Skip to main content
Advertising
Sign in

You run your business. We’ll help you find your customers. LEARN MORE & SIGN UP >

Privacy and data protection policies

Protecting consumers’ privacy and data is important to Microsoft Advertising. We provide the policies on this page to help advertisers ensure that this protection is attained

Advertising is not allowed for websites whose main or sole purpose is the collection of personal data, intended as any information that can be used — either alone or in combination with others — to locate an individual, to be used for consumer or promotional marketing, or actions related to such purposes. This includes advertising for pages that link or redirect to such sites.

  • Sites may not collect personal information without the user’s consent.
  • Collection of sensitive information, such as financial, healthcare, government issued IDs, etc., must be performed on a site hosted on a secure server, such as SSL (https) and only when strictly necessary.
Illustration showing a search ad leading to a credit card application on a site not hosted by a secure server.
  • As an advertiser, it is your responsibility to comply with all applicable laws and regulations related to your collection and use of personal data. If you collect personal data, you must do so securely.

Privacy policy

You must provide a prominent link from your landing page — or include within the landing page — a privacy policy that is applicable to the information being collected. This privacy policy must:

  • Clearly and prominently include the name of the company that is collecting the personal information.
  • Clearly state the purpose of the information being collected.
  • Provide opt-out instructions, as applicable.
  • Other information, as required by applicable laws and regulations.
  • If you have enabled Universal Event Tracking, or search remarketing, please review the specific policy for additional applicable requirements.

Example of proper privacy notification and titling:

Illustration showing an ad leading to a credit card application page featuring a link to a privacy policy, then to a privacy policy page.

Phishing

Phishing sites that try to trick visitors into sharing personal data for fraudulent purposes, such as stealing one’s identity, for example, are prohibited.
Illustration showing an ad leading to a landing page requesting personal data for fradulent purposes.

For more information on compliant collection of personal data, please see the Relevance and quality policies.

To report a site suspected of phishing, please use the Low quality ad submission & escalation form.

Help icon Help with Microsoft Advertising policies

         Use these links for more help with Microsoft Advertising policies.