Facebook, we meet again
The Internet (Abridged)
Clint Fullen
Issue date: 2/18/09 Section: Opinion
Two weeks ago, Facebook became 5 years old. For its birthday, the Web site has given itself the eternal rights to all users' content, even if a user deletes his or her account.
On Feb. 4, the social networking site revised its Terms of Use once again, and not surprisingly, the online contract now provides the company even more rights to users' personal information.
Facebook's previous Terms of Use declared the right "to use, copy, publicly perform, publicly display, reformat, translate, excerpt (in whole or in part) and distribute" any content posted. From there, the company could use these materials "for any purpose, commercial, advertising or otherwise, on or in connection with the site."
But before the changes were made, the Terms of Use stated that once the content was removed from the site, the licenses to this information would "automatically expire."
Now, the company no longer offers this clause.
Facebook owns the right to all information posted, old and new.
The New York Times reported that these changes to the Terms of Use went unnoticed until Sunday, when the blog "The Consumerist" cited them.
With more than 430,000 views, "The Consumerist" states that "anything you upload to Facebook can be used by Facebook in any way they deem fit, forever, no matter what you do later."
To counter negative feedback, Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook, issued a responding blog. Zuckerberg said that when "a person shares information on Facebook, they first need to grant Facebook a license to use that information."
This, however, would only be a valid argument if the corporation did not already hold licenses to all of the content.
Not only that, but Facebook already had the right to sell, market and manipulate users' information.
Zuckerberg claims the changes to the Terms of Use were made for Facebook's messaging service.
"When a person shares something like a message with a friend, two copies of that information are created - one in the person's sent messages box and the other in their friend's inbox," he said in his blog. "Even if the person deactivates their account, their friend still has a copy of that message. One of the reasons we updated our terms was to make this more clear."
The contract is not clear enough, though. If Facebook's sole interest was to secure the rights to sent messages, then the Terms of Use should be more descriptive. As it stands, the company has granted itself the undying rights to all content, whether it be messages, personal photos or home videos.
If Facebook were a child, it certainly would be a very greedy little 5-year-old because the site already has an insatiable hunger for everyone's stuff.
"Over time, we will continue to clarify our positions and make the terms simpler," Zuckerberg said.
The time for clarification is now.
Clint Fullen is a columnist for The Arkansas Traveler. His column appears every other Wednesday.
On Feb. 4, the social networking site revised its Terms of Use once again, and not surprisingly, the online contract now provides the company even more rights to users' personal information.
Facebook's previous Terms of Use declared the right "to use, copy, publicly perform, publicly display, reformat, translate, excerpt (in whole or in part) and distribute" any content posted. From there, the company could use these materials "for any purpose, commercial, advertising or otherwise, on or in connection with the site."
But before the changes were made, the Terms of Use stated that once the content was removed from the site, the licenses to this information would "automatically expire."
Now, the company no longer offers this clause.
Facebook owns the right to all information posted, old and new.
The New York Times reported that these changes to the Terms of Use went unnoticed until Sunday, when the blog "The Consumerist" cited them.
With more than 430,000 views, "The Consumerist" states that "anything you upload to Facebook can be used by Facebook in any way they deem fit, forever, no matter what you do later."
To counter negative feedback, Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook, issued a responding blog. Zuckerberg said that when "a person shares information on Facebook, they first need to grant Facebook a license to use that information."
This, however, would only be a valid argument if the corporation did not already hold licenses to all of the content.
Not only that, but Facebook already had the right to sell, market and manipulate users' information.
Zuckerberg claims the changes to the Terms of Use were made for Facebook's messaging service.
"When a person shares something like a message with a friend, two copies of that information are created - one in the person's sent messages box and the other in their friend's inbox," he said in his blog. "Even if the person deactivates their account, their friend still has a copy of that message. One of the reasons we updated our terms was to make this more clear."
The contract is not clear enough, though. If Facebook's sole interest was to secure the rights to sent messages, then the Terms of Use should be more descriptive. As it stands, the company has granted itself the undying rights to all content, whether it be messages, personal photos or home videos.
If Facebook were a child, it certainly would be a very greedy little 5-year-old because the site already has an insatiable hunger for everyone's stuff.
"Over time, we will continue to clarify our positions and make the terms simpler," Zuckerberg said.
The time for clarification is now.
Clint Fullen is a columnist for The Arkansas Traveler. His column appears every other Wednesday.
Viewing Comments 1 - 1 of 1
spartacus007
Adam
posted 2/18/09 @ 6:36 AM CST
Looks like the op-ed already worked -- Facebook put that part of the TOS back in this morning and is re-assuring people that they aren't suddenly going to turn evil and start abusing their power. (Continued…)
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