Tech & Biz

Facebook keeps rights to your content - even after you leave

by TDH | February 16, 2009 at 09:22 am

2728 views | 19 Recommendations | 9 comments

Facebook has quietly altered its Terms of Service (or Terms of Use) such that they now maintain rights to any and all original content uploaded by you, forever.

That last word there is the scary bit. Previously, under the old terms, an important phrase regarding the termination of a Facebook user account stated,

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.

However, this phrase no longer appears under the new Terms of Service, suggesting Facebook now retains the right to do whatever it wants with your content regardless of your account status.

Users have (hopefully) always been aware of scary license speak such as this,

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.

But in theory, at least, under the old terms, one could always rely on a simple account removal if ever concerned about their content. Theory no more. What's yours is theirs and what's theirs will always be theirs.

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Samantha Nandez Photography

at 13:35 on February 16th, 2009

Looks like I'm taking my photos off of facebook, that's just mad

ectomorfo

at 13:46 on February 16th, 2009

I'd imagine that a lot of other people will be doing the same.

Presumably this doesn't apply if you link to Flickr, though?

at 13:51 on February 16th, 2009

Most of the photos will be worthless to them anyway, but they should have given the user the option of deleting them if they wanted to.

AKAmamma

at 13:55 on February 16th, 2009

A good story. Company's should be forced to use plain language.

Rachel Nixon

at 14:53 on February 16th, 2009

In response to the controversy around the revised Terms of Service, Mark Zuckerberg posted an entry on the Facebook blog explaining the reasons behind the changes.

He said:

One of the questions about our new terms of use is whether Facebook can use this information forever. 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. Even if the person deactivates their account, their friend still has a copy of that message. We think this is the right way for Facebook to work, and it is consistent with how other services like email work. One of the reasons we updated our terms was to make this more clear.

In reality, we wouldn't share your information in a way you wouldn't want. The trust you place in us as a safe place to share information is the most important part of what makes Facebook work. Our goal is to build great products and to communicate clearly to help people share more information in this trusted environment.

He also admitted: "We still have work to do to communicate more clearly about these issues."

Inez (not verified)

at 15:39 on February 17th, 2009

See, this is precisely why there is absolutely nothing on Facebook I don't mind leaving here permanently. There are no pictures I am so horrified by that I don't want on the Internet in the first place, (if that was true, why would I post them?), nor do I have anything written that while it's fine to have here while I'm a member, I definitely want back should I ever choose to discontinue my membership. I've always believed in being very, very careful when it comes to what I put on the Internet. Why people continue to just write whatever they want and post whatever picture they want no matter how shocking it may be and then act surprised when they can't get it back, (or think they "sucessfully" deleted it only to find out it's still online somewhere), I truly don't understand. Nothing online is private and nothing online is "gone forever"! And it's not just Facebook that operates this way. Other community websites do too. It's the Internet, people! Nothing is private! You want privacy? Make a scrapbook the old-fashioned way at home, (in a photo album or notebook), and then you can decide who you choose to show it to. If you choose not to and choose to put it online, you give up the rights to anything you post. That's just the way it is. I'm honestly not shocked by what Facebook has done. Can any of you honestly say you are?

Facebook man (not verified)

at 19:15 on February 24th, 2009

I own facebook

Hava (not verified)

at 06:36 on February 26th, 2009

Interesting. No more comment :).
I am from Fiji and learning to read in English, tell me right I wrote the following sentence: "You can burn more and more calories if you associate it with physical activities."

Regards :-) Hava.

Socorro (not verified)

at 06:38 on February 26th, 2009

Sorry. You may be disappointed if you fail, but you are doomed if you don't try.
I am from Palestinian and also now'm speaking English, tell me right I wrote the following sentence: "For example, in order to build big and strong muscles, people commonly lift weights."

Thanks ;). Socorro.