Quoted clauses that can affect your privacy, money, or right to go to court — including terms that follow you to other products.
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Unilateral changes with little or no notice
You are agreeing that Meta can change its privacy policy, and your continued use of its products means you accept those changes.
What that means: Meta can change the terms of this policy at any time, and you agree to these changes by continuing to use their products.
“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.”
Meta states it will notify you of material changes to the policy. However, your continued use of their products after these changes implies your acceptance of the new terms.
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Indefinite retention
You are agreeing that Meta can keep your personal information for as long as it deems necessary for its business interests, not just for providing the service.
What that means: Your data may be kept for an extended or indefinite period, well beyond your active use of the service, at Meta's discretion.
“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.”
Meta's policy on data retention is vague, allowing them to keep your information for an undefined period based on their own business interests, which could mean indefinitely.
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Cross-service tracking or fingerprinting
You are agreeing that Meta can track your device usage and activity across different websites and apps to personalize the ads you see.
What that means: Your online activities both on and off Meta products are tracked and used to build a profile for targeted advertising, reducing your privacy.
“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); ...Receiving and using information from third parties to tailor the ads you see: We’ll use information that advertisers, businesses and other partners provide us about activity off the Meta Company Products that we have associated with you to personalize ads that we show you on our Products, and on websites, apps and devices that use our advertising services.”
Meta collects detailed device activity, such as whether its app is active and mouse movements. Furthermore, it receives information from third parties about your activity on other websites and apps to personalize ads.
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Location or sensitive-data over-collection
You are agreeing that if you choose to share sensitive information like your religious or political views, or health data, Meta will collect and process it.
What that means: If you share sensitive personal details, Meta will collect and process this data, which carries significant privacy risks if mishandled or exposed.
“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, or where you have given your explicit consent”
Meta explicitly states it may collect highly sensitive personal information, such as your religious views, sexual orientation, political views, and health data, if you choose to provide it.
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Terms follow you to parks, stores, and other products
You are agreeing that your information will be shared and used across all Meta Company Products to personalize content, ads, and develop features.
What that means: Your data from one Meta product can be combined and used by all other Meta Company Products, leading to a comprehensive profile of your activities across different services.
“We are part of the Meta Companies that provide Meta Company Products...We share information we collect, infrastructure, systems and technology with the other Meta Companies...To personalize offers, ads and other sponsored or commercial content; To develop, provide and personalize features and integrations; To understand how people use and interact with Meta Company Products.”
Meta extensively shares your information across all its affiliated companies and products, such as Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. This sharing is for purposes including personalizing content and ads, and developing features across their entire ecosystem.
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