timms brand design

Follow the rules

Up until now, Pinterest has been a relatively rule-free place for brands. Brands have been able to use the site in pretty much any way they want to with little to no limitations on promotions or running competitions. But with the new business profiles, Pinterest has launched a new set of guidelines that brands have to follow. The business terms of use can be found here and feature important rules such as:

Owning your content
As is the way with Facebook, Pinterest’s terms for brands state that any content you upload onto your profile essentially remains the property of Pinterest, even after you delete your account. They state specifically that “Pinterest and its users may retain and continue to use, store, display, reproduce, re-pin, modify, create derivative works, perform, and distribute any of your User Content that other users have stored or shared through Pinterest.” The inclusion of users here is quite vague as it doesn’t cover whether this use or modification of your works extends beyond the Pinterest platform, which may cause concern for many brands.

Use of information
Pinterest’s business terms now state that if you incorporate Pinterest features onto your site or app that “Pinterest may collect and use information from you and your users as described in our Privacy Policy”. This is a fairly standard practice for web services now, particularly given the importance of data generation as a currency for social networks to trade with among advertisers.