The Facebook Blog

We launched our new Payments Terms today to govern the purchases you make on Facebook, following a three-day period for notice and comment. We'd like to thank all of you who participated with comments last week.

We read through all of your feedback, and the response to the new terms was overwhelmingly positive. In this case, the Payments Terms did not require a vote because of the limited number of concerns raised in comments.

A few common questions were raised during the commenting period, and we want to address them so people understand the new... Payments Terms:

Does this mean Facebook is no longer free?
Absolutely not. Facebook is a free service, and we have no plans to change that.

Payments are used on the site for purchasing credits to give gifts from the Facebook Gift Shop and for advertisers who buy ads through our online system.

Why does Facebook need to store my credit card information and transactional data?
We store this data in order to make the purchasing of credits or advertising more convenient for you. We also keep this data for reference purposes in case there is an issue with your transaction and we need to retrieve that data to address the issue.

Why would Facebook need to pull my credit report?
That section of the Payments Terms is intended to apply to advertisers and developers, not to users in general.

The entire Payments Terms are available here in five different languages, and you can read the Explanation Documents we have posted to learn even more about why we included certain terms. Also, please become a fan of the Facebook Site Governance Page to receive ongoing updates on your home page about future proposed changes to our site governance documents.


Teddy, an associate in Facebook's legal department, looks forward to spending credits on gifts for his friends.

Today, we're posting a draft of our proposed Payments Terms to better explain how financial transactions will take place. Facebook is and will continue to be a free service. These payments terms only govern any purchases you may make on the site.

The new payments terms will replace the existing Terms of Sale and the payments-related sections of the Online Advertising Terms and Conditions. We are using the same notice-and-comment process we debuted a few weeks ago for the Facebook Principles and the Statement of Rights and Responsibilities. You... can comment on the proposed payments terms during a three-day period that begins at 1:00 p.m. PDT today.

We drafted new terms in order to simplify all of our payments-related terms by bringing them together in one place and to give us the flexibility to try new features. Currently, payments are available for all users in two ways on the site. One is through the Facebook Gift Shop, where you can purchase credits to buy gifts for your friends. The second is to purchase advertising through the online Facebook Ads system. You also may see credits appear in other ways on the site.

Be sure to check out the Facebook Site Governance Page to read the latest version of the full drafts as well as a summary of many of the changes. Those documents are available in Spanish, French, Italian and German and will be posted and open for comments until 12:59 p.m. PDT on Saturday, May 30. To stay updated on this and future proposed changes to our site terms and governance, become a fan of the Site Governance Page.


Joe is Facebook's lead counsel for product.