Meta Terms Permit Crawling Business-Linked Websites

Meta’s revised Commercial Terms will allow the company and its agents to crawl websites associated with businesses using Meta products and use collected content to develop, improve, research and train its products. The terms take effect October 30, 2026, and apply beyond businesses that buy advertising, including those using Meta tools to manage pages or other business activity. The new clause authorizes automated software, including web scrapers, bots and crawlers, to collect content from domains, pages and URLs connected to a business’s products or services, or made available through use of Meta products. It also permits Meta to create test credentials to access relevant pages. The terms cover business use of Meta products, including services such as Meta Business Suite. Businesses that do not agree with the revised terms are told to stop using Meta products for business or commercial purposes. The terms do not provide a separate opt-out. Continuing business use after the effective date will be treated under the terms as acceptance. Meta spokesperson Andy Stone said the update is intended to help the company obtain accurate information about products sold on third-party...