WHAT THE POLICIES SAY

HBO Max is Warner Bros. Discovery's flagship streaming service (renamed from Max back to HBO Max in July 2025), operated by WarnerMedia Direct, LLC under WBD's single cross-brand privacy policy. The policy (July 9, 2025) documents collection of viewing history, searches, and recordings of user interactions including mouse movements and keystrokes; cookies, SDKs, and pixels used with third-party advertising companies on and off WBD services; and disclosure to affiliates and third parties for their own marketing. WBD's US State Supplement states it may have sold or shared identifiers, internet activity, coarse geolocation, and inferences with advertising and analytics partners and social media platforms; a Privacy Center offers state-rights requests and sale/share opt-outs. WBD is an SEC-filed public company amid a planned split and a pending Paramount Skydance acquisition.

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COLLECTION

The Apple App Store privacy label for the HBO Max iOS app (WarnerMedia Direct, LLC) declares 'Data Linked to You' including Name, Email Address, Phone Number, Device ID, User ID, Coarse Location, Search History, Purchase History, Product Interaction, and Advertising Data, with 'Third-Party Advertising' listed among the purposes.

apps.apple.com ↗

[2025-07-09] · COLLECTION

The HBO Max Privacy Policy (Warner Bros. Discovery's unified policy, last updated July 9, 2025) states that Usage and Viewing Information collected includes the films, TV shows, and videos a user views (title and genre), watchlists, searches, and recordings of interactions with the service such as mouse movements and keystrokes.

hbomax.com ↗

[2025-06-09] · OWNERSHIP TRANSPARENCY

On June 9, 2025, Warner Bros. Discovery announced plans to separate into two publicly traded companies, with HBO Max assigned to the 'Streaming & Studios' company (later named Warner Bros.) alongside the Warner Bros. studios, and the Global Networks company (later Discovery Global) taking CNN and cable networks; completion was targeted for mid-2026.

wbd.com ↗

[2026-02-27] · OWNERSHIP TRANSPARENCY

Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc., the parent of HBO Max, is a Delaware-incorporated public company (Nasdaq: WBD) that filed its Form 10-K annual report for fiscal year 2025 with the SEC on February 27, 2026, making its corporate structure, ownership, and risk disclosures publicly auditable.

sec.gov ↗

[2026-07-13] · OWNERSHIP TRANSPARENCY

As of July 2026, a proposed Paramount Skydance acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery had been cleared by the U.S. Department of Justice but was challenged by a lawsuit from 12 state attorneys general seeking to block it; Paramount has said Paramount+ and HBO Max would become one streaming service after the transaction, and the HBO Max privacy policy's change-of-control provision permits transferring user Information in business transactions.

cnbc.com ↗

SHARING

Warner Bros. Discovery operates a self-service Privacy Center where users can submit access, deletion, and correction requests and opt out of the sale, sharing, or use of personal information for targeted advertising; HBO Max's help pages link to it as the destination for 'Do Not Sell or Share' requests.

wbdprivacy.com ↗

[2025-06-30] · SHARING

WBD's US State Supplement (last updated June 30, 2025) discloses that, under California's definitions, it may have sold or shared online identifiers, demographic information, commercial and transactions information, internet activity, coarse geolocation, and inferences in the past 12 months, with recipients including affiliates, promotional partners, advertising partners, analytics partners, and social media platforms; it also states services respond to Global Privacy Control signals.

hbomax.com ↗

[2025-07-09] · SHARING

The HBO Max Privacy Policy (July 9, 2025) permits disclosing user Information to WBD affiliates — the policy covers brands including HBO Max, CNN, WB Games, Bleacher Report, and DC Comics — for their own marketing and advertising, and to business partners and third parties for their own purposes, with an opt-out offered at collection or via the policy's choice mechanisms.

hbomax.com ↗

[2022-03-10] · TRACK RECORD

A proposed class action filed in March 2022 (McDaniel et al. v. Home Box Office, Inc., S.D.N.Y.) alleged that HBO violated the federal Video Privacy Protection Act by using a Facebook tracking pixel on the HBO Max website that disclosed subscribers' personally identifiable information and viewing records to Facebook without consent; these are allegations from the complaint, not adjudicated findings.

classaction.org ↗

[2023-07-18] · TRACK RECORD

In July 2023, the plaintiffs in the HBO Max Facebook-pixel class action voluntarily moved to dismiss the case without prejudice, and HBO was dismissed from the lawsuit; the Video Privacy Protection Act allegations were never adjudicated against HBO.

hollywoodreporter.com ↗

[2025-07-09] · TRACKING TECH

The HBO Max Privacy Policy (July 9, 2025) states that WBD uses cookies, web beacons, SDKs, and pixels, and that WBD and third-party advertising companies may use this information to serve interest-tailored advertising on and off WBD services; it also discloses use of Google Analytics and Nielsen digital measurement.

hbomax.com ↗

[2026-06-19] · TRACKING TECH

A Warner Bros. Discovery press release (June 19, 2026) describes 'Moments,' an AI-driven advertising format on HBO Max's ad-supported tiers that analyzes visual, audio, and contextual signals in content to place ads with episodic-level precision; the targeting described in the release is content-contextual rather than based on individual viewing profiles.

wbd.com ↗

LAST REVIEWED 2026-08-04 · METHODOLOGY v1.7