Some metadata is benign, and not inherently invasive to individual [privacy](/glossary/privacy/). For example, much of the metadata about webpages---such as publication date---help ensure the most recent articles relevant to a search query appear toward the top of search engine results. On social media, likes can determine a post's popularity, and ensure it appears near the top of a person's newsfeed. (Though even this benign instance of social media metadata can expose personal info.)