"GoFundMe presents a high-risk privacy profile comparable to major social media platforms, collecting extensive sensitive personal data (health, political views, religion, biometric/facial recognition) and broadly sharing it with advertising networks, payment processors, and third-party vendors who operate as independent controllers. Session replay technology, cross-device tracking, and vague indefinite retention policies combined with misleading anonymity claims and international data transfers to lower-protection jurisdictions create significant privacy exposure."
gofundme Privacy Concerns & Scorecard
Data shared broadly with advertising networks (Facebook/Meta, Google, TikTok, LinkedIn, X, Apple, YouTube) for targeted advertising, including hashed email addresses and phone numbers provided to advertising partners
Extensive collection of sensitive personal data including health information, political opinions, religious beliefs, race/ethnicity, government-issued IDs, biometric data (facial recognition), financial account details, and contact lists imported from users' devices
Misleading anonymity claims; donations presented as anonymous but donor names remain visible to organizers, beneficiaries, and GoFundMe Pro Clients
Vague data retention policy with no specific timeframes; data retained indefinitely based on 'legitimate business operations' without clear deletion mechanisms
Extensive third-party tracking through cookies and mobile advertising IDs with cross-device capabilities used for targeted advertising and behavioral profiling
Cross-border data transfers to countries with less comprehensive data protection laws (Argentina, India, United States, Poland) without clear user notification of reduced protections
No recommended actions at this time.
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Data Collection & Tracking
Personal Information Collected
Account creation, verification, fraud prevention, identity confirmation
Fundraiser suggestions, content personalization, verifying fundraiser location authenticity
Processing payments and donations, fraud detection, fundraiser verification
Fundraiser categorization, content matching, recommendation algorithms
Service delivery, analytics, targeting, fraud prevention
Identity verification for fundraisers and accounts
Fundraiser suggestions, contact-based recommendations, account linking, data enrichment about non-users
Personalization, analytics, content recommendations, quality assurance, AI training
Customer support, quality assurance, AI model training and improvement
Fundraiser content display, location verification, metadata-based profiling
Profile completion, fundraiser context, profiling
Cross-Platform Tracking
GoFundMe tracks users across other sites and apps through third-party advertising pixels (Microsoft Bing, Podscribe), hashed email addresses shared with Facebook, Google, TikTok, LinkedIn, X, and Apple for behavioral targeting. Mobile advertising IDs enable cross-device tracking for targeted advertising purposes.
Tracking Methods:
Tracking Pixels
Microsoft Bing and Podscribe/Verifi tracking pixels embedded in GoFundMe pages to track user behavior across the web for advertising and analytics
Cookies & Similar Technologies
First-party and third-party cookies used for analytics, advertising, session management; users can manage preferences but non-essential tracking requires opt-in while essential tracking is mandatory
Mobile Advertising IDs
Collection of IDFA (Apple) and GAID (Android) advertising identifiers enabling cross-app and cross-device behavioral tracking for targeted advertising
Session Replay Technology
Client-side JavaScript recording user interactions (mouse movements, clicks, form inputs, taps, swipes) creating comprehensive behavioral profiles for analytics and quality assurance
Social Platform Integration
Integration with Facebook, Google, Apple, X, LinkedIn, YouTube enabling cross-platform tracking and data sharing; linked account activity visible on third-party platforms
Hashed Identifier Sharing
Hashed email addresses and phone numbers provided to advertising partners (Facebook, Google, TikTok) for audience matching and behavioral targeting across platforms
Photo Metadata Analysis
Automatic extraction of EXIF data from uploaded photos including embedded geolocation coordinates for location inference and profiling
AI & Data Training
gofundme uses your content to train AI
Below is what's used and how (if at all) you can object.
What Content Is Used
Chat Transcripts
Transcripts from AI interactions and customer support chats are retained and used for AI model training and quality assurance
User Interactions
Behavioral data including session replay, clicks, navigation patterns used for training recommendation and personalization models
Fundraiser Content
Fundraiser descriptions, titles, categories, and user-disclosed information used for content moderation and AI training purposes
How to Object
No opt-out available
This service does not currently provide a public way to opt out of AI training.
Why We Analyzed gofundme
TrueTerms automatically audits privacy policies and data practices using advanced machine learning to keep you informed and protected. This scorecard is based on the latest available public terms of service and privacy policies as of 2026.