Facebook

When you share and communicate using our Products, you choose the audience for what you share. For example, when you post on Facebook, you select the audience for the post, such as a group, all of your friends, the public or a customised list of people. Similarly, when you use Messenger or Instagram to communicate with people or businesses, those people and businesses can see the content you send. Your network can also see actions that you have taken on our Products, including engagement with ads and sponsored content. We also let other accounts see who has viewed their Facebook or Instagram Stories.

Public information can be seen by anyone, on or off our Products, including if they don't have an account. This includes your Instagram username, any information you share with a public audience, information in your public profile on Facebook, and content you share on a Facebook Page, public Instagram account or any other public forum, such as Facebook Marketplace. You, other people using Facebook and Instagram, and we can provide access to or send public information to anyone on or off our Products, including in other Facebook Company Products, in search results or through tools and APIs. Public information can also be seen, accessed, reshared or downloaded through third-party services such as search engines, APIs and offline media such as TV, and by apps, websites and other services that integrate with our Products.

Learn more about what information is public and how to control your visibility on Facebook and Instagram.

You should consider who you choose to share with, because people who can see your activity on our Products can choose to share it with others on and off our Products, including people and businesses outside the audience that you shared with. For example, when you share a post or send a message to specific friends or accounts, they can download, screenshot or reshare that content to others across or off our Products, in person or in virtual reality experiences such as Facebook Spaces. Also, when you comment on someone else's post or react to their content, your comment or reaction is visible to anyone who can see the other person's content, and that person can change the audience later.

People can also use our Products to create and share content about you with the audience they choose. For example, people can share a photo of you in a story, mention or tag you at a location in a post, or share information about you in their posts or messages. If you are uncomfortable with what others have shared about you on our Products, you can learn how to report the content.

People in your networks can see signals telling them whether you are active on our Products, including whether you are currently active on Instagram, Messenger or Facebook, or when you last used our Products.

When you choose to use third-party apps, websites or other services that use, or are integrated with, our Products, they can receive information about what you post or share. For example, when you play a game with your Facebook friends or use a Facebook Comment or Share button on a website, the game developer or website can receive information about your activities in the game or receive a comment or link that you share from the website on Facebook. Also, when you download or use such third-party services, they can access your public profile on Facebook, and any information that you share with them. Apps and websites that you use may receive your list of Facebook friends if you choose to share it with them. But apps and websites that you use will not be able to receive any other information about your Facebook friends from you, or information about any of your Instagram followers (although your friends and followers may, of course, choose to share this information themselves). Information collected by these third-party services is subject to their own terms and policies, not this one.

Devices and operating systems providing native versions of Facebook and Instagram (i.e. where we have not developed our own first-party apps) will have access to all information that you choose to share with them, including information that your friends share with you, so they can provide our core functionality to you.

Note: We are in the process of restricting developers' data access even further to help prevent abuse. For example, we will remove developers' access to your Facebook and Instagram data if you haven't used their app in three months, and we are changing login, so that in the next version, we will reduce the data that an app can request without app review to include only name, Instagram username and bio, profile photo and email address. Requesting any other data will require our approval.

If the ownership or control of all or part of our Products or their assets changes, we may transfer your information to the new owner.

We provide aggregated statistics and insights that help people and businesses understand how people are engaging with their posts, listings, Pages, videos and other content on and off the Facebook Products. For example, Page admins and Instagram business profiles receive information about the number of people or accounts who viewed, reacted to or commented on their posts, as well as aggregate demographic and other information that helps them understand interactions with their Page or account.

We provide advertisers with reports about the kinds of people seeing their ads and how their ads are performing, but we don't share information that personally identifies you (information such as your name or email address that by itself can be used to contact you or identifies who you are) unless you give us permission. For example, we provide general demographic and interest information to advertisers (for example, that an ad was seen by a woman between the ages of 25 and 34 who lives in Madrid and likes software engineering) to help them better understand their audience. We also confirm which Facebook ads led you to make a purchase or take an action with an advertiser.

We share information about you with companies that aggregate it to provide analytics and measurement reports to our partners.

When you subscribe to receive premium content, or buy something from a seller in our Products, the content creator or seller can receive your public information and other information that you share with them, as well as the information needed to complete the transaction, including shipping and contact details.

We provide information and content to vendors and service providers who support our business, such as by providing technical infrastructure services, analysing how our Products are used, providing customer service, facilitating payments or conducting surveys.

We also provide information and content to research partners and academics to conduct research that advances scholarship and innovation that supports our business or mission and enhances discovery and innovation on topics of general social welfare, technological advancement, public interest, health and well-being.

We share information with law enforcement or in response to legal requests in the circumstances outlined below.