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Terms of use

Meta

Meta Terms of Service

C

Risk score

39of 100

Open the original (new tab)Company page

In short

  • You are agreeing to Meta's Terms of Service for Facebook, Messenger, and other affiliated products.
  • The terms grant a broad, perpetual license for your uploaded content and allow the company to retain data in backups for up to 180 days after deletion requests.
  • While they do not sell your personal data directly to advertisers, they use your activity to show personalized ads.

What you accept

If you tap Agree

Everyday words for the material promises and rights you give up. Each line includes a quote from the document.

  1. 01

    You are agreeing to a transferable, sub-licensable, worldwide license for your photos, videos, and text to host, distribute, and modify them.

    Other products, stores, or brands

    “you grant us a non-exclusive, transferable, sub-licensable, royalty-free, and worldwide license to host, use, distribute, modify, run, copy, publicly perform or display, translate, and create derivative works of your content”
  2. 02

    You are agreeing that account and content deletion may take up to 90 days to process and another 90 days to remove from backup systems.

    Other products, stores, or brands

    “It may take up to 90 days to delete content... After the content is deleted, it may take us up to another 90 days to remove it from backups and disaster recovery systems.”
  3. 03

    You are agreeing to let Meta use your name and profile picture in ads without compensation if you have allowed friends to see those actions.

    This product

    “You give us permission to use your name and profile picture and information about actions you have taken on Facebook next to or in connection with ads... without any compensation to you.”

What it can cost you

Downsides we could quote

Quoted clauses that can affect your privacy, money, or right to go to court — including terms that follow you to other products.

Highest-cost clauses first

High cost

Broad license to user content

You are agreeing to give Meta a permanent, sublicensable right to your user-generated content.

“you grant us a non-exclusive, transferable, sub-licensable, royalty-free, and worldwide license to host, use, distribute, modify, run, copy, publicly perform or display, translate, and create derivative works of your content”

What that means: You lose exclusive control over how your photos and posts are used or adapted by others who receive them through Meta's licensing.

The contract takes a very broad license that allows Meta to sublicense and modify your content globally and permanently until the content is deleted. This extends across all Meta products.

Medium cost

Indefinite retention

You are agreeing to delayed deletion where data remains accessible in backups for months.

“After the content is deleted, it may take us up to another 90 days to remove it from backups and disaster recovery systems.”

What that means: Your data persists on Meta's servers long after you believe you have removed it.

Even after you delete your content, Meta keeps it in backup systems for an extended period. This violates the promise of immediate removal upon request.

Medium cost

Terms follow you to parks, stores, and other products

You are agreeing to an ecosystem of terms that may vary by app but are linked.

“These Terms... govern your access and use of Facebook, Messenger, and the other products, websites, features, apps, services, technologies, and software we offer (the Meta Products... except where we expressly state that separate terms... apply. (For example, your use of Instagram is subject to the Instagram Terms of Use).”

What that means: Using one part of the family may bind you to different but related terms for other parts.

While these specific terms govern Facebook, they explicitly note that sister apps like Instagram have separate but similar terms, indicating a broader ecosystem of agreements.

Medium cost

Difficult or incomplete deletion

You are agreeing to incomplete deletion of your public footprint.

“Account deletion does not automatically delete content that you post as an admin of a page or content that you create collectively with other users, such as photos in Shared Albums which may continue to be visible to other album members.”

What that means: Other users can still see your posts even after you delete your own account.

Deleting your account does not remove your contributions to group pages or shared albums, leaving traces of your presence.

People also accept these terms in

The same company terms often apply on these apps or devices. This is a lookup aid, not a claim we caught this company.

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Whatsapp
  • Meta Quest
  • Oculus

If these terms already apply to you

Keep this list. Fineprint cannot undo or cancel something you already agreed to at the company.

We cannot see Agree on their site. With Premium, tap “I accepted these terms” if you already agreed to what Meta asks.