"New York Times engages in aggressive data collection, tracking, and sharing practices comparable to major ad-tech platforms. The service collects extensive sensitive demographic data, shares it broadly with advertisers and data brokers including via hashed identifiers and identity partners like LiveRamp, and employs cross-site behavioral tracking via cookies, pixels, and proprietary matching services that users cannot fully opt out of while accessing core features. AI chatbot sessions are recorded for model training, offshore call centers handle personal data, and international transfers expose user information to foreign government access."
nytimes Privacy Concerns & Scorecard
Browser cookies mandatory to access certain site features, limiting true opt-out capability for cookie-dependent tracking
Data shared across corporate subsidiaries and with identity partners like LiveRamp for marketing purposes without clear restrictions
Extensive collection of sensitive demographic and personal data including political opinions, religion, ethnicity, race, health information, sexual orientation, and criminal background through surveys and inferences
Extensive cross-site behavioral tracking via cookies, pixels, SDKs, and proprietary matching services (Unified ID 2.0, LiveRamp, Comscore UDM 2.0) with default tracking and limited opt-out
Vague retention periods with indefinite storage for certain purposes and data retained even after account deletion for legal compliance
No recommended actions at this time.
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Data Collection & Tracking
Personal Information Collected
Account creation, communication, customer service, billing, and personalization
Audience segmentation, research, and targeted advertising
Targeted advertising, content personalization, and location-based services
Ad delivery, cross-device tracking, analytics, and security
Content recommendations, analytics, targeted advertising, and user profiling
Customer service, moderation, safety, research, and AI model training
Payment processing and order fulfillment
Account linking, referral programs, and social features
Targeted advertising, audience creation for advertisers, and user profiling
Content moderation, identity verification, and service delivery
Cross-Platform Tracking
NYT tracks users across multiple platforms and devices through cookies, pixels, mobile advertising IDs (IDFA), and proprietary matching services (Unified ID 2.0, LiveRamp's Authenticated Traffic Solution, Comscore UDM 2.0). Email addresses and phone numbers are converted into advertising identifiers and shared with advertisers to enable persistent cross-platform targeting. Affiliate link vendors track navigation and purchase behavior, and data is combined across devices for cross-channel advertising campaigns.
Tracking Methods:
Unified ID 2.0 (UID 2)
Proprietary identity solution that converts email addresses into persistent anonymous identifiers; enables cross-site behavioral tracking without third-party cookies
Cookies (First-Party & Third-Party)
Persistent and session cookies used for tracking across nytimes.com and partner sites; mandatory to access certain features; third-party cookies from advertisers and analytics vendors
Web Beacons & Pixels
Invisible pixels embedded in emails and web pages to track email opens, link clicks, and page views; enables email-to-web tracking
JavaScript Tags & SDKs
Scripts and software development kits from advertisers (AppsFlyer, LiveRamp, Comscore) embedded in NYT properties to track user behavior and send data to third parties
LiveRamp Authenticated Traffic Solution (ATS)
Third-party matching service that combines NYT's first-party data with LiveRamp's data assets to enable targeted advertising across partner sites
Comscore Unified Digital Measurement (UDM 2.0)
Analytics and measurement service that tracks user behavior across multiple publishers and websites
Mobile Advertising IDs
IDFA (iOS) and Google Advertising ID (Android) used to track users across mobile apps; converted to advertising identifiers for targeting
Login-Based Tracking
Email address and phone number converted to advertising identifiers upon login; enables persistent identification for authenticated and unauthenticated tracking
Clean Rooms
Data aggregation environment where NYT's first-party data is combined with advertiser data for audience matching and analysis without sharing raw data
Affiliate Link Tracking
Tracking parameters in affiliate links to monitor user navigation and purchases for commission purposes
AI & Data Training
nytimes uses your content to train AI
Below is what's used and how (if at all) you can object.
What Content Is Used
Chatbot Session Recordings
AI chatbot conversations are recorded and used for training AI models to improve service delivery and safety systems
Direct Messages and Chat Content
Direct messages are monitored by automated systems and used to train safety, moderation, and compliance detection models
Email Communications
Customer emails are processed by generative AI systems that review and respond to messages; content informs training of response generation models
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 nytimes
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.