Connect with confidence

Protecting your privacy

Who you talk to and what you share should be up to you. We’re dedicated to making sure Messenger is a safe, private, and secure place for you to connect with the people who matter. To do this, we’ve built tools that allow you to stay in control, secure your account, and stay safe on the platform.

KEEPING YOUR INFORMATION SAFE

Your messages are your messages.

We want you to know what information we collect and how we use it. We don’t use the content of your messages with other people for ad targeting, which means advertisers can’t target you based on what you say in messages. As with other parts of Facebook, we collect information from Messenger primarily to provide the service, improve the product experience, and keep people safe and secure.

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BUILT WITH SAFETY BY DESIGN

Messenger has tools to help keep you safe and in control of your own experience.

Messenger’s approach to safer private messaging:

Preventing harm
at the source

Preventing harm from happening in the first place is the best way to keep people safe.

Giving you more choice and control

In addition to our efforts to prevent harm, we are giving you more control of your messaging inbox to account for the variety of experiences you want.

Responding
with care

When we become aware of potential abuse on our services, we respond. We do this by enforcing our Community Standards, sharing data with NCMEC and our law enforcement agencies.

HELPING TO KEEP YOU SAFE

Messenger helps to keep you safe online.

That’s why we’re constantly working to stop malicious activity before it reaches you.

Here are the ways we work to protect your safety on Messenger:

HELPING TO KEEP YOU SAFE

Messenger helps to keep you safe online.

That’s why we’re constantly working to stop malicious activity before it reaches you.

Here are the ways we work to protect your safety on Messenger:

Reduce unwanted interactions

We filter potentially harmful messages so they don’t reach your inbox. Safety notices may pop up in your chats to help you spot potential scams or imposters, and we detect and block millions of fake accounts on Facebook every day.

Control who you let in

Messenger continuously innovates to protect you from harm, and tools like multi block help you control your experience. You decide who reaches your Chats list, who goes to your Message Request folder, and who can’t message or call you at all.

Reduce the spread of misinformation

To help reduce the spread of viral misinformation and harmful content, we limit the number of chats a message can be forwarded to at one time. We also have additional protections in place for content that has been identified as misinformation on Facebook and shared directly into Messenger. For more information, see How Facebook Protects Elections.

Foster a safer community

If you come across possible harmful content or behavior, such as harassment or impersonation, please report it. If we see that it violates our Community Standards, we’ll take appropriate action, which could include disabling their account or limiting their ability to send messages.

Enhance safeguards for minors

Keeping minors safe on our platforms is one of our greatest responsibilities. Automatically, we provide enhanced safety features for minors such as limiting who can message them and how they can be found in search, and offer them education and resources. We also use machine learning to detect and disable accounts who are engaging in inappropriate interactions with children.

Review and enforce

Reporting is an essential tool for responding to abuse effectively and preventing further harm. Reports are prioritized based on the severity of harm, which allows us to respond quickly to issues like exploitation or child safety.