Categories of Recipients

Classifications of third parties or entities that receive personal data from a data controller. Instead of listing every specific recipient, privacy notices can describe categories like 'payment processors,' 'marketing vendors,' 'cloud storage providers,' 'analytics services,' or 'legal and regulatory authorities.' This approach balances transparency with practical considerations—recipients may change, and exhaustive lists become outdated quickly. However, categories must be meaningful and specific enough for individuals to understand who accesses their data. 'Business partners' or 'third party vendors' alone is too vague. GDPR Article 13 requires disclosure of recipients or categories of recipients. CCPA requires categories of third parties with whom information is shared or sold. The categories approach works best when combined with examples and clear descriptions of the purposes for sharing with each category.