Privacy Policy
DreamHost updated its Privacy Policy on September 3, 2026. The main change: DreamHost now says it may hand over limited customer information — like a scrambled ("hashed") version of your email address and basic purchase details — to its advertising partners, so it can measure how well its ads work and target them better. The old text only described advertising partners using cookies. A contact email was also written out in plain text, and one sentence about California privacy rights was edited but left with blank section numbers.
Your masked email and purchase history may go to advertising companies
DreamHost now says it may send advertising partners a scrambled version of your email address and basic details about what you bought. Ad companies commonly use hashed emails to match you to a profile they already have — so even though the address is scrambled, it can still be used to identify you across other sites and apps. This is broader than the old wording, which only mentioned cookies. DreamHost still says it does not "sell" data under California law.
“To measure how well our advertising works and to avoid showing certain ads to our current customers, we may share limited, and obfuscated, hashed, or anonymized information, such as a masked version of your email address or basic purchase details, with our advertising partners.”
What you can do — Use the "Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information" link in the footer of dreamhost.com to open the Privacy Preference Center and turn off Targeting/Advertising cookies, and opt out of interest-based ads at networkadvertising.org/choices.
Ad partners may now receive purchase events, not just tracking cookies
Section 7.3 changed from simply using outside platforms to run ads into a statement that DreamHost may pass along masked contact details and purchase events. "De-identified" is DreamHost's own description — there is no promise the partner cannot re-link that data to you, and no list of which partners get it.
“we may share limited, de-identified information, such as masked contact details or basic purchase events, with these partners to measure whether our ads are effective and to ensure they are reaching the right people”
What you can do — Opt out through the Privacy Preference Center in the DreamHost site footer, and check your ad preferences in the DreamHost Panel Privacy page.
The California opt-out sentence has blank section numbers
The policy now tells California residents that sharing happens "for purposes described in Sections , and above" — with the numbers missing. That makes it harder to know exactly which data-sharing practices you are opting out of when you use the Do Not Sell or Share link.
“We may, however, share limited personal information with trusted partners for purposes described in Sections , and above.”
What you can do — If you want clarity on what the opt-out covers, email DreamHost at PrivacyPolicy@DreamHost.com and ask which sections apply.
| 1 | 1 | #### Last Updated: |
| 2 | 2 | |
| 3 | August 27, 2026 | |
| 3 | September 3, 2026 | |
± CHANGEDLast-updated date changed The policy date moved from August 27, 2026 to September 3, 2026. | ||
| 4 | 4 | |
| 5 | 5 | DreamHost's Vision Statement: People have the freedom to choose how their digital content is shared. |
| 6 | 6 | |
| 7 | 7 | This Privacy Policy explains what we do to minimize the data we process and to protect that which we do collect. We recommend that you read this Policy in full. However, because the way in which we process data will depend on the service you use (and because we recognize that your time is limited and precious) you may decide to use the links below to navigate directly to the sections of the Notice which are relevant to you. |
| 8 | 8 | |
| 9 | 9 | If you have questions about our practices or any of your rights described below, you may contact us at [\[email protected\]](https://dreamhost.com/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection). This inbox is actively monitored and managed so that we can deliver an experience you can trust. |
| 59 | 59 | **2.4 Information we collect from third party sources** |
| 60 | 60 | |
| 61 | 61 | **2.4.1** In our capacity as a data controller, we may collect information from third parties. This may include information from partners in order to maintain functionality of your Services (such as domain name registrations and third-party email suites). We may combine this data with information we already have so that we can properly update, analyze, and expand our Services. This information will only be used for the specific reason for which it was provided to us. |
| 62 | 62 | |
| 63 | 63 | **2.4.2** We may collect publicly available business contact information from third-party sources to identify potential customers in the United States. This information may include business names, physical addresses, and other relevant contact details. We use this information solely for direct business-to-business marketing purposes, such as sending promotional materials about our services via postal mail. |
| 64 | 64 | |
| 65 | We do not collect sensitive personal data in this process, and we limit the use of this data to legitimate business interests. If your business has received marketing communication from us and you wish to opt out of future contact, please follow the opt-out instructions included in the mailing or contact us directly at [\[email protected\]](https://dreamhost.com/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection#9acae8f3ecfbf9e3caf5f6f3f9e3dadee8fffbf7d2f5e9eeb4f9f5f7). | |
| 65 | We do not collect sensitive personal data in this process, and we limit the use of this data to legitimate business interests. If your business has received marketing communication from us and you wish to opt out of future contact, please follow the opt-out instructions included in the mailing or contact us directly at PrivacyPolicy@DreamHost.com. | |
± CHANGEDMarketing opt-out email now shown in plain text The email address for opting out of business marketing mail is now written out as PrivacyPolicy@DreamHost.com instead of being hidden behind a protected link. This makes it easier to find and use. | ||
| 66 | 66 | |
| 67 | 67 | **Our Website** |
| 68 | 68 | |
| 69 | 69 | #### 3\. What information do we collect when you use or visit our website? |
| 70 | 70 | |
| 71 | 71 | **3.1.1** Information you provide |
| 79 | 79 | We may combine this automatically-collected log information with other information we collect about you. We do this to improve services we offer you, to improve marketing, analytics or site functionality. |
| 80 | 80 | |
| 81 | 81 | Our Website contains social media features such as the Facebook button and other widgets that operate on our Website. These features may collect information such as your IP address and the pages you are visiting on our site, and may set a cookie to enable the feature to function properly. Social media features and widgets are either hosted by a third party or hosted directly on the Website. Your interactions with these features are governed by the privacy statement of the company providing the applicable feature. |
| 82 | 82 | |
| 83 | 83 | We offer various AI-powered features to assist our users. When you interact with these tools, we may collect information such as text inputs and generated outputs. We may review this information to understand user needs and improve our overall service offerings. For more details on how this specific data is handled, please review our [AI Tools Terms](https://dreamhost.com/legal/ai-tools-terms/). |
| 84 | 84 | |
| 85 | Targeted advertisements or interest based offers may be presented to you based on your activities on our webpages, other websites and based on products you currently own. These offers will display as varying product banners presented to you while browsing. We also partner with third parties to manage our advertising on our webpages and other websites. Our third party partners may use features like cookies to gather information about such activities in order to provide you with advertising based upon your browsing activities and interests and to measure advertising effectiveness. If you wish to opt out of interest-based advertising [click here](http://www.networkadvertising.org/choices/). | |
| 85 | Targeted advertisements or interest based offers may be presented to you based on your activities on our webpages, other websites and based on products you currently own. These offers will display as varying product banners presented to you while browsing. We also partner with third parties to manage our advertising on our webpages and other websites. Our third party partners may use features like cookies to gather information about such activities in order to provide you with advertising based upon your browsing activities and interests and to measure advertising effectiveness. To measure how well our advertising works and to avoid showing certain ads to our current customers, we may share limited, and obfuscated, hashed, or anonymized information, such as a masked version of your email address or basic purchase details, with our advertising partners. If you wish to opt out of interest-based advertising [click here](http://www.networkadvertising.org/choices/). | |
± CHANGEDDreamHost may now send your masked email and purchase info to ad partners The advertising section on the website now says DreamHost may share limited information — such as a scrambled version of your email address or basic purchase details — with its advertising partners. Before, the policy only described those partners using cookies to track browsing. DreamHost says the shared data is masked, hashed, or anonymized, and that it is used to measure ad performance and to avoid showing certain ads to existing customers. | ||
| 86 | 86 | |
| 87 | 87 | **3.2** How We Use Cookies |
| 88 | 88 | |
| 89 | 89 | 1. **Essential Cookies** enable you to use our Website. These Cookies are essential to enable you to browse our Website and use certain features you have specifically requested. Disabling them may prevent you from using certain parts of the Website. For example, without these Cookies, services such as account creation and login functions cannot be provided. These types of Cookies allow us to: |
| 90 | 90 | |
| 91 | 91 | - Record that you are logged into your account; |
| 145 | 145 | **7.1** With the exception of trusted business affiliates and/or associates who work on behalf of or in connection with us, we will not provide to or sell to any third party your personal information and will keep all such data confidential. For example, we share information with third parties where the functionality and maintenance of our Services depends on it (such as sharing data with domain registries in order to maintain your Services or domain registrations). |
| 146 | 146 | |
| 147 | 147 | _Third parties and trusted affiliates or associates_ |
| 148 | 148 | |
| 149 | 149 | **7.2** We may contract with third parties to assist us in optimizing our Services, including assistance related to the authorization and processing of payments, fulfilment of service requests, and requests for assistance. |
| 150 | 150 | |
| 151 | **7.3** We may utilize third-party platforms to provide web-based and email-based advertisements for our Services after you have visited and left our Website. | |
| 151 | **7.3** We may use third-party platforms to advertise our Services. To do this responsibly, we may share limited, de-identified information, such as masked contact details or basic purchase events, with these partners to measure whether our ads are effective and to ensure they are reaching the right people. | |
± CHANGEDThird-party advertising section rewritten to describe data sharing Section 7.3 used to say only that DreamHost may use outside platforms to show you ads after you leave its website. It now adds that DreamHost may share limited, de-identified information — such as masked contact details or basic purchase events — with those advertising partners to measure ad effectiveness and target the right people. | ||
| 152 | 152 | |
| 153 | 153 | **7.4** We engage third-party analytics partners to help us understand how visitors use our site and to improve our services. These services may collect information like your device type, browser, IP address, and the search terms you enter on our site, as well as interaction data such as clicks, scrolling, and navigation patterns. We do not share direct personal identifiers, such as your name or email address, with these partners. We use this information to analyze and enhance your DreamHost experience. |
| 154 | 154 | |
| 155 | 155 | _Law enforcement_ |
| 156 | 156 | |
| 157 | 157 | **7.5** DreamHost's primary business operations are located in California in the United States and we are subject to the laws and regulations in that jurisdiction. We may be called upon by various law enforcement agencies to comply with ongoing investigations. Compliance may include the secure handover of client data to a legally-authorized government agency. |
| 167 | 167 | **8.2** If you are a resident of the EEA you also have the following data protection rights: |
| 168 | 168 | |
| 169 | 169 | 1. you can object to processing of your personal information, ask us to restrict processing of your personal information or request portability of your personal information. |
| 170 | 170 | 2. if we have collected and processed your personal information with your consent, then you can withdraw your consent at any time. Withdrawing your consent will not affect the lawfulness of any processing we conducted prior to your withdrawal, nor will it affect processing of your personal information conducted in reliance on lawful processing grounds other than consent. |
| 171 | 171 | 3. you have the right to complain to a data protection authority about our collection and use of your personal information. Contact details for data protection authorities in the EU are available here: https://ec.europa.eu/justice/article-29/structure/data-protection-authorities/index\_en.htm |
| 172 | 172 | |
| 173 | DreamHost does not, and does not intend to, sell personal information as "selling" is defined under the California Consumer Privacy Act ("CCPA"), as amended by the California Privacy Rights Act ("CPRA"). We may, however, share limited personal information with trusted partners for purposes described in above. You can opt out of this sharing at any time using the "Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information" link in the footer of our website, which opens our Privacy Preference Center, or as described in below. | |
| 173 | DreamHost does not, and does not intend to, sell personal information as "selling" is defined under the California Consumer Privacy Act ("CCPA"), as amended by the California Privacy Rights Act ("CPRA"). We may, however, share limited personal information with trusted partners for purposes described in Sections , and above. You can opt out of this sharing at any time using the "Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information" link in the footer of our website, which opens our Privacy Preference Center, or as described in below. | |
± CHANGEDCalifornia sharing sentence edited but left with missing section numbers The sentence about sharing limited personal information with trusted partners was changed to point at specific sections, but the section numbers were left blank — it now reads "Sections , and above." You cannot tell from the policy which practices this opt-out covers. | ||
| 174 | 174 | |
| 175 | 175 | California residents who wish to submit requests for information pursuant to Sections 1798.110 and 1798.115 of the CCPA may do so by emailing [\[email protected\]](https://dreamhost.com/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection). |
| 176 | 176 | |
| 177 | 177 | #### 9\. Your Choices |
| 178 | 178 | |
| 179 | 179 | **9.1** Contact information: DreamHost customers with established accounts may review and alter the contact information associated with their DreamHost account(s) in the [DreamHost Panel](https://panel.dreamhost.com/id/index.cgi). |