The policy states that Meta collects and processes information with special protections, including religious views, sexual orientation, political views, health information, racial or ethnic origin, and philosophical beliefs, when users voluntarily provide such data, applying both automated and manual processing for product personalization, analytics, and sharing with chosen contacts.
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 establishes that special category data under GDPR and equivalent frameworks may be collected and processed for personalization and analytics purposes, subject to the user voluntarily providing the information and, where applicable, explicit consent, creating governance obligations around the adequacy and specificity of consent mechanisms deployed.
The provision text is substantively identical with only minor formatting differences, indicating no material change to the disclosure.
View full change record →Explicitly authorizes automated processing and publishing of sensitive personal data (health, religion, sexual orientation, race) for ad personalization and analytics, subject to GDPR special categories.
View full change record →Under this clause, information about religious views, sexual orientation, political views, health, and racial or ethnic origin that users voluntarily share on Meta Products may be collected, stored, and processed through both automated and manual review for product personalization and analytics. The policy states this data is not used to show ads.
Cross-platform context
See how other platforms handle Special Category Data Processing and similar clauses.
Compare across platforms →"Processing information subject to special protections under applicable laws that you provide so we can share it with those you choose, to provide, personalize and improve our Products and to undertake analytics. We'll collect, store, publish and apply automated, or sometimes manual (human), processing for these purposes. 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.Excerpt from Meta's Privacy Policy
(1) REGULATORY LANDSCAPE: This provision directly implicates GDPR Article 9 regarding processing of special categories of personal data, which requires explicit consent or another specified legal basis.
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This provision establishes that special category data under GDPR and equivalent frameworks may be collected and processed for personalization and analytics purposes, subject to the user voluntarily providing the information and, where applicable, explicit consent, creating governance obligations around the adequacy and specificity of consent mechanisms deployed.
Under this clause, information about religious views, sexual orientation, political views, health, and racial or ethnic origin that users voluntarily share on Meta Products may be collected, stored, and processed through both automated and manual review for product personalization and analytics. The policy states this data is not used to show ads.
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