Effective as of July 25, 2025
This Privacy Policy (the "Policy") explains how we (as defined below) collect, share and use any information that, alone or in combination with other information, relates to you (the "Personal Data", and “Personally Identifiable Information”) when you ("you" and "your") use our website available at www.ultimate-guitar.com (the "Website") and related mobile applications (the " Apps"), which makes available various services, including music-related tools and content (the "Service").
For the purposes of this Policy Ultimate Guitar USA LLC, 268 Bush Street, #3044, San Francisco, CA 94104, United States, and the Ultimate Guitar Corporate Family ("Ultimate Guitar", " us", "we", or "our") act as the data controller for the Personal Data that is collected via the Website and the Apps and through the Service. As a data controller, Ultimate Guitar is responsible for ensuring that the processing of Personal Data complies with applicable data protection law.
In accordance with data protection law, we designated a representative in the European Union, namely MuseCY SM Ltd., Spyrou Kyprianou, 84, 4004, Limassol, Cyprus, and in the UK, StaffPad Ltd, Riverbank House, 2 Swan Lane, London EC4R 3TT.
We at Ultimate Guitar respect the privacy concerns of the users of this Service and have created this Policy to explain
Please take the time to read this Policy carefully. If you have any questions or comments, please contact us via [email protected].
Although you should read through the Policy for complete information on how we collect, use, share, and secure information, the following provides a summary of some the most important aspects of or our privacy practices:
We respect your privacy and are committed to protecting your Personal Data in compliance with the applicable legislation. This compliance is consistent with our desire to keep you informed and to recognize and respect your privacy rights.
We agree to observe the following principles when processing Personal Data:
Information security. To safeguard against unauthorized access to Personal Data by third parties, all electronic Personal Data held by Ultimate Guitar is maintained on systems that are protected by up-to-date secure network architectures that contain firewalls and intrusion detection devices. The data saved in servers is "backed up" (i.e. the data are recorded on separate media) to avoid the consequences of any inadvertent erasure, destruction or loss otherwise. The servers are stored in facilities with high security, access restricted to unauthorized personnel, fire detection and response systems.
Physical and administrative security. We employ reasonable physical and administrative safeguards to protect your Personal Data. While we will use such efforts, we cannot and will not insure the security of your information. Accordingly, we assume no liability for any disclosure of data due to errors in transmission, unauthorized third party access or other acts of third parties, or acts or omissions beyond our reasonable control.
Your privacy controls
Information we gather automatically
When you visit our Service, certain non-personally identifying information is recorded automatically by the standard operation of our Internet servers. Information such as the type of browser being used, its operating system, and your computer's Internet Protocol ("IP") address (a number that your Internet service provider assigns to your computer whenever you surf the Internet) is gathered in order to facilitate our online operations and to assure an efficient online experience for you. If you access our Service from a mobile or other device, we may collect information for that device (including operating system, browser, type of device) in order to facilitate our mobile operations and to assure an efficient mobile experience for you. We may use or share this information for security purposes, to generate group statistics about our user community, or as required by law.
Some of this information is collected using cookies and similar tracking technology, as explained further in our Cookies Notice.
If you access our Service from a social network like Facebook, Ultimate Guitar receives certain information about you from the social network automatically. The information we receive depends on the Service, the social network, and your privacy settings and your friends' privacy settings on that social network.
Among the purposes for which we may use such generally non-personally identifying information is for identification purposes in the event of an emergency threatening life or property, or where proper legal process allows using such information. For instance, we may use your IP address or other automatically recorded information, in cooperation with your Internet provider, to attempt to identify you if it is necessary to contact you or to bring legal action against you because you are violating the Terms of Service for use for this Service, may be causing injury to or interference (intentionally or unintentionally) with our company's rights or property, or may be adversely affecting other users of this Service or anyone else who could be harmed by your activities.
Personal data you provide to us
We may request personally identifying information from you in a variety of contexts. For example, you may provide such data to us if you complete an online registration form (e.g., registering for an account, various sign-up forms for receiving email newsletters, registering for special offers, entering a contest/sweepstakes or responding to a survey) or purchase any products or services from us or another Ultimate Guitar business.
The table below outlines:
Legal grounds for processing: Contractual necessity
Personal Data we collect:
Ultimate Guitar may collect and store some or all of the following information provided by the social network:
When you provide Personal Information to us, we may use that data to create a "My Profile" page for you, which will be held in a database using reasonable security measures to protect the data from unauthorized access. Others outside Ultimate-Guitar.com will not be allowed to see the data on your My Profile Page except with your consent. If you register to set up an account, you will be able to access your My Profile page at any time in order to update your individual Personal Data listed therein.
Retention Period: until the user deletes their account or for 10 years after user inactivity in product (whichever comes last).
Providing you with the ability to store, publish, edit, delete your own content (tabs, video shots, playlists, etc.) and interact with publicly available content
Legal grounds for processing: Contractual necessity
Personal Data we collect:
Retention Period: until the user deletes their account or 10 years after user inactivity in product (whichever comes last).
Allowing you to subscribe on a paid basis and managing your subscription, including payment processing
Legal grounds for processing: Contractual necessity
Personal Data we collect:
When you purchase products or services from Ultimate Guitar we will use your Personal Data to fulfill your order and for customer service. Many online customers are particularly concerned about their credit card information, which we will share only as required by companies involved in your transaction (e.g., fulfillment, billing, mailing, storage or delivery services). We will not share your credit card information with any third party unless that company needs the number for the fulfillment or delivery of your order. We do not rent, sell or share credit card information with promotional partners or other third parties. Your Personal Data may be stored on the Ultimate Guitar cloud in order to provide interoperability of the Service among your devices.
Retention Period: until the user deletes their account or 10 years after user inactivity in product or user subscription ends (whichever comes last).
Responding to your queries when you contact us through our Website or Apps
Legal grounds for processing: Depending on the nature of your query, we will rely either on the necessity to take steps prior to entering into a contract with a potential customer or our legitimate interest to respond to customer queries
Personal Data we collect:
Retention Period: 3 years from support request has been received.
Providing you with support through our customer support team
Legal grounds for processing: Contractual necessity
Personal Data we collect:
Retention Period: 3 years from support request has been received.
Contacting you through newsletters or with offers of new products or services that we believe may be of interest to you (online marketing)
Legal grounds for processing: Consent for online marketing
Personal Data we collect:
We may use your Personal Data and other non-personally identifying information we collect to update you about our products or services or to contact you about exciting offers of new products or services that we believe may be of interest to you. You always have the option to receive fewer or no communications in the future from us by opting out. You may opt out by (a) following the instructions included in the specific communication you no longer wish to receive, (b) sending an email to [email protected] and explaining how you would like to modify your preferences, or (c) accessing your Profile page and modifying how you would like to modify your preferences.
Retention Period: Until consent is withdrawn or for 3 years (from the notification of the consent to continue receiving emails), whichever comes first.
Administering our Website and Apps and Ensuring the functioning of our Website and Apps, including chat rooms and message board and other community features
Legal grounds for processing: Legitimate interest of Ultimate Guitar to offer and ensure the proper functioning of the Website and the App
Personal Data we collect:
Retention Period: until the user deletes their account or 10 years after user inactivity in product or user subscription ends (whichever comes last).
Ensuring the improvement of the quality of the service and the user experience of using our Services through the collection, storage and further analysis of product and technical events of your interaction with the Web App
Legal grounds for processing: Consent or Legitimate interest (Please see our Cookie Notice)
Personal Data we collect:
Ultimate Guitar keeps track of the websites and pages you visit within the Service, what features and content you use and how frequently. This information may be used by Ultimate Guitar to maintain and improve the content, design, usability, and quality of the Service; to improve your user experience; to generate and provide statistics regarding use of the Service; to deliver customized content and advertising within the Service to users whose behavior indicates that they are interested in a particular subject area, and to develop new products and services.
Organizing contests, sweepstakes and surveys
Legal grounds for processing: Contractual necessity if conclusion of contractual terms. Otherwise legitimate interest of Ultimate Guitar to organise events
Personal Data we collect:
When you give Personal Data to Ultimate Guitar in connection with a contest, we may share that data (together with non-personally identifying information you may provide) with the sponsor or sponsors of such contest. By entering a contest, you are allowing such sponsor or sponsors to use such Personal Data and to contact you in connection with the contest and in accordance with their own privacy policies. As further explained in our Contest Rules, by entering into a contest, you grant us the right to disclose name, biographical information, pictures/portraits, video images, likenesses and/or voice to the general public if you are a contest winner.
Retention Period: 6 months from the contest, sweepstake or survey has ended.
For legal enforcement
Legal grounds for processing: Legal obligation or Legitimate interest of Ultimate Guitar to defend its legal rights and interests
Personal Data we collect:
We may keep and use certain of your personal data to comply with our legal obligations (e.g. for tax purposes). Additionally, Ultimate Guitar cooperates with government and law enforcement officials and private parties to enforce and comply with the law. We will disclose any information about you to government or law enforcement officials or private parties as we, in our sole discretion, believe necessary or appropriate to respond to claims and legal process (including but not limited to subpoenas), to protect the property and rights of Ultimate Guitar or a third party, to protect the safety of the public or any person, or to prevent or stop activity we may consider to be, or to pose a risk of being, an illegal, unethical or legally actionable activity.
Retention Period: We keep the data as long as required by law (e. g. for tax purposes). Regarding authorities' requests, the retention period can vary depending on applicable laws but no longer than 5 years after request was processed.
Training our AI (Artificial Intelligence) model used in Mobile App’s Practice Mode functionality to better identify user guitar performance (Mobile applications only; AI functionality usage is voluntary for users)
Legal grounds for processing: Legitimate interest of Ultimate Guitar to improve our AI model for better service delivery. We would not use the recordings for any other purpose and will discard them once they have been processed.
Personal Data we collect:
Retention Period: We discard the data once it has been processed (but no longer than 1 day).
If you visit a message board, chat room or utilize an instant messaging service on this Service, if any, you are solely responsible for the content of messages you post there. You should be aware that when you voluntarily disclose Personal Data (for example, your name, street address, email address, or telephone number) on message boards, chat rooms or instant messaging services, that information can be read, collected and used by other users of these services and may result in unsolicited messages, both commercial and otherwise. You agree that by participating in such online public forums, you will not use such forums for any purpose that is unlawful or prohibited by the Ultimate Guitar community guidelines that may be in effect from time to time in connection with such service. We reserve the right to terminate your access to this Service or to take other protective steps if you violate those terms.
Without any specific approval from you, we may develop general aggregate data (i.e., data that cannot be used to identify specific individuals) about our user community that is partly based on information about you and your transactions with Ultimate Guitar. For example, hypothetically, you might be one of 1,000,000 customers between the ages of 25 and 35. We may share such aggregate statistics with other Ultimate Guitar-related companies without your consent.
We may disclose your Personal Data to the following categories of recipients:
(a) to our group company for purposes consistent with this Policy. We take precautions to allow access to Personal Data only to those staff members who have a legitimate business need for access and with a contractual prohibition of using the Personal Data for any other purpose.
(b) to our third party vendors, services providers and partners who provide data processing services to us, or who otherwise process Personal Data for purposes that are described in this Policy or notified to you when we collect your Personal Data. The services these vendors provide to us are transaction services (e.g., fulfillment, billing, mailing, storage or delivery services), cloud storage, customer support, maintenance, database management, analytics, improvement of the Website's and Apps' features and advertising.
(c) to any competent law enforcement body, regulatory, government agency, court or other third party where we believe disclosure is necessary (i) as a matter of applicable law or regulation, (ii) to exercise, establish or defend our legal rights, or (iii) to protect your vital interests or those of any other person;
(d) to our auditors, advisors, legal representatives and similar agents in connection with the advisory services they provide to us for legitimate business purposes and under contractual prohibition of using the Personal Data for any other purpose. We share Personal Data with our external counsel.
(e) to a potential buyer (and its agents and advisers) in connection with any proposed purchase, merger or acquisition of any part of our business, provided that we inform the buyer it must use your Personal Data only for the purposes disclosed in this Policy;
(f) to any other person if you have provided your prior consent to the disclosure.
If you consent to share your Personal Data with our promotional partners and third-party advertisers, you are allowing such parties to use such Personal Data and to contact you in accordance with their own privacy policies. You have the option to change your mind and to stop us from further sharing your Personal Data with our promotional partners and third-party advertisers by modifying your preferences or by contacting [email protected] and explaining how you would like to modify your preferences. We will not retrieve any Personal Data shared with our promotional partners and third-party advertisers prior to your decision to opt-out. If you wish to limit or discontinue receiving further communications from a promotional partner or third-party advertiser, please contact that company directly in the manner indicated in its own communications with you.
Without any specific approval from you, Ultimate Guitar may develop general aggregate data (i.e., data that cannot be used to identify specific individuals) about you that is partly based on information about you and your transactions. We may share such aggregate statistics with promotional partners and third-party advertisers without your consent.
We have put in place appropriate safeguards (which includes the European Commission's Standard Contractual Clauses) to ensure that whenever your Personal Data is transferred outside the EEA to countries that are not deemed adequate by the European Commission, your Personal Data receives an adequate level of protection in accordance with the GDPR.
We may have links to third party-operated sites that sell or license certain music, videos, or other goods mentioned, provided, or promoted on Ultimate Guitar. Such third party sites are not operated or controlled by Ultimate Guitar, and any transactions that you may enter into with such sites will be subject to the privacy and security practices of the merchant with which you are transacting. Ultimate Guitar and Ultimate Guitar are not responsible for the privacy and security practices of sites not in our immediate control.
(b) In addition, in certain circumstances, as stipulated in the applicable data protection legislation, you can object to processing of your Personal Data, ask us to restrict processing of your Personal Data or request portability of your Personal Data. Again, you can exercise these rights by contacting us using the following contact details: [email protected].
(c) If we have collected and processed your Personal Data with your consent, then you can withdraw your consent at any time. Withdrawing your consent will not affect the lawfulness of any processing we conducted prior to your withdrawal, nor will it affect processing of your Personal Data conducted in reliance on lawful processing grounds other than consent.
(d) You have the right to opt-out of marketing communications we send you at any time. You can exercise this right by clicking on the "unsubscribe" or "opt-out" link in the marketing e-mails we send you. You can also access your profile page and modify your preferences.
(e) If you have a complaint or concern about how we are processing your Personal Data then we will endeavour to address such concern(s). If you feel we have not sufficiently addressed your complaint or concern, you have the right to complain to a data protection authority> about our collection and use of your Personal Data. For more information, please contact your local data protection authority. (Contact details for data protection authorities in the European Economic Area, Switzerland and certain non-European countries (including the US and Canada) are available here .)
We respond to all requests we receive via [email protected] from individuals wishing to exercise their data protection rights in accordance with applicable data protection laws.
Legal Entity: MuseCY SM Ltd., Spyrou Kyprianou, 84, 4004, Limassol, Cyprus. Purpose of Joint Use: Service provision, improvement, user support, and other purposes outlined in this Privacy Policy.
Position: Data Protection Officer
Name: Artem Neroba
Email: [email protected]