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Terms of use

Meta

Meta Terms of Service

D

Risk score

61of 100

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In short

  • These terms govern your use of Facebook, Messenger, and other Meta services.
  • They allow Meta to collect data for personalized ads and take a broad license to your content.
  • If you disagree with the terms or updates, you must delete your account.

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 let Meta show you personalized ads using your personal data to determine which ads to display.

    This product

    “By using our Products, you agree that we can show you ads that we think may be relevant to you and your interests. We use your personal data to help determine which personalized ads to show you.”
  2. 02

    You are agreeing to give Meta a worldwide, sublicensable license to use, modify, and share your content across Meta products and service providers.

    Other products, stores, or brands

    “when you share, post, or upload content that is covered by intellectual property rights on or in connection with our Products, 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...”
  3. 03

    You are agreeing that any dispute must be resolved exclusively in courts in California, USA.

    This product

    “any claim, cause of action, or dispute between us that arises out of or relates to these Terms or your access or use of the Meta Products shall be resolved exclusively in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California or a state court located in San Mateo County.”

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 let Meta use, modify, and sublicense your content to others.

“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 (consistent with your privacy and application settings).”

What that means: Your photos, videos, or posts can potentially be used or shared by other companies or partners under license from Meta.

Meta takes a very broad license that allows them to sublicense your content to third parties and create derivative works, rather than just hosting it for you.

High cost

Indefinite retention

You are agreeing that your content stays on the platform if others continue to use it according to their license.

“Content will not be deleted within 90 days... where your content has been used by others in accordance with this license and they have not deleted it (in which case this license will continue to apply until that content is deleted)”

What that means: You cannot fully control or erase your content if other users keep using or sharing it.

If other users engage with your content, the license remains active and the content may stay indefinitely as long as those others retain it.

High cost

Liability shifted onto the user

You are agreeing to limit Meta's liability for damages to you to a maximum of $100 or amounts paid.

“our liability shall be limited to the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, and under no circumstance will we be liable to you for any lost profits, revenues, information, or data... Our aggregate liability arising out of or relating to these Terms or the Meta Products will not exceed the greater of $100 or the amount you have paid us in the past twelve months.”

What that means: If something goes wrong with the service that harms you, you likely get very little to no compensation.

Meta excludes almost all warranties and caps its financial liability to you at a maximum of $100 or what you paid them.

Medium cost

Difficult or incomplete deletion

You are agreeing to a delay where your data remains in backups for up to 90 days after deletion requests.

“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 is not immediately gone and persists in internal backups longer than visible content removal.

Even after you request deletion, copies of your data remain in backup systems for up to 120 days total in some cases.

Medium cost

Unilateral changes with little or no notice

You are agreeing to be bound by updated terms simply by continuing to use the app.

“Unless otherwise required by law, we will notify you before we make changes to these Terms... Once any updated Terms are in effect, you will be bound by them if you continue to access or use our Products.”

What that means: You might lose rights or gain new obligations without being able to renegotiate the deal.

Meta can change the terms and binds you if you keep using the service, forcing a choice to accept changes or leave.

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.