Starting today, Meta is rolling out notifications letting people know that we’ve updated our Privacy Policy, formerly known as the Data Policy. Inspired by feedback from people who use our technologies and privacy experts, we rewrote our Privacy Policy to make it easier to understand and to reflect the latest products we offer. While the text looks different in many places, Meta is not collecting, using or sharing your data in new ways based on this policy update and we still do not sell your information.
Our goal with this update is to be more clear about our data practices; one way we’ve done this is through additional details and examples throughout. At Meta, we’ve always set out to build personalized experiences that provide value without compromising your privacy. So, it’s on us to have strong protections for the data we use and be transparent about how we use it. That includes communicating more clearly about our data practices and the choices you have.
We’re also including more ways to access controls you can use to experience our products in ways that are right for you. You can continue to manage your privacy settings at any time and we’re committed to letting you know if we make important changes to how we collect, use and share your information.
In addition, we’re updating our Terms of Service to better explain what is expected from us and those who use our platforms. These expectations include the rights and obligations described in our Community Standards, for example when we may disable or terminate accounts that violate our Terms or Community Standards or others’ intellectual property rights or other laws. Some Terms of Service changes match updates to our Privacy Policy, including additional details about what happens when you delete content.
Notifications that people will start to receive today on Facebook, Instagram and Messenger will direct them to information about what to expect from the relevant Privacy Policy and Terms of Service in their region. They’ll also see a summary of what’s different. These updates go into effect on July 26, and people don’t need to act on this notification by this date to continue using our products.
The updated Meta Privacy Policy covers Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and other Meta products. It doesn’t cover WhatsApp, Workplace, Free Basics, Messenger Kids or the use of Quest devices without a Facebook account, which have their own privacy policies.
Responding To Feedback and Evolving Regulation
As privacy and data protection regulations have improved around the world in recent years, we’ve explored ideas in people-centered privacy design and have worked to make our data practices more transparent. The updates we’re announcing today are inspired by feedback from privacy experts, policymakers, and people who use our services. Our aim going forward is to update our Privacy Policy more frequently as we continue to learn what areas we can improve.
We encourage everyone to read our updated Policy which will help people understand how our practices apply, including up to date information about our newer products, like Shops and Facebook View, as we continue to innovate. We’ve added more examples about the kinds of information we collect to provide the personalized services people expect, like recommended content and suggested connections. We’ve also included more details about the types of third-parties with whom we share and receive information and explained how and why people’s information is shared across our products, among other changes. Our updated policy has more details about information we collect if you use our products but don’t have an account and when we share information with law enforcement for the purposes of safety and security. For a summary of other key changes to our Privacy Policy, you can review this page.
Privacy Center
Earlier this year, we began to roll out Privacy Center as a place where people can learn more about Meta’s approach to privacy across our apps and technologies. Privacy Center is now available to everyone who uses Facebook on desktop and mobile and connects directly to our updated Privacy Policy.
You can think of Privacy Center as a hub for your privacy questions, where you can learn about how we use data, make use of some of the various privacy controls that we offer, and brush up on key account security tips and tools. We’ll also continue adding more guides and controls to it.
Updating Controls for Your Privacy
New Audience Controls: Starting today, we’re also rolling out a new setting to make it easier to manage who sees your posts on Facebook. Now, when someone selects a default audience, that audience selection will apply to new posts created in Facebook that they share to their timeline unless they select a different audience for a particular post. Previously, your default audience for posts matched whichever audience you chose most recently. So if you had just made a post that was available to the public, your subsequent posts would be as well. This new setting will help make sure you’re sharing with the right people in your community.
New Ways to Manage the Ads You See: Recently, we consolidated the Ad Topics and Interest Categories controls into a single control that can be accessed on Facebook and Instagram, covering a more extensive set of ad topics. This allows people to use a single control to set preferences across ad topics that reflect the interest targeting categories advertisers may use to reach them and the content they might see in an ad.