Pinterest is a visual discovery platform where users collect images and links into themed digital boards covering everything from recipes and home decor to fashion and DIY projects.
Last updated May 22, 2026
Reasons to avoid
Issues span:ConsumerPrivacyLabor
- After Pinterest launched AI advertising tools in 2024, the platform was flooded with AI-generated spam content, including fake ads leading to fraudulent websites, with users telling CNN they no longer recognize the app they signed up for.
- In October 2024, European privacy group noyb filed a GDPR complaint with France's data protection authority alleging Pinterest automatically enrolls all 130 million EU users in ad tracking without their consent and fails to disclose which third parties receive their data.
- Pinterest paid $22.5 million in 2020 to settle a gender discrimination and retaliation lawsuit filed by its former chief operating officer, Françoise Brougher, one of the largest publicly announced individual gender discrimination settlements in U.S. history at the time.
- In 2021, Pinterest committed $50 million to workplace reforms after shareholders sued over a systemic culture of racial and gender discrimination, including retaliation against Black employees Ifeoma Ozoma and Aerica Shimizu Banks for seeking equal pay.
Ethical alternatives
