Behind the scores
Same score. Completely different story.
Facebook and TikTok both score 12/20, Developing. Here is exactly how each one was scored and the specific evidence behind every number.
Score summary
The numbers at a glance.
Same score. The shapes could not be more different.
The key insight
Facebook tells you everything, then makes it impossible to act on.
Facebook scores 4 on both Transparency and Clarity: the policy is easy to find and genuinely readable. It scores 1 on both Consent and Control. The information is there but the power is not.
TikTok is the mirror image. It scores 0 on Consent, the only brand in our dataset to receive a zero on any dimension. No notice, no banner, no opt-out. But it scores 4 on Control: account deletion is easier on TikTok than on any other brand we have scored.
Consent measures the gate, what happens before data is collected. Control measures the lever, what happens after. Facebook locks the lever. TikTok removes the gate entirely.
Both score 12, but neither is designed around the user.
Transparency
How many clicks to find the privacy policy from the homepage?
Privacy Policy is linked directly in the homepage footer, one click from the homepage. Opens as a well-structured navigable web page with section navigation, an effective date, and plain-language highlight summaries throughout. Not a PDF.
Facebook has invested seriously in making its policy accessible and findable. This is the ceiling score, and it makes the Consent and Control scores harder to dismiss as oversight.
Consent
Does the site give you a meaningful choice about cookies and tracking before data is collected?
No cookie banner appears on first load. No guest-accessible opt-out exists on the homepage. The “Ad choices” link in the footer leads to a Help Centre article requiring login and a seven-step process to reach ad preferences. Browser cookie controls are the only option offered to logged-out visitors, which is deflection, not consent.
Facebook offers no meaningful gate. The contrast with its Transparency score of 4 is the defining finding: the policy is easy to find and clearly written, but the choice about whether to be tracked is never offered.
Clarity
What reading grade level does the privacy policy score on Hemingway Editor?
Grade 9 on Hemingway Editor, high school level. The highest Clarity score observed across all brands scored so far. Facebook has invested in making an extremely long policy genuinely readable, including section highlights and plain-language summaries throughout.
Control
How many clicks to reach data settings, and can you delete your account yourself?
Account deletion requires six clicks: profile picture, Settings & Privacy, Settings, Accounts Centre, Manage accounts, Manage, Deactivation or deletion. Self-serve deletion exists but is buried deep within a convoluted multi-layered settings architecture.
Facebook tells you everything clearly, then makes it as hard as possible to do anything about it. The policy scores 4 on Transparency and 4 on Clarity. The controls score 1.
Empathy
Find the support page. How many clicks, and is there a way to speak to a human?
Help Centre accessible in one click from the homepage footer. No human contact available at any point: no phone, no chat, no email. When asked directly in the chatbot for human support, the response confirmed that no human agent exists.
Overall finding
Facebook presents a striking split. It scores at the ceiling on Transparency and Clarity, as the policy is easy to find and genuinely readable. It scores at the floor on Consent and Control. The gap between information quality and actual user control is the defining finding. Facebook tells you everything clearly, then makes it as hard as possible to do anything about it.
TikTok
12/20 DevelopingTransparency
How many clicks to find the privacy policy from the homepage?
Privacy Policy accessible in two clicks via “Terms & Policies” in the persistent left sidebar. Opens as a navigable web page with section navigation, a last updated date, and the Canadian version automatically displayed. No traditional footer exists due to infinite scroll content; the sidebar serves this function persistently.
Consent
Does the site give you a meaningful choice about cookies and tracking before data is collected?
No consent mechanism exists for a first-time visitor. TikTok serves content immediately on first load with no cookie banner, no consent notice, and no opt-out mechanism anywhere observable. Data is collected without any notice to the visitor.
TikTok is the only brand in our dataset to receive a score of 0 on any dimension. The gate does not exist. This is not a dark pattern, it is the absence of a pattern entirely.
Clarity
What reading grade level does the privacy policy score on Hemingway Editor?
Grade 12 on Hemingway Editor, senior high school level. The policy opens as a navigable web page with clear section navigation. Readable without being exceptional.
Control
How many clicks to reach data settings, and can you delete your account yourself?
Account deletion visible immediately on the first settings screen, accessible in two to three clicks: profile, settings, delete account. Privacy controls also visible on the same screen. The most accessible account deletion path observed across all brands scored so far.
TikTok scores 0 on Consent and 4 on Control. It collects data without asking, then makes it easier to delete your account than almost any other brand we have scored so far. That contradiction is the defining finding of this comparison.
Empathy
Find the support page. How many clicks, and is there a way to speak to a human?
Help accessible in two clicks via the sidebar: Terms & Policies, then Help. Opens a standard FAQ and topic-based support page. No human contact available: no phone, no email, no live chat.
Overall finding
TikTok is the most contradictory brand scored so far. It scores at the ceiling on Control, as account deletion is easier to find than on any other brand scored, while scoring at the floor on Consent with no tracking notice whatsoever for a first-time visitor. It invests in making controls easy to use once you are inside the platform, but collects data from visitors before they have agreed to anything.
Apple
12/20 DevelopingTransparency
How many clicks to find the privacy policy from the homepage?
The privacy policy takes three clicks from the homepage. Not buried, but not immediate.
A mid-range score for a brand that leads with privacy in almost every product launch.
Consent
Does the site give you a meaningful choice about cookies and tracking before data is collected?
No cookie banner appears. Not in Canada, and not even in Germany, one of the strictest GDPR jurisdictions in the EU. At first glance that looks like a 4: a brand so committed to privacy it has engineered away the need to ask. But Apple’s own cookie policy states clearly that the site uses cookies to understand how visitors interact with it and to assess the effectiveness of advertisements.
That is non-essential tracking, the kind that typically requires consent under privacy law. There is no visible explanation for why there is no banner, and no proactive communication about what is or is not being collected. To find out, you would need to read the buried cookie policy and reach your own conclusion.
Clarity
What reading grade level does the privacy policy score on Hemingway Editor?
Grade 12 on Hemingway Editor, senior high school level. Not plain language, but noticeably more accessible than most.
This is the dimension where Apple exceeds expectations.
Control
How many clicks to reach data settings, and can you delete your account yourself?
The Data and Privacy tools are genuinely impressive: download your data, delete your account, request corrections, and transfer your data, all available in over 240 countries. But every one of those tools requires you to sign in to your Apple Account.
Login-gated controls where no guest alternative exists cap at a 2, regardless of how good the tools are behind the login.
Empathy
Find the support page. How many clicks, and is there a way to speak to a human?
Human contact is accessible in three clicks via Apple Support. The tone is considered and it reads like someone thought about the person receiving it.
Overall finding
The tools are real, the design is thoughtful, and the intention appears genuine. But Apple’s entire identity is built on privacy, and it leaves its own visitors without a clear answer about what is being collected before they even click anything. Scored on apple.com/ca.
Method
How we scored these brands
All three brands were scored using the Data Human Index, a five-dimension framework that measures only what any visitor can observe from the outside. No inside access, no proprietary tools, no assumptions about what happens on the server.
Each brand was scored in a private browser window to ensure cookie banners appeared as they would for a first-time visitor. Control dimensions were scored while logged in to a standard user account. All observations were recorded in April 2026 and reflect the Canadian version of each site.
The Index does not measure server-side data practices, internal infrastructure, regulatory compliance, or what brands do with data once collected. It measures the human experience of data: what a real person encounters when they try to understand, consent to, or control their data with a brand.