UPDATE on Thursday, Nov. 5: The comment period for the proposed privacy policy is now complete. While the total number of comments did not reach the threshold to hold a vote, we did receive a lot of good feedback. In the coming days, we'll be reading your comments more closely, and we'll keep you informed on our next steps through status updates from the Facebook Site Governance Page. Thank you all for your participation.

UPDATE on Monday, Nov. 2: The proposed privacy policy now includes the TRUSTe certification seal, which reflects TRUSTe's approval of the policy. Please comment on the proposed policy here by 12:00 p.m. PST on Nov. 5.


Starting today, Facebook's privacy policy is available for your review and comment. This is the next step in our ongoing effort to run Facebook in an open and transparent way. In April, we launched a new system of governance for the Facebook site and became the first company to our knowledge that invites users to both comment and vote on proposed changes to its governing policies.

At the time, we also introduced a new policy document — our Statement of Rights and Responsibilities. This document avoids the legal jargon that most sites typically put in their "terms of service." It articulates the mutual relationship and shared obligations between Facebook and its users as clearly and plainly as possible. We received excellent feedback from many of you over the course of a two-week comment period.

We now are doing the same with our privacy policy. Our primary goals remain transparency and readability, which is why we've used plain language and included numerous examples to help illustrate our points. For example, here is how we explain users' options for modifying or deleting information or content in the current privacy policy on the site:

When you update information, we usually keep a backup copy of the prior version for a reasonable period of time to enable reversion to the prior version of that information. ...
... Even after removal, copies of User Content may remain viewable in cached and archived pages or if other Users have copied or stored your User
Content. ...
Access and control over most personal information on Facebook is readily available through the profile editing tools. Facebook users may modify or delete any of their profile information at any time by logging into their account. Information will be updated immediately. Individuals who wish to deactivate their Facebook account may do so on the My Account page. Removed information may persist in backup copies for a reasonable period of time but will not be generally available to members of Facebook.

Here is the clearer and more comprehensive version from the new proposed policy:

Viewing and editing your profile. You may change or delete your profile information at any time by going to your profile page and clicking "Edit My Profile." Information will be updated immediately. While you cannot delete your date of birth, you can use the setting on the info tab of your profile information page to hide all or part of it from other users. ...

Deactivating or deleting your account. If you want to stop using your account you may deactivate it or delete it. When you deactivate an account, no user will be able to see it, but it will not be deleted. We save your profile information (friends, photos, interests, etc.) in case you later decide to reactivate your account. Many users deactivate their accounts for temporary reasons and in doing so are asking us to maintain their information until they return to Facebook. You will still have the ability to reactivate your account and restore your profile in its entirety. When you delete an account, it is permanently deleted. You should only delete your account if you are certain you never want to reactivate it. You may deactivate your account on your account settings page or delete your account on this help page.

Limitations on removal. Even after you remove information from your profile or delete your account, copies of that information may remain viewable elsewhere to the extent it has been shared with others, it was otherwise distributed pursuant to your privacy settings, or it was copied or stored by other users. However, your name will no longer be associated with that information on Facebook. (For example, if you post something to another user's profile, and then you delete your account, that post may remain, but be attributed to an "Anonymous Facebook User.") Additionally, we may retain certain information to prevent identity theft and other misconduct even if deletion has been requested.

Backup copies. Removed and deleted information may persist in backup copies for up to 90 days, but will not be available to others.

We also have restructured the document — providing key points and easy links to jump to the different sections. We've added sections further explaining our current practices and introducing a new concept around Facebook Ads that we hope you'll take the time to review.

Clarification of Current Practices

In this revision, we're fulfilling our commitment to the Privacy Commissioner of Canada to update our privacy policy to better describe a number of practices. Specifically, we've included sections that further explain the privacy setting you can choose to make your content viewable by everyone, the difference between deactivating and deleting your account and the process of memorializing an account once we've received a report that the account holder is deceased.

We also have explained in greater detail how Social Ads work on Facebook. Social Ads are sponsored promotions that include relevant information about you and are shown only to your friends. For example, if you become a fan of a Page for your favorite new movie, your friends may see an ad that includes that information.

Advertising on Facebook

Over 300 million people around the world now use Facebook. More join every day. To support this growth and continue providing a free service that connects people and lets them share with whomever they choose, we've built a business that allows advertisers to selectively share their messages. Our goal is to make the ads you see on Facebook relevant and interesting. Period. We're constantly working to improve our systems to make sponsored material compatible with people's needs and curiosity.

As we do this, we remain committed to protecting your privacy. The information we provide to advertisers is "anonymized," meaning that it can't be traced back to you as an individual in any way. For example, we won't tell an advertiser that you clicked on an ad, but we might report that, of the 100 people who clicked on the ad, 63 percent were female.

Improving the Quality of Facebook's Ads

In this update, we also have explained how we might use information from other sites to improve the quality of our ads. This information allows advertisers to do what is commonly called "conversion tracking," which helps them measure the effectiveness of their ads and make them more relevant. Most advertisers already do this in other places on the web. Should Facebook provide this, we'll continue to respect your privacy by not sharing your information with advertisers, and we'll anonymize any information we receive.

In the past, we've provided a redline version of the new policy document we're proposing to make clear what's new. Unfortunately, in this case, the revision is so different from the current policy that this wasn't possible. You can read the proposed update in its entirety and post comments to the Facebook Site Governance Page before the comment period ends at 12:00 p.m. PST on Nov. 5. After the comment period is over, we'll review your feedback and update you on our next steps. We appreciate and strongly encourage your participation in this process.


Elliot, Facebook's vice president of communications and public policy, thanks all of the privacy experts who informed the drafting of Facebook's proposed privacy policy.