Social media has become essential for business. It's where customers are, where brand awareness happens, and often where the first interaction with a potential customer occurs. But along with the opportunities come significant privacy considerations that many businesses overlook.
When you add a Facebook pixel to your website, create a custom audience for advertising, or embed an Instagram feed on your homepage, you're participating in data flows that have real privacy implications—for your customers and for your business.
Understanding Social Media Data Collection
What Social Platforms Collect Through You
When you install a Facebook pixel or similar tracking code on your website, you're enabling the social platform to collect data about your visitors. This typically includes:
- Pages viewed and actions taken
- Products viewed and purchases made
- Form submissions and button clicks
- Time spent on pages
- Device and browser information
This data feeds the platform's advertising ecosystem, enabling remarketing, lookalike audiences, and conversion tracking. It's powerful for marketing—but it means visitor data is being shared with third parties.
What Embedded Content Collects
Even without tracking pixels, embedded social content (like tweet embeds, Facebook comments, or YouTube videos) involves data collection. When these elements load, they connect to the social platform's servers, which can set cookies and track users across the web.
A visitor doesn't have to interact with the embedded content—just loading the page that contains it can trigger data collection.
Social Login Data Sharing
When you offer "Login with Facebook" or "Sign in with Google," you receive profile data from the social platform. What data depends on what permissions you request—basic profile, email, friends list, birthday, and more are all possible.
This simplifies registration for users but creates data sharing you must disclose in your privacy policy.
Privacy Policy Implications
Your use of social media tracking and integration creates privacy disclosure requirements:
Third-Party Disclosure
Your privacy policy must disclose that you share data with social media platforms. This includes:
- That social media tracking is present on your site
- What types of data are collected
- The purposes (advertising, remarketing, analytics)
- Links to the social platforms' own privacy policies
CCPA "Sale" Considerations
Under CCPA, sharing data with advertising platforms in exchange for advertising services may constitute a "sale" of personal information. If so, you need to offer California residents the ability to opt out via a "Do Not Sell My Personal Information" link.
The interpretation of whether tracking pixels constitute "sales" has evolved. Many businesses err on the side of treating advertising data sharing as a sale and providing opt-out mechanisms.
GDPR Consent Requirements
Under GDPR, placing advertising cookies—including social media tracking pixels—generally requires prior consent. This is why cookie consent banners have become ubiquitous, and why social media pixels should only fire after consent is obtained.
Advertising Practices and Privacy
Custom Audiences
Social platforms let you upload customer lists to create "custom audiences" for targeted advertising. You upload email addresses or phone numbers, the platform matches them to user accounts, and you can then target ads to those users.
This involves sharing personal data with the social platform. Your privacy policy should disclose this practice. Some interpretations suggest you need consent before uploading customer data for advertising purposes.
Lookalike Audiences
Lookalike audiences extend your reach to users similar to your existing customers. They rely on the platform's analysis of your customer data to identify similar users.
The privacy implications are similar to custom audiences—you're sharing customer data with the platform for advertising purposes.
Remarketing
Remarketing (showing ads to people who visited your website) relies on tracking users across sites. Under GDPR, this requires consent. Under CCPA, it may require a "do not sell" opt-out. At minimum, it requires disclosure in your privacy policy.
Consent and Opt-Out Mechanisms
Cookie Consent
Social media pixels should be controlled by your cookie consent mechanism. Users who decline advertising cookies shouldn't have Facebook pixels or similar tracking fire on their browsers.
This requires technical implementation—your tag manager or consent management platform needs to conditionally load these scripts based on consent status.
Platform Opt-Outs
Social platforms provide their own opt-out mechanisms. Facebook's Ad Preferences, Google's Ad Settings, and similar tools let users control how they're tracked. Link to these in your privacy policy so users know their options.
Global Privacy Controls
California law requires honoring Global Privacy Control (GPC) browser signals as opt-out requests. If you receive a GPC signal, you should treat it as a "do not sell" request and disable advertising data sharing for that user.
Social Media Content Policies
User-Generated Content
If users can post to your social accounts or share content that appears on your site, your terms of service should address content ownership and acceptable use. What license do you take to content people share? What content isn't allowed?
Employee Social Media
Many businesses have social media policies governing employee use—both on official business accounts and personal accounts when they're identifiable as employees.
These policies often address confidentiality, how to respond to customer complaints, disclosure requirements for sponsored content, and distinguishing personal opinions from company positions.
Influencer Disclosure
If you pay influencers to promote your products, FTC guidelines require clear disclosure of the relationship. "Sponsored," "Ad," or "Paid partnership" tags are now standard on sponsored content. Failing to disclose can result in FTC enforcement against both the brand and the influencer.
Platform Terms Compliance
Each social platform has terms of service and advertising policies you must follow. Common requirements include:
Data use restrictions: Platforms limit how you can use data obtained through their APIs and advertising tools. For example, you typically can't use Facebook data to enrich your own customer database for purposes beyond Facebook advertising.
Privacy policy requirements: Many platforms require you to have a privacy policy that meets certain standards and discloses your use of their tools.
Content restrictions: Platforms restrict what types of content can be advertised and how ads can target sensitive categories.
Data handling: If you access platform APIs, terms typically require specific data security measures and restrictions on data sharing and retention.
Emerging Privacy Challenges
Apple's App Tracking Transparency
Apple's ATT framework requires apps to request permission before tracking users across other apps and websites. When users opt out (and many do), social media advertising data becomes less reliable.
This has already impacted advertising effectiveness on platforms like Facebook. Businesses are adapting with first-party data strategies and alternative attribution approaches.
Third-Party Cookie Deprecation
While repeatedly delayed, the eventual deprecation of third-party cookies in Chrome will affect how social media tracking works. Platforms are developing alternatives, but the traditional pixel-based tracking model will change.
Regulatory Trends
European regulators have been particularly aggressive about social media tracking. The Austrian and French data protection authorities issued decisions finding Google Analytics transfers to the US problematic. Similar scrutiny applies to Facebook and other social platforms.
Some EU-based businesses have reduced or eliminated social media tracking in response to regulatory uncertainty. Others are awaiting clearer guidance while implementing technical safeguards.
Best Practices for Business Social Media
- Audit your tracking: Know exactly what social media pixels and integrations are running on your website.
- Update your privacy policy: Disclose all social media data sharing clearly.
- Implement consent management: Ensure tracking only fires after appropriate consent is obtained.
- Provide opt-outs: Offer mechanisms for users to opt out of advertising data sharing.
- Review platform terms: Ensure your use of social platform data complies with their policies.
- Document your practices: Maintain records of how you handle social media data, especially for advertising purposes.
- Train your team: Ensure people managing social accounts understand privacy implications of their activities.
Social media privacy is an area of active change. What worked last year might not be compliant next year. Stay informed about platform changes, regulatory developments, and evolving best practices.