The Traveler

Media Credit: Lana Hazel April Russell logs on to her Facebook account in the Arkansas Union. Facebook switched back to its original terms of agreement after many user complaints.

Wednesday, users who logged on to Facebook.com were greeted by a message saying that the Web site is temporarily going back to its previous Terms of Use policies.

Feb. 4, the social networking Web site deleted a portion of their Terms of Use page which said once you closed your account in the Facebook network, any rights they claimed to the original content you uploaded would expire.

Consumerist.com drew attention to the controversial changes Sunday in an article called "We Can Do Anything We Want With Your Content. Forever."

This sparked an uproar in the Facebook community by Monday.

Tens of thousands of users joined protest groups on Facebook, saying the changes in terms granted the site the ability to control their information, even after they cancel their accounts, according to the Associated Press.

"I think it's their site, so it's their right," said Zach Ryburn, a biology major. "You just have to be responsible about what you put on there."

Some students' immediate reaction is that it's not fair for the company to have rights to their page.

"I don't want my information to be out there," said Trish Tran, a junior chemical engineering major.

If a person has an account with Facebook, the social networking site does have a right to your information. However, if a person terminates their account, the information should be left alone, said Abby Roeder, a junior international economics and business major.

"If you delete your account, you want it to be private, but I guess you have to follow the rules," Tran said.

Some people worried about the privacy issue because it's common knowledge that many employers look at the Facebook pages of prospective employees now.

MySpace and Twitter, other popular social networking sites, do not claim ownership rights or keep content after an account is deleted, according to the Associated Press.

This week, Facebook posted several blogs in response to complaints by users.

"[Facebook] doesn't claim rights to any of your photos or other content. We need a license in order to help you share information with your friends, but we don't claim to own your information," according to the Facebook blog.

Mark Zuckerberg, creator of Facebook, said many users misunderstood the purpose the deletion.

It was meant as a clarification of the current policy.

When someone sends a message to a friend, there is a copy in their sent messages folder, and there is a copy in their friend's inbox. 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," Zuckerberg said.

The changes made Feb. 4 will be re-implemented, after there is a decision on how to word it properly. A lot of the language in the Terms of Use is confusing and needs to be changed, Zuckerberg said.

The Web site is giving members the opportunity to share thoughts on what the new Terms of Use should be by creating the group "Facebook Bill of Rights and Responsibilities."

"More than 175 million people use Facebook," Zuckerberg said. "If it were a country, it would be the sixth most populated country in the world. Our terms aren't just a document that protects our rights. It's the governing document for how the service is used by everyone across the world."

Another issue that has been brought up by this matter is that Facebook's Terms of Use say it reserves the right to modify those terms at any time without further notice, and by continuing to access Facebook, users are agreeing to the changes.

"If it's in the Terms of Use, I guess it's our fault if we didn't read it," Roeder said.

It's not realistic to expect Facebook users to check the Terms of Use page for changes on a regular basis because it is a very long document, Tran said.

"I don't think most people pay attention to the Terms of Use," she said. "They wouldn't notice any changes unless Facebook gave out notice."

Facebook has the right to put anything they want to in their Terms of Use, Ryburn said.

"This is the Internet," said Fred Cate, an Indiana University School of Law professor and director of the Center for Applied Cybersecurity Research in an Indiana University newspaper. "It's not a place where you want to put things. Think of the Internet like a postcard; anyone can read it."

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