Privacy Policy

1. What Personal Information We Collect

We collect information that identifies, describes, or is reasonably capable of being associated with you ("Personal Information"). Personal Information does not include information that is publicly available, as defined by applicable laws, de-identified, or aggregate. We collect the following categories of Personal information:

• Identifiers. We collect your name, phone number, driver’s license or ID number, military identification number, email address, phone number, mailing address, unit number, gate codes, and elevator access codes when you register for or use our Services. If you visit our website or use our mobile application, we collect information about your device including a device ID, IP address, or similar device identifiers.

• Customer Records and Account Details. If you rent a storage unit from us, we collect certain information as part of your rental agreement, such as a signed rental agreement, insurance coverage information, gate codes, and elevator access codes. To process billing, we track amounts due, your bank or payment card information, past due amounts, and other relevant transaction data. If you register for an account online or through our mobile app, we also collect your username, password, and passwords hints, as well as other information you provide to us related to your account.

• Commercial Information. When you register for or use our Services, we may collect records of your personal property and Services purchased.

• Characteristics of Protected Classifications. Sometimes, we may collect your birth date, age, gender, or military status.

• Message Contents. When we communicate with you, we may collect contents of text messages, email, phone calls, or audio messages, which may identify you. We also collect records of messages you send via our customer service web chat feature, whether you are speaking to our virtual assistant or one of our customer service agents.  We may retain these communications for quality assurance and training purposes.

• Geolocation. If you visit our website or use our mobile application, we may collect geolocation information from your IP address, which links to the region you live in, or if your location settings on your device are set to share your location with us.

• Audio, Visual, or Similar Information. If you visit our properties, we may collect video surveillance and other security and access information.

• Internet and Network Activity. As described in more detail in Section 5, if you visit our website or use the mobile application, we may collect information about your browsing and search history, interaction with the features of our Services, and responses to advertisements.

• Inferences and Preferences. We may collect information about the types of Services you use, home city, communications preferences, and other inferences drawn from your activity to improve and customize our Services.

• Sensitive Personal Information. We collect Sensitive Personal Information, such as account log-in information.

2. Sources of Personal Information

We generally collect Personal Information identified above from the following categories of sources:

• Directly from you, such as when you visit our property, sign up to rent one of our storage units or otherwise use our Services, or communicate with us by email, phone, our website chat feature, or any other means

• Automatically, when you visit our website or property or use our Services. This includes our security surveillance on our property and, on our website, our use of cookies and other online tracking technologies. For more information on our online tracking technologies, see Section 5 below.

• From service providers and other third parties, pursuant to our agreements with these parties.

3. How We Use Your Information

We use the Personal Information we collect for the following business and commercial purposes.

• Operate our Business and Provide You Services. The main reason we use your Personal Information is to provide you with the Services you request, manage our facilities, maintain your account, process billing and payment, and otherwise run day-to-day operations.

• Communicating with You. We use your Personal Information to communicate with you about our services, your account, and if you contact us with a question or concern. We also use your information to deliver news, updates, and other types of communications, according to your subscriptions, alerts, and other preferences.

• Evaluate and Improve our Services. We may analyze the Personal Information we collect for quality assurance, training, and to understand how we can meet and exceed your expectations. For example, we may retain transcripts of your phone calls, emails, web chats, and other communications with our customer service agents.

• Marketing and Advertising. We use the Personal Information we collect for marketing or advertising purposes.  We may use your Personal Information to personalize our offerings and advertisements to you. For example, we might send you promotional messages about products, services, programs, or events that may be of interest to you. We may also use the insights we gain about how you use our Services evaluate how we price our Services and improve the effectiveness of our marketing campaigns.

• Use of Sensitive Personal Information. Our collection, use, and disclosure of sensitive personal information is limited to what is reasonable and proportionate to provide you our Services, including complying with our legal, regulatory, and reporting obligations.

4. Who We Disclose Your Information To

We may disclose your Personal Information for the following purposes:

• With Our Vendors: We may share your Personal Information with vendors and service providers  who perform services on our behalf, such as identity verification, payment processing, data analysis, email and hosting services, or customer services and support. These vendors may access your Personal Information and are required to use it solely as we direct, to provide our requested service.

• For Marketing and Advertising: We may share the Personal Information we collect with marketing and advertising vendors to design our marketing campaigns, render meaningful advertisements, and connect with you through social media networking.

• Related to Business Transfers: We may disclose or transfer information, including Personal Information, as part of any merger, sale, and transfer of our assets, acquisition or restructuring of all or part of our business, bankruptcy, or similar event, including related to due diligence conducted prior to such event, where permitted by law.

• Marketing and Advertising. We use the Personal Information we collect for marketing or advertising purposes. For example, we might send you promotional messages about products, services, programs, or events that may be of interest to you. We may also use the insights we gain about how you use our Services to improve the effectiveness of our marketing campaigns and ability to attract new customers.

• Use of Sensitive Personal Information. Our collection, use, and disclosure of sensitive personal information is limited to what is reasonable and proportionate to provide you our Services, including complying with our legal, regulatory, and reporting obligations.

We may disclose Personal Information to the following categories of recipients:

• Affiliates and Business Partners. We may disclose your Personal Information with our affiliates and business partners where it is necessary to provide the Services.

• Service Providers. We may disclose Personal Information to our service providers who perform services on our behalf. Our service providers are required to take appropriate security measures to protect your Personal Information in line with our policies and are not permitted to use Personal Information for their own purposes.

• Government Entities, Agencies, and Others as Required by Law. To comply with our legal obligations and where otherwise required by law, we generally disclose the following categories of Personal Information to applicable regulatory and government entities: identifiers; customer records and account details; commercial information; characteristics of protected classifications, e.g. military status; message contents; audio, visual, or similar information; and internet and network activity information.

• Third Party Advertising. As part of our advertising and marketing efforts, we may disclose the following categories of Personal Information with third party advertising companies, marketing companies, social media platforms, and analytics partners for targeted advertising, marketing, and campaign management purposes: identifiers, internet and network activity information, and other information about how you interact with our websites or mobile applications.

All the above categories exclude text messaging originator opt-in data and consent; this information will not be shared with any third parties, excluding aggregators and providers of the Text Message services. 

5. Cookies and Other Tracking Technologies

We, and our third-party service providers, use cookies, pixels, and other tracking mechanisms (collectively, “Cookies”) to track information about your use of our website or Services.

Cookies. Cookies are alphanumeric identifiers that we transfer to your device’s hard drive through your web browser for record-keeping purposes. Some cookies allow us to make it easier for you to navigate our website and Services, while others are used to enable a faster log-in process or to allow us to track your activities at our website. There are two types of cookies: session and persistent cookies.

• Session Cookies. Session cookies exist only during an online session. They disappear from your device when you close your browser or turn off your device. We use session cookies to allow our systems to uniquely identify you during a session or while you are logged into your account with us. This allows us to process your online transactions and requests and verify your identity after you have logged in, as you move through our website and Services.
• Persistent Cookies. Persistent cookies remain on your device after you have closed your browser or turned off your device. We use persistent cookies to track aggregate and statistical information about user activity.

Clear GIFs, Pixel Tags, and other Technologies. Clear GIFs are tiny graphics with a unique identifier, similar in function to cookies. In contrast to cookies, which are stored on your computer’s hard drive, clear GIFs are embedded invisibly on web and app pages. We may use clear GIFs (a.k.a. web beacons, web bugs or pixel tags), in connection with our website to, among other things, track the activities of Site visitors and app users, help us manage content, and compile statistics about Site usage. We and our third-party service providers also use clear GIFs in HTML e-mails to our customers, to help us track e-mail response rates, identify when our e-mails are viewed, and track whether our e-mails are forwarded.

Third-Party Analytics. We use automated devices and applications, such as Google Analytics, to evaluate usage of our Site, and to the extent permitted, our Apps. We also may use other analytic means to evaluate our website. We use these tools to help us improve our Site’s and Apps’ performance and user experiences. These entities may use cookies and other tracking technologies, such as web beacons, to perform their services. To learn more about Google’s privacy practices, please review the Google Privacy Policy at https://www.google.com/policies/privacy/partners/. You can also download the Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on to prevent their data from being used by Google Analytics at https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.

Cross-Device Use. We may use the Personal Information that we collect about you to help us and our third-party service providers identify other devices that you use (e.g., a mobile phone, tablet, other computer, etc.). We and our third-party service providers also may use the cross-device use and other information we learn about you to serve targeted advertising on your devices and to send you emails. To opt out of cross-device advertising, you may follow the instructions set forth in the “How to Manage Cookies” section below. Please note: if you opt-out of these targeted advertising cookies, your opt-out will be specific to the web browser, app, or device from which you accessed the opt-out. If you use multiple devices or web browsers, you will need to opt out on each browser or device that you use.

Session Replay. We may use session replay technologies to diagnose problems with our Services and identify areas for improvement. Session replay allows us to collect your activities on our website, including your clicks, mouse movements, scrolls, and input data. 

Do-Not-Track. Currently, our systems do not recognize browser “do-not-track” requests. You may, however, disable certain tracking as discussed in this section (e.g., by disabling cookies); you also may opt out of targeted advertising by following the instructions below.

6. Information Regarding Children

Our website and Services are intended for users who are 18 years or older and we do not knowingly collect information from children under 18 years old. If we become aware that we have collected information from a child under 18 years old, we will delete such information from our records. If you are a parent or legal guardian and believe your child has given us information and you did not provide consent, please contact us at 800.611.2882.

7. Your Rights and Choices

8. Legal Disclaimer

Nothing in this Privacy Policy restricts Public Storage’s ability to:

• Comply with federal, state, or local laws;
• Comply with a civil, criminal, or regulatory inquiry, investigation, subpoena, or summons by federal, state, or local authorities;
• Cooperate with law enforcement agencies concerning conduct or activity that the business, service provider, or third party reasonably and in good faith believes may violate federal, state, or local law;
• Exercise or defend legal claims;
• Detect security incidents and protect against fraudulent or illegal activity and prosecute those responsible for such activity; or
• Transfer Personal Information as part of a merger or acquisition, dissolution of Public Storage, or in the event of bankruptcy or any other transaction in which a third party assumes control of all or part of Public Storage.

9. External Links

When you use this website, you may find links to other websites that we don’t own or control. We are not responsible for the content or any other aspect of these third-party sites, including their collection of your Personal Information. You should review their terms and conditions and privacy policies before proceeding to that site.

10. Updates to this Privacy Policy

This Privacy Policy is reviewed and updated regularly. If we change this Policy, we will post the updated Privacy Policy here, and those changes will go into effect on the “last updated” date shown above. We will take your continued use of our Services to mean you accept the terms of the updated Policy. We will not retroactively use or share your Personal Information for materially different purposes without first taking reasonable steps to provide you notice.

11. Questions and Contact Us

If you have a questions about this Policy or our privacy practices, you may contact us or call us at 800.611.2882.