"We don't sell data; we don't allow anyone to sell data"

A categorical denial of “selling data” draws a sharp line between transferring raw user information as a commodity and monetizing it indirectly. The distinction matters: platforms that run on targeted advertising often claim to keep data in-house while selling access to attention. Advertisers do not receive spreadsheets of personal details; they bid to reach defined audiences, and the platform executes the delivery. The money changes hands for placement and targeting capability, not ownership of the dataset.

That framing emphasizes custody and control. By retaining data internally, a company can argue it reduces the risk of uncontrolled dissemination and maintains accountability over how information is used. It also signals a policy stance toward partners and developers: data should not be extracted and resold down the chain.

Yet the reassurance turns on semantics and enforcement. “Selling” can be narrowly defined, while adjacent practices, sharing, licensing, integrating with partners, granting API access, or enabling lookalike modeling, can produce similar outcomes: value is extracted from personal information without a direct sale. Users may experience little practical difference between a dataset being sold and their attributes being continuously leveraged to influence what they see, even if no record leaves the platform.

Trust hinges on operational safeguards more than on categorical statements. Do contracts with third parties prohibit secondary use and include audits? Are access logs monitored, and are violators penalized? Is data collection minimized and retention limited? Are users given clear, granular controls and meaningful opt-outs from profiling? High-profile lapses have shown that even without an explicit “sale,” data can leak or be misused, eroding public confidence.

Regulators also probe these distinctions. Legal definitions of “sale” increasingly encompass exchanges of data for value, not just cash-for-files transactions. Ultimately, the promise not to sell data is less a finish line than a baseline. The substantive questions are how data is collected, how targeting logic is constrained, who gets access under what terms, and whether oversight mechanisms match the power of the system that data fuels.