Other websites and applications

About Facebook Platform

Facebook Platform helps you make your experiences on the web more personalized and social. Learn more about the Facebook Platform.

Controlling what information you share with applications

Learn how we help you share your information with the games, applications, and websites you use.

Controlling what is shared when the people you share with use applications

Control how the people you share with share your information when they use games, applications, and websites.

Logging in to another site using Facebook

What happens when you log in to a website using your Facebook information?

About social plugins

See how social plugins work on other websites without sharing your information.

About instant personalization

Learn more about instantly personalized sites and how to control your information on them.

About Pages

Learn about public Pages and what information they may receive about you.

Public search engines

You can control what people see when they search for you on public search engines.

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About Facebook Platform

Facebook Platform (or simply Platform) refers to the way we help you share your information with the games, applications, and websites you and your friends use. Facebook Platform also lets you bring your friends with you, so you can connect with them off of Facebook. In these two ways, Facebook Platform helps you make your experiences on the web more personalized and social.

Remember that these games, applications and websites are created and maintained by other businesses and developers who are not part of Facebook, so you should always make sure to read their terms of service and privacy policies.

Controlling what information you share with applications

When you connect with a game, application or website - such as by going to a game, logging in to a website using your Facebook account, or adding an app to your timeline - we give the game, application, or website (sometimes referred to as just "Applications" or "Apps") your basic info, which includes your User ID, as well your friends' User IDs (or your friend list) and your public information.

Your friend list helps the application make your experience more social because it lets you find your friends on that application. Your User ID helps the application personalize your experience because it can connect your account on that application with your Facebook account, and it can access your basic info, which includes your public information and friend list. This includes the information you choose to make public, as well as information that is always publicly available. If the application needs additional information, such as your stories, photos or likes, it will have to ask you for specific permission.

The Apps you use setting lets you control the applications you use. You can see the permissions you have given these applications, the last time an application accessed your information, and the audience on Facebook for your timeline stories and activity the application posts on your behalf. You can also remove applications you no longer want, or turn off all Platform applications. When you turn all Platform applications off, your User ID is no longer given to applications, even when your friends use those applications. But you will no longer be able to use any games, applications or websites through Facebook.

When you first visit an app, Facebook lets the app know your language, your country, and whether you are under 18, between 18-20, or 21 and over. Age range lets apps provide you with age-appropriate content. If you install the app, it can access, store and update the information you've shared. Apps you've installed can update their records of your basic info, age range, language and country. If you haven't used an app in a while, it won't be able to continue to update the additional information you've given them permission to access. Learn more.

Sometimes a game console, mobile phone, or other device might ask for permission to share specific information with the games and applications you use on that device. If you say okay, those applications will not be able to access any other information about you without asking specific permission from you or your friends.

Sites and apps that use Instant Personalization receive your User ID and friend list when you visit them. Learn more.

You can always remove apps you've installed by using your App Settings. But remember, apps may still be able to access your information when the people you share with use them. And, if you've removed an application and want them to delete the information you've already shared with them, you should contact the application and ask them to delete it. Visit the application's page on Facebook or their own website to learn more about the app.

Controlling what is shared when the people you share with use applications

Just like when you share information by email or elsewhere on the web, information you share on Facebook can be re-shared. This means that if you share something on Facebook, anyone who can see it can share it with others, including the games, applications, and websites they use.

Your friends and the other people you share information with often want to share your information with applications to make their experiences on those applications more personalized and social. For example, one of your friends might want to use a music application that allows them to see what their friends are listening to. To get the full benefit of that application, your friend would want to give the application her friend list - which includes your User ID - so the application knows which of her friends is also using it. Your friend might also want to share the music you "like" on Facebook. If you have made that information public, then the application can access it just like anyone else. But if you've shared your likes with just your friends, the application could ask your friend for permission to share them.

You can control most of the information other people can share with applications they use from the Ads, Apps and Websites settings. But these controls do not let you limit access to your public information and friend list.

If you want to completely block applications from getting your information when your friends and others use them, you will need to turn off all Platform applications. This means that you will no longer be able to use any third-party Facebook-integrated games, applications or websites.

If an application asks permission from someone else to access your information, the application will be allowed to use that information only in connection with the person that gave the permission and no one else.

Logging in to another site using Facebook

Facebook Platform lets you log into other applications and websites using your Facebook account. When you log in using Facebook, we give the site your User ID (just like when you connect with any other application), but we do not share your email address or password with that website through this process.

If you already have an account on that website, the site may also be able to connect that account with your Facebook account. Sometimes it does this using what is called an "email hash", which is similar to searching for someone on Facebook using an email address. Only the email addresses in this case are hashed so no email addresses are actually shared between Facebook and the website.

How it works

The website sends over a hashed version of your email address, and we match it with a database of email addresses that we have also hashed. If there is a match, then we tell the website the User ID associated with the email address. This way, when you log into the website using Facebook, the website can link your Facebook account to your account on that website.

About social plugins

Social plugins are buttons, boxes, and stories (such as the Like button) that other websites can use to present Facebook content to you and create more social and personal experiences for you. While you view these buttons, boxes, and stories on other sites, the content comes directly from Facebook.

Sometimes plugins act just like applications. You can spot one of these plugins because it will ask you for permission to access your information or to publish information back to Facebook. For example, if you use a registration plugin on a website, the plugin will ask your permission to share your basic info with the website to make it easier for you to register for the website. Similarly, if you use an Add To Timeline plugin, the plugin will ask your permission to publish stories about your activities on that website to Facebook.

If you make something public using a plugin, such as posting a public comment on a newspaper's website, then that website can access your comment (along with your User ID) just like everyone else.

If you post something using a social plugin and you do not see a sharing icon, you should assume that story is Public. For example, if you post a comment through a Facebook comment plugin on a site, your story is Public and everyone, including the website, can see your story.

Websites that use social plugins can sometimes tell that you have engaged with the social plugin. For example, they may know that you clicked on a Like button in a social plugin.

We receive data when you visit a site with a social plugin. We keep this data for a maximum of 90 days. After that, we remove your name or any other personally identifying information from the data, or combine it with other people's data in a way that it is no longer associated with you. Learn more.

About instant personalization

Instant personalization is a way for Facebook to help partners (such as Bing and Rotten Tomatoes) on and off Facebook create a more personalized and social experience for logged in users than a social plugin can offer. When you visit a site or app using instant personalization, it will know some information about you and your friends the moment you arrive. This is because sites and apps using instant personalization can access your User ID, your friend list, and your public information.

The first time you visit a site or app using instant personalization, you will see a notification letting you know that the site or app has partnered with Facebook to provide a personalized experience.

The notification will give you the ability to disable or turn off instant personalization for that site or app. If you do that, that site or app is required to delete all of the information about you it received from Facebook as part of the instant personalization program. In addition, we will prevent that site from accessing your information in the future, even when your friends use that site.

If you decide that you do not want to experience instant personalization for all partner sites and apps, you can disable instant personalization.

If you turn off instant personalization, partner third party sites and apps will not be able to access your public information, even when your friends visit those sites.

If you turn off an instant personalization site or app after you have been using it or visited it a few times (or after you have given it specific permission to access your data), it will not automatically delete your data received through Facebook. But the site is contractually required to delete your data if you ask it to.

How it works

To join the instant personalization program, a potential partner must enter into an agreement with us designed to protect your privacy. For example, this agreement requires that the partner delete your data if you turn off instant personalization when you first visit the site or app. It also prevents the partner from accessing any information about you until you or your friends visit its site.

Instant personalization partners sometimes use an email hash process to see if any of their users are on Facebook and get those users' User IDs. This process is similar to searching for someone on Facebook using an email address, except in this case the email addresses are hashed so no actual email addresses are exchanged. The partner is also contractually required not to use your User ID for any purpose (other than associating it with your account) until you or your friends visit the site.

When you visit a site or app using instant personalization, we provide the site or app with your User ID and your friend list (as well as your age range, locale, and gender). The site or app can then connect your account with that partner with your friends' accounts to make the site or app instantly social. The site can also access public information associated with any of the User IDs it receives, which it can use to make them instantly personalized. For example, if the site is a music site, it can access your music interests to suggest songs you may like, and access your friends' music interests to let you know what they are listening to. Of course it can only access your or your friends' music interests if they are public. If the site or app wants any additional information, it will have to get your specific permission.

About Pages

Facebook Pages are public pages. Companies use Pages to share information about their products. Celebrities use Pages to talk about their latest projects. And communities use pages to discuss topics of interest, everything from baseball to the opera.

Because Pages are public, information you share with a Page is public information. This means, for example, that if you post a comment on a Page, that comment may be used by the Page owner off Facebook, and anyone can see it. Learn more.

When you "like" a Page, you create a connection to that Page. The connection is added to your timeline and your friends may see it in their News Feeds. You may be contacted by or receive updates from the Page, such as in your News Feed and your messages. You can remove the Pages you've "liked" through your timeline or on the Page.

Some Pages contain content that comes directly from the Page owner. Page owners can do this through online plugins, such as an iframe, and it works just like the games and other applications you use through Facebook. Because this content comes directly from the Page owner, that Page may be able to collect information about you, just like any website.

Page administrators may have access to insights data, which will tell them generally about the people that visit their Page (as opposed to information about specific people) They may also know when you've made a connection to their Page because you've liked their Page or posted a comment.

Public search engines

Your public search setting controls whether people who enter your name on a public search engine may see your public timeline (including in sponsored results). You can find your Public Search setting on the Ads, Apps and Websites page.

This setting does not apply to search engines that access your information as an application using Facebook Platform.

If you turn your public search setting off and then search for yourself on a public search engine, you may still see a preview of your timeline. This is because some search engines cache information for a period of time. You can learn more about how to request a search engine to remove you from cached information.