Facebook vs TikTok

Meta collects a very broad range of data, including activity, device details, contacts, location, cookies, and partner data, even in some cases without an account. In practice, using Facebook can involve tracking across devices, services, and third-party sites.

Your personal data is used to target and measure ads on and off Meta products. This means your behavior and inferred interests help shape advertising across Facebook's ecosystem.

You keep ownership of your posts, photos, and videos, but grant Meta a worldwide, transferable, sublicensable, royalty-free license to use and modify them for service operation. This is a broad permission that continues until content is fully deleted.

Meta can use your name, profile photo, and ad-related actions next to sponsored content without paying you. Your social activity may therefore be used to endorse ads to others who can view that activity.

Public posts and profile information can be copied, reshared, downloaded, or indexed off-platform, including by search engines and third parties. Once something is public, practical control over it can be hard to regain.

Apps and websites connected through Facebook Login or integrations may access non-public information, and may retain data you already shared even after access expires. That creates ongoing privacy exposure outside Meta's direct control.

Facebook is provided 'as is' and Meta disclaims warranties while limiting liability for indirect and consequential damages as far as law allows. If the service causes losses or disruptions, user remedies may be narrow.

The policy expressly provides rights to access, correct, download, port, erase, object, and complain to a regulator. These are meaningful user protections, especially in regions covered by data protection law.

Consumer disputes are generally governed by the law of your home country and can be brought in competent local courts. This is more user-friendly than mandatory arbitration or exclusive foreign forum clauses for consumers.

Deleting content or an account is not immediate: primary deletion may take up to 90 days, with up to another 90 days for backups, and some data may be kept longer for legal or safety reasons. Users should not expect instant erasure.

Meta says it does not sell your personal data to advertisers or share direct identifiers like your name or email without specific permission. That reduces one common privacy risk, though substantial ad profiling and reporting still occur.

Meta says it will usually give at least 30 days' notice before material terms changes take effect. That gives users some time to review changes and decide whether to keep using the service.

You keep ownership, but TikTok gets an irrevocable, perpetual, worldwide license to use, modify, distribute, and authorize others to use your content on any platform. That sharply limits practical control once you post.

For many non-US/EEA users, disputes must be arbitrated in Singapore under SIAC rules rather than pursued in ordinary court. This can make claims harder and more expensive to bring.

TikTok collects detailed usage, device, location, cookie, and content-analysis data, and infers traits like interests, age range, and gender. This supports deep personalization and targeted advertising.

Your information may be shared with advertisers, analytics partners, affiliates, researchers, sellers, payment providers, and others. This expands the number of entities involved in handling your data.

If your profile is public, your content can be seen by anyone and may be indexed or redistributed by search engines, aggregators, and other third parties. Public posting can therefore have lasting reach beyond TikTok.

TikTok can amend its terms and privacy policy, and continued use counts as acceptance. Users must monitor updates or stop using the service if they disagree.

TikTok keeps data as long as needed for service, legal, security, and business purposes, and account data is generally kept while your account exists. In some jurisdictions it may keep data for five years or longer after use ends.

If something goes wrong, TikTok limits many claims to the amount you paid in the last 12 months, which may be nothing for most users. The service is also offered largely 'as is.'

TikTok says you can delete your entire account in Settings and adjust who can view videos, message you, or comment. Those in-app controls give users some practical privacy management tools.

The privacy policy states users may have rights to access, delete, update, rectify, and complain about data use, and it provides a request mechanism. That is a meaningful transparency and control benefit.

TikTok explains that users may refuse or disable certain cookies through browser, device, and app settings. This is useful, though the process can be fragmented across devices.