The policy prohibits advertisers from targeting users based on sensitive personal information categories including health conditions, sexual orientation, religious beliefs, and political views, and prohibits the use of custom audience data derived from such categories.
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This provision establishes categorical prohibitions on sensitive-attribute targeting that interact with GDPR special category data restrictions and FTC guidance on sensitive data in advertising, and places affirmative obligations on advertisers not to import audience data based on these attributes.
Interpretive note: Exact verbatim text was not recoverable from the provided HTML source. The provision reflects Snap's known sensitive category targeting restrictions as documented at this page's canonical URL.
This provision establishes that Snapchat users will not be targeted with ads based on their health conditions, sexual orientation, religious beliefs, or political views as a matter of platform policy, and that advertisers are prohibited from uploading custom audience lists based on these attributes.
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"Advertisers may not use sensitive personal information including health conditions, sexual orientation, religious beliefs, or political views as the basis for ad targeting. Snap's targeting tools do not permit targeting based on these categories, and advertisers may not use custom audience data derived from these categories.— Excerpt from Snapchat Ads's Snapchat Advertising Policies
1. REGULATORY LANDSCAPE: This provision directly engages GDPR Article 9's prohibitions on processing special category personal data (health data, religious beliefs, political opinions, sexual orientation) for advertising purposes without explicit consent. It also interacts with FTC guidance on sensitive data and the CCPA's provisions on sensitive personal information. The ICO's guidance on online advertising and special category data is directly relevant for EU and UK campaigns. 2. GOVERNANCE EXPOSURE: High from a data privacy perspective. Advertisers who attempt to import audience lists derived from health data, religious affiliation data, or sexual orientation data to Snapchat's custom audiences feature would violate both this policy and likely applicable data protection law. The prohibition applies both to Snap's own targeting tools and to advertiser-supplied custom audience data. 3. JURISDICTION FLAGS: GDPR special category data protections apply across all EU/EEA member states and the UK, creating the highest compliance exposure for EU/EEA and UK campaigns. California CPRA's sensitive personal information provisions create additional obligations for California-targeted campaigns. Illinois BIPA and other state privacy laws may impose additional constraints on biometric or health data-derived audiences. 4. CONTRACT AND VENDOR IMPLICATIONS: Data management platforms and customer data platform vendors supplying audience segments to Snapchat campaigns must be assessed for compliance with this restriction. Contractual representations from data vendors that their segments do not include sensitive category attributes should be obtained and documented. 5. COMPLIANCE CONSIDERATIONS: Compliance teams should audit all custom audience lists used in Snapchat campaigns to confirm they do not contain or are not derived from sensitive personal information categories; review data vendor agreements for representations on sensitive data exclusion; and document the technical controls used to ensure sensitive attributes are not included in audience data uploads.
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This provision establishes categorical prohibitions on sensitive-attribute targeting that interact with GDPR special category data restrictions and FTC guidance on sensitive data in advertising, and places affirmative obligations on advertisers not to import audience data based on these attributes.
This provision establishes that Snapchat users will not be targeted with ads based on their health conditions, sexual orientation, religious beliefs, or political views as a matter of platform policy, and that advertisers are prohibited from uploading custom audience lists based on these attributes.
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