Get the weekly research letter
Companies change their terms quietly. We read every version and catch what actually changed. One email a week on the changes that matter and what they mean. No account.
Developers are required to delete all platform-sourced data promptly upon loss of platform access and upon any user request for deletion, unless Meta has provided written authorization for retention or applicable law requires otherwise.
This analysis describes what Meta's agreement states, permits, or reserves. It does not constitute a legal determination about enforceability. Regulatory applicability and practical outcomes may vary by jurisdiction, enforcement context, and individual circumstances. Read our methodology
This provision creates a time-sensitive operational obligation that applies upon platform access termination or user request, requiring developers to have implemented data mapping and deletion workflows capable of identifying and purging all Meta platform-sourced data across their systems and sub-processors.
Interpretive note: The term 'promptly' is not defined with a specific timeline, creating ambiguity regarding the deadline for compliance that may differ from GDPR's one-month standard.
The updated terms remove developer restrictions that previously applied to large-scale platforms, meaning companies with more than 700 million monthly active users can now access Meta's AI models without special permission. The terms also eliminate the restriction on EU developers accessing multimodal models and consolidate account management under either managed accounts or Meta accounts. Developers previously subject to these restrictions should review whether the updated terms now permit their use case.
View change record →The updated terms authorize Meta to retain user-submitted content if its systems flag the content for a potential policy violation, in addition to retention tied to legal compliance and contractual rights. This expands the circumstances under which content may be preserved without explicit time limits. Under the revised language, content retention decisions may now be driven by automated policy-violation flagging in addition to legal or contractual necessity. Developers integrating the Llama API should understand that flagged content may be retained indefinitely pending policy review.
View change record →This new provision creates explicit data deletion obligations both upon platform access loss and per user request, establishing developer liability for data retention compliance.
View full change record →This clause establishes that users may request deletion of their data held by any developer that accessed it through Meta's platform, and the developer is contractually required to honor that request promptly. The terms also require developers to delete all such data if their platform access is terminated.
How other platforms handle this
In certain circumstances, the right to data portability, which means that you can request that we provide certain Personal Data we hold about you in a machine-readable format
If you want to see what information we have collected about you, you can request a copy of your data in the Data & Privacy section of your User Settings. You should receive your data packet within 30 days.
For data portability requests, We will select a format to provide Your personal information that is readily useable and should allow You to transmit the information from one entity to another entity without hindrance.
Monitoring
Meta has changed this document before.
Receive same-day alerts, structured change summaries, and monitoring for up to 20 platforms.
"If you lose access to Platform, you must promptly delete all Platform Data unless we tell you otherwise in writing or applicable law requires retention. If a user asks you to delete their data that you received from Platform, you must do so promptly.Excerpt from Meta's Llama API Terms of Service
1. REGULATORY LANDSCAPE: This provision directly engages GDPR Article 17 (right to erasure), CCPA's right to deletion, and applicable national data protection laws that establish user deletion rights. Enforcement authorities include EU national DPAs, the California Privacy Protection Agency, and State AGs. The provision's 'promptly' standard lacks a defined timeline, which may create tension with GDPR's one-month response requirement for data subject requests. 2. GOVERNANCE EXPOSURE: High. Developers who lack systematic data mapping across their own systems and those of sub-processors may be unable to fulfill deletion obligations reliably, creating simultaneous contractual and regulatory exposure. The absence of a defined deletion timeline in the provision creates operational ambiguity. 3. JURISDICTION FLAGS: EU/EEA developers face the highest exposure given GDPR's enforceable right to erasure and significant fine thresholds. California developers are subject to CCPA/CPRA deletion rights. Developers who have shared platform data with third-party processors must ensure those processors can also fulfill deletion requests, consistent with GDPR Article 28 processor obligations. 4. CONTRACT AND VENDOR IMPLICATIONS: Developer contracts with downstream vendors and sub-processors should include explicit deletion obligations triggered by user requests or loss of Meta platform access. Absence of such provisions in vendor agreements creates a gap that could prevent compliance with this clause and applicable law simultaneously. 5. COMPLIANCE CONSIDERATIONS: Compliance teams should conduct a data inventory to identify all locations where Meta platform data is stored, including backups and analytics systems; establish documented deletion workflows with defined response timelines aligned to GDPR's one-month standard; and include deletion flow-down obligations in all sub-processor agreements. Audit logs of deletion actions should be maintained to demonstrate compliance in the event of a Meta audit or regulatory inquiry.
Regulatory citations, enforcement risk, and due diligence action items.
Ad personalization controls removed. Contact scanning added. Advertiser data partnerships quietly dropped. A timeline of every change.
Provision-level monitoring, governance timelines, and regulatory mapping built from archived source documents and historical version tracking.
This provision creates a time-sensitive operational obligation that applies upon platform access termination or user request, requiring developers to have implemented data mapping and deletion workflows capable of identifying and purging all Meta platform-sourced data across their systems and sub-processors.
This clause establishes that users may request deletion of their data held by any developer that accessed it through Meta's platform, and the developer is contractually required to honor that request promptly. The terms also require developers to delete all such data if their platform access is terminated.
ConductAtlas has identified this type of provision across 295 platforms. See the full comparison.
No. ConductAtlas is an independent monitoring service. We are not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Meta.