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The policy prohibits developers from using data obtained through the Facebook platform for surveillance purposes, including monitoring individuals, groups, or organizations without their knowledge.
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 restricts developers from applying Facebook-sourced data, including user identifiers, location signals, and social graph information, to surveillance or monitoring applications, which has direct implications for law enforcement technology vendors, social listening platforms, and security analytics providers.
Interpretive note: The document fragment was substantially truncated; this provision is characterized based on Meta's publicly known Platform Policy structure and the available document context, not direct clause text.
The updated policy removes explicit disclosure that interactions with Meta AI are used to improve Meta's AI systems. The policy previously stated this practice directly; the revised language no longer includes this statement. Under the updated terms, users accessing the policy will see consolidated references to Meta Terms, AI terms, and Privacy Policy rather than separate Meta AI-specific terms, though the Privacy Policy may contain related disclosures about AI training and data use. You can review Meta's Privacy Policy directly to understand how interaction data may be used for AI improvement purposes.
View change record →Under this provision, third-party developers are prohibited from using Facebook platform data, including profile identifiers and social connections, to monitor or surveil users or other individuals, establishing a stated use-limitation that applies to all applications accessing the platform.
How other platforms handle this
You can limit to what extent we use your personal information for these purposes.
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
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.
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(1) REGULATORY LANDSCAPE: This provision engages with FTC Act Section 5 principles on unfair data practices, and may intersect with GDPR Article 9 restrictions on processing data for monitoring purposes and EU law enforcement data processing directives. The FTC is the primary federal enforcement authority. State AGs in California, Illinois, and New York may also have enforcement jurisdiction depending on the user population affected. (2) GOVERNANCE EXPOSURE: Medium. The term 'surveillance' is not defined in the available document text, creating interpretive uncertainty about which developer use cases fall within the prohibition, particularly for legitimate security, fraud detection, or academic research applications. (3) JURISDICTION FLAGS: EU/EEA developers face heightened exposure because GDPR imposes specific restrictions on automated processing and profiling that may interact with this clause. Developers providing services to law enforcement or government agencies should evaluate whether their use cases are permitted under both this policy and applicable law. (4) CONTRACT AND VENDOR IMPLICATIONS: Vendors building analytics, monitoring, or social listening products on top of Facebook platform data should evaluate whether their use cases comply with this prohibition. Contracts with sub-processors who receive platform data should include flow-down restrictions consistent with this clause. (5) COMPLIANCE CONSIDERATIONS: Compliance teams should audit developer use cases to confirm that no platform data flows are used for individual or group monitoring without explicit user consent. Documentation of the legal basis for any data use that could be characterized as monitoring is advisable, particularly for EU-facing products.
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 restricts developers from applying Facebook-sourced data, including user identifiers, location signals, and social graph information, to surveillance or monitoring applications, which has direct implications for law enforcement technology vendors, social listening platforms, and security analytics providers.
Under this provision, third-party developers are prohibited from using Facebook platform data, including profile identifiers and social connections, to monitor or surveil users or other individuals, establishing a stated use-limitation that applies to all applications accessing the platform.
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.