Facebook is one of the most popular social media platforms in the world, with over 2.9 billion monthly active users as of the third quarter of 2021. However, despite its widespread use, many users still have questions about how to best utilize Facebook’s privacy settings.
One common question is: Why can’t I lock my Facebook profile in the USA? There are a few key reasons why the ability to fully lock down a Facebook profile is not available to users in the United States.
Facebook’s Privacy Policy
Facebook’s privacy policy and terms of service allow the company to collect and use data from user profiles in order to serve targeted advertising, make product improvements, conduct research, and more. Allowing users to fully lock down their profiles would inhibit Facebook’s ability to leverage user data in these ways that are core to its business model. Here is an excerpt from Facebook’s Data Policy that is relevant:
“We collect information about the people, Pages, accounts, hashtags, and groups you are connected to and how you interact with them across our Products, such as people you communicate with the most or groups you are part of. We also collect contact information if you choose to upload, sync, or import it from a device (such as an address book or call log or SMS log history), which we use for things like helping you and others find people you may know.”
Enabling users to lock profile information like their friends, interests, photos and other data points would directly limit Facebook’s ability to collect this type of information outlined in its policies.
Advertising Relevance
Facebook relies heavily on advertising revenue, with ads making up nearly all of the company’s profits. Being able to leverage user data makes Facebook ads more relevant, effective, and valuable for advertisers. Allowing users to lock down their information would decrease Facebook’s ability to target ads and prove their effectiveness to advertisers.
Here are some statistics on Facebook’s advertising revenue:
- In 2021, Facebook generated $117 billion in ad revenue globally, representing nearly 97% of the company’s total revenue.
- Facebook reported over 12 million advertisers using its platforms as of Q3 2021.
- The company credits its ad targeting capabilities as a key value proposition for businesses advertising on its platform.
With ad relevance being so critical to Facebook’s business, any product change that degrades targeting data risks hurting an important revenue stream.
User Engagement
Facebook also relies on collecting user data and enabling visibility into profiles in order to boost engagement on its platform. Features like friend recommendations, event suggestions, Pages to follow, and more utilize information about a user’s connections and interests to encourage participation. Locking down profiles would limit Facebook’s ability to leverage data to drive participation and activity.
Higher user engagement is valuable to Facebook in a few key ways:
- Drives more ad impressions and revenue.
- Provides more data points for ad targeting and analytics.
- Attracts more users onto Facebook platforms.
Facebook reported 1.93 billion daily active users on average in September 2022. While the company likely could sustain the platform without full data access, decreased engagement from limiting data use could present a risk to key growth metrics like this.
Legal Obligations
Facebook has certain legal obligations that require access to user profile data. For example, Facebook must be able to review content posted by users in order to remove prohibited material like hate speech, threats of violence, and more. Locked down profiles would potentially limit Facebook’s ability to fulfill its legal duties in regulating its platform. Here are some examples of laws that impose requirements on Facebook’s content moderation:
- Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act – Shields platforms like Facebook from liability for user-generated content, but requires removing illegal material once notified.
- First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution – Protects free speech but not dangerous or unlawful content.
- Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) – Requires responding to reports of copyright infringement by users.
Additionally, legal authorities sometimes request information from Facebook user profiles for investigative purposes. Locking profiles could hinder compliance with applicable warrants, court orders, and more that facilitate law enforcement activities.
Product Cohesion
Facebook also likely wants to maintain cohesion in its product experience across the global platform, rather than creating exceptions and restrictions that only apply to certain users or regions. Allowing users in the United States to lock profiles but not those in other countries could create a fragmented experience that complicates product development.
Facebook had this to say in response to questions about whether users can lock their profiles:
“We apply the same standards to people regardless of their nationality, race, ethnicity, etc so we allow the same profile settings for everyone on Facebook around the world in all countries.”
Rather than limiting options for some users, Facebook has focused on expanding privacy controls broadly across all users globally. For example, the company has introduced features like:
- Activity log for managing your Facebook data
- Clear history tool to delete tracking info from your account
- Access controls for ad topics used for targeting
While users may not have the ability to fully lock down profiles, Facebook has added more granular controls to help all users manage their privacy.
User Expectations
Finally, allowing users to lock their Facebook profiles could set unrealistic expectations about how much control individuals have over information they post online. Many users share content widely on Facebook without considering privacy trade-offs. Giving people the impression they can share freely while locking that information from Facebook itself sets up odd incentives.
Rather than promising full control, Facebook focuses its privacy messaging on being transparent about how data is used and giving individuals access to manage that use. The company exposes data practices directly in the user interface via:
- “Why am I seeing this?” explanations on posts.
- “Off-Facebook activity” information in settings.
- Notifications when downloaded info is used for ad targeting.
Facebook believes educating users on how their info is leveraged provides a healthier perspective than implying posts are walled off from the platform itself.
Conclusion
In summary, Facebook does not allow users in the United States to fully lock down their profiles due to its business model, legal obligations, product cohesion, and user expectations. The platform relies extensively on collecting data to drive advertising, engagement, and product improvement. While increased privacy controls give individuals more granular management over how their information is used, enabling users to lock profile access entirely would undermine Facebook’s core revenue streams and content governance abilities.
Rather than walling data off from the platform itself, Facebook’s approach focuses on transparency, education, and thoughtful controls that empower users. The company has added options for managing ad topics, downloading information, clearing history logs, and more based on this philosophy. And it has calibrated the same privacy settings across its global userbase rather than limiting options unevenly.
As online privacy continues to be an evolving conversation between users, technology companies, and regulators, Facebook will likely continue expanding its privacy controls while resisting calls for more sweeping restrictions that would upend its established data practices.