The Clarion Content has long been suspicious of Facebook and other social networking services. Obviously, they have a profit motive to track information about their users. Facebook's Beacon was the most blatant attempt to cash on this data we have seen to date. They caught hell about it and revised their policy slightly, but continued to collect data in the same manner. They seem more impervious to criticism about their methods than most other social networks. A reported 175 million users will make a company cocky.
This month they revised their Terms of Service User Agreement to give themselves the right to data about their users and their content in perpetuity. According to the New York Times, Facebook changed its service agreement thusly, "it deleted a provision that said users could remove their content at any time, at which time the license would expire. Further, it added new language that said Facebook would retain users’ content and licenses after an account was terminated." They quoted the blog The Consumerist describing the new terms as meaning, "anything you upload to Facebook can be used by Facebook in any way they deem fit, forever, no matter what you do later."
Wow. Sounds a little invasive and Orwellian. Facebooks's CEO has indicated the language will not be changed.
From the Facebook Terms of Service User Agreement, which hopefully you read in full before signing up...
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.
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Facebook did a partial backdown this morning, eliminating the provision in its Terms of Service (TOS) agreement saying it owns your content in perpetuity. However, their CEO insisted that they are going to change their TOS soon after soliciting "community input."
And they did not change the TOS paragraph quoted in the original post, they merely reverted to a position that says they don't own your content after you quit Facebook. While you are a member, the original terms still apply.
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