Priceline

Is Priceline safe?

For booking a hotel, flight or car, yes. Priceline has no reported breach of customer accounts, and it pays outside researchers to find security holes in its website and both apps. The concerns are about how it sells. Its app shares location and contact details for advertising, Texas settled a hidden-fee case naming priceline.com in 2025, and US Federal Trade Commission staff have told Priceline they want to sue over fees and billing. We score Priceline 55/100.

What the app shares

Apple's label lists purchase history, search history, user ID and device ID as data that may be used to track you across other companies' apps and websites. Linked to you for Priceline's own marketing is a longer list: precise and coarse location, physical address, email, name, phone number and usage data.

Google Play goes further on sharing. It says the Android app shares precise and approximate location with other companies for analytics, advertising and personalisation, and shares email, address and phone number for purposes that include advertising or marketing.

The privacy policy, last updated in January 2026, explains where that goes. Priceline passes browsing data and IP-based location to "marketing and advertising networks, data analytics providers, and other vendors", and says that in the past 12 months it "sold" or "shared", as California law uses those words, identifiers, commercial information, internet activity and general location. Data also flows across Booking Holdings: Booking.com, OpenTable, KAYAK and Agoda, including for single sign-on. Cruises and group hotel bookings are handled by outside partners, World Travel Holdings and Lexyl Travel Technologies, which then hold your details.

Retention is vague. Priceline keeps data "for as long as your account is active or as needed to provide you services", plus whatever it needs for legal duties and disputes.

Fees: the Texas case and the FTC

Priceline's record turns on how it shows prices. In 2023 the Texas attorney general sued Booking Holdings, which operates Booking.com, Priceline.com and Kayak.com, under the state's consumer protection law. The suit said room rates were made to look lower than they were, with mandatory fees revealed only at checkout and grouped with government taxes in a "Taxes and Fees" line. On 19 August 2025 the attorney general announced a US$9.5 million settlement, which he called the largest a state had recovered over hotel junk fees, and Booking agreed to show added fees up front.

A second matter is still open. In its quarterly report filed in August 2026, Booking Holdings said FTC staff had told Priceline in July that they intend to recommend a complaint against Priceline and a business-to-business affiliate partner, alleging unfair or deceptive practices related to disclosures, fees, customer support and billing. That is a staff recommendation, not a filed case. The commission must approve it, and Priceline says it disagrees and is negotiating. We count it as an open investigation, so it takes only a few points off for now.

Since May 2025 the FTC's rule on unfair or deceptive fees has required hotel and short-term rental sites in the US to include mandatory fees in the price they display. That should make headline prices more honest, but checking the total before you pay is still the safest habit.

Security

Priceline has run a public bug bounty on HackerOne since April 2019. It covers priceline.com, the iOS and Android apps and Penny, the AI booking assistant, and has resolved 643 reports. Expedia Group has run a similar paid programme for its brands since November 2022. We found no breach of Priceline accounts in California's breach register or in Booking Holdings' filings. What we could not find is much detail on account protection: the policy mentions SSL for card data and little else.

How to book on Priceline more safely

1. Compare the total with taxes and fees, not the nightly rate, and read the cancellation terms before you pay; some deals cannot be refunded.
2. Check your card statement for charges you did not expect after booking, and dispute them quickly.
3. Get help through the app, not a phone number from a search ad.
4. Use the "Do Not Sell or Share" option in the privacy policy if you live in a US state that offers it.
5. Give the app location access only while you use it, and refuse tracking when your iPhone asks.

How we scored it

Privacy (40) is the weakest factor, because the app shares precise location and contact details for advertising and the policy discloses data sales to ad networks. Security (66) is the strongest, thanks to a long-running paid bug bounty and no breach on record. Regulatory record (62) carries the Texas settlement and the open FTC matter. KAYAK, a sister brand named in the same Texas suit, scores 60, and Booking.com 47.