Unpacking Software Livestream

Join our monthly Unpacking Software livestream to hear about the latest news, chat and opinion on packaging, software deployment and lifecycle management!

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Chocolatey Product Spotlight

Join the Chocolatey Team on our regular monthly stream where we put a spotlight on the most recent Chocolatey product releases. You'll have a chance to have your questions answered in a live Ask Me Anything format.

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Chocolatey Coding Livestream

Join us for the Chocolatey Coding Livestream, where members of our team dive into the heart of open source development by coding live on various Chocolatey projects. Tune in to witness real-time coding, ask questions, and gain insights into the world of package management. Don't miss this opportunity to engage with our team and contribute to the future of Chocolatey!

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Calling All Chocolatiers! Whipping Up Windows Automation with Chocolatey Central Management

Webinar from
Wednesday, 17 January 2024

We are delighted to announce the release of Chocolatey Central Management v0.12.0, featuring seamless Deployment Plan creation, time-saving duplications, insightful Group Details, an upgraded Dashboard, bug fixes, user interface polishing, and refined documentation. As an added bonus we'll have members of our Solutions Engineering team on-hand to dive into some interesting ways you can leverage the new features available!

Watch On-Demand
Chocolatey Community Coffee Break

Join the Chocolatey Team as we discuss all things Community, what we do, how you can get involved and answer your Chocolatey questions.

Watch The Replays
Chocolatey and Intune Overview

Webinar Replay from
Wednesday, 30 March 2022

At Chocolatey Software we strive for simple, and teaching others. Let us teach you just how simple it could be to keep your 3rd party applications updated across your devices, all with Intune!

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Chocolatey For Business. In Azure. In One Click.

Livestream from
Thursday, 9 June 2022

Join James and Josh to show you how you can get the Chocolatey For Business recommended infrastructure and workflow, created, in Azure, in around 20 minutes.

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The Future of Chocolatey CLI

Livestream from
Thursday, 04 August 2022

Join Paul and Gary to hear more about the plans for the Chocolatey CLI in the not so distant future. We'll talk about some cool new features, long term asks from Customers and Community and how you can get involved!

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Hacktoberfest Tuesdays 2022

Livestreams from
October 2022

For Hacktoberfest, Chocolatey ran a livestream every Tuesday! Re-watch Cory, James, Gary, and Rain as they share knowledge on how to contribute to open-source projects such as Chocolatey CLI.

Watch On-Demand

Chocolatey® Software Privacy Policy

Last updated January 01, 2019

In Short: Chocolatey® Software is the sole owner of the information collected. We only have access to/collect information that you voluntarily give us via email or other direct contact from you.

We do not share or rent your information with anyone. Your information is strictly used for the purposes of following up with you and offering products from Chocolatey Software.

We will use your information to respond to you. We will not share your information with any third party outside of our organization, other than as necessary to fulfill your request, e.g. to ship an order.

Unless you ask us not to (see below), we may contact you via email in the future to tell you about specials, new products or services, or changes to this privacy policy.

Summary

Thank you for choosing to be part of our community at Chocolatey Software, Inc ("Company", "we", "us", or "our"). We are committed to protecting your personal information and your right to privacy. If you have any questions or concerns about our policy, or our practices with regards to your personal information, please contact us at legal at chocolatey dot io. If you wish to update/remove your data in accordance with GDPR or other reasons, please see below.

When you visit our website https://chocolatey.org, and use our services, you trust us with your personal information. We take your privacy very seriously. In this privacy policy, we seek to explain to you in the clearest way possible what information we collect, how we use it and what rights you have in relation to it. We hope you take some time to read through it carefully, as it is important. If there are any terms in this privacy policy that you do not agree with, please discontinue use of our Sites and our services.

This privacy policy applies to all information collected through our website (such as https://chocolatey.org), and/or any related services, sales, marketing or events (we refer to them collectively in this privacy policy as the "Services").

Please read this privacy policy carefully as it will help you make informed decisions about sharing your personal information with us.

Table of Contents

  1. "What Information Do We Collect?"
  2. "How Do We Use Your Information?"
  3. "Will Your Information Be Shared with Anyone?"
  4. "Who Will Your Information Be Shared With?"
  5. "Do We Use Cookies and Other Tracking Technologies?"
  6. "How Long Do We Keep Your Information?"
  7. "How Do We keep Your Information Safe?"
  8. "Do We Collect Information from Minors?"
  9. "What Are Your Privacy Rights?"
  10. "Data Breach?"
  11. "Controls for Do-Not-Track Features?"
  12. "Do California Residents Have Specific Privacy Rights?"
  13. "Do We Make Updates to This Policy?"
  14. "How Can You Contact Us About This Policy?"
  15. "How Can You Review, Update, or Delete the Data We Collect from You?"
#1. What Information Do We Collect?

Personal information you disclose to us

In Short: We collect personal information that you provide to us such as name, address, contact information, passwords and security data, and payment information.

We collect personal information that you voluntarily provide to us when registering at the Services expressing an interest in obtaining information about us or our products and services, when participating in activities on the Services (such as posting messages in our online forums or entering competitions, contests or giveaways) or otherwise contacting us.

The personal information that we collect depends on the context of your interactions with us and the Services, the choices you make and the products and features you use. The personal information we collect can include the following:

  • Publicly Available Personal Information. We collect email addresses, business email, business phone number, first name, maiden name, last name, nickname, social media, and other similar data.
  • Personal Information Provided by You. We collect data collected from surveys, and other similar data.
  • Credentials. We collect passwords, password hints, and similar security information used for authentication and account access.
  • Payment Data. We collect data necessary to process your payment if you make purchases, such as your payment instrument number (such as a credit card number), and the security code associated with your payment instrument. All payment data is stored by BlueSnap. You may find their privacy policy link(s) here.

All personal information that you provide to us must be true, complete and accurate, and you must notify us of any changes to such personal information.

Information automatically collected

In Short: Some information – such as IP address and/or browser and device characteristics – is collected automatically when you visit our Services.

We automatically collect certain information when you visit, use or navigate the Services. This information does not reveal your specific identity (like your name or contact information) but may include device and usage information, such as your IP address, browser and device characteristics, operating system, language preferences, referring URLs, device name, country, location, information about how and when you use our Services and other technical information. This information is primarily needed to maintain the security and operation of our Services, and for our internal analytics and reporting purposes.

Like many businesses, we also collect information through cookies and similar technologies.


In Short: We process your information for purposes based on legitimate business interests, the fulfillment of our contract with you, compliance with our legal obligations, and/or your consent.

We use personal information collected via our Services for a variety of business purposes described below. We process your personal information for these purposes in reliance on our legitimate business interests, in order to enter into or perform a contract with you, with your consent, and/or for compliance with our legal obligations. We indicate the specific processing grounds we rely on next to each purpose listed below.

We use the information we collect or receive:

  • To facilitate account creation and logon process. If you choose to link your account with us to a third party account (such as your Google or Facebook account), we use the information you allowed us to collect from those third parties to facilitate account creation and logon process for the performance of the contract.
  • To send you marketing and promotional communications. We and/or our third party marketing partners may use the personal information you send to us for our marketing purposes, if this is in accordance with your marketing preferences. You can opt-out of our marketing emails at any time (see the "WHAT ARE YOUR PRIVACY RIGHTS" below).
  • To send administrative information to you. We may use your personal information to send you product, service and new feature information and/or information about changes to our terms, conditions, and policies.
  • Fulfill and manage your orders. We may use your information to fulfill and manage your orders, payments, returns, and exchanges made through the Services.
  • To post testimonials. We post testimonials on our Services that may contain personal information. Prior to posting a testimonial, we will obtain your consent to use your name and testimonial. If you wish to update, or delete your testimonial, please see below. and be sure to include your name, testimonial location, and contact information.
  • Administer prize draws and competitions. We may use your information to administer prize draws and competitions when you elect to participate in competitions.
  • Request Feedback. We may use your information to request feedback and to contact you about your use of our Services.
  • To protect our Services. We may use your information as part of our efforts to keep our Services safe and secure (for example, for fraud monitoring and prevention).
  • To enforce our terms, conditions and policies for Business Purposes, Legal Reasons and Contractual.
  • To respond to legal requests and prevent harm. If we receive a subpoena or other legal request, we may need to inspect the data we hold to determine how to respond.
  • To manage user accounts. We may use your information for the purposes of managing our account and keeping it in working order.
  • To respond to user inquiries/offer support to users. We may use your information to respond to your inquiries and solve any potential issues you might have with the use of our Services.

In Short: We only share information with your consent, to comply with laws, to provide you with services, to protect your rights, or to fulfill business obligations.

We may process or share data based on the following legal basis:

  • Consent: We may process your data if you have given us specific consent to use your personal information in a specific purpose.
  • Legitimate Interests: We may process your data when it is reasonably necessary to achieve our legitimate business interests.
  • Performance of a Contract: Where we have entered into a contract with you, we may process your personal information to fulfill the terms of our contract.
  • Legal Obligations: We may disclose your information where we are legally required to do so in order to comply with applicable law, governmental requests, a judicial proceeding, court order, or legal process, such as in response to a court order or a subpoena (including in response to public authorities to meet national security or law enforcement requirements).
  • Vital Interests: We may disclose your information where we believe it is necessary to investigate, prevent, or take action regarding potential violations of our policies, suspected fraud, situations involving potential threats to the safety of any person and illegal activities, or as evidence in litigation in which we are involved.

More specifically, we may need to process your data or share your personal information in the following situations:

  • Vendors, Consultants and Other Third-Party Service Providers. We may share your data with third party vendors, service providers, contractors or agents who perform services for us or on our behalf and require access to such information to do that work. Examples include: payment processing, data analysis, email delivery, hosting services, customer service and marketing efforts. We may allow selected third parties to use tracking technology on the Services, which will enable them to collect data about how you interact with the Services over time. This information may be used to, among other things, analyze and track data, determine the popularity of certain content and better understand online activity. Unless described in this Policy, we do not share, sell, rent or trade any of your information with third parties for their promotional purposes.
  • Business Transfers. We may share or transfer 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 to another company.
  • Business Partners. We may share your information with our business partners to offer you certain products, services or promotions. This is done strictly with your consent and in only limited situations where you are purchasing one of our commercial products, such as would need to be done with a reseller like SHI or Insight.

In Short: We only share information with the following third parties.

Our Services make use of the following third parties. Some of them you will have shared information with as part of providing Services to you. We only share and disclose your information with the following third parties. We have categorized each party so that you may be easily understand the purpose of our data collection and processing practices. If we have processed your data based on your consent and you wish to revoke your consent, please see below..

  • User Commenting and Forums
    • Disqus
  • Web and Mobile Analytics
    • Google Analytics
  • Payment Processing
    • BlueSnap
  • Marketing
    • MailChimp
  • Customer Relationship Manager
    • Salesforce (Organizational prospects and customers only)

In Short: We may use cookies and other tracking technologies to collect and store your information.

We may use cookies and similar tracking technologies (like web beacons and pixels) to access or store information. Specific information about how we use such technologies and how you can refuse certain cookies is set out in our Cookie Policy.


In Short: We keep your information for as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes outlined in this privacy policy unless otherwise required by law.

We will only keep your personal information for as long as it is necessary for the purposes set out in this privacy policy, unless a longer retention period is required or permitted by law (such as tax, accounting or other legal requirements). No purpose in this policy will require us keeping your personal information for longer than the period of time in which users have an account with us.

When we have no ongoing legitimate business need to process your personal information, we will either delete or anonymize it, or, if this is not possible (for example, because your personal information has been stored in backup archives), then we will securely store your personal information and isolate it from any further processing until deletion is possible.


In Short: We aim to protect your personal information through a system of organizational and technical security measures.

We have implemented appropriate technical and organizational security measures designed to protect the security of any personal information we process. However, please also remember that we cannot guarantee that the internet itself is 100% secure. Although we will do our best to protect your personal information, transmission of personal information to and from our Services is at your own risk. You should only access the services within a secure environment.


In Short: We do not knowingly collect data from or market to children under 18 years of age.

We do not knowingly solicit data from or market to children under 18 years of age. By using the Services, you represent that you are at least 18 or that you are the parent or guardian of such a minor and consent to such minor dependent’s use of the Services. If we learn that personal information from users less than 18 years of age has been collected, we will deactivate the account and take reasonable measures to promptly delete such data from our records. If you become aware of any data we have collected from children under age 18, please see below..


In Short: In some regions, such as the European Economic Area, you have rights that allow you greater access to and control over your personal information. You may review, change, or terminate your account at any time.

In some regions (like the European Economic Area), you have certain rights under applicable data protection laws. These may include the right (i) to request access and obtain a copy of your personal information, (ii) to request rectification or erasure; (iii) to restrict the processing of your personal information; and (iv) if applicable, to data portability. In certain circumstances, you may also have the right to object to the processing of your personal information. To make such a request, please use the contact details provided below. We will consider and act upon any request in accordance with applicable data protection laws.

If we are relying on your consent to process your personal information, you have the right to withdraw your consent at any time. Please note however that this will not affect the lawfulness of the processing before its withdrawal.

If you are resident in the European Economic Area and you believe we are unlawfully processing your personal information, you also have the right to complain to your local data protection supervisory authority. Find their contact details here.

Account Information

If you would at any time like to review or change the information in your account or terminate your account, you can:

  • Log into your account settings and update your user account.
  • For termination of your account, please contact us and request account deletion.

Upon your request to terminate your account, we will deactivate or delete your account and information from our active databases. However, some information may be retained in our files to prevent fraud, troubleshoot problems, assist with any investigations, enforce our Terms of Use and/or comply with legal requirements.

Cookies and similar technologies: Most Web browsers are set to accept cookies by default. If you prefer, you can usually choose to set your browser to remove cookies and to reject cookies. If you choose to remove cookies or reject cookies, this could affect certain features or services of our Services. To opt-out of interest-based advertising by advertisers on our Services visit here.

Opting out of email marketing: You can unsubscribe from our marketing email list at any time by clicking on the unsubscribe link in the emails that we send. You will then be removed from the marketing email list – however, we will still need to send you service-related emails that are necessary for the administration and use of your account. To otherwise opt-out, you may:

  • Access your account settings and update preferences.
  • Note your preferences when you register an account with the site.

A privacy breach occurs when there is unauthorized access to or collection, use, disclosure or disposal of personal information. You will be notified about data breaches when Chocolatey® Software, Inc believes you are likely to be at risk of serious harm. For example, a data breach may be likely to result in serious financial harm or harm to your mental or physical well-being. In the event that Chocolatey Software, Inc becomes aware of a security breach which has resulted or may result in unauthorized access, use or disclosure of personal information Chocolatey Software, Inc will promptly investigate the matter and notify the applicable Supervisory Authority not later than 72 hours after having become aware of it, unless the personal data breach is unlikely to result in a risk to the rights and freedoms of natural persons.


Most web browsers and some mobile operating systems and mobile applications include a Do-Not-Track ("DNT") feature or setting you can activate to signal your privacy preference not to have data about your online browsing activities monitored and collected. No uniform technology standard for recognizing and implementing DNT signals has been finalized. As such, we do not currently respond to DNT browser signals or any other mechanism that automatically communicates your choice not to be tracked online. If a standard for online tracking is adopted that we must follow in the future, we will inform you about that practice in a revised version of this privacy policy.


In Short: Yes, if you are a resident of California, you are granted specific rights regarding access to your personal information.

California Civil Code Section 1798.83, also known as the "Shine The Light" law, permits our users who are California residents to request and obtain from us, once a year and free of charge, information about categories of personal information (if any) we disclosed to third parties for direct marketing purposes and the names and addresses of all third parties with which we shared personal information in the immediately preceding calendar year. If you are a California resident and would like to make such a request, please submit your request in writing to us using the contact information provided below.

If you are under 18 years of age, reside in California, and have a registered account with the Services, you have the right to request removal of unwanted data that you publicly post on the Services. To request removal of such data, please contact us using the contact information provided below, and include the email address associated with your account and a statement that you reside in California. We will make sure the data is not publicly displayed on the Services, but please be aware that the data may not be completely or comprehensively removed from our systems.


In Short: Yes, we will update this policy as necessary to stay compliant with relevant laws.

We may update this privacy policy from time to time. The updated version will be indicated by an updated "Revised" date and the updated version will be effective as soon as it is accessible. If we make material changes to this privacy policy, we may notify you either by prominently posting a notice of such changes or by directly sending you a notification. We encourage you to review this privacy policy frequently to be informed of how we are protecting your information.


If you have questions or comments about this policy, you may contact us at legal at chocolatey dot io. If you wish to update/remove your data in accordance with GDPR or other reasons, please see below.

You can also reach us by post to:

Chocolatey Software, Inc
Attn: Legal / Privacy Policy
6021 SW 29th St Ste A302
Topeka, KS 66614
United States


Based on the laws of some countries, you may have the right to request access to the personal information we collect from you, change that information, or delete it in some circumstances. To request to review, update, or delete your personal information, please submit a request form. We will respond to your request within 30 days.