Groupon changes privacy policy; prepares for Groupon Now

If you’ve ever purchased a daily deal from Groupon, I’m sure you got an email notification from the massive social buying site about an update to its privacy policy. While you may have glanced over the title of the email and immediately deleted it, you will want to know that Groupon is changing its privacy policies to allow it to collect more information from you as it offers more deals targeted to users based on their locations.

Groupon sent an email to its 83 million subscribers on Sunday saying that the new policies are part of an effort to make for better transparency about the way it handles private information about its users. Below is the email that Groupon sent to its users:

“Dear Groupon Customer,

We want to let you know that we've updated both our Privacy Statement and our Terms of Use. These new terms, which affect all Groupon users, accommodate our new products and services that allow us to offer you more relevant deals, including Groupon Now! They also address how we are partnering with companies to offer users new deal categories – for example, travel deals with Expedia.

You can read about this here where we summarize the notable changes, in plain English. If you want all the details you'll find our new policies here. We encourage you to read them.

Questions or comments? Email us at [email protected].”

Groupon Now is on the brink of launching its mobile-based service and will offer instant deals based on a user’s location. Groupon says it may collect geo-location information from its users’ phones and use it as a marketing opportunity and deals.

Groupon has broadened its definition of personal information to include “interests and habits” and admits that its newest partnership with Expedia would make for sharing of personal information with travel sites if users opt-into the travel deal branch.