What information does Facebook get when I visit a site with the Like button?

Use & Processing · Company practice

Facebook records logged-in Like button visit data to personalize your experience on the site and improve its products

Facebook says it records the information from a logged-in visit for two stated purposes: to help personalize your experience on the site, and to improve its products. The example given for personalization is that Facebook needs to know who you are in order to show you what your Facebook friends have liked on that site. A later paragraph adds a further possible use of information received from social-plugin visits: Facebook may also use it to show you more interesting and useful ads (see the ads card). So the two purposes in this paragraph are not the only uses the article mentions.

Supporting quotations

We record this information to help personalize your experience on the site and to improve our products.

For example, when you go to a website with a Like button, we need to know who you are in order to show you what your Facebook friends have liked on that site.

We may also use the information we receive when you visit a site with social plugins to help us show you more interesting and useful ads.

Qualifications & exceptions

• Ad use is stated with "may also", as a possibility rather than a definite practice.

Not stated here

• The article does not say how long recorded visit information is kept or whether it is shared.
• How "personalize your experience on the site" works beyond the friends-likes example is not described.

Use & Processing · Company practice

Facebook uses cookies to show ads on and off Facebook and may use social plugin visit information for ads

The article says that, as the Privacy Policy indicates, Facebook uses cookies to show you ads on and off Facebook. It adds that Facebook may also use the information it receives when you visit a site with social plugins to help show you more interesting and useful ads. The ad use of social-plugin visit information is stated as something Facebook "may" do, not as a definite practice, and it is not limited in this sentence to logged-in visits. The Privacy Policy is referred to but is not part of this article, so what it says about cookies and ads is not evidence here.

Supporting quotations

As our Privacy Policy indicates, we use cookies to show you ads on and off Facebook.

We may also use the information we receive when you visit a site with social plugins to help us show you more interesting and useful ads.

Qualifications & exceptions

• "May also use" states a possibility, not a commitment either way.
• The cookie statement is attributed to the Privacy Policy, which is not supplied with this article.

Not stated here

• The Privacy Policy text is not supplied; what it says about cookies and ads is unknown here.
• Whether logged-out visit information is included in the ad use is not stated.
• What makes ads "more interesting and useful" and whether you can opt out is not stated in this article.

Cross-references

• qualifies (model-proposed): Facebook records logged-in Like button visit data to personalize your experience on the site and improve its products — qualifies: The personalization and product-improvement purposes are supplemented by a later paragraph: Facebook may also use information received from social-plugin visits to show more interesting and useful ads.