the Platform.  

6. Data Rights

Summary:

1. You may have the right to exercise data protection rights, including to request that Meetup deletes, amends, or provides you access to your information.
2. You have the right to opt out of receiving Meetup’s promotional messages, but you may still receive other communications.
3. You can complain to your local data protection authority about the use of your information.

We respond to all requests that we receive from individuals who wish to exercise their data protection rights in accordance with applicable data protection laws. You can contact us with your request by sending an email toprivacy@meetup.com. You can also request deletion of your account and personal information by filling out the form available in this Help Center article: "Request permanent deletion of your data." You must be logged in to your Meetup account to view this article and access the form.

.

Rights that you may have, depending on the jurisdiction in which you live, may include:

1. Accessing, correcting, updating, or requesting deletion of your information.
2. Objecting to processing of your information, asking us to restrict processing of your information, or requesting the portability of your information.
3. Opting out from receiving marketing communications that we send you at any time. You can exercise this right by selecting the “unsubscribe” or “opt-out” link in the marketing emails we send you. Additionally, you may update your email preferences by changing the settings in your account.
4. Withdrawing your consent at any time if we have collected and processed your information with your consent. Withdrawing your consent will not affect the lawfulness of any processing that we conducted prior to your withdrawal, nor will it affect processing of your information conducted in reliance on lawful processing grounds other than consent.
5. Complaining to a data protection authority about our collection and use of your information. For more information, please contact your local data protection authority. Contact details for data protection authorities in the European Union are available here.

Note that Meetup is a controller of your information. Other members, such as group organizers and network administrators, may also act as controllers of your information. You should contact these members if you have any questions about how they use information that you have provided to them.

7. California Privacy Rights

During the preceding 12 months, Meetup has collected, used, and shared the categories of personal information described above in this Privacy Policy.We do not consider the ways we share your information as a “sale” for purposes of California law. California residents have certain rights to access and delete their personal information and to request transparency about our privacy practices.  If you would like to access or delete your information, or otherwise exercise your rights under the CCPA, please see Section 6. Once we receive your request, we may verify it by requesting information sufficient to confirm your identity, including by asking you for additional information. Consistent with California law, if you choose to exercise your rights, we will not charge you different prices or provide different quality of services for exercising your rights unless those differences are permitted by law. If you would like to use an agent registered with the California Secretary of State to exercise your rights, we may request evidence that you have provided such agent with power of attorney or that the agent otherwise has valid written authority to submit requests to exercise rights on your behalf.  

8. Contact Us

Summary:

1. If you have any questions, you can contact us at privacy@meetup.com.

Under European data protection law, the controller of your information is Meetup LLC.

If you have any questions or complaints about this Privacy Policy or how we use your information, please contact privacy@meetup.com.

If you are located in the European Economic Area, you can also contact Meetup’s GDPR representative:

Meetup MHC GDPR Representative
Mason Hayes and Curran Professional Services Limited
South Bank House
Barrow Street
Dublin 4
Ireland
MeetupGDPRrepresentative@mhc.ie

If you are located in the United Kingdom, you can also contact Meetup’s UK GDPR representative:

Meetup MHC UK GDPR Representative
Mason Hayes and Curran LLP
1 Cornhill
London
EC3V 3ND
England
MeetupUKGDPRrepresentative@mhcldn.com

This page is outdated. View the current version of our Cookie Policy.

Revision date: 3/28/17

As described in our Privacy Policy, we and our service providers use cookies and other technologies to provide our Platform and to enhance your experience. This Cookie Policy sets out some further detail on how and why we use these technologies on our Platform, which includes any website, application, or service we offer. The terms "Meetup," "we," "us," and "our" include Meetup Inc. and our affiliates. By using our Platform, you consent to storage and access to cookies and other technologies on your device, in accordance with this Cookie Policy.

Cookies

What Cookies Are. Cookies are small data files which are downloaded to your device when you visit a website. Cookies are then sent back to the originating website on each subsequent visit, or to another website that recognizes that cookie. Cookies are useful because they allow us to recognize your device.

How We Use Cookies. Cookies serve a variety of functions, like enabling us to remember certain information you provide to us as you navigate between pages on the Platform. We use cookies for the following purposes:

• Authentication:We use cookies to recognize you if you are logged in to our Platform. This lets us personalize your experience on or with the Platform in the ways described below. In addition, we may employ third-party services that may use cookies to help you sign into their services from our Platform.

• Security:We use cookies to support or enable security features we have deployed, and to help us detect malicious activity and violations of our Terms of Service. These cookies help us prevent fraudulent use of login credentials.

• Services, features, and preferences:We use cookies to provide functionality and help us deliver our products and services according to your preferences. For example, we use cookies to know which language you prefer, what your communications preferences are, to show you personalized views related to your interests and groups, and in order to help you fill out forms on the Platform.

• Performance, Analytics and Research:We use cookies to help us analyze how the Platform is being accessed and used, and enable us to track performance of the Platform. This helps us to understand, improve, and research features and content on the Platform. We may also use other services, such as Google Analytics or other third-party cookies, to assist with analyzing performance on our Platform. As part of providing these services, these service providers may use cookies and the technologies described below to collect and store information about your device, such as time of visit, pages visited, time spent on each page of the Platform, links clicked and conversion information, IP address, browser, mobile network information, and type of operating system used.

• Meetup ads:We partner with third party publishers, advertising networks and service providers to manage our ads on other sites. Our third party partners may set cookies on your device or use the technologies described below to gather information about your activities on the Platform and other sites and online services you use, in order to provide you with Meetup ads that match member profiles or interests. For example, if you visit our Platform and also use a social media platform, you may see a Meetup ad on those social media platforms.

• Third party advertisers:We may work with advertisers, and advertising service providers to serve ads that may be relevant to you based on your inferred interests, location or other information collected about you, which may use a cookie or the technologies described below, placed by Meetup or the third party (although we would not share any other information that identifies you with an advertiser) on our Platform, or on a third party website or online service. The placing of these technologies on your device may enable you to be identified across multiple websites and online services.

Duration of Cookies.Some cookies, known as "session cookies", will stay on your device only for as long as you are accessing our Platform. Others, known as "persistent cookies", are stored on your device for longer periods.

Other Technologies

Use of Other Technologies. We may allow others to provide analytics services and serve advertisements on our behalf. In addition to the uses of cookies described above, these entities may use other methods, such as the technologies described below, to collect information about your use of the Platform and other websites and online services.

Pixels tags. Pixel tags (which are also called clear GIFs, web beacons, or pixels), are small pieces of code that can be embedded on websites and emails. Pixels tags may be used to learn how you interact with our site pages and emails, and this information helps us and our partners provide you with a more tailored experience.

Device Identifiers. A device identifier is a unique label can be used to identify a mobile device. Device identifiers may be used to track, analyze and improve the performance of the Platform and ads delivered.

Local storage. Local storage is an industry-standard technology that enables the storage and retrieval of data on a computer, mobile phone or other device. Local storage may be used to store member preferences on devices.

Opting Out

Cookies. Most devices and web browsers are set to accept cookies by default. If you prefer, you may be able to remove or reject cookies. You can learn more about how to block cookies by visiting allaboutcookies.org. Please note that if you choose to remove or reject cookies, this could affect the availability and functionality of our Platform.

Targeted Advertising.Third parties that use cookies and other tracking technologies to deliver targeted advertisements on third party websites may offer you a way to prevent such targeted advertisements by opting out at the websites of industry groups such as the Digital Advertising Alliance, or if located in the European Union, the European Interactive Digital Advertising Alliance. You may also be able to control advertising cookies provided by publishers, for example Google's Ad Preference Manager. Your device may also include a feature that allows you to opt out of having certain information collected through apps used for behavioral advertising purposes. Note that even if you choose to opt out of receiving targeted advertising, you may still receive advertising, although it should not be tailored to your interests or activities.

Revisions to this Policy

We may modify this Cookie Policy from time to time. When we do, we will provide notice to you by publishing the most current version and revising the date at the top of this page. If we make any material change to this Cookie Policy, we will provide additional notice to you, such as by sending you an email, or displaying a prominent notice on our Platform. By continuing to use the Platform after any changes come into effect, you agree to the revised Cookie Policy.

한국의 Meetup 사용자를 위한 정보

최종 업데이트: 2022년 12월 8일

이 정보 페이지는 대한민국(“대한민국”)에서 당사의 플랫폼을 사용하거나 달리 접속하는 개인을 위한 것으로서 당사의 주요 개인정보 보호정책의 조건을 보완하고 당사의 서비스 약관과 함께 읽어보도록 하려는 것입니다. 아래 사항에 대해 질문이 있으시면 언제든지 privacy@meetup.com으로 연락해 주십시오. 

1. 귀하의 정보 처리에 대한 당사의 법적 근거

요약: 당사는 귀하가 개인정보 사용에 동의하고 당사의 플랫폼을 지원하는 데 필요한 경우 및 관련 사업 목적을 위해서만 귀하의 개인정보를 사용합니다.

당사는 한국 개인정보보호법(“개인정보보호법”)의 요건에 따라 귀하의 동의를 전제로 개인정보를 처리합니다. 

당사는 다음과 같이 귀하의 정보를 사용합니다.

개인정보 수집

목적: 당사는 플랫폼을 제공하고 귀하와 소통하기 위해, 그리고 규정준수를 위해 특정 개인정보를 사용합니다.

항목: 이름, 사용자 이름, 암호, 연락처 세부 정보, 특정 기기 식별자, 결제 수단 데이터 및 구매와 같은 결제 및 상업 정보.

보존 기간: 당사는 개인정보의 수집 및 사용 목적을 충족하는 데 필요한 기간 동안 귀하의 개인정보를 보관합니다. Meetup은 법적 또는 규정준수 목적으로 더 오래 보관해야 하는 경우가 아니면, 필요한 기간이 경과한 즉시 귀하의 개인정보를 파기할 것입니다. 

선택적 개인정보 수집

목적: 당사는 분석 및 기타 사업 목적을 위해 특정 개인정보를 사용합니다. 

항목: 성별, 생년월일, 특정 브라우저/기기 식별자, 소셜 미디어 계정, 인구통계 및 귀하가 제공하기로 선택한 기타 개인정보.

보존 기간: 당사는 개인정보의 수집 및 사용 목적을 충족하는 데 필요한 기간 동안 귀하의 개인정보를 보관합니다. Meetup은 법적 또는 규정준수 목적으로 더 오래 보관해야 하는 경우가 아니면, 필요한 기간이 경과한 즉시 귀하의 개인정보를 파기할 것입니다. 

2. 당사의 보관 및 파기 프로세스

요약: Meetup은 수집된 목적에 필요한 기간 동안만 귀하의 개인정보를 보관할 것이며, 필요한 기간이 경과하면 귀하의 정보를 파기할 것입니다.

Meetup은 더 이상 필요하지 않은 개인정보를 파기하기 위해 다음과 같은 절차와 방법을 사용합니다. 

파기 절차

플랫폼 제공을 위해 귀하의 정보를 지속적으로 처리할 필요가 없는 경우, 당사는 해당 법률 및 당사의 내부 정책에 따라 그리고 항상 법적으로 요구되거나 허용되는 보존 기간에 따라 귀하의 정보를 삭제하거나, 해당 정보에서 신원 정보를 제거하거나 해당 정보를 익명화하기 위한 조치를 취할 것입니다. 

파기 방법

당사는 기록을 복제하거나 식별할 수 없도록 당사의 생산 데이터베이스에서 개인정보를 삭제하거나 개인정보에서 신원정보를 제거합니다. 종이 문서에 기록 및 저장된 개인정보는 파쇄를 통해 물리적으로 파기됩니다. 

3. 귀하 정보의 해외 이전

요약: Meetup은 미국에 기반을 두고 있습니다. 귀하에 대한 정보는 미국 및 대한민국 이외의 국가로 이전되어 처리될 것입니다.

당사는 귀하의 개인정보가 공유되는 범주와 방법을 포함하여 이러한 해외 이전에 대한 세부 정보를 아래 표에 명시했습니다. 

대한민국 외부의 법인으로 이전

Last Updated:  December 20, 2022

OVERVIEW

Meetup LLC and our affiliates (referred to together as “Meetup”, “we”, “our” or “us”) respect individual privacy and take the privacy of your Personal Information very seriously.  As the data controller, Meetup collects, uses, and discloses your Personal Information in connection with your working relationship with us, or with your application for a working relationship with us, in a manner consistent with the laws of the states and countries in which we do business.  We use your Personal Information in a manner that is consistent with the uses described in this Privacy Policy (the “Policy”), which covers the treatment of the Personal Information we receive or maintain about you.  This Policy is intended to cover our collection and use of data that we obtain in the course of your relationship with us.

When we refer to “Personal Information,” we mean any information that relates to you as a particular individual.  This includes information that directly identifies you (e.g., your name, Social Security number or other government-issued identifier, or employee ID number), but also includes information which we have linked to those identifiers (e.g., your date of birth, telephone number, and information about your performance, all of which are linked to your name).  This can also include information about devices that you use where we have linked the information collected from those devices back to you.

This Policy applies to the Personal Information Meetup receives or maintains regarding all current and former employees; dependents and beneficiaries of an employee or former employee; contractors who are natural persons (referred to in this Policy as “contractors”); contingent workers; and job applicants (collectively referred to in this Policy as “you”).

1. TRANSPARENCY/NOTICE

1.1. WHAT PERSONAL INFORMATION DO WE COLLECT OR PROCESS?

We collect the types of Personal Information that we require in order to manage our relationship with you, from the point at which you make an application to work with us (e.g., in your application) and throughout your employment or work engagement with us (e.g., through on-boarding, using our systems, and signing up for benefits).

The Personal Information that we collect and use about you includes:

• Application information (e.g., your CV, application form, references supplied by your former employer).  If you do not provide this information, we will not be able to process your application properly;
• Right to work information (e.g., work permit / visa application information).  If you do not provide this information, we may not be able to offer you a position with us;
• Government-issued identification information (e.g., Social Security number, driver’s license number, passport number) for tax, payroll, background check, and identity confirmation purposes.  If you do not provide this information, we may not be able to offer you a position with us;
• Basic personal details (e.g., name, date of birth).  If you are a family member of an employee, former employee, contractor or contingent worker, we may collect this information from the relevant individual to whom you are related;
• Contact details (e.g., telephone number, email address, postal address).  If you are a family member of an employee, former employee, contractor or contingent worker, we may collect this information from the relevant individual to whom you are related;
• Information required for payroll purposes (e.g., bank account details, tax information);
• Information related to benefit entitlements and schemes (e.g., details of participation, contributions made);
• Information related to gender, race, or ethnic origin for purposes of complying with applicable anti-discrimination or diversity legislation (where applicable);
• Medical information, if necessary to comply with applicable laws, or in order to provide medical care to you (such as through workplace assessments and for the other purposes described below);
• Performance related data (e.g., information about and assessments of your performance collected as part of the appraisal process);
• Location information, including precise geolocation through GPS tracking technology on Meetup-owned devices (e.g., use of Airwatch on Meetup-owned laptops to locate and/or wipe lost or stolen laptops), or other devices owned by you which you use in connection with your services to Meetup;
• Information which we need to process in connection with disciplinary action or investigations;
• Information about your use of our systems (e.g., information from your company email account, information posted on our website, information you submit through applications or software made available to you).  This also includes information collected using various technologies, such as cookies and pixel tags (which are also called clear GIFs, web beacons, or pixels), when you visit any website, application, or services we offer (our “Platform”), or communicate with us.  Cookies are small data files stored on your hard drive or in device memory that help us improve our Platform and your experience, and track usage of our Platform.  Pixel tags are electronic images that may be used in our Platform or emails, and track usage of our Platform and effectiveness of communications. You can learn more about the types of cookies we and our service providers use by reading our Cookie Policy;
• Payment information you provide for goods, services, and other transactions authorized by you; and 
• Any other information that you provide directly to us.

1.2. WHAT DO WE DO WITH YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION AND WHY IS IT PROCESSED?

We use your Personal Information primarily to manage our relationship with you by providing services that help you carry out your work with us.  We also use your Personal Information to help us manage our business, including management of resources and to carry out marketing, and keep our systems secure. 

The purposes for which we use Personal Information include:

• Recruitment;
• Providing you with equipment, training, and support so that you can carry out your role.  We do this in order to meet applicable contractual and/or employment related obligations to you;
• Providing staff training, feedback, and appraisals, in order to meet our contractual and/or employment obligations to you, and where not strictly required by a contract, to meet our legitimate interests in ensuring our staff are best able to carry out their roles.  This may involve maintaining a personnel or service record, and may involve carrying out investigations or disciplinary procedures to protect our interests;
• Compensation and benefits management, to ensure that you are paid and can take advantage of benefits offered by Meetup and its partners.  Optional benefits require your opt-in consent;
• Organization management and administration, including management of staffing resources, financial planning, corporate compliance, internal audits, and other administration.  We process Personal Information in this way to meet our legitimate interests in running our business effectively, and we also use Personal Information for your benefit by taking efforts to ensure that projects are appropriately staffed;
• Administration of absences in accordance with company and statutory leave programs, to ensure that we comply with any legal obligations (for statutory programs) or any contractual obligations to you, where either exists.  We also use Personal Information for this purpose in order to meet our legitimate interests in running and managing our business effectively, which includes ensuring appropriate staffing;
• Communications.  This may include facilitating communications to and between employees and contractors, and communications with other bodies (e.g., works councils where these exist, and regulatory authorities).  We use Personal Information for this purpose in order to meet our legitimate interests in managing our business, which includes ensuring that our staff are able to communicate with one another, and that we are able to communicate with our staff;
• Meetup marketing activities, including marketing photos, brochures, website content, videos, social media posts, and other related marketing activities;
• Compliance with legal obligations, including health and safety requirements, requests for information from government agencies, and security investigations;
• Provision of employment references if requested by a potential employer;
• Administering our applications, software, and systems.  This is necessary to meet our legitimate interests in ensuring that our systems are secure and are fit for use;
• Statistical and analytical purposes to understand and improve worker satisfaction and performance;
• With respect to your use of our Platform, the delivery of advertising on and off the Platform and to monitor and analyze trends, usage, and activities in connection with our Platform; and
• Such other purposes as we may disclose to you from time to time.

1.3. WHAT DO WE DO WITH YOUR SENSITIVE PERSONAL INFORMATION AND WHY IS IT PROCESSED?

Some types of Personal Information are particularly sensitive, for example, information about your health, medical history, race, or ethnicity (together, these are referred to as categories of “Sensitive Personal Information”).  We collect and use these types of information in some limited circumstances where it is necessary for us to protect your interests (e.g., to provide healthcare), where we need to do so to comply with specific legal obligations (e.g., equal opportunity or anti-discrimination legislation or employment law), or where we have your explicit consent to use it.  

The purposes for which Sensitive Personal Information may be used include the following:

• To provide occupational health assessments and determine, in limited cases, if you are able to work.  If we do this, we will make sure any health information collected is collected by a qualified medical professional and kept under their control;
• To manage sickness absences and family/parental leave (where applicable) to meet obligations under applicable laws, for example, to ensure that we pay statutory sickness pay or maternity pay correctly;
• Compliance with equal opportunity or anti-discrimination legislation or regulations (where applicable);
• In connection with benefits, including retirement-related benefits, private healthcare, and life insurance.  We will use this information with your explicit consent where necessary;
• Background checks for employment or client engagement purposes, where permitted by applicable laws; and
• In the course of legal proceedings (including prospective legal proceedings), obtaining legal advice, establishing or defending legal claims, or otherwise where strictly necessary for the administration of justice in accordance with applicable laws.

1.4. WHAT DO WE DO WITH AGGREGATED DATA AND WHY IS IT PROCESSED?

We may also collect and/or generate anonymized and aggregated information from your use of Wi-Fi, applications, systems, and websites.  Anonymized or aggregated information is not Personal Information since we are not able to re-identify you using any means available to us from that anonymized or aggregated information.  Anonymized and aggregated information is used for a variety of functions, including to help us identify and remediate any bugs, and to improve the performance of our Platform.  Meetup may use such information in a number of ways, including internal analysis, analytics, and research.  We may share this information with third parties for our or their purposes in an anonymized or aggregated form that is designed to prevent anyone from identifying you.

2. HOW DO WE SHARE INFORMATION WITH THIRD PARTIES?

2.1. IS YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION SHARED WITH THIRD PARTIES?

We share Personal Information with certain third parties, such as suppliers, clients, and advisers that perform certain services on our behalf or that receive services from us.  Sometimes sharing your Personal Information with these third parties is necessary for them to perform their services or for us to provide our services to them.

We will only share your Personal Information with third parties for the purposes identified above in accordance with the Policy or with your consent.  We will endeavor to obtain assurances from each third party with whom we share your Personal Information for purposes of maintaining our relationship with you (e.g., benefits providers) that it will safeguard your Personal Information consistently with this Policy and will notify Meetup if it makes a determination that it can no longer meet this obligation.  If we have knowledge that a third party is using or disclosing Personal Information in a manner contrary to this Policy, we will take reasonable steps to prevent or stop the use or disclosure. 

Your Personal Information may be also disclosed or transferred to a third party in the event of any proposed or actual reorganization, sale, merger, joint venture, assignment, amalgamation, or any other type of acquisition, disposal, or financing of all or any portion of our company or of any company assets (including should Meetup become insolvent, enter into receivership, or any similar event occur).  Should such an event take place, we will endeavor to direct the transferee to use Personal Information in a manner that is consistent with this Privacy Policy.

We may also disclose your Personal Information to third parties if necessary to comply with legal obligations, for example, to cooperate with regulatory authorities, law enforcement bodies, or courts, or if we believe that disclosure is necessary to protect our rights or those of a third party.

2.2. TRANSFER OF PERSONAL INFORMATION ACROSS BORDERS

Meetup is based in the United States and has current and former employees, dependents and beneficiaries of employees or former employees, contractors, contingent works, and job applicants located throughout the world.  As a result, your Personal Information will be processed in, and transferred to (if you are outside the U.S.), the U.S.  Any such transfer shall take place only in accordance with and as permitted by the law of your jurisdiction, but please be aware that the laws and practices relating to the protection of Personal Information are likely to be different and, in some cases, may be weaker than those within your home jurisdiction.  Regardless, in all events, we shall apply the provisions of this Policy to your Personal Information wherever it is located.

We have taken appropriate safeguards, such as standard contractual clauses, to require that your information will remain protected in accordance with this Policy.

2.3. NON-EMPLOYMENT RELATED PURPOSES

We may also share information we have collected about you, through your use of our Platform, with others or allow others to use technologies (like cookies, web beacons, and device identifiers) that collect information about your use of the Platform and other websites and online services, to provide analytic services and to serve ads for Meetup.  See our Cookie Policy for details about these technologies and the information that they collect, use, or share, including how you may be able to control or disable these services. 

Meetup may also inform you of and provide you with the option to contact providers of non-employment related benefits or opportunities.  If you choose to contact these providers and provide them with Personal Information, that Personal Information will be used in accordance with the privacy policies of those third parties.

3. WHAT RIGHTS DO YOU HAVE OVER THE PERSONAL INFORMATION WE HOLD ABOUT YOU?

Depending on the jurisdiction in which you live, you may have the following rights to:

• Request that we delete the Personal Information we have collected from you.
• Object to our Processing of your Personal Information in some of the circumstances described above.  In particular, if you have given your consent to any use of Personal Information, you can withdraw this at any time.  If you withdraw your consent, however, in certain circumstances Meetup may not be able to fulfill our contractual and employment-related obligations to you;
• Request to access your Personal Information in portable format, or other information about our data processing activities.
• Update, correct, amend, or delete Personal Information that is demonstrated to be inaccurate, incomplete, or processed in violation of applicable law;
• Restrict our use of your Personal information in certain circumstances; and
• Request that we transmit Personal Information you have provided to us to a third party (known as the right to “data portability”).

You may be able to effectuate some of these rights using “self-service” features available on TriNet, where you can view, and in some cases update and delete, much of the Personal Information we maintain about you.  Further, please see Section 7 for more information on how you can otherwise exercise these rights. Once we receive your request, we may verify it by asking you for additional information. You may also use an authorized agent to exercise these rights, in which case we may request evidence that the agent has valid authority to act on your behalf.  If you or your authorized agent chooses to exercise these rights, we will not discriminate or retaliate against you.

We do not sell your Personal Information, but as described above, our Platform may use technologies that allow third parties to collect Personal Information for targeted advertising.  If you are in a jurisdiction that entitles you to opt out of the sharing or processing of your Personal Information for purposes of targeted advertising, you may click the Cookie Settings link at the footer of our website or in your Platform account settings to select cookies you would like to opt opt-out of, including those used for targeted advertising purposes.

4. SECURITY – IS YOUR INFORMATION SECURE?

We will take reasonable precautions designed to protect Personal Information in our possession from loss, misuse, and unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration, and destruction.  Access to our systems that store your Personal Information is restricted by means of one or more user IDs and passwords that are issued only to authorized personnel.  In turn, you need to prevent unauthorized access to your Personal Information by selecting and protecting your password(s) appropriately and limiting access to your computer and browser by signing off after you have accessed your Personal Information.

5. RETENTION – HOW LONG DO WE RETAIN YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION?

The length of time we retain your Personal Information depends on the status of our relationship with you and the requirements of applicable law.  We will retain your Personal Information for as long as your employment or work engagement with us lasts, and for a certain period after your employment or work engagement with us has ended.  To determine that period, we take into account certain criteria, such as our legal and regulatory obligations (such as financial reporting obligations and equal opportunity or anti-discrimination reporting obligations) and whether we may need to retain personal information to resolve disputes, make and defend legal claims, conduct audits, pursue legitimate business purposes, and/or enforce our agreements.

6. CHANGES – WHAT HAPPENS WHEN THERE ARE CHANGES TO THIS PRIVACY POLICY?

We may amend this Policy from time to time.  If we make any material changes in the way we collect or use your Personal Information, we will notify you by posting an announcement on one or more systems used by Meetup, or by sending you an email and, where required by applicable law, afford you the opportunity to consent or to opt out of any new use or disclosure.

7. REDRESS – COMPLIANCE AND ACCOUNTABILITY – WHO CAN YOU CONTACT IF YOU HAVE QUESTIONS OR CONCERNS?

If you have an inquiry or complaint regarding this Policy or the collection or use of your Personal Information, including any rights of access, ability to limit the use or disclosure of Personal Information, or to correct or delete inaccurate Personal Information, please email peoplepartners@meetup.com or contact a member of Meetup’s People team by phone or individual email (if you are a current or former Meetup employee, dependent or beneficiary of an employee or former employee, or job applicant) or contact your business point of contact at Meetup by phone or email (if you are a contractor or contingent worker).  For citizens of the EEA, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the Supervisory Authority located in the country in which you live.

This page is outdated. View our current Privacy Policy.

Revision: October 3, 2022

(View previous versions: 10/1/21, 4/19/21)

Our Privacy Policy explains how Meetup collects, uses, and discloses information about you. The terms “Meetup,” “we,” “us,” and “our” include Meetup LLC and our affiliates. We use the terms “member,” “you,” and “your” to mean any person using our Platform or attending related events, including any organization or person using the Platform on an organization’s behalf. This Privacy Policy applies to the processing of information about members and other individuals that we collect when you use our “Platform,” which means any website, application, or services we offer, or when you communicate with us. For information about choices you may have under this policy, please see “Your Choices” below. This Privacy Policy does not apply to the information that you may provide to third parties, such as members, and others with whom you may share information about yourself. For more information about the scope of our Privacy Policy, please see Section 4.5. 

To make this Privacy Policy easier to understand, we have provided summaries below. These summaries are not part of the official policy. Even though we have provided summaries, it is important for you to read the entire policy carefully. If you wish to access any particular section of this Privacy Policy, use the list below to jump to that section.

1. Collection Of Information
2. Use Of Information
3. Sharing Of Information
4. Additional Details
5. Your Choices
6. Data Rights
7. California Privacy Rights
8. Information for Korean Residents
9. Contact Us

1. Collection Of Information

Summary: We collect information about you when you:

1. Create an account;
2. Use the Platform;
3. Attend an event;
4. Visit our website; and
5. Communicate with us.

We also collect information, such as usage statistics, by using cookies, server logs, and similar technologies.

If you elect to use certain features, we also collect information through other sources, such as social media services, invitations, and imported contacts.

1.1 Information You Provide to Us

We collect information that you provide directly to us. For example, we collect information that you provide when you create an account, choose interests or groups, fill out a form, or communicate with us. The types of information that we may collect include identifiers, such as your name, username, password, email address, postal address, and phone number; payment and commercial information, such as payment method data and purchases, if any; demographic information and any other personal information that you choose to provide, such as photos, choices of interests, gender, date of birth, groups, and professional or employment-related information, including your role, company, and years of experience. Certain information about yourself, such as gender and date of birth, is optional to provide. Your choice of groups is also optional, but we are required to process this information in order to administer your account, and to indicate that you are a member of the groups that you join. See Section 2 to learn how we will use the information that you provide to personalize our recommendations and other content to you.

On occasion, the information that you give us when you join a group may imply information about your beliefs, political views, health conditions, or your sexual identity. This, and other kinds of sensitive information, is given special protection in accordance with applicable law. Posting personal or sensitive information about others without their permission is against our Community Guidelines.

1.2 Information We Collect Automatically When You Use the Platform

When you use our Platform, we automatically collect internet and other electronic network activity information about you and other information, including:

1. Log Information: We collect log information about your use of the Platform, including the type of browser that you use; the time, duration, and frequency of your access; Platform pages viewed; your IP address; and the page you visited before visiting our Platform.
2. Device Information: We collect information about the computer or mobile device that you use to access our Platform, including the hardware model, operating system and version, unique device identifiers, and mobile network information.
3. Geolocation Information: We may collect information about the location of your device each time you use our Platform based on your consent to the collection of this information, such as when you enable location services.  For further information see Section 5.2.  We may also collect information, such as your IP address, that can sometimes be used to approximate your location based on your device settings.
4. Information Collected by Cookies and Other Tracking Technologies: We and our service providers collect information using various technologies, including cookies and pixel tags (which are also called clear GIFs, web beacons, or pixels). Cookies are small data files stored on your hard drive or in device memory that help us improve our Platform and your experience, and track usage of our Platform. Pixel tags are electronic images that may be used in our Platform or emails, and track usage of our Platform and effectiveness of communications. You can learn more about the types of cookies we and our service providers use by reading our Cookie Policy.
5. Other Information: Based on your consent, we may collect other information from your device, such as photos from your camera roll or calendar information you want to manage via the Platform.

1.3 Information We Collect From Other Sources

We may collect information about you from other sources, such as through certain features on the Platform you elect to use. We rely on these third parties to either have your consent or ensure that they are otherwise legally permitted or required to disclose your information to us. Examples include:

1. Social Media Services. If you register or log into your account through a third-party social media service, we will have access to some of your third-party account information from that service, including identifiers, such as your name and other information in that account, and used for purposes such as improving your Meetup recommendations. We may also have access to third-party account information if you use the Platform feature to share a link. See this article for more information on how to enable or disable the connection between our Platform and your third-party account.
2. Member Content. We may receive information about you when you or another member uploads photos or posts other content to the Platform. For further details about the rights over this information available to individuals, see Section 6.
3. Current or Future Corporate Affiliates. We may receive information about you from our current or future corporate parents, subsidiaries, or affiliates.
4. Information From Other Third-Party Sources. In order to provide you with more tailored recommendations, we may obtain information about you from publicly and commercially available sources, such as third-party publishers, advertising networks, and service providers that we use to manage ads on our and other sites, and other third parties as permitted by law. For more information about the data that we obtain from these providers, please contact us at privacy@meetup.com.

We may analyze and make inferences from the information we collect.

2. Use Of Information

Summary: We use information about you to: 

1. Operate, improve, promote, and protect Meetup and our Platform;
2. Communicate with you; and
3. Personalize content. 

2.1 Operating our Platform

We may use information about you described above for various business purposes related to operating our Platform, including to: 

1. Provide, maintain, and improve our Platform, including to process transactions, develop new products and services (for example, including you in tests or pilots of new or revised Platform functions, such as messaging or search functionality or using information about your usage of the Platform to develop new or revised messaging or search functionality), and manage the performance of our Platform;
2. Display information about you, for instance, your list of interests, which will be visible on your profile;
3. Personalize the Platform, for example, to suggest content in which we think you may be interested;
4. Allow you to share information about your use of the Platform through a third-party social media service, if you connect your account through that service (which you can turn off at any time) and to provide you with better recommendations;
5. Monitor and analyze trends, usage, and activities in connection with our Platform;
6. Detect, investigate, and prevent fraudulent transactions, abuse, and other illegal activities; to protect the rights, property, or safety of Meetup and others; to enforce compliance with our policies; and to comply with applicable law and government requests; and
7. Perform accounting and administrative tasks, and enforce or manage legal claims.

2.2 Communicating With You

We may use information about you for various business purposes related to communicating with you, including to:

1. Respond to your comments, questions, and requests, and provide customer service;
2. Communicate with you, in accordance with your account settings, about products, services, and events offered by us and others, to provide news and information that we think will be of interest to you, to conduct online surveys, to contact you about events on our Platform that are being held near your location, and to otherwise communicate with you in accordance with Section 2.3;
3. Notify you about communications of other members, in accordance with the communication preferences that you indicate in your account; and
4. Send you technical notices, updates, security alerts and support, and administrative messages.

2.3 Advertising And Other Uses

We may use information about you for various other business purposes, including to:

1. Provide content, features, or sponsorships that match member profiles or interests 
2. Deliver more relevant advertising to you on and off the Platform;
3. Facilitate contests and other promotions;
4. Send you marketing communications, subject to applicable law;
5. Combine with information that we collect for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy; and
6. Carry out any other purposes described to you at the time that we collected the information.

2.4 Legal Basis for Processing

If you are in a jurisdiction that requires a specific legal basis for processing personal data, our legal basis for collecting and using the information described above will depend on the type of information and the specific context in which we collect it.

1. We process information about you in order to provide our services in accordance with our Terms of Service, for example, to allow you to join groups or to display your profile to other members; to allow us to send you important service updates; and to perform a contract.
2. We also process information about you where it is in our legitimate interests to do so and not overridden by your rights (for example, in some cases for direct marketing, fraud prevention, network and information systems security, responding to your communications, the operation of networks of groups by the network administrators, and improving our Platform).
3. Sometimes you provide us with sensitive information about you; for instance, the mere fact of joining a certain group may indicate information about your health, religion, political views, or sexual identity. Joining such groups or posting information on the Platform about these topics is entirely voluntary and, depending on the settings of the group and your profile (e.g., public or private), our legal basis for processing any sensitive information is either that you manifestly make it public or your explicit consent.
4. In some cases, we may also have a legal obligation to process information about you, or may otherwise need the information to protect your vital interests or those of another person. For example, we may process information, if we believe doing so is required by, or in accordance with, applicable law, regulation, legal process, or audits.

3. Sharing Of Information

Summary: We do not share information about you except as described in this Privacy Policy. We may disclose personal information about you, including:

1. to members or social media services, depending on how you engage with the Platform.  Information that is public on our platform is accessible to others both on and off the Platform;
2. to our third-party service providers who help us to operate or improve our Platform;
3. when we work with third parties for analytics and to deliver targeted advertising to you on and off the Platform.  For more information, please see our Cookie Policy;
4. to authorities to comply with legal obligations or requests and to protect and defend our rights and property; 
5. to an affiliate or successor entity or otherwise as part of a corporate transaction; 
6. among our businesses and affiliated companies; and
7. when you direct us to share your information.  

We may also share information in a manner that does not identify you, such as de-identified or aggregated information. Such information is not subject to this Privacy Policy.

3.1 Through Our Platform

We share some of the information that we collect by displaying it on our Platform according to your member profile and account settings. Some information, such as username, is always public. Some information, such as interests, is public by default, but can be hidden on our Platform. Some information, such as group memberships, will always be visible to other members of that Meetup group, and may be public, depending on the settings of that group. We recommend that you check the group settings and what information will be available before joining the group to ensure that you are happy with the information that is visible to others. For more information, see this article on Account Privacy and Visibility and this article on Group Content Visibility. 

Information that is public on our Platform is visible to others on and off the Platform.

3.2 Group Networks

If you are a member of a group, this group may now or in the future become part of a network of groups known as a “Meetup Pro” network. Members who administer a Meetup Pro network, known as “network administrators” have access to the content within their groups, including information about group participants. Network administrators find it helpful to have access to the email addresses of organizers and other members of groups within their networks, to easily communicate with and administer the groups. Therefore, we will provide ways for you to share your email address with your group’s network administrator. See this article for more information about Network Administrators, Organizers, and their Members.

3.3 With Our Service Providers

We may use service providers in connection with operating and improving the Platform to assist with certain business purposes, such as payment processing, email transmission, conducting surveys or contests, data hosting, managing our ads, and some aspects of our technical and customer support. These service providers, which include data analytics providers (as discussed further in Section 3.5 below), may access, process, and store information about you on our behalf for the purposes we authorize, subject to confidentiality obligations.

3.4 With our Analytics and Advertising Partners

We may share information we have collected about you with others or allow others to use technologies (like cookies, web beacons, and device identifiers) that collect information about your use of the Platform and other websites and online services, to provide analytic services and to serve ads for Meetup.  For example, our Platform is affiliated with Freestar for the purposes of placing advertising on the Platform, and Freestar, will collect and use certain data for advertising purposes. To learn more about Freestar’s data usage, click here. See our Cookie Policy for details about these technologies and the information that they collect, use, or share, including how you may be able to control or disable these services.

Depending on where you live, you may have the right to opt-out of the sharing of your personal information for purposes of targeted advertising (targeting ads based on consumer activity across other sites and services). Meetup provides you the opportunity to opt-out of this sharing, as described in Section 5 below.

3.5 Following The Law And Protecting Meetup

We may access, preserve, and disclose information about you to government entities and other third parties, including the content of messages, if we believe disclosure is in accordance with, or required by, applicable law, regulation, legal process, or audits. We may also disclose information about you if we believe that your actions are inconsistent with our Terms of Service or related guidelines and policies, or if necessary to protect the rights, property, or safety of, or prevent fraud or abuse of, Meetup or others. 

3.6 Social Sharing And Other Tools

The Platform may offer social sharing features and other integrated tools which let you share actions that you take on our Platform with third-party services, and vice versa. Such features let you share information with your friends or the public, depending on the settings you have chosen with the service. For more information, see this article on Sharing Meetup events on Social Media and this article on Connecting your Social Media Account. The third-party services' use of the information will be governed by the third parties’ privacy policies, and we do not control the third parties’ use of the shared data. For more information about the purpose and scope of data collection and processing in connection with social sharing features, please review the privacy policies of the services that provide these features.

3.7 Affiliate Sharing And Merger, Sale, Or Other Asset Transfers

If Meetup is involved in a merger, acquisition, financing, reorganization, bankruptcy, or sale of our assets, information about you may be shared, sold, or transferred as part of that transaction. We may also share information about you with current or future corporate parents, subsidiaries, or affiliates.

3.8 Other Situations

We may de-identify or aggregate information about you and share it freely, so that you can no longer be identified. Such information is not subject to this Privacy Policy.

We may also share information about you with your consent or at your direction or where we are legally entitled to do so. For example, your information may be shared with event sponsors and others as described to you when you RSVP to an event.  Your information also is made available to other group members and event organizers when you RSVP for and participate in an event. 

4. Additional Details

Summary:

1. Meetup is based in and governed by U.S. law and we will be processing, transferring, and storing information in and to the U.S. and other countries.
2. We have implemented technical and organizational measures to protect your personal information. We cannot guarantee these controls will provide absolute security.
3. This Privacy Policy is periodically updated, and does not apply to third parties.

4.1 Transfer Of Information To The U.S. And Other Countries

Meetup is based in the United States. Information about you will be transferred to, and processed in, the U.S. and countries other than the country in which you are resident. These countries may have data protection laws that are different to the laws of your country and, in some cases, may not be as protective. We have taken appropriate safeguards, such as standard contractual clauses, to require that your information will remain protected in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

4.2 Security

We employ technical and organizational measures designed to protect your information that is under our control and that we process on your behalf from unauthorized access, collection, use, disclosure, copying, modification, or disposal, both during transmission and once we receive it. For example, we store all information that you provide to us on servers on which security controls are used. We train employees regarding our data privacy policies and procedures, and authorize employees to access personal information as required for their role. We use firewalls designed to protect against intruders and test for network vulnerabilities. However, no method of transmission over the internet or method of electronic storage is completely secure.

Where you have a password, which enables you to use our services, you are responsible for keeping this password complex, secure, and confidential. If you would like to update or change your password, you may select the “Forgot your password?” link on the login page. You will be sent an email that allows you to reset your password.

4.3 Data Retention

We may temporarily de-activate your account if you have not logged in for six months or more. You may contact us if you wish to reactivate your account.

We retain certain information that we collect from you while you visit or are a member of the Platform, and in certain cases where you have deleted your account, for the following business purposes:

1. So you can use our Platform;
2. To ensure that we do not communicate with you if you have asked us not to;
3. To provide you with a refund, if entitled;
4. To provide accurate accounting information to other members about the groups that they organize or administer, and associated memberships;
5. To better understand the traffic to our Platform so that we can provide all members with the best possible experience;
6. To detect and prevent abuse of our Platform, illegal activities and breaches of our Terms of Service; and
7. To comply with applicable legal, tax or accounting requirements.

When we have no ongoing legitimate business need to process your information, we will either delete it or take steps to de-identify or anonymize it in accordance with applicable law.

4.4 Policy Scope

This Privacy Policy does not apply to information that you have provided or made accessible to third parties, such as other members, including group organizers and network administrators, and others with whom you may share information about yourself. Our Platform may direct you to a third-party service, such as social media services, or a portion of our Platform may be controlled by a third party (typically through the use of a frame or pop-up window separate from other content on our Platform). Disclosure of information to these third parties is subject to the relevant third party’s privacy policy. We are not responsible for the third-party privacy policy or content, even if we link to those services from our Platform or if we share information with these third parties.

Members, including group organizers and network administrators, are directly responsible for complying with all requirements of applicable privacy laws in connection with the information that they obtain and process for the purposes of managing their contacts, organizing and communicating with groups, or administering networks.

4.5 Revisions To This Policy

We may modify this Privacy Policy from time to time. When we do, we will provide notice to you by publishing the most current version and revising the date at the top of this page. Depending on the circumstances, we may provide additional notice to you of changes to this Privacy Policy, such as by sending you an email or by displaying a prominent notice on our Platform.

5. Your Choices

Summary:

1. You can review and change information about you or deactivate your account in your account settings, but we may retain certain information.
2. You can remove photo tags if you wish.
3. Consult your device settings for information about how to deactivate location-based features at any time.
4. You have the right to opt out of receiving Meetup’s promotional messages, but you may still receive other non-promotional communications.

5.1 Your Choices: Account Information

You may update or correct your account information by editing your account settings or by sending a request to privacy@meetup.com as described in Section 6 and Section 7. You may deactivate your account by editing your account settings. You may also request deletion of your information as described in Section 6 and Section 7.  You will also be able to choose what information others see about you and who may contact you by using the Privacy Settings section in your Account.

5.2 Your Choices: Location Information

When you first access the Platform, depending on your device settings, we will collect information about your location, which we use to make better recommendations for groups and events in your area, and to improve our Platform. If you do not want us to collect information about your location, then you can prevent this by taking the following steps:

1. If using a mobile app, by changing the settings on your device.
2. If using our website, your approximate location information will be obtained via a cookie. Please refer to our Cookie Policy for additional information on how to manage our use of cookies.

Note that our Platform or its features may no longer function properly if you change your settings.

Your mobile device settings may also give you the option to choose whether to allow us to view your geolocation on a continuous basis, only when using the app, or never. Allowing us to view your geolocation when you are not using the app allows us to provide you with recommendations on a regular basis. Please refer to your device’s guide for additional information on how to adjust location services.

5.3 Your Choices: Cookies

We may use and allow others to use cookies, web beacons, device identifiers, and other technologies to collect information about your use of the Platform and other websites and online services. See our Cookie Policy for details about these technologies and the information that they collect, use, or share, including how you may be able to control or disable these services.

As stated above in Section 3.4, depending on where you live, you may have the right to opt out of the sharing or processing of your personal information for purposes of targeted advertising (targeting ads based on consumer activity across other sites and services), and you may be able to use your Cookie Settings to select cookies you would like to opt opt-out of, including those used for targeted advertising purposes.

5.4 Your Choices: Promotional Communications

You can control some of the messages that you receive from Meetup and other members by selecting the unsubscribe link in the message that you receive, or by adjusting the communication preferences in your account settings. We will also send you a link to these settings when you first sign up and in subsequent messages. If you opt out, we may still send you non-promotional messages, such as those about your account or our ongoing business relations. In addition, please consult the privacy policies of other members for information about how to control or opt out of promotional messages from them off the Platform.

5.5 Your Choices: Photo Tagging

You can tag photos of yourself and others. When a photo has been tagged it means that the name of that person will appear alongside the photo, and the tagged photo will appear on the tagged member’s group profile.

 We will notify you when another member has tagged your account in a photo or when additional comments are added to such photos. You can remove tags by selecting the “untag” option next to your name. You can also report inappropriate content to Meetup. You are responsible for obtaining permission from non-members to post a photo of them on the Platform.  

6. Data Rights

Summary:

1. You may have the right to exercise data protection rights, including to request that Meetup deletes, amends, or provides you access to your information.
2. You may have the right to opt out of the sharing or processing of your personal information for the purposes of targeted advertising.
3. You have the right to opt out of receiving Meetup’s promotional messages, but you may still receive other communications.
4. You can complain to your local data protection authority about the use of your information.

We respond to all requests that we receive from individuals who wish to exercise their data protection rights in accordance with applicable data protection laws. You can contact us with your request by sending an email to privacy@meetup.com. You can also request deletion of your account and personal information by filling out the form available in this Help Center article: "Request permanent deletion of your data." You must be logged in to your Meetup account to view this article and access the form.

Rights that you may have, depending on the jurisdiction in which you live, may include:

• Accessing, correcting,  or requesting deletion of your information.

• Appealing a decision Meetup has made about an access, correction, or deletion request. 

• Opting out of the sharing of your personal information for targeted advertising. To exercise your right to opt-out of these kinds of advertising, please follow the instructions found in the “Opting Out” section of our Cookie Policy and as described in Section 5.3 above.

• Objecting to processing of your information, asking us to restrict processing of your information, or requesting the portability of your information.

• Opting out from receiving marketing communications that we send you at any time. You can exercise this right by selecting the “unsubscribe” or “opt-out” link in the marketing emails we send you. Additionally, you may update your email preferences by changing the settings in your account.

• Withdrawing your consent at any time if we have collected and processed your information with your consent. Withdrawing your consent will not affect the lawfulness of any processing that we conducted prior to your withdrawal, nor will it affect processing of your information conducted in reliance on lawful processing grounds other than consent.

• Complaining to a data protection authority about our collection and use of your information. For more information, please contact your local data protection authority. Contact details for data protection authorities in the European Union are available here.

Note that Meetup is a controller of your information. Other members, such as group organizers and network administrators, may also act as controllers of your information. You should contact these members if you have any questions about how they use information that you have provided to them.

We will not discriminate against you for exercising your rights and choices, although some of the functionality and features available on the Platform may change or no longer be available to you.  

7. California Privacy Rights

During the preceding 12 months, Meetup has collected, used, and shared the categories of personal information described above in this Privacy Policy. We do not consider the ways we share your information as a “sale” for purposes of California law. California residents have certain rights to access, correct and delete their personal information and to request transparency about our privacy practices.  If you would like to access or delete your information, or otherwise exercise your rights under the CCPA, please see Section 6. Once we receive your request, we may verify it by requesting information sufficient to confirm your identity, including by asking you for additional information. If you choose to exercise your rights, we will not charge you different prices or provide different quality of services for exercising your rights unless those differences are permitted by law. 

If you are a California resident and would like to use an agent registered with the California Secretary of State to exercise your rights, we may request evidence that you have provided such agent with power of attorney or that the agent otherwise has valid written authority to submit requests to exercise rights on your behalf.  

Do-Not-Track Signals. Some mobile and web browsers transmit "do-not-track" signals. Because of differences in how web browsers incorporate and activate this feature, it is not always clear whether users intend for these signals to be transmitted, or whether they even are aware of them. We currently do not take action in response to these signals.

8. Information for Korean Residents

If you are a resident in the Republic of Korea, you can find specific information on how we use your personal information here.

9. Contact Us

Summary: If you have any questions, you can contact us at privacy@meetup.com.

Under European data protection law, the controller of your information is Meetup LLC.

If you have any questions or complaints about this Privacy Policy or how we use your information, please contact privacy@meetup.com.

If you are located in the European Economic Area, you can also contact Meetup’s GDPR representative:

VeraSafe Ireland Ltd.
Unit 3D North Point House
North Point Business Park
New Mallow Road
Cork T23AT2P
Ireland
Contact form: https://verasafe.com/public-resources/contact-data-protection-representative

If you are located in the United Kingdom, you can also contact Meetup’s UK GDPR representative:

VeraSafe United Kingdom Ltd.
37 Albert Embankment
London SE1 7TL
United Kingdom
Contact form: https://verasafe.com/public-resources/contact-data-protection-representative