Meta will no longer allow the sharing of ‘publicly available’ private home addresses

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

The Facebook parent company announced that Meta is following the recommendation of the Oversight Board to remove the exception that allowed users to share a person's residential address.

About a year ago, the company asked the Oversight Board to weigh in on its handling of private residential information. In February, the Board called on Meta to tighten its policies regarding sharing private home addresses.

Meta-owned platforms do not take action against posts containing publicly available addresses, even though they have rules in place to bar users from sharing someone's home address. Meta says it will end this exception by the end of the year.

Private residential information may be limited when it is still publicly available elsewhere, as the board notes in the recommendation.

Meta is changing its response to posts with photos of the outside of private homes. If the property depicted is the focus of a news story, the company won't take action. Meta won't follow the Board's recommendation to let other users reshare their addresses because it's difficult to know whether they're true.

Meta didn't fully commit to implementing tools that make it easier for users to report a privacy violation. It is assessing the feasibility of the Board's recommendation to simplify the process of requesting the removal of private information. The company is testing a way to make the reporting option easier to find. Instead of clicking through two menus and searching for a specific option, Meta says it will test making the option more probable.

The Board suggested that a specific channel be created to handle reports of doxxing as well. Meta replied by saying that it is actively building new channels for users to get support, and that it already partners with over 850 organizations that victims can contact to get help.

Meta's planned policy changes, particularly its decision to close off the residential address exception, should add an additional layer of protection for victims of doxxing. The act of revealing a person's name, phone number, email address, or home address online is called doxxing. This is the first time Meta has responded to the policy advisory opinion.

The Oversight Board has a diverse group of members who provide external guidance on Meta's moderation decisions and policies. Meta must respond to each of the recommendations made by the Oversight Board.