Cloud based social networking policy and compliance systems and methods use the “cloud” to pervasively enforce security and policy on websites such as Web 2.0 social networking sites. The cloud based systems and methods provide a cloud based social networking policy enforcement and compliance system that gives enterprises full control and visibility into what their employees are seeing and posting to various websites. In particular, the cloud based systems and methods provide an enterprise to have granular policy-based Web 2.0 control and detailed compliance reports. Unique, customized policies may be applied to groups and/or individuals. Polices may be customized based on application. Data leakage may be avoided by prevention of file uploads and the like. Additionally, the cloud based systems and methods may provide advanced policies requiring administrator approval for user generated content to be posted to Web 2.0 sites.