Sunday, February 15, 2009

[ToS] Terms of Service

Apparently, judging by my recent blog post I'm fascinated by the social implications of Facebook, this post doesn't stray from this fact...

Acquiring some inspiration from my previous post I have read article upon article revolving around Facebook's ToS changes. Not that any of you remember this but when you first subscribed to Facebook, you agreed to a ToS which was 'subject to change at anytime', and well that change has come.

By clicking agree to these terms you agreed that Facebook can change its service at anytime with no warning to the people that use it. Facebook's old ToS used to feature a line which read..

"You may remove your User Content from the Site at any time. If you choose to remove your User Content, the license granted above will automatically expire, however you acknowledge that the Company may retain archived copies of your User Content."

This, as recently as last week has been removed from from Facebook's ToS essentially implying that Facebook can and will keep all of your content long after you delete it... Stating that...

"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."

This means that even if you delete your account facebook has the right to keep all of your content forever and do what they want with your content.

Obviously because this information is fresh, little is known what Facebook can or will do with your content in the future. The first think I thought of is that they can use your pictures or conversations with others against you in the future if you become a person of above average celebrity status. Facebook can, if you run for President say, sell your content to TMZ and tarnish your image if there are any incriminating or embarrasing pictures you or friends have posted of you.

I'm sure there are more serious implications for this new ToS, and I am interested to see what my class thinks.....

3 comments:

  1. Crazy what happens when you actually look into what you agree to. Everyone knows that they agree to “something something blah blah blah” but who really pays attention to that? Clearly, as you have demonstrated and exposed for us, it pays to sometimes read up on what you are agreeing to. I know that I don’t really read those agreements and, as you suggested, I doubt anyone else does either. I’m not sure if I’m offended or angry at Facebook for being able to keep all sorts of information on us, since really, they are just trying to run their business. I do think there should be some sort of line that prevents them from exposing our personal information but we are the ones that are posting that personal information on the Internet for everyone to see. Even if we do read the ToS more carefully, is anyone really going to care enough to not agree and not sign up for Facebook? It’s taking over the world (especially if you look at how many of our posts are about it) and everyone wants to be a part of it. I guess we just need to remember that cyberspace isn’t as small as we tend to think.

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  2. did you see that they're going back to the old terms?

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  3. I feel that is indeed is an invasion of privacy. If facebook is allowed to keep up the accounts of those who have deceased, this does not make them keepers of our private lives. Does anyone feel comfortable 20 years down the road knowing that someone working for facebook has the achieves to your life? I understand if some information is needed to be kept for company/business reason, however there needs to be a limit set out. Which kind of goes with this weeks readings on hacktivism. What are we really protecting ourselves from, or are we making it easier for people to access our private information?

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