Facebook’s Terms of Service controversy

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As you may know, Facebook recently altered its Terms of Service, essentially stating that they own all of the content that you (the user) upload to their site.  This includes content that you’ve uploaded but then later removed, and your content after you have chosen to delete your account.  The Terms of Service in other popular social networking and interactive Web 2.0 sites tend to indicate that you still own your content when you upload/post/share in their environment.  Today, Facebook has decided to go back to its original Terms of Service while they wrestle with some of the issues and outcry that have resulted from their intended change.  This reversal is a good thing.  I think we have to remember that Facebook is a private entity intent on making a profit (somehow!) in the months and years to come.  While we all use the site and benefit from the ability to have a virtual representation of ourselves online to connect with others, there may come a time when we must pay a cost for that benefit.  This cost may leave us without full charge of the information we have chosen to share (or have shared) with others – and this might come around to keep us from an opportunity, get us in trouble, or otherwise bring us embarrassment or harm.  Sometimes I think that with all of the privacy settings we modify and adjust for our text content, pictures, and videos (and Facebook has so many settings!), we are lured into a false sense of security related to what we truly control. I would love to hear your thoughts on this, especially if you use Facebook frequently….

2 Comments

  1. This is surprising. I can’t believe that any interactive site is allowed to claim ownership of anything posted on it, what is the need? Yes we should watch what we put online, however ownership? Facebook does have a lot of settings that can lure anyone into a false sense of security…mostly because you cannot just friend a person and put them on “limited profile.” Privacy and security should be one of Facebook’s concerns…right?

  2. This is surprising. I can’t believe that any interactive site is allowed to claim ownership of anything posted on it, what is the need? Yes we should watch what we put online, however ownership? Facebook does have a lot of settings that can lure anyone into a false sense of security…mostly because you cannot just friend a person and put them on “limited profile.” Privacy and security should be one of Facebook’s concerns…right?

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