We at Meta want you to understand what information we collect, and how we use and share it. That’s why we encourage you to read our Privacy Policy. This helps you use Meta Products in the way that’s right for you.
In the Privacy Policy, we explain how we collect, use, share, retain and transfer information. We also let you know your rights. Each section of this Policy includes helpful examples and simpler language to make our practices easier to understand. We’ve also added links to resources where you can learn more about the privacy topics that interest you.
It's important to us that you know how to control your privacy, so we also show you where you can manage your information in the settings of the Meta Products you use. You can update these settings to shape your experience.
The information we collect and process about you depends on how you use our Products. For example, we collect different information if you sell furniture on Marketplace than if you post a reel on Instagram. When you use our Products, we collect some information about you even if you don't have an account.
What if you don’t let us collect certain information?
Some information is required for our Products to work. Other information is optional, but without it, the quality of your experience might be affected.
What if the information we collect doesn’t identify individuals?
In some cases information is de-identified, aggregated, or anonymized by third parties so that it no longer identifies individuals before it’s made available to us. We use this information as described below without trying to re-identify individuals.
We use information we collect to provide a personalized experience to you, including ads, along with the other purposes we explain in detail below.
For some of these purposes, we use information across our Products and across your devices. The information we use for these purposes is automatically processed by our systems. But in some cases, we also use manual review to access and review your information.
To use less information that’s connected to individual users, in some cases we de-identify or aggregate information or anonymize it so that it no longer identifies you. We use this information in the same ways we use your information as described in this section.
To provide measurement, analytics and business services
Lots of people rely on our Products to run or promote their businesses or share content. We help them measure how well their ads and other content, products and services are working.
We use information we have, information from researchers and datasets from publicly available sources, professional groups and non-profit groups to conduct and support research.
You can choose to connect with integrated partners who use our Products. If you do, these integrated partners receive information about you and your activity.
These integrated partners can always access information that’s public on our Products. Learn more about other information they receive and how they handle your information:
We don't sell any of your information to anyone, and we never will. We also require partners and other third parties to follow rules about how they can and cannot use and disclose the information we provide.
Here’s more detail about who we share information with:
We also share information with other third parties in response to legal requests, to comply with applicable law or to prevent harm. Read the Policy.
And if we sell or transfer all or part of our business to someone else, in some cases we’ll give the new owner your information as part of that transaction, but only as the law allows.
We share information we collect, infrastructure, systems and technology with the other Meta Companies. Learn more about how we transfer information to other countries.
We also process information that we receive about you from other Meta Companies, according to their terms and policies and as permitted by applicable law. In some cases, Meta acts as a service provider for other Meta Companies. We act on their behalf and in accordance with their instructions and terms.
Why we share across the Meta Companies
Meta Products share information with other Meta Companies:
To promote safety, security and integrity and comply with applicable laws
To personalize offers, ads and other sponsored or commercial content
To develop and provide features and integrations
To understand how people use and interact with Meta Company Products
How can you manage or delete your information and exercise your rights?
Highlights
We offer you a variety of tools to view, manage, download and delete your information below. You can also manage your information by visiting the settings of the Products you use. You may also have other privacy rights under applicable laws.
To exercise your rights, visit our Help Centers, your settings for Facebook and Instagram and your device-based settings.
You can learn more about how privacy works on Facebook and on Instagram, and in the Facebook Help Center. If you have questions about this policy, you can contact us as described below. In some countries, you may also be able to contact the Data Protection Officer for Meta Platforms, Inc., and depending on your jurisdiction, you may also contact your local Data Protection Authority (“DPA”) directly.
How long do we keep your information?
Highlights
We keep information as long as we need it to provide our Products, comply with legal obligations or protect our or other’s interests. We decide how long we need information on a case-by-case basis. Here’s what we consider when we decide:
If we need it to operate or provide our Products. For example, we need to keep some of your information to maintain your account. Learn more.
The feature we use it for, and how that feature works. For example, messages sent using Messenger’s vanish mode are retained for less time than regular messages. Learn more.
How long we need to retain the information to comply with certain legal obligations. See some examples.
If we need it for other legitimate purposes, such as to prevent harm; investigate possible violations of our terms or policies; promote safety, security and integrity; or protect ourselves, including our rights, property or products
In some instances and for specific reasons, we’ll keep information for an extended period of time. Read our Policy about when we may preserve your information.
How do we respond to legal requests, comply with applicable law and prevent harm?
Highlights
We access, preserve, use and share your information:
In response to legal requests, like search warrants, court orders, production orders or subpoenas. These requests come from third parties such as civil litigants, law enforcement and other government authorities. Learn more about when we respond to legal requests.
In accordance with applicable law
To promote the safety, security and integrity of Meta Products, users, employees, property and the public. Learn more.
We may access or preserve your information for an extended amount of time. Learn more.
How will you know the Policy has changed?
We'll notify you before we make material changes to this Policy. You’ll have the opportunity to review the revised Policy before you choose to continue using our Products.
You can learn more about how privacy works on Facebook and on Instagram and in the Facebook Help Center. If you have questions about this Policy or have questions, complaints or requests regarding your information, you can contact us as described below.
The categories of information we use, and why and how information is processed, are set out below:
Why and how we process your information
Information categories we use (see 'What Information do we collect?' for more information on each information category)
The actual information we use depends on your factual circumstances, but could include any of the following:
Personalizing the Meta Products (other than ads, see below): Our systems automatically process information we collect and store associated with you and others to assess and understand your interests and your preferences and provide you personalized experiences across the Meta Products in accordance with our terms. This is how we:
Make suggestions for you (such as people you may know, groups or events that you may be interested in or topics that you may want to follow) on and off our products.
Learn more about how we use information about you to personalize your experience on and across Meta Products and how we choose the ads that you see.
Our ads system automatically processes information that we’ve collected and stored associated with you. Our ads system uses this information to understand your interests and your preferences and personalize your ads across the Meta Products.
Our ads system prioritizes what ad to show you based on what audience advertisers want to reach. Then we match the ad to people who might be interested. Learn more about how our ads system works
Providing and improving our Meta Products: The provision of the Meta Products includes collecting, storing, and, where relevant, sharing, profiling, reviewing and curating, and in some instances not only automated processing but also manual (human) reviewing, to:
Create and maintain your account and profile,
Connect your Meta Products account, including your public profile information, to an integrated partner to sign in or share your information,
Facilitate the sharing of content and status,
Provide and curate features,
Provide messaging services, the ability to make voice and video calls and connect with others,
Provide advertising products,
Understand and enable creation of content like text, audio, images and videos, including through artificial intelligence technology we provide,
Undertake analytics, and
Facilitate your purchases and payments on Meta Pay or other Meta checkout experiences.
We also use information to develop, research and test improvements to our Products. We use information we have to:
See if a product is working correctly,
Troubleshoot and fix it when it’s not,
Test out new products and features to see if they work,
Get feedback on our ideas for products or features, and
Conduct surveys and other research about what you like about our Products and brands and what we can do better.
Promoting safety, integrity and security on and across the Meta Products: The Meta Products are designed to research and help ensure the safety, integrity and security of those services and those people who enjoy them, on and off Meta Products. We process information we have associated with you and apply automated processing techniques and, in some instances, conduct manual (human) review to:
Verify accounts and activity,
Find and address violations of our terms or policies. In some cases, the decisions we make about violations are reviewed by the Oversight Board,
Investigate suspicious activity,
Detect, prevent and combat harmful or unlawful behavior, such as to review and, in some cases, remove content reported to us,
Identify and combat disparities and racial bias against historically marginalized communities,
Protect the life, physical or mental health, well-being or integrity of our users or others,
Detect and prevent spam, other security matters and other bad experiences,
Detect and stop threats to our personnel and property, and
To communicate with you: We use information you’ve given us (like contact information on your profile) to send you a communication, like an e-mail or in-product notice, for example:
We’ll contact you via email or in-product notifications in relation to the Meta Products, product-related issues, research or to let you know about our terms and policies.
We also use contact information like your email address to respond when you contact us.
What you’re doing on your device, like whether our app is in the foreground or if your mouse is moving (which can help tell humans from bots)
Identifiers that tell your device apart from other users’
Device signals
Information you’ve shared through your device settings
Location-related information
Information about the network you connect your device to, including your IP address
Information from cookies and similar technologies.
Transferring, storing or processing your information across borders, including from and to the United States and other countries: We share information we collect globally, both internally across our offices and data centers and externally with our partners, third parties and service providers. Because Meta is global, with users, partners, vendors and employees around the world, transfers are necessary:
To operate and provide the services described in the terms that apply to the Meta Product(s) you are using. This includes allowing you to share information and connect with your family and friends around the globe; and
Processing information subject to special protections under applicable laws that you provide so we can share it with those you choose, to provide, personalize and improve our Products and to undertake analytics. We’ll collect, store, publish and apply automated, or sometimes manual (human), processing for these purposes.
Any information with special protections that you choose to provide, such as your religious views, your sexual orientation, political views, health, racial or ethnic origin, philosophical beliefs or trade union membership, or as part of surveys you choose to participate in, and where you have given your explicit consent
Receiving and using information from third parties to tailor the ads you see: We’ll use information that advertisers, businesses and other partners provide us about activity off Meta Products that we have associated with you to personalize ads that we show you on Meta Products, and on websites, apps and devices that use our advertising services. We receive this information whether or not you’re logged in or have an account on our Products. See the Cookies Policy for more information.
Sharing your contact, profile or other information with third parties upon your request: The type of third party and categories of information shared depend on the circumstances of what you ask us to share. For example:
We share your email (or other contact information) or other information you might choose when you direct us to share it with an advertiser so they can contact you with additional information about a promoted product, and
If you choose to integrate other apps, games or websites with Meta Products and log in, we’ll share your information with the app, game or website to log you in.
Information such as your contact or profile information
Content you create, like posts or comments
Providing measurement, analytics and business services:
Our systems automatically, as well as with some manual (human) processing, process information we have collected and stored about you and others. We use this information to:
Provide insights and measurement reports to businesses, advertisers and other partners to help them measure the effectiveness and distribution of their or their clients’ ads, content and services, to understand the kinds of people who are seeing their content and ads, and how their content and ads are performing on and off Meta Products, and
Provide aggregated user analytics and insights reports that help users, businesses, advertisers and other partners better understand the audiences with whom they may want to connect, as well as the types of people who use their services and how people interact with their content, websites, apps and services.
What you’re doing on your device, like whether our app is in the foreground or if your mouse is moving (which can help tell humans from bots)
Identifiers that tell your device apart from other users
Device signals
Information you’ve shared through your device settings
Location-related information
Information about the network you connect your device to, including your IP address
Information from cookies and similar technologies
Sharing of information across the Meta Companies:
To provide a seamless, consistent and richer, innovative experience across the Meta Company Products to enable cross app interactions, sharing, viewing and engaging with content, including posts and videos.
What you’re doing on your device, like whether our app is in the foreground or if your mouse is moving (which can help tell humans from bots)
Identifiers that tell your device apart from other users'
Device signals
Information you’ve shared through your device settings
Location-related information
Information about the network you connect your device to, including your IP address
Information from cookies and similar technologies
Business intelligence and analytics:
To understand, in aggregate, your usage of and across our Products, to accurately count people and businesses; and
To validate metrics directly related to these, in order to inform and improve product direction and development and to adhere to (shareholder/earning) reporting obligations.
Identifying you as a Meta Product user and personalizing the ads we show you through Meta Audience Network when you visit other apps:
When we show you ads through Meta Audience Network when you visit other apps, our systems automatically process the information we have collected and stored about you and others to identify you as a Meta Product user and tailor the ads you see.
We carry out surveys and use information (including from researchers we collaborate with) to conduct and support research and innovation on topics of general social welfare, technological advancement, public interest, health and well-being.
For example, we analyze information that we have about migration patterns during crises. This helps relief organizations get aid to the right places.
We collect, store, combine, analyze and apply automatic processing techniques like aggregation of information as well as manual (human) review, and share information, as necessary to research and innovate for social good in this way.
We support research in areas like artificial intelligence and machine learning.
In some cases, we anonymize information we have associated with you, such as your activity on and off our Products, and use the resulting information, for example, to provide and improve our Meta Products, including ads.
The categories of information we access, preserve, use and share depend on the specific circumstances. For example, responses to legal requests where not compelled by law will typically include limited information (such as contact details and login information).
However, the information we process will depend on the purposes, which could include the following:
In response to legal requests from third parties such as civil litigants, law enforcement and other government authorities
To comply with applicable law or legitimate legal purposes
To promote the safety, security and integrity of Meta Companies, Meta Products, users, employees, property and the public
Learn more about how we promote safety, security and integrity.
For processing information when the law requires it: Where we are under an obligation to disclose information such as, for example, if we receive a valid legal request for certain information such as a search warrant, we will access, preserve and/or share your information with regulators, law enforcement or others.
The categories of information depend on the specific circumstances of each mandatory request or obligation. Only the information necessary to comply with the relevant legal obligation will be shared or otherwise processed. For example, for civil matters, this will typically include limited information (such as contact details and login information). However, depending on the circumstances it could include the following:
