Mastodon vs Facebook

Because Mastodon is federated, your public content can be downloaded by other servers, and even followers-only or direct messages may be delivered to other servers. That limits practical control over where your content ends up.

Direct messages are sent to recipients' servers when they are on other servers. Users should not assume DMs stay solely under mastodon.social's control.

Mastodon.social says it does not sell or trade personally identifiable information. It may still share data with service providers or when legally required, which is common but worth noting.

You can permanently delete your account at any time. This gives users a clear exit path, though copies of distributed content on other servers may persist in practice.

The policy says sessions and API traffic use SSL, passwords are strongly hashed, and two-factor authentication is available. These are meaningful baseline protections for account access.

Users can request and download an archive of their content. This supports portability and backup before leaving the service.

Authorized apps may access substantial account data depending on the permissions you grant. The positive limit is that apps cannot access your email address or password.

The service uses cookies to recognize your browser, connect it to your account, and save preferences. This appears functional rather than advertising-focused based on the provided text.

Reports are usually handled quickly, but reporters are not told whether punishment occurred, and some enforcement is not visible publicly. This helps moderation flexibility but reduces transparency for users who report abuse.

The service identifies the operating company and provides corporate registration details and contact information. That improves accountability compared with anonymous operators.

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.