FacistBook?

Facebook's New Terms of Service: "We Can Do Anything We Want With Your Content. Forever."

A great way to start off an excellent morning.. reading up on how Facebook is deceiving me. And 175 million others.

This is what happens when people give too much power to one company. A scandal blows over and freaks people out. But I have to say, it is freaky. Facebook says it pretty much owns everything that is uploaded.. so every picture or piece of writing that may have been added to a photo album or note is now their property.

Facebook Terms of Service:
You hereby grant Facebook an irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, transferable, fully paid, worldwide license (with the right to sublicense) to (a) use, copy, publish, stream, store, retain, publicly perform or display, transmit, scan, reformat, modify, edit, frame, translate, excerpt, adapt, create derivative works and distribute (through multiple tiers), any User Content you (i) Post on or in connection with the Facebook Service or the promotion thereof subject only to your privacy settings or (ii) enable a user to Post, including by offering a Share Link on your website and (b) to use your name, likeness and image for any purpose, including commercial or advertising, each of (a) and (b) on or in connection with the Facebook Service or the promotion thereof.

The following sections will survive any termination of your use of the Facebook Service: Prohibited Conduct, User Content, Your Privacy Practices, Gift Credits, Ownership; Proprietary Rights, Licenses, Submissions, User Disputes; Complaints, Indemnity, General Disclaimers, Limitation on Liability, Termination and Changes to the Facebook Service, Arbitration, Governing Law; Venue and Jurisdiction and Other.

To that, Mark Zuckerberg posted on his blog to "trust us".

Then, a Facebook representative released this statement arguing that the users privacy is priority.

"We are not claiming and have never claimed ownership of material that users upload. The new Terms were clarified to be more consistent with the behavior of the site. That is, if you send a message to another user (or post to their wall, etc...), that content might not be removed by Facebook if you delete your account (but can be deleted by your friend). Furthermore, it is important to note that this license is made subject to the user's privacy settings. So any limitations that a user puts on display of the relevant content (e.g. To specific friends) are respected by Facebook. Also, the license only allows us to use the info "in connection with the Facebook Service or the promotion thereof." Users generally expect and understand this behavior as it has been a common practice for web services since the advent of webmail. For example, if you send a message to a friend on a webmail service, that service will not delete that message from your friend's inbox if you delete your account."

The article from The Consumerist gives good insight on the topic of "issues of ownership and rights clearance when it comes to content shared in a social network." So, that makes me think.. what are the boundaries? This debate has caused quite a stir among users and lawyers alike.. I mean, although I have no professional pictures that I've taken or writing that I wanted to publish uploaded onto Facebook, it still feels like I may be.. exposed. Huh, I guess its the best time to start phasing Facebook out now. I'll keep it strictly to keep in touch now that every other form of communication is pretty much obselete compared to Facebook's sphere of influence.

The Consumerist [X].

_edit.

Facebook has now gone back to the old Terms of Service, until they are able to draft a new one that is.
[X].

Any comments, issues, or suggestions can be voiced on Facebook. [X].