What constitutes an ad?
Not all promotional offers are advertisements. Since the definitions are subjective, here are some rules we use to determine what is or is not an ad:
- Display ads are advertisements served by an ad server or network, generally to promote a product, service, or brand. They may take the form of a banner or other similar format. The banner at the top of the Flickr feed (as frequently seen when browsing flickr.com as a free, signed-in member), and the ad unit seen by free members on individual Flickr photo pages, and interstitial ads that may appear when browsing between photos are examples of display ads. Pro members never see display ads on Flickr.
- Special offers for Flickr members, including perks for Pro members displayed on the account settings page at https://www.flickr.com/account and occasionally delivered via email are not ads. Flickr will always respect your stated email marketing preferences and will not email you promotional offers if you have opted out. However, a change to the special offers included with a Pro membership may necessitate that we send a service email notifying Pro members of the change.
- Feature announcements such as badges or banners indicating new or updated features of Flickr or SmugMug products are not ads.
Where do ads appear on Flickr?
We show ads on pages viewed by users who aren’t signed in, and to free members. Pro members who are signed in never see ads on Flickr.
Ads may appear throughout Flickr and in our app. Flickr may place ads on photo pages, in Photostreams, in groups, and elsewhere, but we use the following rules about where we do not show ads:
- Pro subscribers who are signed in should never see ads on Flickr.com or our mobile apps. Pros have paid for the privilege to browse Flickr without ads.
- Ads should never appear when a free member or signed-out user views a Pro member's account, including their profile, Photostream, albums, and photos. This includes when searching within a specific Pro member’s photos. On the web, this is generally any page where a Pro's member ID appears in the URL path. Visitors to these pages have come to see the Pro’s work, and Pros have paid for the privilege to show their photos without ads in these contexts.
- Ads should never appear on pages where members are signing up, creating a subscription, signing in, managing their account, managing their photos, managing a group, etc.