Question 1

Does Meta sell my personal data?

Accepted Answer

Meta does not sell personal data in the formal legal sense — advertisers do not receive your name, email address, or profile data directly. Instead, Meta sells access to audiences: advertisers specify who they want to reach (e.g. 'women aged 25–34 in Sydney interested in running'), and Meta uses its data about you to determine if you match that audience and serve you the ad. You are the product; your data is the mechanism. The practical outcome for users is indistinguishable from having their data sold.

Question 2

Does Meta track me across the web even when I'm not on Facebook?

Accepted Answer

Yes. The Meta Pixel — a piece of tracking code embedded on millions of third-party websites — reports your browsing activity back to Meta whenever you visit a site that has installed it. This happens regardless of whether you are logged into Facebook. Meta uses this off-platform data to build advertising profiles and improve ad targeting. You can see some of this activity in your Facebook account under Settings → Your Facebook Information → Off-Facebook Activity, and you can clear it — but it will continue to be collected after clearing unless you disconnect future off-Facebook activity, which limits but does not eliminate tracking.

Question 3

What is the difference between Meta and Facebook?

Accepted Answer

Meta is the parent company. Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Messenger, and Threads are all Meta products operating under a shared privacy policy. Data collected across these products is combined into a single profile unless you have specifically opted out. Meta's advertising system operates across all of these platforms simultaneously. When you create a Facebook account, you are agreeing to Meta's data practices for all Meta products.

Question 4

Can Meta read my Messenger messages?

Accepted Answer

Standard Messenger conversations are not end-to-end encrypted by default — Meta can access them and they may be used for ad targeting and safety purposes. End-to-end encrypted chats are available but must be specifically enabled (look for the lock icon). As of late 2023, Meta began rolling out default E2EE for personal chats, but this has been a slow rollout and availability varies by region and platform version. WhatsApp messages are end-to-end encrypted by default, but metadata (who you message, when, and how often) is shared with Meta.

Question 5

How do I download my Meta data?

Accepted Answer

Go to Facebook → Settings → Your Facebook Information → Download Your Information. You can select a date range and choose which categories to include (posts, photos, messages, ads, search history, location, etc.). The download is prepared and then available as a ZIP file. This gives you a snapshot of what Meta holds about your activity on the platform — it does not include the inferences Meta has made about you or data held from off-Facebook activity tracking.

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