What Axios knows about you
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Illustration: Rebecca Zisser/Axios
Editor's note: This was published in 2019, and Axios has since updated its privacy policy.
If you are a reader of Axios, either through our website or newsletters, we've collected some information about you.
Why it matters: We've written extensively about the data collection practices of big tech platforms. Media companies make money from free, ad-supported content and, in some cases, reader subscriptions — both of which require some level of data collection. Since we're turning this lens on so many other companies, we want to do our best to turn it on ourselves as well.
How Axios gets information: Today, Axios makes money primarily through advertisements on its website and newsletters.
- When you sign up for newsletters, you provide an email address and the topics you are interested in. You also provide certain information when completing surveys or entering contests.
- Axios does not collect any information when readers contact its newsroom through its email tip-line.
- Axios uses "cookies" and other technology to track how you interact with Axios content. This information does not reveal who you are, but it is used to help tailor ads that are displayed while you are on the site.
- Axios gets information from third-party data providers to learn more about you. For example, if you are a registered Axios user and also a registered user or another news site, and allow that site to share your info with other data providers, that data provider can share those details with Axios.
How Axios uses data: Your data is primarily used to deliver Axios services you've signed up for, like newsletters, to you.
- Axios removes personally identifiable information, like your name, to make anonymous information for statistics. This info is used to determine which articles are most popular, how users are getting to those articles and how often they may return to the site.
- Using anonymized data, Axios shares ad performance data back to advertisers. This may include how many people viewed or clicked on an ad, or your estimated income range based on data from a third-party vendor.
Axios may market other services to you if you've registered as a user. This is done in three ways:
- Based on information you provided, information collected via cookies on the site and information we may get from data providers.
- Axios partners with social media platforms like Facebook. For example, Axios might ask Facebook to monitor its website to identify users who read Axios, and then ask it to advertise a new economics newsletter to users who recently read an Axios economics article. (Facebook does not share your personal info with Axios.)
- Axios may share your information, like an email address, with its partners if you access Axios through a partner's service — but only to help deliver the most appropriate content to you or to manage your subscription.
What Axios doesn't do with your data: Axios does not track your location, or track your activity on sites that are not owned by Axios.
- Axios does not sell personally identifiable information to data brokers.
- Axios does not collect information on people beyond the content they read on the site and some data related to it, like their general location when they read it.
- If, based on your IP address, we believe you are outside the U.S., Axios does not collect any data about you or serve ads to you.
What you can do: If you don't want Axios to collect any data about you, you can:
- Unsubscribe to Axios newsletters or promotional emails (every email has an "unsubscribe" link).
- Change your browser settings to block cookies.
Read Axios' privacy policy (updated April 2021).
Go deeper: Read the rest of the series.
