Privacy Policy

Last Updated: June 29, 2023

Thank you for using Instacart! We are committed to providing you the best online shopping and delivery experience possible. This Privacy Policy explains what information we collect, how that information is used, under what circumstances we share information, and the choices you can make about that information. This Policy applies whether you access Instacart through a browser, through a mobile app, or through any other method.

Additional Terms

Instacart is an independent business, separate from and its affiliates (“Food Basics”). This Privacy Policy, not those of Food Basics, explain how Instacart will collect, use and share information that we collect on this Instacart Food Basics Store Site. Food Basics is a trademark of . All Rights Reserved.

We may share any information collected from this Food Basics Store Site, including your personal information, information about your order details, and information that we combine from other sources, with Food Basics. Food Basics may use this information for its own purposes, including for its own sales and marketing purposes. You can opt-out of receiving Food Basics sales and marketing emails at any time by following the unsubscribe instructions in those emails. Further details are available in Instacart’s Terms of Service.

Information we collect

1. Information you provide to us or allow others to provide to us

At various points in the Instacart experience, you may provide us with information about yourself. For example, when you create an account with Instacart, you provide us with personal information like your name, email address, and zip code. And if you place an order with Instacart, we collect information including your address, phone number, birth date (for alcohol orders), credit card information, and the details of your order.

If you log into the Instacart service through a third-party service, both we and that third-party may receive some information about you and your use of the services. For example, if you choose to log into Instacart with your Facebook account, we may receive information about your contacts. We may also offer social sharing tools (such as the Facebook “Like” button) that let you share actions on Instacart with other sites and vice versa. In those cases, the providers of those tools may receive information about you when you use those tools. You should check the privacy policies of these services and your settings there for more information.

Our partners may let us collect information about use of their sites/apps or share such information with us. For example, if you use an Instacart button or widget on another site or app, we may receive information about your use of that button or widget and the third-party site/app.

Our Services are not intended for children under 13 years of age, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from children under the age of 13. If we obtain actual knowledge that any information we collect has been provided by a child under the age of 13, we will delete that information.

2. Technical information about usage of Instacart

When you use the Instacart services, either through a browser or mobile app, we automatically receive some technical information about the hardware and software that is being used.

Cookies, Pixels, and Other Tracking Technologies:

We and our partners use various technologies to collect information, including cookies, pixels, and device identifiers. Cookies are small text files that are sent by your computer when you access our services through a browser. We may use session cookies (which expire when you close your browser), persistent cookies (which expire when you choose to clear them from your browser), pixels, and other identifiers to collect information from your browser or device that helps us do things such as understand how you use our services, personalize your experience, measure advertising performance, and remember that you are logged in to Instacart. Our partners, advertisers, and third-party advertising networks may use these technologies to collect information about your online activity over time and across different websites or online services.

We employ some third-party services to help us understand the usage of Instacart, and these third-parties may also deploy cookies or pixels on our site or collect information through our mobile applications. For example, we use Google Analytics to understand, in a non-personal way, how users interact with various portions of our site -- you can learn more about information that Google may collect here.

Log information:

When you use Instacart, our servers will record information about your usage of the service and information that is sent by your browser or device. Logs information can include things like the IP address of your device, information about the browser, operating system and/or app you are using, unique device identifiers, pages that you navigate to and links that you click, searches that you run on Instacart, and other ways you interact with the service. If you are logged into the Instacart service, this information is stored with your account information.

How we use your information

We may use the information we collect for various purposes, including to:

  • Provide the Instacart service to you, improve the quality of the service, and develop new products and services
  • Allow your Personal Shopper (which means those that shop for and/or deliver the order for you, including our retail partner and their employees/agents where applicable or our third-party providers) to choose your items at a retailer site, deliver your items to you, and/or call or text you with any updates or issues
  • Charge you for the purchase and delivery costs through one or more payment processing partners
  • Offer you customized content (including advertising, coupons, and promotions).
  • Understand how users interact with our service as a whole in order to test new features or changes in our features, and improve the services for everyone
  • Provide customer service, respond to your communications and requests, and contact you about your use of Instacart (Note: You can opt-out of receiving promotional communications from Instacart by using the settings on the Account Info page)

What we share

Instacart is a platform that presents you with a set of retailer virtual storefronts from which you can select goods for picking, packing and delivery by individual Personal Shopper(s) to your location or, if available, for you to pick up in-store. In order to make this work, we need to share information about you and your order with the other parties who help enable the service. This includes, for example, the Personal Shopper(s) who pick and deliver your order, and the payment processing partner(s) that we use to validate and charge your credit card. To be clear, only our payment processing partner(s) receive any credit card information.

We also share information under the following principles:

  • With your consent or at your direction — We will share your information with entities outside of Instacart when we have your consent to do so or it is done at your direction. For example:
    • If you enter loyalty card information from a particular retailer, we share that information with the retailer you chose along with your order so that information can update your loyalty card account.
    • If you share a recipe publicly on Instacart, it is viewable by anyone along with your first name and last initial.
    • If you invite friends to use Instacart through our referral program or to share a shopping cart, we will share some information with the friends you invite like your name and picture. Likewise if you choose to join someone else’s cart, they will see some of your information.
  • For external processing or service provision — We sometimes employ third parties outside of Instacart to process information on our behalf or to provide certain services (such as delivery services or advertising services). For the purposes of this processing or provision of services, we may share your information with them under appropriate confidentiality provisions.
  • For legal purposes — We may share your information when we believe that the disclosure is reasonably necessary to (a) comply with applicable laws, regulations, legal process, or requests from law enforcement or regulatory authorities, (b) prevent, detect, or otherwise handle fraud, security, or technical issues, and (c) protect the safety, rights, or property of any person, the public, or Instacart.
  • On a non-personal or aggregate basis — We share information with retailers and advertisers on both a non-personally identifying basis (including order and delivery details but not including credit card information) and an aggregate basis.
  • To enable purchase of alcohol — When you buy alcohol using Instacart, we may be required by law to share certain information with the retailer who makes the sale. This information could include, among other things, the names and addresses of the purchaser and recipient, state ID information, the quantity, brand, price, proof, and volume of alcohol purchased, and a recipient signature.
  • For business purposes — We may share your information in connection with, or during negotiations of, any merger, sale of company assets, financing or acquisition of all or a portion of our business by another company. We may also share your information between and among Instacart, and its current and future parents, affiliates, subsidiaries, and other companies under common control and ownership.

Changes to this Policy

This policy may change from time to time and any revised Policy will be posted at this page, so we encourage you to review it regularly. If we make changes, we will notify you by revising the date at the top of this Policy and, in the case of materials changes to the Policy, we may provide you with additional notice (such as a notice in our user interface or sending you a notification by email).

For Residents of Nevada

If you are a Nevada resident, you may ask Instacart to add you to our opt-out list for possible future sales of certain information we have collected or will collect about you. To submit such a request, please contact our designated request email address: privacy@instacart.com.

Contact Information

Questions or comments about our Privacy Policy? Contact our Trust & Safety Manager at:

Instacart
50 Beale Street, Suite 600
San Francisco, California 94105
privacy@instacart.com
1-888-508-1922

For customer service inquiries visit our Help Center