Facebook collects an enormous amount of your personal data — including your location, camera access, private messages, and even sensitive details like your religion, health, and political views — and combines it across all Meta platforms like Instagram to build a detailed profile used to target you with ads both on and off Facebook. Your data is shared with advertisers, third-party partners, governments, and law enforcement, sometimes without a court order, and it may never truly be deleted, even after you close your account or ask Facebook to remove it. Your conversations with Meta AI can be read by human staff, fed into ad targeting, and shared with outside partners, while Facebook can change its terms at any time and your continued use counts as acceptance. Business users face especially harsh conditions, including a $100 cap on what Facebook owes them if something goes wrong and a forced arbitration clause that strips away the right to sue in court as a group.
Last analyzed
Heads up: this analysis is AI-generated, can be incomplete or wrong, and is not legal advice. Use it as a starting point and read the original document before you agree — see our Terms.
Clause-by-clause breakdown
Every clause we flagged in Facebook's agreement, with what it means for you.
Your data fuels targeted ads on and off Facebook.
“Personalize the ads people see, and Make suggestions for you (such as people you may know, groups or events that you may be interested in or topics that you may want to follow) on and off our Products. When we show you ads through Meta Audience Network when you visit other apps, our systems automatically process the information we have collected and stored about you and others to identify you as a Meta Product user and tailor the ads you see.”
Quoted verbatim from the agreement What this means: Facebook uses an enormous range of your data — posts, camera content, voice input, GPS location, device activity, browsing behavior, purchase history, and more — to build a profile and serve you targeted ads. This tracking follows you outside Facebook too: Meta Audience Network shows you targeted ads in third-party apps based on your Facebook profile. There is no opt-out from ad profiling while using the service.
What you can do: Go to Facebook Settings → Ads to review and limit some ad preferences. You can also turn off 'Ads based on data from partners' and 'Ads based on your activity on Facebook Company Products that you see elsewhere,' though core on-platform profiling cannot be fully disabled.
Facebook keeps your data indefinitely under broad, self-defined reasons.
“If we need it to operate or provide our Products. For example, we need to keep some of your information to maintain your account. Learn more. The feature we use it for, and how that feature works. For example, messages sent using Messenger's vanish mode are retained for less time than regular messages. Learn more. How long we need to retain the information to comply with certain legal obligations. See some examples. If we need it for other legitimate purposes, such as to prevent harm; investigate possible violations of our terms or policies; promote safety, security and integrity; or protect ourselves, including our rights, property or products”
Quoted verbatim from the agreement What this means: Facebook keeps your data for as long as it decides it needs it — for operating the service, legal compliance, safety, or its own protection. There is no fixed maximum retention period stated, and the categories of 'legitimate purposes' are broad enough to justify keeping almost any data indefinitely. This means your information may never be fully deleted.
What you can do: You can request account deletion via Settings → Your Facebook Information → Deactivation and Deletion, but note that some data may be retained under the broad exceptions listed above.
Deleted content can be kept indefinitely for investigations or legal reasons.
“where deletion within 90 days is not possible due to technical limitations of our systems, in which case, we will complete the deletion as soon as technically feasible; or where immediate deletion would restrict our ability to: investigate or identify illegal activity or violations of our terms and policies (for example, to identify or investigate misuse of our Products or systems);protect the safety, integrity, and security of our Products, systems, services, our employees, and users, and to defend ourselves;comply with legal obligations for the preservation of evidence, including data Meta Companies providing financial products and services preserve to comply with any record keeping obligations required by law; orcomply with a request of a judicial or administrative authority, law enforcement or a government agency;”
Quoted verbatim from the agreement What this means: Even after you delete content or your account, Facebook can keep your data beyond 90 days if it decides it needs it for investigations, safety, legal obligations, or government requests. The exceptions are broad and largely self-assessed, meaning Facebook decides when they apply. In practice, data tied to any policy investigation or legal hold may never be deleted.
What you can do: Be aware that deleting your account does not guarantee immediate or complete data removal. If you want to minimize retained data, avoid posting sensitive content and regularly review and delete posts before closing your account.
Facebook shares your data with police, courts, and civil litigants.
“In response to legal requests, like search warrants, court orders, production orders or subpoenas. These requests come from third parties such as civil litigants, law enforcement and other government authorities. Learn more about when we respond to legal requests. In accordance with applicable law To promote the safety, security and integrity of Meta Products, users, employees, property and the public. Learn more.”
Quoted verbatim from the agreement What this means: Facebook shares your data with law enforcement, government agencies, and civil litigants in response to legal requests. The policy does not commit to notifying you when such a request is received, nor does it require a warrant in all cases — court orders, production orders, and subpoenas (which have a lower legal bar) are also listed. Civil litigants (e.g., parties in a lawsuit) can also obtain your data this way.
What you can do: Review Facebook's Government Requests Report (transparency.fb.com) to understand the volume of requests. If you are concerned about legal exposure, limit the sensitive information you store on the platform.
Facebook collects your religion, health, sexuality, and political views.
“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”
Quoted verbatim from the agreement What this means: Facebook collects highly sensitive categories of data including your religion, sexual orientation, political views, health information, and racial or ethnic origin. This data is used across the platform's purposes including ad personalization. While the policy says this is collected when you 'choose to provide' it, much of it can be inferred from your activity without you explicitly stating it.
What you can do: Avoid filling in optional profile fields for religion, political views, or health. Be mindful that your activity (pages liked, groups joined, content engaged with) can allow Facebook to infer these categories even if you don't explicitly provide them.
Your contact info and behavior data are shared with advertisers and partners.
“We share your email (or other contact information) or other information you might choose when you direct us to share it with an advertiser so they can contact you with additional information about a promoted product, and If you choose to integrate other apps, games or websites with Meta Products and log in, we'll share your information with the app, game or website to log you in. Provide insights and measurement reports to businesses, advertisers and other partners to help them measure the effectiveness and distribution of their or their clients' ads, content and services, to understand the kinds of people who are seeing their content and ads, and how their content and ads are performing on and off Meta Products”
Quoted verbatim from the agreement What this means: Facebook shares your contact information and behavioral data with advertisers and third-party partners. Advertisers receive measurement reports that describe the kinds of people seeing their ads, and your email can be shared directly with advertisers. When you use 'Login with Facebook' on third-party apps, your profile information is shared with those apps.
What you can do: Avoid using 'Login with Facebook' on third-party apps. Review and revoke app permissions in Settings → Apps and Websites. Be cautious about clicking advertiser promotions that prompt you to share contact details.
Facebook accesses your camera, voice, and GPS location data.
“Content you provide through our camera feature or your camera roll settings, or through our voice-enabled features Information you've shared through your device settings (like GPS location)”
Quoted verbatim from the agreement What this means: Facebook collects content from your camera and camera roll, audio from voice-enabled features, and GPS location data from your device settings. This is a broad grant of access to your device's most sensitive sensors. The data is used across multiple purposes including ad personalization and product development.
What you can do: On your phone, go to App Permissions and restrict Facebook's access to your camera, microphone, and location. Choose 'Only while using the app' or 'Deny' for location, and revoke camera/microphone access when not actively needed.
Your data is used to train Facebook's AI and machine learning systems.
“We carry out surveys and use information (including from researchers we collaborate with) to conduct and support research and innovation on topics of general social welfare, technological advancement, public interest, health and well-being. For example, we analyze information that we have about migration patterns during crises. This helps relief organizations get aid to the right places. We collect, store, combine, analyze and apply automatic processing techniques like aggregation of information as well as manual (human) review, and share information, as necessary to research and innovate for social good in this way. We support research in areas like artificial intelligence and machine learning.”
Quoted verbatim from the agreement What this means: Facebook uses your data to train AI and machine learning models and to conduct research it deems socially beneficial. This includes sharing your data with external researchers. There is no opt-out described for this use, and the scope — 'artificial intelligence and machine learning' — is extremely broad.
What you can do: Check your Privacy Settings for any available AI training opt-outs. In the EU/UK, you may have the right to object to this processing — submit a request via Facebook's Privacy Center.
Facebook can transfer your agreement to any company without your consent.
“All of our rights and obligations under these Terms are freely assignable by us in connection with a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets, or by operation of law or otherwise.”
Quoted verbatim from the agreement What this means: Facebook can transfer your entire agreement — including all the rights it holds over your data and content — to any other company through a merger, acquisition, or asset sale, without asking your permission. You would automatically become a user of whatever company acquires Facebook, under the same terms.
What you can do: There is no way to prevent this under the current terms. If a major acquisition occurs, monitor announcements and review whether the acquiring company's policies are acceptable to you before continuing to use the service.
Business users must arbitrate disputes and cannot join class-action lawsuits.
“You agree to arbitrate Commercial Claims between you and Meta Platforms, Inc. This provision does not cover any commercial claims relating to violations of your or our intellectual property rights, including, but not limited to, copyright infringement, patent infringement, trademark infringement, violations of the Brand Usage Guidelines, violations of your or our confidential information or trade secrets, or efforts to interfere with our Products or engage with our Products in unauthorized ways (for example, automated ways). If a Commercial Claim between you and Meta Platforms, Inc. is not subject to arbitration, you agree that the claim must be resolved exclusively in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California or a state court located in San Mateo County, and that you submit to the personal jurisdiction of either of these courts for the purpose of litigating any such claim. We and you agree that, by entering into this arbitration provision, all parties are waiving their respective rights to a trial by jury or to participate in a class or representative action. THE PARTIES AGREE THAT EACH MAY BRING COMMERCIAL CLAIMS AGAINST THE OTHER ONLY IN ITS INDIVIDUAL CAPACITY, AND NOT AS A PLAINTIFF OR CLASS MEMBER IN ANY PURPORTED CLASS, REPRESENTATIVE, OR PRIVATE ATTORNEY GENERAL PROCEEDING.”
Quoted verbatim from the agreement What this means: If you use Facebook for any business or commercial purpose (including running ads), you must resolve disputes through private arbitration and give up your right to a jury trial and to join a class action lawsuit. This means you cannot band together with other advertisers or business users to sue Facebook collectively, even if many people are harmed in the same way. You have 30 days from first accepting the Commercial Terms to opt out of this provision.
What you can do: If you use Facebook for business, send a written opt-out notice to Meta Platforms, Inc., 1601 Willow Rd., Menlo Park, CA 94025 within 30 days of first accepting the Commercial Terms to preserve your right to sue in court and join class actions.
Using Facebook after a policy update counts as agreeing to it.
“We may update these Avatars Terms from time to time by notifying you of the updated Avatars Terms, at least 30 days before we make changes, by any reasonable means. Any changes to these Avatars Terms will not apply to any dispute between you and us arising prior to the date on which we notified you of the updated Avatars Terms. Your use of the Avatars Services, including any Meta Avatar, following any changes to these Avatars Terms will constitute your acceptance of such changes. By continuing any access or use of any Meta Products for business or commercial purposes after any notice of an update to these Commercial Terms, you agree to be bound by them. We may change or update these Self-Serve Ad Terms from time to time and your continued use of the Self-Serve Ad Interfaces constitutes acceptance of those changes.”
Quoted verbatim from the agreement What this means: Across multiple sets of terms — Avatars, Commercial, and Self-Serve Ads — Facebook binds you to updated terms simply by your continued use of the service. You don't have to click 'I agree' to a new version; just logging in or running an ad after a change is made counts as acceptance. This means your legal rights can shift without you actively consenting.
What you can do: Set a reminder to review Facebook's terms periodically. If you receive a notice of updated terms and disagree, stop using the relevant service before the changes take effect — continued use is treated as agreement.
Deleting your account may not delete your Meta AI data.
“Depending on how you use AIs, deleting individual messages, entire threads, or even your account may not delete our copy of your personal information, and the Privacy Center describes the correct way to delete your personal information.”
Quoted verbatim from the agreement What this means: When you use Meta AI, deleting your messages or even your entire Facebook account may not remove the personal information Meta has collected from those AI interactions. Meta retains a separate copy that requires a specific deletion process through the Privacy Center. Most users would not know this and would assume account deletion removes all their data.
What you can do: Before deleting your account, visit Meta's Privacy Center and follow the specific steps to delete personal information collected through AI interactions separately from your account deletion.
Your Meta AI conversations are used to personalize your ads.
“The Meta Privacy Policy explains how we process personal information in the context of AIs, including how we use your interactions with AIs to personalize your experiences and ads, and improve AI at Meta. When you or others interact with AIs, those interactions include information you or others exchange with AIs like Content or messages, along with information we use to make responses from AIs more relevant (like your interests, location and profile). When information is shared with AIs, the AIs will sometimes retain and use that information. Do not share information that you don't want the AIs to use and retain, such as information about sensitive topics.”
Quoted verbatim from the agreement What this means: Everything you tell Meta AI — including sensitive topics — can be retained and used to personalize your ads and improve Meta's AI systems. The policy itself warns you not to share sensitive information with the AI, which signals that such data is not treated with special protection. Your AI conversations feed directly into your advertising profile.
What you can do: Treat Meta AI conversations as non-private. Avoid sharing health, financial, relationship, or other sensitive information with Meta AI, as it may be retained and used for ad targeting.
Facebook's maximum liability to business users is just $100.
“Our aggregate liability arising out of or relating to any access or use of the Meta Products, the Terms (for any access or use of the Meta Products for business or commercial purposes), or these Commercial Terms will not exceed the greater of one hundred dollars ($100) or the amount you have paid us in the past twelve months.”
Quoted verbatim from the agreement What this means: If Facebook causes you harm through its commercial products — for example, a faulty ad campaign that costs you thousands of dollars — your maximum recovery is capped at $100 or what you paid in the last 12 months, whichever is greater. For large advertisers, this cap may be proportionate, but for small businesses it could be far less than actual losses.
What you can do: Understand that your legal recourse against Facebook for commercial losses is severely limited. Consider this when deciding how much of your business to depend on Facebook's advertising platform.
Meta tracks and profiles you across other apps and websites.
“When we show you ads through Meta Audience Network when you visit other apps, our systems automatically process the information we have collected and stored about you and others to identify you as a Meta Product user and tailor the ads you see.”
Quoted verbatim from the agreement What this means: Meta tracks you across third-party apps and websites outside of Facebook and Instagram using the Meta Audience Network. Even when you are not using a Meta product, Meta is identifying you and serving you targeted ads based on your stored profile. This off-platform tracking is automatic and not limited to Meta's own services.
What you can do: Go to Settings > Ads > Ad Settings and turn off 'Ads shown outside of Meta' to reduce (but not eliminate) off-platform tracking.
Meta merges your data across Facebook, Instagram, and all its apps.
“To provide a seamless, consistent and richer, innovative experience across the Meta Company Products to enable cross app interactions, sharing, viewing and engaging with content, including posts and videos.”
Quoted verbatim from the agreement What this means: Meta combines your data across all its products — Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger, and others — to build a unified profile. This means activity on one app informs what you see and how you are targeted on all others. You cannot use one Meta product in isolation from the others in terms of data sharing.
What you can do: There is no way to prevent cross-product data sharing while using Meta services; consider whether you need accounts on multiple Meta platforms.
Facebook can freely use any ideas or feedback you submit.
“We may use feedback and other suggestions without any restriction or obligation to compensate you, and we are under no obligation to keep them confidential.”
Quoted verbatim from the agreement What this means: If you send Facebook feedback, ideas, or suggestions about their products, they can use those ideas freely, in any way, forever, without paying you or keeping them secret. This means a product idea you share could become a Facebook feature with no credit or compensation to you.
What you can do: Avoid sharing detailed product ideas or business concepts through Facebook's feedback channels if you want to retain any rights over them.
Facebook tracks your mouse movements, device ID, and IP address.
“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) Identifiers that tell your device apart from other users' Information you've shared through your device settings Information about the network you connect your device to, including your IP address Information from cookies and similar technologies”
Quoted verbatim from the agreement What this means: Facebook tracks detailed device-level signals including whether the app is in the foreground, mouse movements, unique device identifiers, your IP address, and cookies. This level of behavioral tracking goes well beyond what is needed to run the service and is used to build a detailed behavioral profile for ad targeting.
What you can do: Use a VPN to mask your IP address. Regularly clear cookies and consider using a browser with tracking protection for Facebook web access. On mobile, reset your advertising ID periodically in your device settings.
Facebook may email you marketing messages based on your stored data.
“Depending on your settings and subject to applicable law, we'll share marketing communications with you. We'll collect and store your information and use it to send marketing communications to you, like an email, subject to applicable laws.”
Quoted verbatim from the agreement What this means: Facebook may send you marketing emails and communications based on your stored data. The opt-out is settings-dependent and may vary by region. This is a relatively standard practice but worth noting as it involves using your contact information for promotional purposes.
What you can do: Go to Settings → Notifications → Email to manage which marketing emails Facebook sends you.
Facebook collects content others post about you too.
“Public content you or others create or share, like posts, comments or audio on Meta Products Interactions with our features that are part of AI at Meta and related metadata. For example, information like content and messages you or others exchange with these features.”
Quoted verbatim from the agreement What this means: Facebook collects not just what you post, but also what others post about you or tag you in. Content shared by other users that includes you — photos, mentions, tags — is also collected and processed. You have limited control over what others share about you.
What you can do: Use Facebook's tag review feature (Settings → Profile and Tagging) to approve tags before they appear on your profile. You can also ask others to remove content featuring you, or use the reporting tools.
Using certain features silently binds you to extra legal terms.
“Supplemental Terms: Some of the Products we offer are also governed by supplemental terms. If you use any of those Products, supplemental terms will be made available and will become part of our agreement with you. For instance, if you access or use our Products for commercial or business purposes, such as buying ads, selling products, developing apps, managing a group or Page for your business, or using our measurement services, you must agree to our Commercial Terms. If you post or share content containing music, you must comply with our Music Guidelines. If you use Avatars, then the Avatar Terms also apply. If you use our AI products and features, the Meta AI Terms also apply. To the extent any supplemental terms conflict with these Terms, the supplemental terms shall govern to the extent of the conflict.”
Quoted verbatim from the agreement What this means: Using different Facebook features automatically binds you to additional sets of terms — for AI, music, avatars, advertising, and more. These supplemental terms override the main Terms of Service if there's a conflict. This means the full scope of your legal obligations is spread across many documents you may not have read.
What you can do: Before using features like Meta AI, Facebook Shops, or Live, look up the relevant supplemental terms linked in the main Terms of Service to understand what additional obligations apply.
Your AI queries are shared with third-party partners automatically.
“Meta may share certain information with select partners, like search engines, to provide you with the most relevant information in connection with our AIs. Learn more about how we share information with these partners. By using AIs, you instruct us to share information for this purpose. To provide you with the most relevant information when using AIs in Private Processing, search terms based on your chat may be sent to these search partners to provide a response. These queries are not connected to your account.”
Quoted verbatim from the agreement What this means: When you use Meta AI, your queries are shared with third-party partners such as search engines. By simply using the AI feature, you are treated as having instructed Meta to share this information — there is no separate opt-in. Even in 'Private Processing' mode, search terms from your chat are sent to external partners, though Meta says these are not linked to your account.
What you can do: Be aware that AI queries are shared with third parties. If you use Private Processing mode, search terms are still sent externally but are stated to be unlinked from your account.
Meta staff can manually read your AI conversations.
“In some cases, Meta will review your interactions with AIs, including the content of your conversations with or messages to AIs, and this review may be automated or manual (human). When you interact with AI chats that use Private Processing technology, Meta cannot read or access the messages you have shared, including AI chats with friends and family. Meta provides Private Processing as a service on your behalf.”
Quoted verbatim from the agreement What this means: Meta employees can manually read your AI conversations in some cases. The exception is 'Private Processing' mode for certain chats, where Meta says it cannot access the content. However, standard AI interactions do not carry this protection, and human review of your conversations is explicitly permitted.
What you can do: Use Private Processing mode for sensitive AI conversations where available. For standard Meta AI interactions, assume your conversations may be read by Meta staff.
Facebook can share your ad content with governments without a court order.
“You consent that Meta may disclose your advertising content and Facebook Page posts ( You consent that we may disclose your advertising content and Facebook Page posts ("Commercial Content"), and all information associated with such Commercial Content, including information associated with the delivery of that Commercial Content, in response to valid legal process related to an electoral matter or to a governmental entity or body if Meta believes that disclosure would assist in a lawful investigation.”
Quoted verbatim from the agreement What this means: Commercial Content"), and all information associated with such Commercial Content, including information associated with the delivery of that Commercial Content, in response to valid legal process related to an electoral matter or to a governmental entity or body if Meta believes that disclosure would assist in a lawful investigation. You consent that Meta may disclose your advertising content, and all information associated with your advertising, to a governmental entity or body if Meta believes that disclosure would assist in a lawful investigation.
What you can do: Be aware that all advertising content and associated data you run on Facebook can be disclosed to government bodies. This is particularly relevant for political advertisers or businesses in regulated industries.
Running Facebook ads lets Meta crawl and train on your whole website.
“By placing an Order, you grant us the right to access, index, cache, analyze or crawl the content available through your domains, webpages or URLs, or any portion thereof, for developing and improving advertising and other business-related products and related uses, research and training, and maintaining the integrity of the Meta Company Products.”
Quoted verbatim from the agreement What this means: When you run ads on Facebook, you give Meta the right to crawl and analyze your entire website — not just the ad content — for purposes including AI training and product development. This is a broad grant that goes well beyond what is needed to serve your ads. Any content on your linked domains becomes fair game for Meta's systems.
What you can do: Review what content is publicly accessible on any domain you link to Facebook ads, as Meta may crawl and use that content for its own product development and AI training.
Paid Avatar items can be deleted from your account anytime.
“Meta does not guarantee that any Licensed Avatar Items will be made available or, if made available, will remain available. Meta may, at any time, remove any Licensed Avatar Item from any Meta Company Product or change, supplement, impose additional restrictions or limits on, suspend, delete, or discontinue any Licensed Avatar Item or these Avatars Terms for any reason, except where reasonable advance notice is required by law in which case we will provide such notice. Certain Licensed Avatar Items may only be accessed and used for a limited period of time or a limited number of times. If you acquire such a Licensed Avatar Item, it will be removed from your inventory or otherwise become unavailable to you after such period has elapsed or the total number of uses has been reached, as applicable.”
Quoted verbatim from the agreement What this means: Items you purchase in the Avatar store are licensed, not owned, and Meta can remove them from your account at any time for any reason. You are not buying a permanent digital item — you are renting access that Meta can revoke. Paid items can also expire after a set time or number of uses, which may not be clearly disclosed at the point of purchase.
What you can do: Treat Avatar store purchases as temporary licenses rather than permanent purchases. Avoid spending significant money on Avatar items given Meta's right to revoke access at any time.
Pre-loaded ad funds are non-refundable and can be forfeited.
“Advertiser Balances are not legal tender or currency; are not redeemable, refundable (except where required by law or compliance or otherwise stated in our terms), or exchangeable for any sum or money or monetary value; have no equivalent value in fiat currency; do not act as a substitute for fiat currency; and do not constitute or confer upon you any personal property right.”
Quoted verbatim from the agreement What this means: Money you pre-load into your Facebook Advertiser Balance is not refundable and has no cash value. If your account is suspended or terminated, you could lose any unspent balance. This is particularly risky for advertisers who pre-fund large amounts.
What you can do: Avoid pre-loading large sums into your Facebook Advertiser Balance. Pay as you go where possible to minimize the risk of losing funds if your account is suspended.
Meta shares your contact info directly with advertisers and third-party apps.
“We share your email (or other contact information) or other information you might choose when you direct us to share it with an advertiser so they can contact you with additional information about a promoted product, and If you choose to integrate other apps, games or websites with Meta Products and log in, we'll share your information with the app, game or website to log you in.”
Quoted verbatim from the agreement What this means: When you interact with an ad or use 'Login with Facebook' on a third-party site, Meta shares your contact information and profile data with that advertiser or app. Once shared, that third party's own privacy policy governs your data, and Meta has limited control over what they do with it.
What you can do: Avoid using 'Login with Facebook' on third-party sites and be cautious about clicking advertiser contact prompts; review which apps have access via Settings > Security and Login > Apps and Websites.
Meta collects the content of your private messages.
“Messages you send and receive, including their content, subject to applicable law Metadata about content and messages, subject to applicable law”
Quoted verbatim from the agreement What this means: Meta collects the content of messages you send and receive, as well as metadata about those messages (such as who you messaged and when). While qualified by 'subject to applicable law,' this means your private communications are part of the data Meta processes for safety, security, product improvement, and potentially legal compliance purposes.
What you can do: Use Messenger's end-to-end encrypted 'Secret Conversations' feature for sensitive messages, or use a dedicated end-to-end encrypted messaging app like Signal.
Frequently asked questions
Is Facebook's Terms & Conditions agreement fair?
- BeforeYouClick grades Facebook E on an A–E scale, where A is the fairest. Its agreement contains 16 critical clauses, 13 warnings and 0 good practices.
What are the biggest problems with Facebook's terms?
- The most serious clauses we flagged are: Extensive Data Used for Ad Targeting, No Fixed Limit on Data Retention and Data Kept After You Delete It.
How long does it take to read Facebook's terms?
- Facebook's agreement takes about 21 minutes to read in full, across 29 clauses we reviewed. The summary on this page covers the same ground in under a minute.
When was Facebook's agreement last analyzed?
- We last read Facebook's Terms & Conditions on August 2, 2026. Companies change their terms without notice, so check the original document for the current version.
Is this analysis legal advice?
- No. This analysis is AI-generated, can be incomplete or wrong, and is not legal advice. Use it as a starting point and read the original agreement before you agree to it.
More agreements to read
- RedditSocialGrade D
- X (formerly Twitter)SocialGrade E
- TikTokSocialGrade E
- PinterestSocialGrade E
- PosteoProductivityGrade A
- Mullvad VPNSecurityGrade A