Privacy Policy – LF Open Source

Effective Date: January 9, 2026

This Privacy Policy describes our policies and procedures about the collection, use, disclosure and sharing of your personal information or personal data when you use our websites (e.g., lfopensource.com, collectively, “Sites”). This Privacy Policy applies to activities by LF Open Source (“LFOS,” “we” or “us”). LFOS facilitates the hosting of events related to open collaboration and enables the access and use of application development platforms of third party application stores and distribution entities (each, a “Platform”) and the distribution of applications.

Capitalized terms that are not defined in this Privacy Policy have the meaning given them in our Terms of Use. In this Privacy Policy, “personal information” or “personal data” means information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person. Your use of our Sites, and the provision of any services via the Sites (“Services”), and any dispute over privacy, is subject to this Policy and our Terms of Use, including its applicable limitations on damages and the resolution of disputes. The LFOS Terms of Use are incorporated by reference into this Policy.

Personal Data That LFOS Collects

We collect information directly from individuals, from third parties, and automatically through the Sites. You do not have to provide us your personal information. However, if you choose not to disclose certain information, we will not be able to provide you with access to certain services or features, including participation in certain aspects of our open source projects.

Communications. When you communicate with us (via email, phone, through the Sites or otherwise), we may maintain a record of your communication.

Automatically Collected Data. In addition, LFOS may automatically collect the following information about Users’ use of the sites or services through cookies, web beacons, and other technologies: your domain name; your browser type and operating system; web pages you view; links you click; your IP address; the length of time you visit our Sites and or use our services; and the referring URL, or the webpage that led you to our Sites. We may combine this information with other information that we have collected about you, including, where applicable, your user name, name, and other personal information. Please see our cookie policy for more information about our use of cookies.

De-identified Data. We may de-identify and aggregate certain data we collect such that the data no longer identifies or can be linked to a particular User or an individual data subject (“De-identified Data”), subject to the terms of any applicable User agreements. We may use this data to improve our Services, analyze trends, publish market research, and for other marketing, research or statistical purposes, and may disclose such data to third parties for these specific purposes.

Purposes and Legal Bases for Our Using of Your Information

Purposes and Legitimate Interests

LFOS uses the information we collect for our legitimate business interests, which include the following purposes:

Providing our Sites and Services. To provide the Services and our Sites, to communicate with you about your use of our Sites and Services, to respond to your inquiries, provide troubleshooting of the Sites and for other purposes to support Users and the community.
Personalization. To tailor the content and information that we may send or display to you on our Sites and in our Services, to offer location customization and personalized help and instructions and to otherwise personalize your experiences.
Advertising. For targeting advertising to you on our Sites and third-party sites and measuring the effectiveness and reach of ads and services (through third-party ad networks and services).
Analytics. To gather metrics to better understand how Users access and use our Sites and Services and participate in our Projects; to evaluate and improve the Sites, including personalization, to develop new services; and to understand metrics regarding the community health of our Projects.
Compliance. To comply with legal obligations and requests. For example, to comply with laws that compel us to disclose information to public authorities, courts, law enforcement or regulators, maintain records for a certain period, or maintain records demonstrating enforcement and sublicensing of our trademarks and those of our Projects.
Business and Legal Operations. As part of our general business and legal operations (e.g., accounting, record keeping, and for other business administration purposes), and as necessary to establish, exercise and defend (actual and potential) legal claims.
Prevent Misuse. Where we believe necessary to investigate, prevent or take action regarding illegal activities, suspected fraud, situations involving potential threats to the safety of any person or violations of our Terms of Use or this Privacy Policy.

Purposes of Processing (see above)	Legal Bases of Processing (EU Users)
Providing our Sites and Services	● Our Legitimate Business Interests ● Necessary to the Performance of a Contract with You (upon your request, or as necessary to make the Services available) ● Compliance with Law


Operating our Open Source Projects	● Our Legitimate Business Interests ● Where Necessary to the Performance of a Contract with You (upon your request, or as necessary to make the Services available) ● Compliance with Law ● As necessary to establish, exercise and defend legal claims
Personalization	● Our Legitimate Business Interests
Advertising	● Our Legitimate Business Interests ● With Your Consent
Analytics	● Our Legitimate Business Interests
Compliance	● Our Legitimate Business Interests ● Compliance with Law ● As necessary to establish, exercise and defend legal claims
Business and Legal Operations	● Our Legitimate Business Interests ● Compliance with Law ● As necessary to establish, exercise and defend legal claims
Prevent Misuse	● Our Legitimate Business Interests ● Compliance with Law ● As necessary to establish, exercise and defend legal claims

Sharing of Information

We disclose information as set forth below, and where individuals have otherwise consented:

Service Providers.We may share your information with third party service providers who use this information to perform services for us, such as payment processors, hosting providers, auditors, advisors, contractors and consultants.
Affiliates. The information collected about you may be accessed by or shared with related companies and affiliates of LFOS, whose use and disclosure of your personal information is subject to this Privacy Policy, unless an affiliate has its own separate privacy policy. LFOS may also share with The Linux Foundation the same types of data as described above, doing so in the furtherance of enabling The Linux Foundation’s support of the open source projects for which LFOS makes binaries available. The Linux Foundation’s privacy policy is available at https://www.linuxfoundation.org/privacy/.
Organizational Events.We may disclose or transfer information, including personal information, as part of any merger, sale, and transfer of our assets, or restructuring of all or part of our business operations, bankruptcy, or similar event.
Legally Required.We may disclose your information if we are required to do so by law (including to law enforcement in the U.S. and other jurisdictions).
Protection of Rights.We may disclose information where we believe it necessary to respond to claims asserted against us or, comply with legal process (e.g., subpoenas or warrants), enforce or administer our agreements and terms, for fraud prevention, risk assessment, investigation, and protect the rights, property or safety of LFOS, its Users, or others.
Anonymized and Aggregated Data.We may share aggregate or de-identified information with third parties for research, marketing, analytics and other purposes, provided such information does not identify a particular individual.

Cookies, Tracking, and Interest-Based Ads

We and our third-party providers use cookies, clear GIFs/pixel tags, JavaScript, local storage, log files, and other mechanisms to automatically collect and record information about your usage and browsing activities on our Site and across third party sites or online services. We may combine this information with other information we collect about Users. Below, we provide a brief summary these activities. For more detailed information about these mechanisms and how we collect activity information, see our Cookie Policy.

Cookies. These are small files with a unique identifier that are transferred to your browser through our websites. They allow us to remember Users who are logged in, to understand how Users navigate through and use the Sites, and to display personalized content and targeted ads (including on third party sites and applications).
Pixels, web beacons, clear GIFs. These are tiny graphics with a unique identifier, similar in function to cookies, which we track browsing activities. We use these as part of our Training Affiliate Program. We also use these in our emails to let us know when they have been opened or forwarded, so we can gauge the effectiveness of our communications.
Analytics Tools. We may use internal and third-party analytics tools, including Google Analytics. The third-party analytics companies we work with may combine the information collected with other information they have independently collected from other websites and/or other online products and services. Their collection and use of information is subject to their own privacy policies.

Please note that LFOS does not respond to “do not track” signals or other similar mechanisms intended to allow California residents to opt-out of Internet tracking under California Online Privacy Protection Action (“CalOPPA”).

Targeted Ads. As discussed in our Cookie Policy, we may work with third party advertisers to display more relevant ads on our website and on third party sites; these third parties may display ads to you based on your visit to our Sites and other third party sites. For more information about this and how you can opt out of such ads, please see our Cookie Policy.

Data Security

We have implemented commercially reasonable precautions to protect the information we collect from loss, misuse, and unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration, and destruction. Please be aware that despite our best efforts, no data security measures can guarantee 100% security.

You should take steps to protect against unauthorized access to your passwords, phone, and computer by, among other things, signing off after using a shared computer, choosing robust passwords that nobody else knows or can easily guess, not using a password for more than one site or service, and keeping your log-ins and passwords private. We are not responsible for any lost, stolen, or compromised passwords or for any activity on your account via unauthorized password activity. You must promptly notify us if you become aware that any information provided by or submitted to our Sites or through our Services is lost, stolen, or used without permission at privacy@lfopensource.com.

Marketing Choices

You may opt out or revoke your consent to receive marketing emails from us by using unsubscribe or opt out mechanisms included in our marketing emails or by emailing privacy@lfopensource.com. You may unsubscribe from mailing lists via the applicable mailing list’s subscription website or, in some cases, by using the unsubscribe mechanisms included in such emails.

Retention of Your Personal Data

We apply a general rule of keeping personal data only for as long as required to fulfil the purposes for which it was collected. However, in some circumstances, we may retain personal data for other periods of time, for instance where we are required to do so in accordance with legal, tax and accounting requirements, or if required to do so by a legal process, legal authority, or other governmental entity having authority to make the request, for so long as required. In specific circumstances, we may also retain your personal data for longer periods of time corresponding to a statute of limitation, so that we have an accurate record of your dealings with us in the event of any complaints or challenges.

International Transfers

If you are located within the European Union (EU), you should note that your information will be transferred to the United States where LFOS is located. The U.S. is deemed by the European Union to have inadequate data protection. However, we have put in place European Commission approved Standard Contractual Clauses which protect personal data transferred between LFOS and affiliated entities as well as The Linux Foundation, its managed service provider. In addition, if personal data is transferred to third party service providers located outside the European Union, we will take steps to ensure that your personal data receives the same level of protection as if it remained within the EU, including by entering into data transfer agreements, or using the European Commission approved Standard Contractual Clauses. You have a right to obtain details of the mechanism under which your personal data is transferred outside of the EU by contacting gdpr@lfopensource.com.

Children’s Privacy

Except as specifically indicated within a Site, we do not knowingly collect or solicit personal information from anyone under the age of 13 (or under the age of 14 for anyone living in Spain or South Korea), or knowingly allow such persons to register. If we become aware that we have collected personal information from a child under the relevant age without parental consent, we take steps to delete that information.

Links to Third Party Sites and Services

The Sites may contain links to third party sites or online services. We are not responsible for the practices of such third parties, whose information practices are subject to their own policies and procedures, not to this Privacy Policy.

Your Rights

Access and Amendment. You may contact our privacy coordinator, as set forth below, to access or amend your personal information.

Additional Rights. Individuals in the European Economic Area (and other jurisdictions where applicable) have additional rights under applicable law:

to obtain a copy of your personal data together with information about how and on what basis that personal data is processed;
to rectify inaccurate personal data (including to have incomplete personal data completed);
to erase your personal data (in limited circumstances, such as where it is no longer necessary in relation to the purposes for which it was collected or processed);
to restrict processing of your personal data under certain circumstances;
to export certain personal data in machine-readable format to a third party (or to you) when we justify our processing on the basis of your consent or the performance of a contract with you;
to withdraw your consent to our processing of your personal data (where that processing is based on your consent);
to obtain, or see a copy of the appropriate safeguards under which your personal data is transferred to a third country or international organization; and
to object to our use and processing of your personal information that is conducted on the basis of a legitimate interest or to perform a contract with you. You also have the right to object at any time to any processing of your personal data for direct marketing purposes, including profiling for marketing purposes.

Lodging a Complaint. You also have the right to lodge a complaint with your local supervisory authority for data protection, or privacy regulator.

Submitting a Request. To exercise the above rights or contact us with questions or complaints regarding our treatment of your personal data, contact us at gdpr@lfopensource.com. Please note that we may request proof of identity, and we reserve the right to charge a fee where permitted by law, especially if your request is manifestly unfounded or excessive. We will endeavor to respond to your request within all applicable timeframes.

California Privacy Rights

California law permits users who are California residents to request and obtain from us once a year, free of charge, a list of the third parties to whom we have disclosed their personal information (if any) for their direct marketing purposes in the prior calendar year, as well as the types of personal information disclosed to those parties. If you are a California resident and would like to request this information, please submit your request in an email to privacy@lfopensource.com.

If you have any questions about our practices or this Privacy Policy, please contact us at privacy@lfopensource.com, or write to us at: LF Open Source, LLC, Attn: Legal Department, 2810 N Church St, PMB 57274, Wilmington, Delaware 19802-4447 US.

You can also reach our EU representative, Linux Labs Limited, whose registered office is 10 London Mews, London, W2 1HY, United Kingdom, at privacy@lfopensource.com.

Changes to the Privacy Policy

This Policy is current as of the effective date set forth above. If we change our privacy policies and procedures, we will post those changes on this page and/or continue to provide access to a copy of the prior version. If we make any changes to this Privacy Policy that materially change how we treat your personal information, we will endeavor to provide you with reasonable notice of such changes, such as via prominent notice on our Sites or to your email address of record, and where required by law, we will obtain your consent or give you the opportunity to opt out of such changes.