By Erin Egan, VP and Chief Privacy Officer, Policy and Ashlie Beringer, VP and Deputy General Counsel
It’s important to show people in black and white how our products work – it’s one of the ways people can make informed decisions about their privacy. So we’re proposing updates to our terms of service that include our commitments to everyone using Facebook. We explain the services we offer in language that’s easier to read. We’re also updating our data policy to better spell out what data we collect and how we use it in Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and other products.
These updates are about making things clearer. We’re not asking for new rights to collect, use or share your data on Facebook. We’re also not changing any of the privacy choices you’ve made in the past. Here are a few examples of what you’ll find:
- New features and tools: We’re providing information on recently introduced features. Since we last updated our terms or data policy three years ago, you can now buy and sell items on Marketplace, start a fundraiser for a cause you care about, share Live and 360 video, and add creative effects to your photos.
- Personalized experience: Everyone’s experience on Facebook is unique, and we’re providing more information on how this works. We explain how we use data and why it’s needed to customize the posts and ads you see, as well as the Groups, friends and Pages we suggest.
- What we share: We will never sell your information to anyone. We have a responsibility to keep people’s information safe and secure, and we impose strict restrictions on how our partners can use and disclose data. We explain all of the circumstances where we share information and make our commitments to people more clear.
- Advertising: You have control over the ads you see, and we don’t share your information with advertisers. Our data policy explains more about how we decide which ads to show you.
- One company: Facebook is part of the same company as WhatsApp and Oculus, and we explain how we share services, infrastructure and information. We also make clear that Facebook is the corporate entity that provides the Messenger and Instagram services, which now all use the same data policy. Your experience isn’t changing with any of these products.
- Device information: People have asked to see all the information we collect from the devices they use and whether we respect the settings on your mobile device (the short answer: we do). We’ve also added more specific information about the information we collect when you sync your contacts from some of our products, including call and SMS history, which people have recently asked about.
- Addressing harmful behavior: We better explain how we combat abuse and investigate suspicious activity, including by analyzing the content people share.
For the next seven days, you’ll be able to provide your feedback on the terms and data policy. Once finalized, we’ll publish these documents and ask you to agree to them on Facebook, along with information about the choices you have over your privacy.