Data deletion

Check a deletion request

If you asked Facebook, Instagram or Threads to delete the data CommentGate received about you, Meta gives you a link to this page with a confirmation code. Opening that link shows the status of your request at the top of this page. Codes can be checked for 90 days after the deletion. If your code is not found, or you want a written confirmation, send us the code through the contact form.

You commented on or messaged a brand that uses CommentGate

If you left a comment or reply on a Facebook Page, Instagram account, TikTok account, YouTube channel, Threads profile or ad that a CommentGate customer connected, we may hold a copy of that comment, along with your public name, username, profile identifier and profile picture as the platform showed them.

The same applies if you sent a direct message to a Facebook Page, Instagram account, TikTok account or WhatsApp number that a CommentGate customer connected (for WhatsApp, that includes your phone number). The brand may also have added you to its contact list in CommentGate.

To ask us to delete it:

• Open the contact form and choose "Privacy or data deletion".
• Tell us the platform (Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, TikTok, YouTube or Threads) and your username, phone number or a link to your profile. If you can, name the brand or paste a link to the post or ad.
• Use an email address where we can reach you. We only use it to handle your request.

We will confirm we received your request, delete the matching comments, messages and profile details from every brand that holds them, and tell the brands involved. We finish within 30 days of confirming your request, and within 7 days for YouTube data. Your comment or message on the platform itself is not affected. To remove it there, delete it yourself on the platform (on Facebook and Instagram, the brand can also delete comments).

On YouTube, we clear the text of your comment and your name, handle and picture 30 days after you wrote it anyway, without you having to ask. If the brand disconnects its account or removes CommentGate on the platform, everything we hold from that account is deleted within 7 days.

You connected Facebook or Instagram and want to remove CommentGate

You can remove CommentGate from your Facebook account at any time:

• On Facebook, go to Settings and privacy, then Settings, then Business integrations (on some accounts this is called Apps and websites).
• Find CommentGate and choose Remove.
• Facebook tells us you removed it, and we start deleting.

When that happens, we immediately delete the access tokens for your Facebook login and stop reading comments and messages from the Pages and Instagram accounts it connected. Within 7 days, we delete everything we received through it: comments, replies, direct messages, contacts, posts, ad details, account details, and product catalogs read through your login.

You can also ask Meta to delete the data CommentGate received about you. Meta tells us with an identifier that is specific to CommentGate, and gives you a confirmation code. Keep it to check the status on this page. We delete your connection, and every comment, conversation, message and contact entry we hold that we can match to that identifier: directly, or because a brand's conversation with you was linked to one of your comments (for example, when the brand answered your comment privately).

Facebook and Instagram give each Page and each Instagram account a different identifier for the same person in its messages, so a direct message conversation that was never linked to one of your comments cannot be matched to Meta's request. To have those deleted too, follow the steps under You commented on or messaged a brand and name the brand. Everything a brand holds is also deleted within 7 days when it disconnects the account.

If a colleague connected the same Page with their own Facebook login, that connection stays until they remove it too, or until a brand admin disconnects the Page in CommentGate.

You connected WhatsApp and want to remove CommentGate

In CommentGate, go to Accounts, choose the WhatsApp number, then Disconnect. We remove our app from the account's webhooks, delete the access token at once, and delete the number's conversations, messages and contacts within 7 days.

Meta keeps its own records of messages you sent through the WhatsApp Business Platform; deleting our copy does not change them.

You connected TikTok and want to remove CommentGate

In CommentGate, go to Accounts, choose the TikTok account or ad account, then Disconnect. Access stops at once and everything we hold for it (comments, direct messages, conversations, contacts, video and ad details) is deleted within 7 days.

You can also revoke access in the TikTok app, under Settings and privacy, then Security, then Manage app permissions. TikTok refuses our next request, usually within an hour, and we ask your team to reconnect. If nobody reconnects within 4 days, we treat it as a disconnect and delete the data, still within 7 days of the removal.

You connected a YouTube channel and want to remove CommentGate

You can end CommentGate's access to your channel in either of two ways:

• In CommentGate: go to Accounts, choose the channel, then Disconnect. We revoke our access with Google at that moment, stop checking the channel, and erase the stored access.
• In your Google account: open the Google security settings page, find CommentGate and remove its access. We stop reading the channel as soon as Google refuses our next request, usually within an hour, and ask your team to reconnect. If nobody reconnects within 4 days, we treat it as a disconnect.

Either way, everything we hold for the channel is deleted within 7 days: comments and replies, commenter names and pictures, video titles and thumbnails, our decisions and the replies you sent. Deleting the data CommentGate stores does not affect any data stored by YouTube.

While the channel stays connected, comment text and commenter names, handles and pictures are cleared 30 days after each comment was written, and video titles and thumbnails are read again or cleared within 30 days.

Comments that CommentGate held for review stay held on YouTube until you publish them again in YouTube Studio.

You connected Threads and want to remove CommentGate

You can remove CommentGate from your Threads profile at any time:

• In the Threads app, go to Settings, then Account, then Website permissions.
• Find CommentGate and remove it.
• Threads tells us you removed it, and we erase the access for that profile and stop reading its replies. Within 7 days, we delete everything we hold for the profile: replies, posts and profile details.

If you instead ask Meta to delete your data, Meta tells us, and we delete your Threads connection and the replies you wrote that we hold. You receive a confirmation code. Keep it to check the status on this page.

Replies to Threads ads come through the Facebook login that manages the ad account, so removing CommentGate from Facebook (above) covers them.

You are a CommentGate customer

You can delete data yourself, at any time, without contacting us:

• To stop moderating an account and delete its data: in CommentGate, go to Accounts, choose the account, then Disconnect. Its access tokens are deleted immediately, and within 7 days everything we hold for it: comments, replies, direct messages, contacts, posts, ad details and the account itself. Only the comment counts on your bills stay.
• To delete everything in a brand: go to Settings, then Brand, then Delete brand. All accounts, comments, messages, contacts, catalogs, rules, replies and settings in it are deleted right away, and its plan is canceled.
• To delete your own user account: go to Settings, then Profile, then Delete account. If you are the only owner of a brand others still use, transfer or delete it first.
• To remove a product catalog: go to Settings, Integrations, and remove it. Its products are deleted at once.
• Removing CommentGate on any platform (Facebook, Instagram, Threads, YouTube or TikTok) deletes the account's data within 7 days of the removal, the same as disconnecting.
• If a trial ends without a plan, or a plan is canceled and its paid period ends, moderation pauses. 30 days later we delete the brand's comments, messages, conversations, contacts and connected accounts. Its settings, rules, tags, catalogs and billing records stay, so you can come back to it, until you delete the brand.

Billing records we are required to keep by accounting law are kept for as long as the law requires, and deleted after that.

What deletion covers

When we delete data, it is removed from our live systems and can no longer be seen by anyone at CommentGate or in any customer brand. Encrypted backups roll over, so the data disappears from them within a further 35 days.

Deleting data in CommentGate does not delete anything on Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, TikTok, YouTube or Threads. Comments that CommentGate hid stay hidden (on YouTube, held for review) until someone unhides them on the platform.

If we ever cannot delete something, for example an invoice we must keep by law, we tell you what we kept and why.

Read the privacy policy for everything we collect and how long we keep it.

Questions

Data deletion requests are handled by CROapps Oy, Pohjoinen Rautatiekatu 29B, 00100 Helsinki, Finland. Use the contact form and choose "Privacy or data deletion". A person reads every request.