Privacy Policy

Policy update
We updated our Privacy Policy on April 7, 2025. View our previous policy.
How we use info for AI at Meta
We’re always improving AI at Meta. To do this, we want you to know that we'll use public information such as public posts and comments from accounts of people aged 18 or older and your interactions with AI at Meta features. We’ll use this information on the basis of legitimate interests to develop and improve generative AI models for AI at Meta.
You have the right to object to the use of your information for these purposes. If you submit an objection, we’ll send an email confirming that we won't use your interactions with AI at Meta features or your public information from Meta Products for future development and improvement of generative AI models for AI at Meta. Learn about how models are trained. If you've already objected, you don't need to submit another request.
These changes go into effect on May 27, 2025. Read the new policy.

Explore the policy

What is the Privacy Policy and what does it cover?

What information do we collect?

How do we use your information?

How is your information shared on Meta Products or with integrated partners?

How do we share information with third parties?

How do the Meta Companies work together?

What is our legal basis for processing your information, and what are your rights?

How long do we keep your information?

How do we transfer information?

How do we respond to legal requests, comply with applicable law and prevent harm?

How will you know the Policy has changed?

How to contact Meta with questions

Legal basis information

What is the Privacy Policy and what does it cover?

Effective April 7, 2025

Highlights

  • This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use and share your information. It also describes how long we keep your information and how we keep it safe when we transfer it.
  • The Privacy Policy also lets you know your rights
  • This Privacy Policy applies to what we call Meta Products, or Products. Our Products include Facebook, Instagram, and Messenger.
  • It also applies to Meta Quest if you log in with a Meta account
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[1] 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.
Read the full Policy below.
1

What Products does this Policy cover?

A Meta Quest, a mobile phone showing the Facebook, Instagram and Messenger apps, and a pair of Ray-Ban Stories glasses sit on a table.
This Policy describes the information we, Meta Platforms Ireland Limited, process to provide Meta Products, which we also call "Products."
Return to top

What information do we collect?

Highlights

In this Policy we list the kinds of information we collect. Here are some important ones. We collect:
  • The information you give us when you sign up for our Products and create a profile, like your email address, phone number or age
  • What you do on our Products. This includes what you click on or like, your posts and photos and messages you send. On some Products, you can use end-to-end encrypted messages. Learn more.
  • Who your friends or followers are, and what they do on our Products
  • Information from the phone, computer, or tablet you use our Products on, like what kind it is and what version of our app you’re using
  • Information from partners[2] about things you do both on and off of our Products. This could include other websites you visit, apps you use or online games you play.
The information we collect and process about you depends on how you use our Products[3]. 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[4].
Here's the information we collect:

Your activity and information you provide

An elderly man sitting at a desk and using a credit card to shop on his laptop.
On our Products[3], you can send messages, take photos and videos, buy or sell things and much more. We call all of the things you can do on our Products "activity." We collect your activity across our Products and information you provide[5], such as:
  • Content you create, like posts, comments or audio
  • Content you provide through our camera feature or your camera roll settings, or through our voice-enabled features. Learn more[6] about what we collect from these features, and how we use information from the camera for masks, filters, avatars and effects.
  • Messages you send and receive, including their content, subject to applicable law. On some Products, you can use end-to-end encrypted messages. Learn more about how end-to-end encryption works.
  • Metadata[7] about content and messages, subject to applicable law
  • Types of content, including ads, you view or interact with, and how you interact with it
  • Apps and features you use, and what actions you take in them. See examples[8].
  • Purchases or other transactions you make, such as through Meta checkout experiences, including credit card information. Learn more[9].
  • Hashtags you use
  • The time, frequency and duration of your activities on our Products
  • Views of and interactions with a Facebook Page and its content, to provide the Page admin with aggregated information about how people use their Page and its content. Meta is jointly responsible with Page admins. Learn more about the joint processing for Page Insights.
  • Your photo or video selfie if you provide it when you contact us for account support

Information with special protections

You might choose to provide information about your religious views, your sexual orientation, political views, health, racial or ethnic origin, philosophical beliefs or trade union membership. These types of information have special protections under the laws of your country.

Friends, followers and other connections

Information we collect about your friends, followers and other connections

We collect information about friends, followers, groups, accounts, Facebook Pages and other users and communities you’re connected to and interact with. This includes how you interact with them across our Products and which ones you interact with the most.

Information we collect about contacts

We also collect your contacts’ information, such as their name and email address or phone number, if you choose to upload or import it from a device[10], like by syncing an address book.
If you don’t use Meta Products, or use them without an account, your information might still be collected. Learn more about how Meta uses contact information uploaded by account holders.
Learn how to upload and delete contacts on Facebook and Messenger, or how to connect your device's contact list on Instagram.

Information we collect or infer about you based on others’ activity

We collect information about you based on others' activity. See some examples[11].
We also infer things about you based on others' activity. For example:
  • We may suggest a friend to you through Facebook's People You May Know feature if you both appear on a contact list that someone uploads.
  • We take into account whether your friends belong to a group when we suggest you join it.

App, browser and device information

We collect and receive information from and about the different devices[10] you use and how you use them.
Device information we collect and receive includes:
  • The device and software you’re using, and other device characteristics. See examples[12].
  • 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’, including Family Device IDs. See examples[13].
  • Signals from your device. See examples[14].
  • Information you’ve shared with us through device settings, like GPS location, camera access, photos and related metadata[15]
  • Information about the network you connect your device to and your connection, including your IP address[16]. See more examples[17].
  • Some location-related information, even if Location Services is turned off in your device settings. This includes using IP addresses to estimate your general location.
  • Information about our Products’ performance on your device. Learn more[18].
  • Information from cookies and similar technologies. Learn more.[19]

Information from partners, vendors and other third parties

What kinds of information do we collect or receive?

We collect and receive information from partners[20], measurement vendors, marketing vendors and other third parties[21] about a variety of your information and activities on and off our Products[3].
Here are some examples of information we receive about you:
  • Your device[10] information
  • Websites you visit and cookie data, like through Social Plugins or the Meta Pixel
  • Apps you use
  • Games you play
  • Purchases and transactions you make off of our Products using non-Meta checkout experiences
  • The ads you see and how you interact with them (if we show you ads on Meta Products)
  • How you use our partners’ products and services, online or in person
Partners[2] also share information like your email address, cookies[19] and advertising device ID with us. This helps us match your activities with your account, if you have one. You can adjust your Cookie settings to control how we use certain information from partners to provide and personalize content and ads for you.
We receive this information whether or not you’re logged in or have an account on our Products. Learn more about how we connect information from partners to your account.
Partners also share with us their communications with you if they instruct us to provide services to their business, like helping them manage their communications. To learn how a business processes or shares your information, read their privacy policy or contact them directly.

How do we collect or receive this information from partners?

Partners use our Business Tools, integrations and Meta Audience Network technologies to share information with us.
These partners collect your information when you visit their site or app or use their services, or through other businesses or organizations they work with. We require partners to have the right to collect, use and share your information before giving it to us.
We process certain information we receive from partners as a joint controller with them. Learn more about our arrangements with these partners.

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.
Learn more[22]

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.
2

Partner

A person, business, organization or body using or integrating our Products to advertise, market or support their products and services
3

What Products does this Policy cover?

A Meta Quest, a mobile phone showing the Facebook, Instagram and Messenger apps, and a pair of Ray-Ban Stories glasses sit on a table.
This Policy describes the information we, Meta Platforms Ireland Limited, process to provide Meta Products, which we also call "Products."
4

Information we collect and receive if you use or interact with our Products but don’t have an account

Even if you don't have an account, you may interact with or use Meta Products[3]. Then we collect things like:
  • Browser and app logs of your visits to public content, like Facebook Pages, videos and rooms
  • Basic information about devices[10] that downloaded our apps, like device model and OS
We also receive information using cookies and similar technologies, like the Meta Pixel or Social Plugins, when you visit other websites and apps that use our Business Tools or other Meta Products. Read more about information we receive from partners, vendors and other third parties in this policy and in our Cookies Policy.

Examples of why we collect and receive information

Security of our Products

For example, we collect information to monitor attempted attacks on our systems, such as overloading our servers with traffic. Also, if we see someone without an account trying to load too many pages, they could be trying to scrape our site in violation of our terms. Then we can take action to prevent it.

Safety and integrity

For example, if someone without an account joins a room and shares a harmful video, we can take action according to our Community Standards. We can remove content that violates our terms and policies, or share information with law enforcement when we believe there is a genuine risk of death or imminent bodily harm.

Performance

For example, we collect information when people use our Products, even if they don’t have an account, to measure how fast our pages load in different countries and whether they're working properly. This helps us identify and fix issues with local networks.
Learn more about the information we collect and use if you don't have an account and our legal basis for doing so.
5

Information you provide

For example, when you create a Facebook account, you must provide some information, like a password and your email address or phone number, age and gender. You might choose to add other details to your account, like a profile photo or payment information.
We also collect information you provide when you:
  • Create your avatar
  • Fill out a form
  • Contact us
6

What we collect from our camera feature

A hand holding a mobile phone applies a butterfly Instagram filter to a photo of a flower garden.
José likes using Instagram’s Camera feature to take pictures of his flower garden. We collect information about how José uses the Camera feature. For example, if he chooses a background effect for the photo he’s about to take, we collect information from the camera so we can apply the effect to his photo.

How filters, effects, masks and avatars work

A mobile phone screen of a man taking a selfie with a flower filter applied to the face.
If you use our camera or allow access to photos and videos, on certain Meta Products you can add filters, effects, masks or avatars. Some of these features process parts of faces or bodies within the camera frame, photo or video. Then they can do things like fit a mask correctly over the eyes, nose and mouth. The information we use for this process is used to create the feature. It’s not used to identify you.

What we collect from voice-enabled features

A person using Ray-Ban Stories to take a photo of three friends posing on the beach.
Ren tells Meta’s voice-enabled Assistant to take a photo on smart glasses. A visual indicator shows that Assistant is activated and listening for Ren’s command. We collect this voice interaction, which includes any background sound that occurs when Ren says the command. Collecting Ren’s voice interactions lets us provide and, depending on Ren’s settings, improve the Assistant feature.
7

Metadata

  • Information about the content itself, like the location where a photo was taken or the date a file was created
  • Information about the message itself, like the type of message or the date and time it was sent
8

Apps and features you use, and how you use them

For example, we log:
  • What apps, posts, videos, ads, games, Shops and other content you view or interact with on our Products
  • What features you access from our messaging products
  • When you use Social Plugins, Facebook Login, in-app browser link history or autofill
  • Information about websites that you visit or interact with when you use our in-app browser. Learn more.
9

Purchases or other transactions

We collect information when you use our Products to buy or sell things or make or receive financial transactions.
Some examples are:
  • Purchases within an online game
  • Donations to a friend’s fundraiser
  • Purchases of subscriptions on Meta Products
  • Payments received for providing products or services on Meta Products
  • Payments or purchases made using Meta Pay or other Meta checkout experiences

What we collect from transactions

When you use our Products to buy or sell things or make or receive financial transactions, including payments made using Meta Pay or other Meta checkout experiences, we collect information about your purchase or other financial transactions, like:
  • Credit or debit card number and other financial account information
  • Billing, shipping and contact details
  • Items you bought and how many
  • Other account and authentication information

Why we collect this information

We collect and store this information to facilitate your purchase, receipt of payments and other financial transactions, to personalize your experience on our Products, for advertising and to allow you to access and view your payment and transaction history, where available. And, depending on your choices, we store this information to provide you faster and easier payment and financial transactions experiences.

More in the Privacy Policy

How do we use your information?
How do we respond to legal requests, comply with applicable law and prevent harm?
10

Device

Devices include computers, phones, hardware, connected TVs, Meta Quest and other web-connected devices.
11

When we collect information based on others’ activity

For example, we collect information about you on Meta Products when others:
  • Share or comment on a photo you’re tagged in
  • Send you a message
  • Invite you to join a conversation
  • Upload their address book that has your contact information in it
  • Invite you to play a game
  • Connect with you, for example, as a friend or follower
  • Block or report you
12

What device you’re using, and other device characteristics

We collect device information like:
  • The type of device
  • Details about its operating system
  • Details about its hardware and software
  • Brand and model
  • Battery level
  • Signal strength
  • Available storage
  • Browser type
  • App and file names and types
  • Plugins
13

Identifiers that tell your device apart from other users’

Identifiers we collect include device IDs, mobile advertiser ID or IDs from games, apps or accounts you use. We also collect Family Device IDs or other identifiers unique to Meta Company Products associated with the same device or account.
14

Device signals

Device signals include GPS, Bluetooth signals, nearby Wi-Fi access points, beacons and cell towers.
15

Related metadata

For example, if you give us permission to access your device’s camera roll, we collect metadata. This metadata is from and about your photos and videos and includes the date and time they were made. We use this to do things like remind you when you have new photos to upload.
16

IP address

Stands for "internet protocol address." It’s a unique number assigned to a device, like a phone or computer, that allows it to communicate over the internet. Numbers are assigned according to standard guidelines, or protocols.
Just like you need a mailing address to receive a letter from a friend, your device needs an IP address to receive information on the internet.
17

Information about the network you connect your device to and your internet connection

Information about your network and connection includes:
  • The name of your mobile operator or internet service provider (ISP)
  • Language
  • Time zone
  • Mobile phone number
  • IP address
  • Connection and download speed
  • Network capability
  • Information about other devices that are nearby or on your network
  • Wi-Fi hotspots you connect to using our Products
One reason we collect this information is to make your experience better. For example, if we know that your phone and TV are connected to the same network, we can help you use your phone to control a video stream on your TV.

More in the Privacy Policy

How do we use your information?
18

Information about our Products’ performance on your device

We collect device information to prevent, diagnose, troubleshoot and fix errors and bugs. This includes how long the app was running, what model of device you were using and other performance and diagnostic information.
19

Information from cookies and similar technologies

Cookies are small pieces of text used to store information on web browsers. We use cookies and similar technologies, including data that we store on your web browser or device, identifiers associated with your device and other software, Social Plugins and the Meta Pixel. They help us provide, protect and improve our Products, such as by personalizing content, tailoring and measuring ads and providing a safer experience.
We collect information from cookies stored on your device, including cookie IDs and settings.
Read our Meta Cookies Policy.
20

Types of partners

Partners

Our partners[2] use our Products, including our Business Tools and other technologies that allow businesses to advertise or support their products. Business Tools also help our partners understand and measure how people are using their products and services and how well their ads are working. For example, they might put one of our Business Tools, the Meta Pixel, on their website. Or they might use Meta Audience Network tools to monetize their apps by showing ads from businesses that advertise on Facebook.

Integrated partners

Integrated partners[23] also use our Products, specifically the technologies that help you make a connection to them. For example, you might log into their app or website using Facebook Login. Or you might play their game on Facebook, which we call an integration because you can play without leaving our app.

Who are our partners and integrated partners?

Here are some examples:
  • Advertisers
  • Businesses and people that use our Products to sell or offer goods and services
  • Publishers (like a website or app) and their vendors
  • App developers
  • Game developers
  • Device manufacturers, internet service providers and mobile network operators
  • E-commerce platforms
21

Other third parties we get information from

Some people, businesses, organizations and bodies share information with Meta but don’t necessarily use our Products. We collect and receive information from these other third parties[24], including:
  • Publicly available sources, like academic papers and public forums
  • Industry peers, such as other online platforms and technology companies
  • Marketing and advertising vendors and data providers, who have the rights to provide us with your information
  • Companies or organizations that provide content, including videos, photos, and audio
  • Law enforcement
  • Government authorities
  • Professional and non-profit groups, like NGOs, and charities
  • Academic and research institutions, like universities, non-profit research groups and think tanks

Third-party public sources

We get datasets from publicly available sources, research institutions and professional and non-profit groups. We use these datasets to:
  • Detect and stop scraping in violation of our terms
  • Take other actions to promote the safety, security and integrity of our Products, our users, the public and our personnel and property
  • Improve our AI technologies and support AI research and product development, such as translations, computer vision, content understanding, natural language processing, and tools for people and businesses to create content
  • Engage with research survey respondents who choose to participate in additional conversations

More in the Privacy Policy

How do we use your information?
22

What happens if you don’t let us collect certain information

For example, if you don’t provide your email address, phone number or age, we won’t be able to create an account for you to use our Products.
Or you can choose not to add Facebook friends, but then your Facebook Feed won’t show friends’ photos and status updates.
23

Integrated partner

A partner who uses technologies that help you make a connection to them through our Products, including plugins, login, checkout experiences, instant games, and other such integrations
24

Third party

A person, business, organization or body that is not part of the Meta Companies
Return to top

How do we use your information?

Highlights

Here are some of the ways we use your information:
  • We personalize your experience, like by suggesting reels to watch or communities to join
  • We improve our Products by applying information about what you use them to do, and what else is happening on your device when our app crashes
  • We work to prevent harmful behavior and keep people safe on our Products
  • We send you messages about the Products you use or ones you might like, if you let us
  • We research for the good of people around the world, like to advance technology or to help out in a crisis
We use information we collect to provide a personalized experience to you, including ads (if we show you ads on Meta Products), along with the other purposes we explain in detail below.
For some of these purposes, we use information across our Products[25] from the accounts you choose to add to your Accounts Center, and across your devices[26]. The information we use for these purposes is automatically processed by our systems. But in some cases, we also use manual review[27] 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.
Here are the ways we use your information:

To provide, personalize and improve our Products

We use information we have to provide and improve our Products[28]. This includes personalizing features, content and recommendations, such as your Facebook Feed[29], Instagram Feed, Stories and ads (if we show you ads on Meta Products). We use information with special protections you choose to provide for these purposes, but not to show you ads.
Read more about how we use information to provide, personalize and improve our Products:

How we show ads (if we show you ads on Meta Products)

When you use our Products, you see ads, such as boosted posts or product listings in Shops. You also see ads shown through Meta Audience Network when you visit other apps. To provide our Products for free, we use your information to show you ads, which advertisers, businesses, organizations and others pay us to show you. We want everything you see to be interesting and useful to you, so we personalize ads for you and measure how they perform. We use information from your account or across accounts in your Accounts Center and cookies on our Products for this. You can control whether we show you ads and which information we use to show you ads in Ad Preferences.
See some examples.[30]
Learn more about some of the ways we show you ads that we think may be interesting to you, including using machine learning.

Take control

Learn more about how ads work
Manage Ad preferences

How we use information to improve our Products

We’re always trying to make our Products better and create new ones with the features you want. Information we collect from you helps us learn how.
We use information we collect 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
  • Conduct surveys and other research about what you like about our Products and brands and what we can do better

How we use location-related information

We use location-related information that you allow us to receive if you turn on the Location Services device setting. This includes things like your GPS location and, depending on the operating system you're using, other device signals[31].
We also receive and use some location-related information even if Location Services is turned off. This includes:
  • IP addresses[32], which we use to estimate your general location. We can use IP addresses to estimate your specific location if it’s necessary to protect the safety and security of you or others.
  • Your and others' activity on our Products, like check-ins and events
  • Information you give us directly, like if you enter your current city on your profile, or provide your address in Marketplace
We use location-related information, such as your current location, where you live, the places you like to go and the businesses and people you're near, to do the things described in the “How do we use your information?” section of the Policy, like:
  • Provide, personalize and improve our Products, including ads (if we show you ads on Meta Products), for you and others. See an example[33].
  • Detect suspicious activity and help keep your account secure. Learn how.[34]

Take control

How to manage Facebook location settings
How to turn Instagram location services on or off
Manage location settings

To promote safety, security and integrity

We use information we collect to help protect people from harm and provide safe, secure Products.
Learn more

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.
Learn more

To communicate with you

We communicate with you using information you've given us, like contact information you've entered on your profile.
Learn more

To research and innovate for social good

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.
Learn more

Promoting safety, security and integrity

Here are some ways we promote safety, security and integrity. We work to:
  • Verify accounts, identity and activity. Learn more about how you can choose to verify your account or identity through facial recognition technology.
  • Find and address violations of our terms or policies. In some cases, the decisions we make about violations are reviewed by the Oversight Board. They may use information we have when they review our decisions. Learn more about how the Oversight Board processes information.
  • Investigate suspicious activity. Learn more about how we help protect you and others from impersonation and identity misuse through face analysis.
  • Detect, prevent and combat harmful or unlawful behavior
  • Detect and prevent spam and other bad experiences
  • Detect when someone needs help and provide support
  • Detect and stop threats to our personnel and property
  • Maintain the integrity of our Products
Learn more about how we work to keep Meta a safe place for everyone.

Take control

Account security

Providing measurement, analytics and business services

To provide measurement and analytics services, we use the information we collect about you across your accounts on our Products.
Our measurement and analytics services help our partners[35] and users understand things like:
  • How many people see and interact with their products, services or content, including posts, videos, Facebook Pages, listings, Shops and ads (if we show you ads on Meta Products, including ads shown through apps using Meta Audience Network)
  • How people interact with their content, websites, apps and services
  • What types of people[36] interact with their content or use their services
  • How people use our partners' products and services to connect to Meta Products, the performance of their connection and networks and users' experience with them
We also use the information we collect to provide business services.

More in the Privacy Policy

How do we share information with partners, vendors, service providers and other third parties?

Communicating with you

We communicate with you in a few different ways. For example:
  • We send messages about the Products we know you use, using the email you register to your account
  • Depending on your settings, we send marketing communications about Products you might like
  • We ask you to participate in research based on things like how you use our Products
  • We let you know about our policies and terms of service
  • When you contact us with questions, we reply to your email
  • We facilitate customer support communications with you when you've told us, either directly or through a third party[37], that you have questions or concerns about our Products

Take control

Communication preferences

Researching and innovating for social good

We research and innovate to help people around the world. Our goals include:
  • Contributing to social good and areas of public interest
  • Advancing technology
  • Improving safety, health and well-being
Here are some examples of our research:
  • We analyze information about where groups of people go during crises. This helps relief organizations get aid to the right places.
  • We work with independent researchers to better understand the impact social media might have on elections and democratic processes
  • We’ve collaborated with academics and industry experts to help improve internet access and quality in rural areas
  • We support research in areas like artificial intelligence and machine learning
Learn more about our research programs
25

Using information across our Products

If you choose to add your accounts to the same Accounts Center, we'll combine your information across your accounts. Here's what we'll use it for, we'll:
Even if you don't add your accounts to the same Accounts Center, we use information across your accounts to:
  • Keep you and others safe
  • More accurately count people and measure how they use our Products
  • Make sure our Products are working correctly so we can fix them if they’re not

Take control

How to add or delete accounts in your Accounts Center
Manage accounts
26

Why we use information across devices

One reason we use your information across devices[39] is to help us give you a more personalized experience. For example, we might show you an ad on your phone, and later you might use your laptop to click on the ad and buy the product. By combining that information across your devices, we can understand what ads are relevant to you and help businesses measure how well their ad performed.
27

Manual review

Examples of when we use manual review

  • Our reviewers help us promote safety, security and integrity across our Products. For example, reviewers can look for and remove content that violates our terms and policies and keep content that doesn’t break our terms and policies available. Their work supplements our technology that detects violations.
  • When our algorithms detect that someone might need help, a reviewer can review their post and offer support if needed.
  • We also use manual review to analyze content to train our algorithms to review content the same way a person would. This improves our automatic processing, which in turn helps us improve our products.

Who reviews this information

Our reviewers work at Meta, for Meta Companies or for a trusted service provider[40]. We require every reviewer who's allowed access to your information to meet privacy and security standards.
Learn more about how Meta prioritizes content for manual review.
28

What Products does this Policy cover?

A Meta Quest, a mobile phone showing the Facebook, Instagram and Messenger apps, and a pair of Ray-Ban Stories glasses sit on a table.
This Policy describes the information we, Meta Platforms Ireland Limited, process to provide Meta Products, which we also call "Products."
29

How we personalize your Facebook Feed

Your Facebook Feed is unique to you. We order (or “rank”) the content you can see in your Feed, and you can learn more about the different types of signals we use to rank it. We also suggest content that’s relevant to you.
Many things influence the content you see in your Feed.
For example:
  • If your friends, connections or people you may know interact with a Facebook Page, post or certain topic, we can suggest similar content to you. So if your friend Ahmad comments on a post about national parks, we can suggest the national parks post to you.
  • If you and others interact with the same group, Facebook Page or post, we can suggest another group, Page or post that they interact with for you. So if you and Sharmila are in the same cat lovers group and Sharmila likes a Page that sells scarves, we might suggest the scarves Page to you.
  • If you’ve recently engaged with a certain topic on Facebook, we might then suggest other posts that are related to that topic. So if you recently liked or commented on a post from a basketball Page, we could suggest other posts about basketball.
  • You might see posts based on where you are and what people near you are interacting with on Facebook. So if you’re near a sports stadium, we can suggest games or events occurring at the stadium. Learn more about how we use location-related information.

Take control

How to manage your Facebook Feed
How to manage your Instagram Feed
Manage Facebook Feed
30

Your activity on our Products

A cup of coffee, two donuts, and a hand holding a phone that shows an ad for a bakery.
For example, William checks into a local bakery on Facebook, so later we might show him ads on Instagram for other local bakeries.

Your activity on third-party websites and apps, depending on your settings

An open shoebox, a new pair of shoes, and a hand holding a phone that shows an ad for shoes.
For example, Jane buys a pair of shoes from an online shoe store or in an online chat with a shoe seller. The seller shares Jane’s activity with us using our Business Tools, subject to our Business Tools Terms.
Later, Jane sees an ad on Instagram for a discount on her next shoe purchase from the online store.
If she doesn't want to see ads from this shoe store again, she can hide them in her Advertisers setting. Or if she doesn’t want us to show her any ads based on her activity on other websites and apps, she can make sure that this setting is turned off in her Ad preferences.

Topics we think you might be interested in

A turntable, a laptop, headphones, and a pair of hands holding a phone that shows an ad for a music festival.
For example, Jon likes several Facebook Pages about famous musicians, so we think he has an interest in "music."
Based on this interest, we might show him an ad for a local record shop or an online music publication.
Jon can manage his interests in his ad topics.

Your connections

An easel with a painting on it and a hand holding a phone that shows an ad for an art fair.
For example, Fiona’s friend likes an Instagram account for a local art fair. Based on her friend’s activity, we might show Fiona an ad for the art fair.
31

Other device signals we receive

We receive different types of device signals from different operating systems. They include things like nearby Bluetooth or Wi-Fi connections.
32

IP address

Stands for "internet protocol address." It’s a unique number assigned to a device, like a phone or computer, that allows it to communicate over the internet. Numbers are assigned according to standard guidelines, or protocols.
Just like you need a mailing address to receive a letter from a friend, your device needs an IP address to receive information on the internet.
33

Personalizing ads for you and others

A hand holding a mobile phone that shows a map of an airport.
For example, Marcus is going on a trip and wants to use Find Wi-Fi to find free, public Wi-Fi at the airport. He has turned on Location Services on his device and allowed location access on the Facebook app, so we can use his GPS information to help him find the most relevant public Wi-Fi networks. We’ll also use this information to show him ads for local businesses near the airport.
Later, Marcus turns off Location Services before he lands, so we don’t collect his GPS information anymore. Later on his trip, he opens the Facebook app, and we can use the IP address we receive to estimate Marcus’ general location and show him ads for businesses nearby.
34

Helping to keep your account secure

For example, we use information about the locations you normally log in from, combined with other information, to detect suspicious activity. So if we detect an attempt to log into your account from a new location, we can check that it’s really you.
35

Partner

A person, business, organization or body using or integrating our Products to advertise, market or support their products and services
36

Information we provide about different types of people

For example, we might tell an advertiser that their ad was seen by women aged 25–34 who live in Madrid and like software engineering.
37

Third party

A person, business, organization or body that is not part of the Meta Companies
38

Providing more personalized features, content and suggestions across our Products

For example we can:
  • Automatically fill in registration information, like your phone number, from one Meta Product when you sign up for an account on a different Product
  • Let others see and search your name and profile photo across our Products and communicate with you
  • Show all interactions in one place for content you’ve cross-posted to different Products
39

Device

Devices include computers, phones, hardware, connected TVs, Meta Quest and other web-connected devices.
40

Service provider

A person, business, organization or body that provides services to Meta or to our users on behalf of Meta. For example, our service providers do things like investigate suspicious activity and provide customer support.
Return to top

How is your information shared on Meta Products or with integrated partners?

Highlights

  • You can choose to share information on our Products or with integrated partners
  • Remember to share only with people you trust
  • You might decide to use a product that integrates with one of ours, like if you use Facebook Login to log into a music service or a shopping site
  • If you do, that organization will ask you to receive some information about you, like your email address or birthday
Hands holding a phone, using Facebook Login to log into an Integrated Partner's website.

On Meta Products

Learn more about the different cases when your information can be shared on our Products[41]:

People and accounts you share and communicate with

When you share and communicate using our Products, you can sometimes choose the audience[42] for what you share.
When you interact with people or businesses, they can see:

What you share with them

For example, the audience you choose can see when you:
  • Share a post you’ve written
  • Share a photo or video
  • Create a story
  • Share a news article
  • Add information to your profile

What you communicate with them

People you interact with can see what you send to them. So if you send a person or a business a message on Messenger or Instagram, that person or business can read your message.

Some of your activity

People and businesses can also see some of your activity on our Products. This includes when you:
  • Comment on or react to others’ posts
  • Engage with ads or other sponsored or commercial content, like by commenting or liking
  • Allow content you've shared about a product in a Shop to be shared across our Products
  • View their story on Facebook or Instagram
  • Connect a new Meta device, like smart glasses, to your account

When you’re active

Some of our Products might provide you with settings that allow others to see when you're active on our Products, such as “active status.” In some cases, we also offer settings that allow others to see when you’re active in a particular section of one of our Products, like a message thread, game or event, or when you last used one of our Products.
Learn how to update your Active Status on Facebook and Messenger, or how to update your Activity Status on Instagram.

When you interact with a supervised user

Some accounts are supervised[43]. When you interact with a supervised user, their parent or guardian can see some of your activity and information. This can include information like your username, profile picture and if the supervised user blocked you. On some Products, the supervised user can let their parent or guardian know if they reported you.

Content others share or reshare about you

Who can see or reshare your content

People in your audience can view your content and can choose to share it with others outside your audience, on and off our Products. For example, when you share a post or send a message to specific friends, they can download, screenshot or reshare it with anyone, on, across or off our Products.
When you comment on a post or react to a photo, your comment or reaction can be seen by anyone who can see the post or photo. This can include people you aren’t connected to. The person who shared the post can also change their audience at any time after you’ve interacted with it.

How information about you can be shared

People who use our Products can share information about you with the audience they choose. For example, they can:
  • Share a photo or video of you in a post, comment, story, reel or message
  • Mention you in a post or story
  • Tag you in a post, comment, story or location
  • Share details about you in a post, story or message
If you’re uncomfortable with what others have shared about you on our Products, you can always choose to report posts and stories.

Take control

Remove a tag from a photo or post on Facebook
Remove a tag from a photo or video on Instagram
Manage tags

Public content

What content is public?

Some of your information and activity are always public. This includes your:
  • Name
  • Facebook and Instagram username
  • Profile picture
  • Activity on public groups, Facebook Pages and channels
  • Activity on content that is public. For example, your comment, rating or review on Marketplace, or on a public Instagram account.
  • Avatars
Other content you can choose to set to Public, like posts, photos and videos you post to your profile, Stories or Reels.

Who can see public content?

When content is public, it can be seen by anyone on or across our Products, and in some cases off our Products, even if they don’t have an account.
For example, if you comment on Marketplace, a Facebook Page or a public Instagram account, or if you leave a rating or review, your comment, rating or review will be visible to anyone. It could appear in any of our Products or be seen by anyone, including off our Products.

Where can public content be shared?

We, you and people using our Products can send public content (like your profile photo, or information you share on a Facebook Page or public Instagram account) to anyone on, across or off our Products. For example, users can share it in a public forum, or it can appear in search results on the internet.
Public content can also be seen, accessed, reshared or downloaded through third-party services, like:
  • Search engines. Learn more[44].
  • APIs
  • The media, like TV
  • Other apps and websites connected to our Products

Take control

Public information on Facebook
How to make a public account private on Instagram
Manage public information

With integrated partners

You can choose to connect with integrated partners[45] 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:

When you use an integrated partner’s product or service

Information they receive automatically

When you use an integrated partner’s products or services, they can access:
  • What you post or share from these products or services
  • What you use their services to do
  • Information from and about the device you’re using
  • The language setting you’ve chosen on our Products
See examples[46] of when an integrated partner might receive your information.

Information they receive with your permission

Sometimes these integrated partners ask you for permission to access certain additional information from your Facebook, Instagram or Messenger account. In their request, they’ll explain what information they’d like to access and let you choose whether to share it.
On Facebook, this includes things like your email address, hometown or birthday. On Instagram, this includes content, like photos and videos, that you’ve shared from your account when the account was set to private.
Learn what happens if you choose to share your friends list, or if your friends choose to share their friends list.[47]
We automatically log when you receive a request from an integrated partner to access your information. These requests to access information are separate from the Apps and Websites access that you manage in your Facebook or Instagram Ad settings or in your mobile device settings.

How long they can access your information

Apps or websites you’ve logged into using Facebook Login or connected to your Instagram account can access your nonpublic information on Meta Products unless it appears to us that you haven’t used the app or website in 90 days. Note that even if an app’s access to your information has expired, it can still retain information you shared with it previously.
We encourage you to visit your Apps and Websites settings from time to time to review which apps and websites continue to have access to your information through Facebook Login or Instagram.

Take control

How to manage apps and websites on Facebook
How to manage apps and websites on Instagram
Manage apps and websites

When you interact with someone else’s content on an integrated partner’s product or service

Integrated partners receive information about your activity when you interact with other Facebook, Instagram or Messenger users while they’re using the integrated partner’s product or service.
For example, a gamer livestreams to Facebook using a partner app. Then you comment on that livestream. The app developer will receive information about your comment.

How integrated partners handle your information

Integrated partners handle the information you share with them according to their own terms and policies, not Meta’s. You can review their privacy policy on their website or app to learn how they receive and process your information. In some cases, they use a separate service provider to receive and process your information.

More resources

How Meta reviews apps that integrate with our Products
41

What Products does this Policy cover?

A Meta Quest, a mobile phone showing the Facebook, Instagram and Messenger apps, and a pair of Ray-Ban Stories glasses sit on a table.
This Policy describes the information we, Meta Platforms Ireland Limited, process to provide Meta Products, which we also call "Products."
42

Choosing an audience

On Facebook, the audience can be made up of:
  • The public, including people on and off Facebook
  • Your friends and other connections, such as the friends of people you tag
  • A customized list of people
  • Yourself
  • The members of a single community, such as a group
On Instagram, you can set the audience for what you share by choosing between a private or public account. With a private account, only followers you approve can see what you share. With a public account, your posts and other content on Instagram can be seen by anyone, on or off our Products, including if they don’t have an account. You can restrict the audience for your content by blocking individual accounts from viewing them. You can also create a close friends list for certain types of content that only the people on that list can see.

Take control

Audience settings

Audience settings are different from app permissions

Your audience settings are different from the permissions you give to individual apps and websites to access your information. Read our policy about how you may share information with integrated partners.
43

Supervision

Supervision provides supervisors chosen by a teen, like parents and guardians, with tools and insights to help support a teen account.
44

Search engines

You can visit your privacy settings to control whether search engines outside Facebook can link to your profile. But other public content–like if you post with your audience set to Public, or post on public Pages or accounts–might still be accessible through search engines, depending on the settings of that account.
45

Integrated partner

A partner who uses technologies that help you make a connection to them through our Products, including plugins, login, checkout experiences, instant games, and other such integrations
46

When an integrated partner might receive your information

Two friends playing a game on their mobile phones while a third watches them play and cheers.
For example, you might use your Facebook login to play an online game with your Facebook friends. The game developer automatically receives information about your activities in the game.

When an integrated partner might receive your information

Hands using a tablet to tap the Like button on a news article.
Or you might use the Facebook Like button on an article posted on a news website. The website developer automatically receives information about your Like on their article.
47

Sharing friends lists

When you share your friends list

If you use Facebook Login to log into an app, the app developer might request access to your list of Facebook friends. Here's what happens if you give the app developer permission to view these lists:
  • They can view and access a list of your Facebook friends who use the same app and have given the app permission to access their list of friends. They can’t access nonpublic information about your friends or followers through this process. Note that the app developer will receive more information about your friends if your friends choose to share it themselves. They can share it by providing the information directly or giving the developer permission to access information from their account.
  • You’ll appear on friends lists that your Facebook friends can choose to share with the same app. You can remove this permission, or the app entirely, if you later decide that you don’t want to share your friends list with an app, or don’t want to appear on other friends lists shared with that app.

When your friends share their friends list

Your friends might choose to share their friends lists with app developers through Facebook Login. But your friends can’t use Facebook Login to share nonpublic information about you.
Return to top

How do we share information with third parties?

Highlights

We share certain information with:
  • Advertisers who show ads on our Products
  • Businesses we hire to market our Products for us
  • Businesses we hire to do things like offer customer service or conduct surveys
  • Researchers who use it to do things like innovate, advance technology, or improve people’s safety
We don’t sell your information, and we never will.
A row of images, including a bar graph, two ads and an online shopping cart.
We don't sell any of your information to anyone, and we never will. We also require partners[48] and other third parties[49] 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:

Partners

Advertisers and Audience Network publishers (if we show you ads on Meta Products)

Advertisers

We provide advertisers with reports about the number and kinds of people who see and engage with their ads. These reports include information about the general demographics and interests of people who engaged with an advertiser’s ad. Then advertisers can better understand their audience. See an example[50].
Meta also provides advertisers and their vendors with information about:
  • Ads people engaged with, if any
  • When people engaged with ads
  • Where that ad was shown (for example, on Instagram, or on Facebook)
We also confirm which ads you viewed that led you to take an action with an advertiser, such as downloading an advertiser's app. But we don't share information with these advertisers and their vendors that by itself can be used to contact or identify you, such as your name or email address, unless you give us permission.[51]

Audience Network publishers and their vendors

Meta Audience Network lets advertisers place ads with us that will be published on other apps and websites outside of Meta.
To help show you ads on their apps and websites, we share information with publishers who use Audience Network, as well as vendors who facilitate that use. For example, we share:
  • How many people see and engage with ads on publisher apps
  • Information related to or in response to a publisher’s request to serve an ad on its app.
But we don't share information with these publishers and their vendors that by itself can be used to contact or identify you, such as your name or email address, unless you give us permission[51].

Partners who use our analytics services

People rely on our Products[52], like business accounts, professional tools and Facebook Pages, to run and promote their businesses. Businesses use our analytics services to understand more about how people are using their content, features, products and services.
To provide these services, we use the information we collect about you. We put this information into aggregate reports so that partners can see how well their content, features, products and services are performing and are able to understand things like users’ experience with such content, products and services.
These reports aggregate information like:
  • How many people interacted with our partners' content, products or services
  • The general demographics and interests[50] of the people who interacted with it
  • How people use our partners’ products and services to connect to Meta Products and the performance of their connection and networks
Advertisers also receive other information. Read our Policy about how we share information with advertisers.

Partners who offer goods or services on our Products and commerce services platforms

When you choose to make a transaction[53], or otherwise choose to share information with a seller, creator, fundraiser, charity, payment services provider or commerce services platform[54], we share information with them and with any providers acting on their behalf.
Depending on how you interact with them, they receive:
  • Information to complete your transaction, like order, payment, contact and shipping information
  • Information to help ensure the security of the transaction, like information about your device or connection
  • Any information required by applicable regulation
  • Other information you choose to share with them
For example, if you donate to a charity that receives funds through PayPal Giving Fund, your donation will be made to PayPal Giving Fund. The PayPal Giving Fund will receive information such as the transaction amount and name of the charity. Their payment service provider will also receive information needed to facilitate the payment, including your payment card credential information.

Integrated partners

When you choose to use integrated partners’ products or services, they may receive information about you and your activity. Read the Policy.

Vendors

Measurement vendors

We don’t create every measurement and analytics report ourselves.
We share information (like whether people saw an ad or engaged with it) with our measurement vendors[55], who aggregate it to provide their reports.
For example, an advertiser might ask a measurement vendor to help figure out the impact its ads on Facebook have had on sales. The measurement vendor compares information from us about clicks on the advertiser’s Facebook ads with information from the advertiser about product purchases. Then the measurement vendor creates and provides aggregated reports that show the advertiser how its ads are performing.

Marketing vendors

We share information about you with marketing vendors[56]. For example, we share your device identifier or other identifiers with marketing vendors to help us serve you ads most relevant to your interests.
Marketing vendors support our marketing and advertising efforts by:
  • Serving our advertisements across the internet, including on mobile, desktop and connected television devices
  • Tracking and categorizing your online and mobile app activity
  • Providing us information about your interests and community and advertising interactions
These marketing vendors help us understand who might find our advertising most relevant to their interests, and which of our Products might interest you. This information can be used to personalize which of our ads are shown to you. Marketing vendors also use this information to measure response to our marketing efforts and the effectiveness of our advertising.

Service providers

Service providers

Service providers provide services to us that help us provide our Products to you. We share the information we have about you to receive these services, which include:
  • Investigating suspicious activity
  • Detecting and stopping threats to our personnel and property
  • Facilitating payments
  • Providing customer support
  • Improving the functionality of our Products
  • Providing technical infrastructure services
  • Analyzing how our Products are used
  • Conducting research and surveys
  • Marketing and promoting our Products

Third parties

External researchers

We provide information to external researchers. They use it to conduct research that advances scholarship and innovation, and to promote safety, security and integrity.
Research goals include supporting:
  • Our business or mission
  • Social good. Learn more.
  • Technological advancement
  • Safety and security on our Products
  • Public interest
  • Health and well-being
When sharing information with external researchers, we ensure the privacy of our users is protected. Learn more about the privacy-safe research we support.

AI integrations

Generative AI models that make our features work may not have the most complete or recent information. That means if you ask Meta AI about the score to yesterday's football game, it might not know the right answer. That's why we work with other trusted companies, like search engine providers, so we can bring you the most relevant information.
Meta sometimes shares the messages you send to our AIs and general information, like your region, with these companies so you can get better results. We don't send personally identifying information, like your username, unless you include it in your messages to the AIs.
These companies have their own privacy policies that describe how they use this information we share. Learn more in our Generative AI topic in Privacy Center, which includes links to these companies’ privacy policies.

Other third parties

We also share information with other third parties[49] 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.
48

Partner

A person, business, organization or body using or integrating our Products to advertise, market or support their products and services
49

Third party

A person, business, organization or body that is not part of the Meta Companies
50

General demographics and interests

For example, a bike shop creates a Page on Facebook and wants to place an ad to reach an audience of people in Atlanta interested in cycling. We determine whether someone fits in this audience based on, for example, whether they liked a Page about bikes. Then people in that audience could see the bike shop's ad.
You can see the “interests” assigned to you in your Ad preferences and remove them if you want.
The bike shop can then see reports showing aggregated statistics about the audience seeing their ads and how their ads are performing. The reports would show statistics to the advertiser that, for example, most of the people who saw or clicked on their ad:
  • Were women
  • Were between the ages of 25 and 34
  • Clicked on the ad from their phone
51

When you might give us permission

For example, you might request more information from a business by clicking their ad in your Facebook Feed and submitting a form with your name and contact information. Then the advertiser would receive the information you provided.
52

What Products does this Policy cover?

A Meta Quest, a mobile phone showing the Facebook, Instagram and Messenger apps, and a pair of Ray-Ban Stories glasses sit on a table.
This Policy describes the information we, Meta Platforms Ireland Limited, process to provide Meta Products, which we also call "Products."
53

Transactions you might make

  • Subscribing to premium content
  • Buying, selling or using products
  • Buying, selling or using services
  • Donating to charities
54

Commerce services platforms

Commerce services platforms provide a range of commerce services, including:
  • Payments
  • Marketing
  • Shipping
  • Customer engagement tools
55

Measurement vendor

A third party that creates reports to help advertisers understand how their content and ads are performing. These reports also measure whether people took an action after seeing an ad.
56

Marketing vendor

A third party that helps market or advertise Meta and our Products, measures the effectiveness of our own marketing campaigns and performs advertising research
Return to top

How do the Meta Companies work together?

Highlights

  • Meta owns Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, Meta Quest and the other Products covered by this Policy
  • Meta also owns the Meta Companies, which include WhatsApp
  • Sometimes we share information within these Companies
  • We do this to make new features or shared experiences between different products.
  • We also share information, like your name and email address, to help verify your accounts, and check out suspicious activities. This helps us keep your accounts safe.
A Meta Quest, a mobile phone showing the Facebook, Instagram and Messenger apps, and a pair of Ray-Ban Stories glasses sit on a table.
We are part of the Meta Companies that provide Meta Company Products. Meta Company Products include all the Meta Products[57] covered by this Policy, plus other products like WhatsApp and more.
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[58] 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 provide optional features and integrations
  • To understand how people use and interact with Meta Company Products
See some examples[59] of why we share.

More resources

Review the privacy policies of the other Meta Companies
57

What Products does this Policy cover?

A Meta Quest, a mobile phone showing the Facebook, Instagram and Messenger apps, and a pair of Ray-Ban Stories glasses sit on a table.
This Policy describes the information we, Meta Platforms Ireland Limited, process to provide Meta Products, which we also call "Products."
58

Service provider

A person, business, organization or body that provides services to Meta or to our users on behalf of Meta. For example, our service providers do things like investigate suspicious activity and provide customer support.
59

Why we share across the Meta Companies

Promoting safety, security and integrity and complying with applicable law

For example, we share information with Meta Companies that provide financial products and services to help them promote safety, security and integrity and comply with applicable law. This includes:
  • Complying with their legal obligations
  • Helping keep you and others safe
  • Performing account verification
  • Investigating suspicious activities
  • Creating analytics
For these purposes, we might share your name, email address, who you’re friends with and other account information within the Meta Companies.

Developing and providing features and integrations

For example, where available in your country, you can choose to use certain integrations that connect your WhatsApp experiences with other Meta Company Products. These integrations let you do things like:
  • Use your Meta Pay account to pay for things on WhatsApp
  • Chat with your friends on other Meta Company Products, such as smart glasses, by connecting your WhatsApp account
We also share information with Meta Companies to support innovation. For example, your videos can help train our products to recognize objects, like trees, or activities, like when a dog chases a ball. They can also help train tools that let people and businesses create content, like images and videos. This technology is used to help us offer new products or features in the future.

Understanding how people use our products

We count the number of unique users, monthly active users and daily active users on our products. This information helps us understand the community using our products and publicly share important trends about how our products are used.
Return to top

What is our legal basis for processing your information, and what are your rights?

Highlights

  • You have rights to view and download the information we have about you
  • You can use the settings in this section to manage your privacy
  • You also can delete your account or specific account information, if you want to
Under applicable data protection law, companies must have a legal basis to process personal data. When we talk about "processing personal data," we mean the ways we collect, use and share your information, as we described in the other sections of this Policy above.

What is our legal basis?

We rely on different legal bases to process your information for the purposes described in this Privacy Policy. Depending on the circumstances, we rely on different legal bases when processing your same information for different purposes. For each legal basis below, we describe why we process your information.
You also have particular rights available to you depending on which legal basis we use, and we’ve explained these here. No matter what legal basis applies, you always have the right to request access to, rectification of and deletion of your information. To exercise your rights, see the "What are your rights?" section.
We process information for the following legal bases:

Performance of a contract

We process your information that’s necessary to fulfil our contracts with you. This means providing the services laid out in the Facebook Terms of Service, the Instagram Terms of Use, the Supplemental Meta Platforms Technologies Terms of Service, the Supplemental Portal Terms of Service, the Meta AI Terms of Service and the Supplemental Facebook View Terms of Service, together, the “terms.”
Learn more

Consent

We process your information if you give your consent.
For example, if we show you ads on Meta Products:
  • You allow us to use your information to show you ads, including information across accounts in your Accounts Center
  • You can also allow us to show you personalized ads based on information that advertisers and other partners provide to us. This includes information about your activity on their websites and apps, and certain offline interactions, such as purchases.
You can withdraw consent at any time in Ad Preferences.
Learn more

Legitimate interests

We process your information as necessary for our or others' legitimate interests. Our interests include providing an innovative, personalised, safe and profitable service to our users and partners, and responding to legal requests. But we won’t process your information if your interests, or your fundamental rights and freedoms, override ours. Where we rely on legitimate interests, you have the right to object to our use of certain information.
Learn more

Vital interest

We process information if it will protect you or prevent harm, like saving your life or someone else’s.
Learn more

Legal obligation

We process information as necessary for us to comply with a legal obligation.
Learn more

Public interest

We process information as necessary for the public interest, such as conducting research or promoting safety, security and integrity.
Learn more

You have the following rights under GDPR and other relevant data protection laws:

A photo identification card.
Access and correct information
A list of items with one radio button selected.
Withdraw consent
Two matching sheets of paper with an arrow pointing from the first paper to the second.
Port your information
A file folder with an arrow on it.
Download your information
A trash can.
Erase information
A speech bubble with an exclamation point inside it.
Object
A piece of paper with an exclamation point written on it and a pen laid across it.
Make a complaint

Access and correct information

You have the right to access and correct your information, subject to applicable law.

Withdraw consent

Where we rely on your consent to process your information, you can withdraw your consent at any time. If you choose to withdraw your consent this will not affect the lawfulness of processing based on consent before its withdrawal.
To exercise your rights, visit our Help Centers, your settings for Facebook and Instagram and your device-based settings.

Port your information

In certain cases and subject to applicable law, you have the right to port your information.

Erase your information

You have the right to request that we erase your information, if there are valid grounds for doing so and subject to applicable law.
Also, to delete your information, you can:
  • Find and delete specific information using provided deletion controls For certain specific information that you can view in our Products[60], we offer tools you can use to request deletion. For example, you can use Delete buttons to delete content you’ve posted to your account. You can also use tools like activity log on Facebook to send content to the trash in bulk. When you delete content, it’s no longer visible to other users. Visit the Facebook Help Center or Instagram Help Center to learn what happens when you delete your content or move it to trash.
  • Permanently delete your account If you delete your account on Facebook or Instagram, we delete your information, including the things you have posted, such as your photos and status updates, unless we need to retain this information as described in How long do we keep your information?". Please note that once your account is permanently deleted, you won’t be able to reactivate it, and you won’t be able to retrieve information you’ve added, including content you’ve posted.

How long does it take to delete your information?

If you request that we delete your account or content, it may take up to 90 days to delete your information after we begin the account deletion process or receive a content deletion request. After the information is deleted, it may take us up to another 90 days to remove it from backups and disaster recovery.
If you leave your deleted content in your trash on Facebook or your Recently Deleted folder on Instagram, the deletion process will begin automatically in 30 days. Or you can start the deletion process right away by deleting the content from your trash or Recently Deleted folder.

Object

You have the right to object to and restrict certain processing of your information.

Unsubscribe

You can use the "unsubscribe" link in our marketing communications to stop us from using your information for that direct marketing.

Object

You can object to our processing your information when we rely on legitimate interests or perform a task in the public interest. We will consider several factors when assessing an objection, including:
  • Our users' reasonable expectations
  • The benefits and risks to you, us, other users or third parties[61]
  • Other available means to achieve the same purpose that may be less invasive and do not require disproportionate effort
Unless we find that we have compelling legitimate grounds for this processing which are not outweighed by your interests or fundamental rights and freedoms, or the processing is needed for legal reasons, your objection will be upheld. In that case, we will cease processing your information. To learn more about the circumstances in which an objection may be successful, please visit the Help Center.

Make a complaint

You also can lodge a complaint with Meta Platforms Ireland Limited's lead supervisory authority, the Irish Data Protection Commission or your local supervisory authority.
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What Products does this Policy cover?

A Meta Quest, a mobile phone showing the Facebook, Instagram and Messenger apps, and a pair of Ray-Ban Stories glasses sit on a table.
This Policy describes the information we, Meta Platforms Ireland Limited, process to provide Meta Products, which we also call "Products."
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Third party

A person, business, organization or body that is not part of the Meta Companies
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How long do we keep your information?

Highlights

  • We keep information for as long as we need it to provide a feature or service
  • But you can request that we delete your information
  • We’ll delete that information unless we have to keep it for something else, like for legal reasons
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[62].
  • 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[63].
  • How long we need to retain the information to comply with certain legal obligations. See some examples[64].
  • 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[65] about when we may preserve your information.
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If we need it to operate or provide our Products

For example, we keep profile information, photos you’ve posted (and not deleted) and security information for the lifetime of your account.
And when you search for something on Facebook, we keep your search history until you clear the search in your activity log or delete your account. Once you clear a search or delete your account, it will no longer be visible to you, and it will be deleted[66].
But even if you don’t clear your search or delete your account, within six months of your search we delete information about that search that isn’t necessary to show you your search history, like information about the device you were using, or your location.
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The feature we use it for, and how that feature works

A person at a birthday party, using a phone to send a message in vanish mode.
For example, May is planning a surprise party for Yang. She sends Cynthia the party details in Messenger using vanish mode so that the message will disappear. The message will no longer be visible to May once she leaves the chat, and Cynthia will see the message only the first time she opens the chat thread.
After Cynthia reads the message, the content is deleted after one hour. If Cynthia never reads it, it’s deleted after 14 days.
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How long we need to retain the information to comply with certain legal obligations

For example, we retain information for as long as we need it for:
  • A legal request or obligation, including obligations of Meta Companies or to comply with applicable law
  • A governmental investigation
  • A legal claim, complaint, litigation or regulatory proceedings
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Why we may preserve your information longer

Your information, including financial transaction data related to purchases or money transfers made on our Products, may be preserved and accessed for a longer time period if it’s related to any of the following:
  • A legal request or obligation, including obligations of Meta Companies or to comply with applicable law
  • A governmental investigation
  • An investigation of possible violations of our terms or policies
  • To prevent harm
  • For safety, security and integrity purposes
  • To protect ourselves, including our rights, property or products
  • If it’s needed in relation to a legal claim, complaint, litigation or regulatory proceedings
See some examples[67].
In some cases, we may preserve your information based on the above reasons even after you request deletion of your account or some of your content. We may also preserve information from accounts that have been disabled and content that has been removed for violations of our terms and policies.
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Delete your information or account

To delete your information, you can:
  • Find and delete specific information. We offer tools you can use to delete certain information. For example, you can use Delete buttons to delete content you’ve posted to your account. You can also use tools like activity log on Facebook to send content to the trash in bulk. When you delete content, it’s no longer visible to other users. Visit the Facebook Help Center or Instagram Help Center to learn what happens when you delete your content or move it to trash.
  • Permanently delete your account. If you delete your account on Facebook or Instagram, we delete your information, including the things you’ve posted, such as your photos and status updates, unless we need to keep it as described in "How long do we keep your information?" Once your account is permanently deleted you won’t be able to reactivate it, and you won’t be able to retrieve information, including content you’ve posted.

How long does it take to delete your information?

If you request that we delete your account or content, it may take up to 90 days to delete your information after we begin the account deletion process or receive a content deletion request. After the information is deleted, it may take us up to another 90 days to remove it from backups and disaster recovery.
If you leave your deleted content in your trash on Facebook or your Recently Deleted folder on Instagram, the deletion process will begin automatically in 30 days. Or you can start the deletion process right away by deleting the content from your trash or Recently Deleted folder.
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Examples of why we might preserve your information

To respond to a legal request

For example, we might preserve your information after you delete your account when we receive a valid legal request, such as a preservation order or search warrant, related to your account.

To comply with applicable law

For example, we preserve certain information about purchases or transactions associated with an account, in line with Meta’s accounting obligations.

For safety, security and integrity purposes

For example, if we disable an account for violating our terms or policies, we preserve information about that user to prevent them from opening a new account.
We also might preserve some of your account information as part of our review of suspicious activity. This includes any suspicious activity associated with our financial products, like suspected money laundering or terrorist funding.

For litigation

We may preserve your information where we deem it necessary for reasons related to a legal claim or complaint. For example, we may be required to defend ourselves in legal proceedings in a claim related to your information.
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How do we transfer information?

Highlights

  • Because we connect people all around the world, we need to transfer information all around the world, too
  • When we do this, we follow international regulations to keep your information safe

Why is information transferred to other countries?

We share the information we collect globally, both internally across our offices and data centers, and externally with our partners[68], measurement vendors[69], service providers[70] and other third parties[71]. Because Meta is global, with users, partners and employees around the world, transfers are necessary for a variety of reasons, including:
  • So we can operate and provide the services stated in the terms of the Meta Product[72] you’re using and this Policy. This includes allowing you to share information and connect with your family and friends around the globe.
  • So we can fix, analyze and improve our Products

Where is information transferred?

Information controlled by Meta Platforms Ireland Limited will be transferred or transmitted to, or stored and processed in:
  • Places we have infrastructure or data centers, including the United States, Ireland, Denmark and Sweden, among others
  • Countries where Meta Company Products are available
  • Other countries where our partners, vendors, service providers and other third parties are located outside of the country where you live, for purposes as described in this Policy

How do we safeguard your information?

We rely on appropriate mechanisms[73] for international data transfers.
We also make sure that appropriate safeguards are in place whenever we transfer your information. For example, we encrypt your information when it’s in transit over public networks to protect it from unauthorized access.

More resources

How information is safeguarded as it’s transferred to the United States
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Partner

A person, business, organization or body using or integrating our Products to advertise, market or support their products and services
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Measurement vendor

A third party that creates reports to help advertisers understand how their content and ads are performing. These reports also measure whether people took an action after seeing an ad.
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Service provider

A person, business, organization or body that provides services to Meta or to our users on behalf of Meta. For example, our service providers do things like investigate suspicious activity and provide customer support.
71

Third party

A person, business, organization or body that is not part of the Meta Companies
72

What Products does this Policy cover?

A Meta Quest, a mobile phone showing the Facebook, Instagram and Messenger apps, and a pair of Ray-Ban Stories glasses sit on a table.
This Policy describes the information we, Meta Platforms Ireland Limited, process to provide Meta Products, which we also call "Products."
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Mechanisms we use for global data transfers

We use appropriate mechanisms for international data transfers. For example, for information we collect:
  • We rely on decisions from the European Commission by which they recognise that certain countries and territories outside of the European Economic Area ensure an adequate level of protection for personal information. These decisions are referred to as “adequacy decisions.” In particular, we transfer information we collect from the European Economic Area to Argentina, Israel, New Zealand, Switzerland, the UK and, where the decision is applicable, Canada, based on the relevant adequecy decisions. Learn more[74] about the adequacy decision for each country.
  • Meta Platforms, Inc. has certified its participation in the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework. We rely on the EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework, and the European Commission's related adequacy decision, for transfers of information to Meta Platforms, Inc. in the U.S. for the products and services specified in that certification. For more information, please review Meta Platforms, Inc.’s Data Privacy Framework Disclosure.
  • In other situations, we rely on standard contractual clauses approved by the European Commission (and the equivalent standard contractual clauses for the UK, where appropriate) or on derogations provided for under the applicable law to transfer information to a third country.
  • In addition, please review the additional steps we take to transfer your information securely.
If you have questions about our international data transfers and the standard contractual clauses, you can contact us.
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Adequacy decisions

Learn more about the adequacy decision for each country:
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How do we respond to legal requests, comply with applicable law and prevent harm?

Highlights

  • Sometimes we have to provide information to respond to legal requests when necessary
  • If there’s a law that says we need to keep your information for some reason, we need to comply with it. So we’ll keep information to obey that law.
  • We also sometimes keep information that we think will help prevent or stop bad activity, either on our Products or in the world
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[75] such as civil litigants, law enforcement and other government authorities. Learn more[76] about when we respond to legal requests.
  • In accordance with applicable law
  • To promote the safety, security and integrity of Meta Products[77], users, employees, property and the public. Learn more[78].
We may access or preserve your information for an extended amount of time. Learn more[79].
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Third party

A person, business, organization or body that is not part of the Meta Companies
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When we respond to legal requests

We respond to legal requests where we’re required by law to do so, and at times where we're not compelled by law, but a response:
  • May affect users in that jurisdiction, and
  • Is consistent with internationally recognized standards including, for example, our Corporate Human Rights Policy.
Learn more about government requests and how we’ve responded.
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What Products does this Policy cover?

A Meta Quest, a mobile phone showing the Facebook, Instagram and Messenger apps, and a pair of Ray-Ban Stories glasses sit on a table.
This Policy describes the information we, Meta Platforms Ireland Limited, process to provide Meta Products, which we also call "Products."
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How we promote safety, security and integrity

We share your information with law enforcement, government authorities, Meta Companies and other third parties (including industry peers) when we have a good faith belief it’s necessary to detect, prevent and address a variety of situations, such as:
  • Unauthorized use of our Products. See an example.[80]
  • Violations of our terms and policies. See an example.[81]
  • Investigating suspicious activity
  • Protecting ourselves, including our rights, property, personnel or Products
  • Preventing abuse, fraud, or other harmful or illegal activity, on and off our Products
  • Protecting you or others, including as part of investigations or regulatory inquiries
  • Emergency situations, such as risk of death or imminent bodily harm
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Why we may preserve your information longer

Your information, including financial transaction data related to purchases or money transfers made on our Products, may be preserved and accessed for a longer time period if it’s related to any of the following:
  • A legal request or obligation, including obligations of Meta Companies or to comply with applicable law
  • A governmental investigation
  • An investigation of possible violations of our terms or policies
  • To prevent harm
  • For safety, security and integrity purposes
  • To protect ourselves, including our rights, property or products
  • If it’s needed in relation to a legal claim, complaint, litigation or regulatory proceedings
See some examples[82].
In some cases, we may preserve your information based on the above reasons even after you request deletion of your account or some of your content. We may also preserve information from accounts that have been disabled and content that has been removed for violations of our terms and policies.
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Unauthorized use of our Products

For example, if you unlawfully collect and use Facebook user data, we may share your information to defend ourselves against claims or in litigation.
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Violations of our terms and policies

For example, if you post threatening or harmful content, we may share your information across the Meta Companies to protect ourselves and others. This can include blocking your access to certain features or disabling your account across the Meta Companies.
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Examples of why we might preserve your information

To respond to a legal request

For example, we might preserve your information after you delete your account when we receive a valid legal request, such as a preservation order or search warrant, related to your account.

To comply with applicable law

For example, we preserve certain information about purchases or transactions associated with an account, in line with Meta’s accounting obligations.

For safety, security and integrity purposes

For example, if we disable an account for violating our terms or policies, we preserve information about that user to prevent them from opening a new account.
We also might preserve some of your account information as part of our review of suspicious activity. This includes any suspicious activity associated with our financial products, like suspected money laundering or terrorist funding.

For litigation

We may preserve your information where we deem it necessary for reasons related to a legal claim or complaint. For example, we may be required to defend ourselves in legal proceedings in a claim related to your information.
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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.
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How to contact Meta with questions

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 data controller responsible for your information is Meta Platforms Ireland Limited, which you can contact online, or by mail at:
Meta Platforms Ireland Limited
ATTN: Privacy Operations
Merrion Road
Dublin 4
D04 X2K5, Ireland
Contact the Data Protection Officer for Meta Platforms Ireland Limited.
You also have the right to lodge a complaint with Meta Platforms Ireland's lead supervisory authority, the Irish Data Protection Commission, or your local supervisory authority.
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Legal basis information

Consent

We process information as described below when you have given us your consent to do so, which we may ask through in-product experiences, to enable particular features, or to enable device-based settings. The categories of information we use and why and how they are processed are set out below:

Why and how we process your information

Information categories we use (see 'What Information do we collect?' for more detail on each information category) The actual information we use depends on your factual circumstances, but could include any of the following:

Processing information with special protections that you provide so we can share it with those you choose, to provide, personalise and improve our Products and to undertake analytics. We’ll collect, store, publish and apply automated, or sometimes manual, processing for these purposes.
Your activity and information you provide:
  • 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
Personalizing ads on the Meta Products:
If we show you ads on Meta Products, including Meta Audience Network, depending on your settings, we will use your information across the account(s) in your Accounts Centre to show you ads, including using cookies, to personalize your ads and measure how those ads perform.
If we show you ads on Meta Products, our ads system automatically processes information that we've collected and stored associated with you. In accordance with your Ad settings, our ads system uses this information to understand your interests and your preferences and personalize your ads across the Meta Products. Learn more about your Ad settings.
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[83] about how our ads system works.
Learn more about how we choose the ads that you see.
You can change your choice at any time in your “Ad Preferences”.
Your activity and information that you provide:
  • Content that you create, such as posts, comments or audio
  • Content that you provide through our camera feature or your camera roll settings, or through our voice-enabled features
  • Metadata about content
  • Types of content, including ads, that you view or interact with, and how you interact with it
  • Apps and features that you use and what actions you take in them
  • Purchases or other transactions that you make
  • Hashtags you use
  • The time, frequency and duration of your activities on our Products
Friends, followers and other connections
    App, browser and device information:
    • Device characteristics and device software
    • What you're doing on your device, such as 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 that you've shared through your device settings (e.g. GPS location)
    • Information about the network that you connect your device to
    • Location-related information
    • Reports about our Products' performance on your device
    • Information from cookies and similar technologies
    Using information from partners, vendors and other third parties to tailor the ads you see: If we show you ads on Meta Products, with your consent we’ll use information that partners, vendors and other third parties provide us about activity off the Meta Products and that we have associated with you to personalize ads that we show you on the 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.
    Information from partners, vendors and third parties
    Sharing your contact, profile or other information with third parties upon your request when you use some of our Products. For example, when you direct us we share your email address or other information that you might choose to share with an advertiser so that they can contact you with additional information about a promoted product. The type of third party and categories of information shared depend on the circumstances of what you ask us to share.
    Your activity and information you provide:
    • Content you create, like your contact, profile or other information, like posts or comments
    Collecting information that you allow us to receive through the device-based settings you enable (such as access to your GPS location, camera or photos) which we use to provide the features or services described when you enable the setting.
    App, browser and device information:
    • Information from device settings
    Verifying your identity or account, or helping to protect against suspicious activity including impersonation and identity misuse, using face analysis which may include facial recognition technology if you select it.
    Your activity and information you provide:
    • Your account information, profile photo, or
    • your photo or video selfie, if you choose to provide it
    When we process information that you provide to us based on your consent, you have the right to withdraw your consent at any time without affecting the lawfulness of processing based on consent before its withdrawal. You also have the right to port that information you provide to us based on your consent. To exercise your rights, visit your device-based settings, and visit the Facebook settings and Instagram settings and our Help Centers.

    Performance of a contract

    For all people who have the legal capacity to enter into an enforceable contract (for example, by being the age of majority or above in their country of residence), we process information as necessary to conclude and perform our contracts with you (the Meta Terms and Instagram Terms, the Supplemental Meta Platforms Technologies Terms of Service, the Supplemental Portal Terms of Service, the Meta AI Terms of Service and the Supplemental Meta View Terms of Service, together, the “terms"). The purposes for which we process information for our contracts, the categories of information we use 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 detail on each information category) The actual information we use depends on your factual circumstances, but could include any of the following:

    Personalising the Meta Products (other than ads): Our systems automatically process information we have collected and stored associated with you and others to assess and understand your interests and your preferences and provide you personalised experiences across the Meta Products in accordance with our terms. This is how we:
    • Personalise features and content (such as your Facebook Feed, Instagram Feed and Stories); and
    • 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.
    Your activity and information you provide:
    • Content you create, like posts, comments or audio
    • Content you provide through our camera feature or your camera roll settings, or through our voice-enabled features
    • Metadata about content
    • Types of content you view or interact with, and how you interact with it
    • Apps and features you use, and what actions you take in them
    • Purchases or other transactions you make
    • Hashtags you use
    • The time, frequency and duration of your activities on our Products
    Friends, followers and other connections
    App, browser and device information:
    • Device characteristics and device software
    • 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 (like GPS location)
    • Location-related information
    • Information about the network you connect your device to
    • Reports about our Products’ performance on your device
    • Information from cookies and similar technologies
    Information from partners, vendors and third parties
    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 and curate artificial intelligence technology in our Products, enabling the creation of content like text, audio, images and videos, including by understanding and recognising your use of content in the features,
    • Undertake analytics, and
    • Facilitate your purchases and payments on Meta Pay or other Meta checkout experiences.
    We also use information we have to develop, research and test improvements to our Products. We use information we collect 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
    • Conduct surveys and other research about what you like about our Products and brands and what we can do better
    Your activity and information you provide:
    • Content you create, like posts, comments or audio
    • Your public information (including your name, username and profile picture)
    • Content you provide through our camera feature or your camera roll settings, or through our voice-enabled features
    • Messages you send and receive, including their content, subject to applicable law
    • Metadata about content and messages
    • Types of content you view or interact with, and how you interact with it
    • Apps and features you use, and what actions you take in them
    • Purchases or other transactions you make, including truncated credit card information
    • Hashtags you use
    • The time, frequency and duration of your activities on our Products
    • Your photo or video selfie if you provide it when you contact us for account support
    Friends, followers and other connections
    App, browser and device information:
    • Device characteristics and device software
    • 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
    Information from partners, vendors and third parties
    Promoting safety, integrity and security on and across the Meta Products: The Meta Products are designed to help ensure the safety, integrity and security of those services and those people who enjoy them. We process information we have associated with you and apply automated processing techniques and, in some instances, conduct manual (human) review to:
    • Verify accounts, identity 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,
    • Detect and prevent spam and other bad experiences,
    • Detect and stop threats to our personnel and property, and
    • Maintain the integrity of our Products.
    For more information on safety, integrity and security generally on Meta Products, visit the Facebook Security Help Center and Instagram Security Tips.
    Your activity and information you provide:
    • Content you create, like posts, comments or audio
    • Content you provide through our camera feature or your camera roll settings, or through our voice-enabled features
    • Messages you send and receive, including their content, subject to applicable law
    • Metadata about content and messages
    • Types of content you view or interact with, and how you interact with it
    • Apps and features you use, and what actions you take in them
    • Purchases or other transactions you make, including truncated credit card information
    • Hashtags you use
    • The time, frequency and duration of your activities on our Products
    • Your photo or video selfie if you provide it when you contact us for account support
    Friends, followers and other connections
    App, browser and device information:
    • Device characteristics and device software
    • 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
    Information from partners, vendors and third parties
    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 e-mail address to respond when you contact us.
    Your activity and information you provide:
    • Contact information on your profile and your communications with us
    • Content you create, like posts, comments or audio
    • Content you provide through our camera feature or your camera roll settings, or through our voice-enabled features
    App, browser and device information:
    • Device characteristics and device software
    • 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 globally. 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 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
    • So we can fix, analyze and improve our Products.
    Your activity and information you provide:
    • Content you create, like posts, comments or audio
    • Content you provide through our camera feature or your camera roll settings, or through our voice-enabled features
    • Metadata about content and messages
    • Types of content you view or interact with, and how you interact with it
    • Apps and features you use, and what actions you take in them
    • Purchases or other transactions you make, including truncated credit card information
    • Hashtags you use
    • The time, frequency and duration of your activities on our Products
    • Your photo or video selfie if you provide it when you contact us for account support
    Friends, followers and other connections
    App, browser and device information:
    • Device characteristics and device software
    • 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
    Information from partners, vendors and third parties
    We'll use the information we have to provide these services; if you choose not to provide certain information (other than limited account information which is necessary to create a Facebook account or an Instagram account), your experience using the Meta Products may be affected. For example, you may see less relevant recommendations on the Products, or your use of the Products may be restricted.
    When we process information that you provide to us as necessary for concluding or performing our contracts with you, you have the right to port it under the GDPR. To exercise your rights, visit the Facebook settings and Instagram settings, or learn more in our Help Centers.

    Compliance with a legal obligation

    The categories of information we use, why we process your information based on compliance with a legal obligation and how it’s processed are set out below:

    Why and how we process your information

    Information categories we use (see 'What Information do we collect?' for more detail on each information category) The actual information we use depends on your factual circumstances, but could include any of the following:

    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 an Irish search warrant), we will access, preserve and / or share your information with regulators, law enforcement or others.
    The way in which the information will be processed depends on the specific circumstances, see How do we respond to legal requests, prevent harm and promote safety and integrity? for more. Information for Law Enforcement Authorities provides information on the operational guidelines law enforcement needs to follow.
    Examples of Irish and EU laws enforceable in Ireland that could give rise to an obligation requiring us to process the information we hold about you are:
    • Civil and commercial matters: where we are in receipt of a court order or otherwise required to disclose information for the purposes of court proceedings, such as under Regulation (EU) No 1215/2012 on jurisdiction and the recognition and enforcement of judgments in civil and commercial matters.
    • Criminal matters: to comply with requests from Irish law enforcement to provide information in relation to an investigation, such as under Section 10 of the Criminal Justice (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 1997 as amended by 6(1)(a) of the Criminal Justice Act 2006, or to take steps to report information to law enforcement where required.
    • Consumer matters: to comply with our obligations under consumer law such as the Competition and Consumer Protection Act 2014.
    • Corporate and taxation matters: to comply with our obligations such as the Companies Act 2014.
    • Regulatory matters: to comply with our obligations to engage with regulators, such as the Data Protection Commission under the General Data Protection Regulation and the Data Protection Act 2018.
    • Financial matters: to comply with our obligations under applicable financial services law such as the European Union (Payment Services) Regulations 2018
    View the current list of laws which are enforceable in Ireland that give rise to a legal obligation for Meta which results in the processing of information. New laws may be enacted or other obligations may become binding on our processing of your information which may require us to process your information and we will update this list from time to time.
    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 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:
    Your activity and information you provide:
    • Content you create, like posts, comments or audio
    • Content you provide through our camera feature or your camera roll settings, or through our voice-enabled features
    • Messages you send and receive, including their content, subject to applicable law
    • Metadata about content and messages
    • Types of content you view or interact with, and how you interact with it
    • Apps and features you use, and what actions you take in them
    • Purchases or other transactions you make, including truncated credit card information
    • Hashtags you use
    • The time, frequency and duration of your activities on our Products
    • Your photo or video selfie if you provide it when you contact us for account support
    Friends, followers and other connections
    App, browser and device information:
    • Device characteristics and device software
    • 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
    Information from partners, vendors and third parties

    Legitimate interests

    We rely on our legitimate interests or the legitimate interests of a third party, where they are not outweighed by your interests or fundamental rights and freedoms ("legitimate interests"). The categories of information we use, the legitimate interests relied on and why and how it’s processed are set out below:

    Why and how we process your information

    Legitimate interests relied on

    Information categories we use (see 'What Information do we collect?' for more detail on each information category) The actual information we use depends on your factual circumstances, but could include any of the following:

    If you are a registered user of the Meta Products

    For people under the age of majority (under 18, in most applicable countries) who have a limited ability to enter into an enforceable contract only, where we may be unable to process your information on the grounds of contractual necessity.

    Personalising the Meta Products: Our systems automatically process information we have collected and stored associated with you and others to assess and understand your interests and your preferences and provide you personalised experiences across the Meta Products in accordance with our terms. This is how we:
    • Personalise features and content (such as your News Feed, Instagram Feed and Stories),
    • 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 personalise your experience on and across Meta Products and how we choose the ads that you see.
    • To create, provide, support and maintain innovative products and features that enable people under the age of majority to express themselves, communicate, discover and engage with information and communities relevant to their interests, build community and utilise tools and features that promote their well-being.
    • To share meaningful updates with our users under the age of majority about our Products and promoting our Products.
    • To provide, personalize and improve the Meta Products in a consistent manner while ensuring additional safeguards for those under their Member State's age of consent.
    • The legitimate interest of our users in being able to access the Meta Products and those Products being personalised to each user.
    Your activity and information you provide:
    • Content you create, like posts, comments or audio
    • Content you provide through our camera feature or your camera roll settings, or through our voice-enabled features
    • Metadata about content
    • Types of content you view or interact with, and how you interact with it
    • Apps and features you use, and what actions you take in them
    • Purchases or other transactions you make
    • Hashtags you use
    • The time, frequency and duration of your activities on our Products
    Friends, followers and other connections
    App, browser and device information:
    • Device characteristics and device software
    • 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 (like GPS location)
    • Location-related information
    • Information about the network you connect your device to
    • Reports about our Products’ performance on your device
    • Information from cookies and similar technologies
    Information from partners, vendors and third parties (other than using partner data to tailor ads to you)
    Providing and improving our Meta Products: The provision of the Meta Products includes collecting, storing, and, where relevant, sharing, profiling, reviewing and curating, automated processing, and in some instances 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,
    • Provide and curate artificial intelligence technology in our Products, enabling the creation of content like text, audio, images and videos, including by understanding and recognising your use of content in the features, and
    • Undertake analytics.
    We also use information we have to develop, research and test improvements to our Products. We use information we collect 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
    • Conduct surveys and other research about what you like about our Products and brands and what we can do better
    • To create, provide, support and maintain innovative products and features that enable people under the age of majority to express themselves, communicate, discover and engage with information and communities relevant to their interests, build community and utilise tools and features that promote their well-being.
    • To enable people under the age of majority to use and connect to the Meta Products in an easy and intuitive manner.
    • To provide, personalize and improve the Meta Products in a consistent manner while ensuring additional safeguards for those under their Member State's age of consent.
    • The legitimate interest of our users in being able to access the Meta Products and those Products being personalised to each user.
    Your activity and information you provide:
    • Content you create, like posts, comments or audio
    • Your public profile information (including your name, username and profile picture)
    • Content you provide through our camera feature or your camera roll settings, or through our voice-enabled features
    • Messages you send and receive, including their content, subject to applicable law
    • Metadata about content and messages
    • Types of content you view or interact with, and how you interact with it
    • Apps and features you use, and what actions you take in them
    • Purchases or other transactions you make, including truncated credit card information
    • Hashtags you use
    • The time, frequency and duration of your activities on our Products
    • Your photo or video selfie if you provide it when you contact us for account support
    Friends, followers and other connections
    App, browser and device information:
    • Device characteristics and device software
    • 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
    Information from partners, vendors and third parties
    Promoting safety, integrity and security on and across the Meta Products: The Meta Products are designed to help ensure the safety, integrity and security of those services and those people who enjoy them. 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,
    • Detect and prevent spam and other bad experiences,
    • Detect and stop threats to our personnel and property, and
    • Maintain the integrity of our Products.
    For more information on safety, integrity and security generally on the Meta Products, visit the Facebook Security Help Center and Instagram Security Tips.
    • To secure our platform and network, to verify accounts and activity, to combat harmful conduct, to detect, prevent, and address spam and other bad experiences, to keep the Meta Products free of harmful or inappropriate content, to investigate suspicious activity or breaches of our terms or policies, and to protect the safety of people under the age of majority, including to prevent exploitation or other harms to which such individuals may be particularly vulnerable.
    • In the interests of our users and the public at large, to prevent bad experiences and promote safety, integrity and security.
    Your activity and information you provide:
    • Content you create, like posts, comments or audio
    • Content you provide through our camera feature or your camera roll settings, or through our voice-enabled features
    • Messages you send and receive, including their content, subject to applicable law
    • Metadata about content and messages
    • Types of content you view or interact with, and how you interact with it
    • Apps and features you use, and what actions you take in them
    • Purchases or other transactions you make, including truncated credit card information
    • Hashtags you use
    • The time, frequency and duration of your activities on our Products
    Friends, followers and other connections
    App, browser and device information:
    • Device characteristics and device software
    • 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
    Information from partners, vendors and third parties
    Communicating with you:
    We use information you have given us (like contact information you’ve entered 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 to you when you contact us.
    • To share meaningful updates with our users under the age of majority about our Products and promoting our Products.
    Your activity and information you provide:
    • Contact information on your profile and your communications with us
    • Content you create, like posts, comments or audio
    • Content you provide through our camera feature or your camera roll settings, or through our voice-enabled features
    App, browser and device information:
    • Device characteristics and device software
    • 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

    For all people, including those under the age of majority

    Providing measurement, analytics and other business services to businesses, and other partners:
    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, and other partners to help them measure the effectiveness and distribution of their, or their client's content and services, to understand the kinds of people who are seeing their content and how their content is performing on and off the Meta Products, and
    • Provide aggregated user analytics and insights reports that help users, businesses, and other partners better understand things like the audiences with whom they may want to connect, as well as the types of people who use their products and services and how people interact with their content, websites, apps, products and services, including to connect to Meta Products, and the performance of their connection and networks and users’ experience with them.
    • In our interest to provide accurate and reliable reporting to our businesses, and other partners, to ensure accurate pricing and statistics on performance and to demonstrate the value that our partners realise using Meta Company Products, and to provide suitable payment and billing options to our other partners; and
    • In the interests of developers and other partners to help them understand their customers and improve their businesses, validate our pricing models and evaluate the effectiveness of their products, services, online content on and off the Meta Company Products.
    Your activity and information you provide:
    • Content you create, like posts, comments or audio
    • Content you provide through our camera feature or your camera roll settings, or through our voice-enabled features
    • Types of content you view or interact with, and how you interact with it
    • Apps and features you use, and what actions you take in them
    • Purchases or other transactions you make
    • Hashtags you use
    • The time, frequency and duration of your activities on our Products
    Friends, followers and other connections
    App, browser and device information:
    • Device characteristics and device software
    • 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 and your connection, including your IP address
    • Reports about our Products' performance on your device
    • Information from cookies and similar technologies
    Information from partners, vendors and third parties
    If we show you ads on Meta Products:
    Providing measurement, analytics and other business services to businesses, advertisers and other partners:
    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 client's 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 the Meta Products, and
    • Provide aggregated user analytics and insights reports that help businesses, advertisers and other partners better understand things like the audiences with whom they may want to connect, as well as the types of people who use their products and services and how people interact with their websites, apps, products and services, including to connect to Meta Products, and the performance of their connection and networks and users’ experience with them.
    • In our interest to provide accurate and reliable reporting to our businesses, advertisers, and other partners, to ensure accurate pricing and statistics on performance and to demonstrate the value that our partners realize using Meta Company Products, and to provide suitable payment and billing options to our advertisers and other partners; and
    • In the interests of advertisers, developers and other partners to help them understand their customers and improve their businesses, validate our pricing models and evaluate the effectiveness of their products, services, online content and advertising on and off the Meta Company Products.
    Your activity and information you provide:
    • Content you create, like posts, comments or audio
    • Content you provide through our camera feature or your camera roll settings, or through our voice-enabled features
    • Types of content you view or interact with, and how you interact with it
    • Apps and features you use, and what actions you take in them
    • Purchases or other transactions you make
    • Hashtags you use
    • The time, frequency and duration of your activities on our Products
    Friends, followers and other connections
    App, browser and device information:
    • Device characteristics and device software
    • 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 and your connection, including your IP address
    • Reports about our Products' performance on your device
    • Information from cookies and similar technologies
    Information from partners, vendors and third parties
    Communicating, engaging and sharing across the Meta Company Products:
    • To provide a seamless, consistent and richer, innovative, experience across the Meta Company Products and to enable cross app interactions, sharing, viewing and engaging with content, including posts and videos.
    In our interest to provide seamless, consistent and richer, innovative communication, engagement and sharing experiences across Meta Company Products.
    Your activity and information you provide:
    • Content you create, like posts, comments or audio
    • Content you provide through our camera feature or your camera roll settings, or through our voice-enabled features
    • Metadata about content
    • Types of content you view or interact with, and how you interact with it
    • Apps and features you use, and what actions you take in them
    • Purchases or other transactions you make
    • Hashtags you use
    • The time, frequency and duration of your activities on our Products
    Friends, followers and other connections
    App, browser and device information:
    • Device characteristics and device software
    • 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 and your connection, including your IP address
    • Reports about our Products' performance on your device
    • Information from cookies and similar technologies
    Information from partners, vendors and third parties
    Business intelligence and analytics:
    • To understand, in aggregate, your usage of and across our Products, to accurately count people and businesses; and
    • Validate metrics directly related to these, in order to inform and improve product direction and development and to adhere to (shareholder/earning) reporting obligations.
    In our interest to measure the use of our Products and count the people who interact with our Products in order to inform and improve product direction and development and to enable provision of accurate and reliable reporting.
    Your activity and information you provide:
    • Content you create, like posts, comments or audio
    • Content you provide through our camera feature or your camera roll settings, or through our voice-enabled features
    • Metadata about content and messages
    • Types of content you view or interact with, and how you interact with it
    • Apps and features you use, and what actions you take in them
    • Purchases or other transactions you make
    • Hashtags you use
    • The time, frequency and duration of your activities on our Products
    Friends, followers and other connections
    App, browser and device information:
    • Device characteristics and device software
    • 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
    • Location-related information
    • Information you’ve shared through your device settings
    • Information about the network you connect your device to, including your IP address
    • Information from cookies and similar technologies
    Information from partners, vendors and third parties
    Providing marketing communications to you:
    • Depending on your settings, we’ll share marketing communications with you.
    • We’ll collect and store your information and use it to send marketing communications to you, like an e-mail.
    In our interest to promote Meta Company Products and send our direct marketing.
    Your activity and information you provide:
    • Information and content you provide, including your contact information like e-mail address
    App, browser and device information:
    • Device identifiers
    Research and innovate for social good:
    • 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 analyse information that we have about migration patterns during crises. This helps relief organizations get aid to the right places.
    • We collect, store, combine, analyse 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.
    Learn more about our research programmes.
    In our interest and those of the general public to further the state-of-the-art or academic understanding on important social issues that affect our society and world in a positive way.
    Your activity and information you provide:
    • Content you create, like posts, comments or audio
    • Content you provide through our camera feature or your camera roll settings, or through our voice-enabled features
    • Metadata about content and messages
    • Types of content you view or interact with, and how you interact with it
    • Apps and features you use, and what actions you take in them
    • Purchases or other transactions you make
    • Hashtags you use
    • The time, frequency and duration of your activities on our Products
    Friends, followers and other connections
    App, browser and device information:
    • Device characteristics and device software
    • 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
    • Information about the network you connect your device to, including your IP address
    • Location-related information
    • Information from cookies and similar technologies
    Information from partners, vendors and third parties
    Anonymising your information
    In some cases, we anonymise information we have about 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.
    • In our interest to fund our provision of the Meta Products, provide relevant advertising to users, and improve ads delivery and Meta Products;
    • In the interests of advertisers to help them to reach relevant audiences who may be interested in their information, products or services;
    • In the interests of users that Meta practice data minimisation and privacy by design in respect of their information
    Your activity and information you provide:
    • Content you create, like posts, comments or audio
    • Content you provide through our camera feature or your camera roll settings, or through our voice-enabled features
    • Metadata about content
    • Types of content you view or interact with, and how you interact with it
    • Apps and features you use, and what actions you take in them
    • Purchases or other transactions you make
    • Hashtags you use
    • The time, frequency and duration of your activities on our Products
    Friends, followers and other connections
    App, browser and device information:
    • Device characteristics and device software
    • 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 and your connection, including your IP address
    • Reports about our Products' performance on your device
    • Information from cookies and similar technologies
    Information from partners, vendors and third parties
    Share information with others including law enforcement and to respond to legal requests.
    See How do we respond to legal requests, prevent harm and promote safety and security? for information on when we share information with law enforcement and others.
    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[84] 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, Meta Products, Products, users, employees, property and the public.
    Learn more about how we promote safety, security and integrity.
    In our interest and the interest of the general public to prevent and address fraud, unauthorised use of the Meta Company Products, violations of our terms or policies, or other harmful or illegal activity; to protect ourselves (including our rights, Meta personnel and property or Meta Products), our users or others, including as part of investigations or regulatory enquiries; or to prevent death or imminent bodily harm.
    Your activity and information you provide:
    • Content you create, like posts, comments or audio
    • Content you provide through our camera feature or your camera roll settings, or through our voice-enabled features
    • Metadata about content
    • Types of content you view or interact with, and how you interact with it
    • Apps and features you use, and what actions you take in them
    • Purchases or other transactions you make
    • Hashtags you use
    • Your photo or video selfie if you provide it when you contact us for account support
    Friends, followers and other connections
    App, browser and device information:
    • Device characteristics and device software
    • Identifiers that tell your device apart from other users’
    • Device signals
    • Information you’ve shared through your device settings
    • Information about the network you connect your device to, including your IP address
    • Location-related information
    • Information from cookies and similar technologies
    Information from partners, vendors and third parties
    Promote safety, integrity and security in limited circumstances outside of the performance of our contracts with you:
    • Our Meta Products are delivered to ensure the safety, integrity and security of those services and those people who enjoy them.
    • We apply automated processing, as well as manual (human) review to verify accounts and activity, combat harmful conduct, detect and prevent spam and other security matters as well as bad experiences of other types, maintain the integrity of our Products, and promote safety, integrity and security on and off Meta Products.
    • For example, we use information that we have to investigate suspicious activity or breaches of our terms or policies, or to detect when someone needs help.
    To learn more, visit the Facebook Security Help Centre and Instagram Security Tips.
    • In our interest to secure our platform and network, to verify accounts and activity, to combat harmful conduct, to detect, prevent, and address spam and other bad experiences, to keep the Meta Company Products free of harmful or inappropriate content, and to investigate and take action in respect of suspicious activity or breaches of our terms or policies; and
    • In the interests of our users and the public at large, to prevent bad experiences and promote safety, integrity and security.
    Your activity and information you provide:
    • Content you create, like posts, comments or audio
    • Content you provide through our camera feature or your camera roll settings, or through our voice-enabled features
    • Metadata about content
    • Types of content you view or interact with, and how you interact with it
    • Apps and features you use, and what actions you take in them
    • Purchases or other transactions you make, including truncated credit card information
    • Hashtags you use
    • The time, frequency and duration of your activities on our Products
    • Your photo or video selfie if you provide it when you contact us for account support
    Friends, followers and other connections
    App, browser and device information:
    • Device characteristics and device software
    • 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
    Information from partners, vendors and third parties
    Sharing your contact, profile or other information with third parties upon your request:
    You may choose to share your contact information, profile information and other data with our partners: The types of partners with whom information is shared depends on the features of our service that you use and the manner in which you choose to use them. For example, you may choose to share your email address, birthday, friends list, hometown or other information with a partner if you choose to connect your Facebook account to their app.
    • To deliver quality experiences to users who use our partners’ apps, in our best interest and in the interest of our users.
    • To facilitate and improve users' experiences in their apps, in the interests of our partners who want to facilitate and improve consumers' experiences in their apps.
    Information you provide (for example, your email address, birthday, friends’ list and hometown).

    If you are using a device we cannot associate with a registered user of the Meta Products

    Promote safety, integrity and security:
    • Our Meta Products are delivered in a manner to ensure the safety, integrity and security of those services and those people who enjoy them.
    • We collect and store information we have for this purpose and apply automated processing and manual (i.e. human) review to verify accounts and activity, combat harmful conduct, detect and prevent spam and other security matters as well as bad experiences of other types, maintain the integrity of our Products, and research and promote safety, integrity and security on and off Meta Products.
    • For example, we use information that we have to investigate suspicious activity or breaches of our terms or policies, or to detect when someone needs help.
    To learn more, visit the Facebook Security Help Centre and Instagram Security Tips.
    • In our interest to secure our platform and network, to verify accounts and activity, to combat harmful conduct, to detect, prevent, and address spam and other bad experiences, to keep the Meta Company Products free of harmful or inappropriate content, and to investigate and take action in respect of suspicious activity or breaches of our terms or policies; and
    • In the interests of our users generally and the public at large, to prevent bad experiences and promote safety, integrity and security.
    Your activity and information you provide:
    • Types of content you view or interact with, and how you interact with it
    • Apps and features you use, and what actions you take in them
    • The time, frequency and duration of your activities on our Products
    App, browser and device information:
    • Device characteristics and device software
    • 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
    Information from partners, vendors and third parties
    Providing marketing communications to you: We’ll collect and store your information and use it to send marketing communications to you, like an e-mail address.
    In our interest to promote Meta Company Products and send our direct marketing.
    Your activity and information you provide:
    • Information and content you provide including your contact information like your e-mail address
    Research and innovate for social good:
    • We carry out surveys and use information (including from research partners we collaborate with) to conduct and support research and innovation on topics of general social welfare, technological advancement, public interest, health and well-being.
    • We collect, store, combine, analyse and apply automatic processing techniques like aggregation to information as well as manual (human) review as necessary to research and innovate for social good in this way.
    • We support research in areas like artificial intelligence and machine learning.
    Learn more about our research programs.
    In our interest and in the interest of the general public to further the state-of-the-art or academic understanding on important social issues that affect our society and world in a positive way.
    Your activity and information you provide:
    • Types of content you view or interact with, and how you interact with it
    • Apps and features you use, and what actions you take in them
    • The time, frequency and duration of your activities on our Products
    App, browser and device information:
    • Device characteristics and device software
    • 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
    Information from partners, vendors and third parties
    Share information with others including law enforcement and to respond to legal requests[84].
    See 'How do we respond to legal requests, prevent harm and promote safety and security?' for information on when we share information with law enforcement and others.
    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[84] 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, Meta Products, Products, users, employees, property and the public.
    Learn more about how we promote safety, security and integrity.
    In our interest and the interest of the general public to prevent and address fraud, unauthorised use of the Meta Company Products, violations of our terms or policies, or other harmful or illegal activity; to protect ourselves (including our rights, Meta personnel and property or Meta Products), our users or others, including as part of investigations or regulatory enquiries; or to prevent death or imminent bodily harm.
    Your activity and information you provide:
    • Types of content you view or interact with, and how you interact with it
    • Apps and features you use, and what actions you take in them
    • The time, frequency and duration of your activities on our Products
    App, browser and device information:
    • Device characteristics and device software
    • 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
    Information from partners, vendors and third parties
    Provide and improve our Products:
    We use information we collect to:
    • Provide products and curate features
    • 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
    • Conduct surveys and other research about what you like about our Products and brands and what we can do better
    To improve the Meta Company Products in a consistent manner, to correct technical glitches, and to optimise functionality.
    App, browser and device information:
    • Device characteristics and device software
    • 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
    Information from partners, vendors and third parties
    When we process your information as necessary to pursue our legitimate interests or those of a third party, you have the right to object to, and seek restriction of, such processing; to exercise your right, visit the Facebook settings and the Help Center and Instagram settings.
    We will consider several factors when assessing an objection, including: our users' reasonable expectations; the benefits and risks to you, us, other users or third parties; and other available means to achieve the same purpose that may be less invasive and do not require disproportionate effort. Unless we find that we have compelling legitimate grounds for this processing which are not outweighed by your interests or fundamental rights and freedoms or the processing is needed for legal reasons, your objection will be upheld, and we will cease processing your information. To learn more about the circumstances in which an objection may be successful, please visit the Help Center.
    If you are under the age of majority in your country and there is no enforceable contract in place, we will take particular account of the fact that you are below the age of majority when conducting our assessment of our legitimate interests and the balancing of your interests and rights. We provide specific protections for people below the age of majority to ensure that they are aware of the risks, consequences, safeguards and rights associated with the processing of their information.

    Tasks carried out in the public interest

    The purposes for which we anticipate processing your information as a task in the public interest, the processing we undertake, and the information we use is set out below:

    Why and how we process your information

    Information categories we use (see 'What Information do we collect?' for more detail on each information category) The actual information we use depends on your factual circumstances, but could include any of the following:

    Undertaking research for social good: We collect, store, combine, analyse and apply automatic processing techniques like aggregation to information as well as manual (human) review as necessary to undertake research and other tasks in the public interest, such as sharing relevant research data with third parties like international organisations and academics both in and outside the EEA. The public interest is required to be laid down in Union law or Member State law or other applicable law to which we are subject. In this case, we rely on Articles 168 and 179 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union.
    Your activity and information you provide:
    • Content you create, like posts, comments or audio
    • Content you provide through our camera feature or your camera roll settings, or through our voice-enabled features
    • Metadata about content
    • Types of content you view or interact with, and how you interact with it
    • Apps and features you use, and what actions you take in them
    • Purchases or other transactions you make
    • Hashtags you use
    • The time, frequency and duration of your activities on our Products
    Friends, followers and other connections
    App, browser and device information:
    • Device characteristics and device software
    • 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
    Information from partners, vendors and third parties
    To promote safety, integrity and security: In limited fact specific circumstances, we will access, preserve and share your information with regulators, law enforcement or others where necessary to perform a task in the public interest. For example, we might share information with others for the purposes of combatting unlawful or harmful behaviour where it is in the public interest to do so and where the public interest is laid down in Union law or Member State law or other applicable law to which we are subject. In this case, we rely on Section 53 of the Data Protection Act 2018 and Regulation (EU) 2021/1232.
    Your activity and information you provide:
    • Content you create, like posts, comments or audio
    • Content you provide through our camera feature or your camera roll settings, or through our voice-enabled features
    • Metadata about content
    • Types of content you view or interact with, and how you interact with it
    • Apps and features you use, and what actions you take in them
    • Purchases or other transactions you make, including truncated credit card information
    • Hashtags you use
    • The time, frequency and duration of your activities on our Products
    Friends, followers and other connections
    App, browser and device information:
    • Device characteristics and device software
    • 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
    Information from Partners, vendors and third parties
    When we process your information as necessary for a task carried out in the public interest, you have the right to object to, and seek restriction of, our processing. To exercise your rights, visit the Facebook settings and the Help Center and Instagram settings. In assessing an objection, we will consider several factors, including: our users' reasonable user expectations; the benefits and risks to you, us, other users or third parties; and other available means to achieve the same purpose that may be less invasive and do not require disproportionate effort.
    Your objection will be upheld, and we will cease processing your information, unless we find that we have compelling legitimate grounds for this processing which are not outweighed by your interests or fundamental rights and freedoms or the processing is needed for legal reasons. To learn more about the circumstances in which an objection may be successful, please visit the Help Center.

    Protection of your vital interests or that of another person

    The categories of information we use, why we process your information to protect your vital interests or those of another person and how it’s processed are set out below

    Why and how we process your information

    Information categories we use (see 'What Information do we collect?' for more detail on each information category) The actual information we use depends on your factual circumstances, but could include any of the following:

    Protecting the vital interests of you and/or those of another person: We apply automated processing techniques, conduct manual (human) review and share information, including with law enforcement and others, in circumstances where someone’s vital interests require protection, such as in the case of emergencies. These vital interests include protection of your life, physical or mental health, wellbeing or integrity or that of others, and detecting, removing, and reporting illegal content. In protecting such vital interests we aim to combat harmful conduct and promote safety, integrity and security, including, for example, when we are investigating reports of harmful conduct or taking appropriate action, such as sharing information with relevant authorities, when someone needs help.
    Your activity and information you provide:
    • Content you create, like posts, comments or audio
    • Content you provide through our camera feature or your camera roll settings, or through our voice-enabled features
    • Messages you send and receive, including their content, subject to applicable law
    • Metadata about content and messages
    • Types of content you view or interact with, and how you interact with it
    • Apps and features you use, and what actions you take in them
    • Purchases or other transactions you make, including truncated credit card information
    • Hashtags you use
    • The time, frequency and duration of your activities on our Products
    • Your photo or video selfie if you provide it when you contact us for account support
    Friends, followers and other connections
    App, browser and device information:
    • Device characteristics and device software
    • 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
    Information from partners, vendors and third parties
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    How our ads system works

    Our ads system works in the following way:
    • We use your information to determine the ad interests most relevant to you. We try to predict your ad interests based on the information we have, including any choices you've made in Ad preferences.
    • Advertisers tell us which audience they want to reach based on who they think will be most interested. This can include things like age, gender, location where advertisers want to show their ad or interests, such as women, based in Dublin, who like golf.
    • We review the potential ads that we could show you to identify the most relevant ones. Our ads system automatically reviews all the potential ads where you might fit the audience that advertisers want to reach. For example, you may see potential ads because you match the age range and interest category. We determine which ones to show you based on things like whether it best achieves the advertiser’s goal and is most relevant to you. To do this, we use algorithms and machine learning to order the ads we may show you. We use different factors such as the ad quality, the advertiser's desired audience and budget. We also consider how likely we think it is that you will react to the ad based on things like your activity on Meta Products. Learn more.
    • All of this information helps us show you the most relevant ads. When you see an ad on Meta Products (e.g. in your Facebook Feed), we use this process to choose the most relevant ad to show you.
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    How we promote safety, security and integrity

    We share your information with law enforcement, government authorities, Meta Companies and other third parties (including industry peers) when we have a good faith belief it’s necessary to detect, prevent and address a variety of situations, such as:
    • Unauthorized use of our Products. See an example.[85]
    • Violations of our terms and policies. See an example.[86]
    • Investigating suspicious activity
    • Protecting ourselves, including our rights, property, personnel or Products
    • Preventing abuse, fraud, or other harmful or illegal activity, on and off our Products
    • Protecting you or others, including as part of investigations or regulatory inquiries
    • Emergency situations, such as risk of death or imminent bodily harm
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    Unauthorized use of our Products

    For example, if you unlawfully collect and use Facebook user data, we may share your information to defend ourselves against claims or in litigation.
    86

    Violations of our terms and policies

    For example, if you post threatening or harmful content, we may share your information across the Meta Companies to protect ourselves and others. This can include blocking your access to certain features or disabling your account across the Meta Companies.
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