Affiliate

A person or entity that promotes another company's products or services in exchange for commission on resulting sales or actions. In privacy contexts, affiliates matter because they often collect personal data through tracking technologies, cookies, and referral links. When someone clicks an affiliate link, data about that click—including the user's online identifier, referral source, and sometimes browsing behavior—is typically shared between the affiliate and the merchant. This creates data sharing relationships that must be disclosed in privacy policies. Affiliate relationships can make you a data controller or processor depending on how data is handled. Companies using affiliate programs must ensure affiliates comply with privacy obligations and clearly disclose these relationships to users. The data collected through affiliate programs often includes cookies, device information, and purchase history.