There are a number of reasons why I don’t do Facebook. One of those reasons is that Facebook gathers all of your personal data and will one day use it for world domination. It may not happen tomorrow but trust me it will happen.
Did you know that by accepting the terms of service (you know that check box you probably don’t remember checking…?) you allow Facebook to have full license to your content?
Don’t believe me? Well from the terms of service under Licences:
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.
Now this should already be enough to make you reconsider posting that picture of your friend passed out at a party with a big veiny cock drawn on their arm in marker with the words “you complete me” but If not, than have a look at this…
Facebook recently changed their terms of service and added the following under Termination and Changes to the Facebook Service:
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.
So essentially Facebook owns all of your shit today, tomorrow and forever even when you do finally see the light and cancel your Facebook account.
Does having your content owned by Facebook for eternity and to be used however the hell they want sound like a fair deal to you?
Makes you think doesn’t it. I have put so much on facebook that looking back it was just crazy
Nice work Gav man. I am not going to ask how you found out about the T&C’s but good work anyway. Yes I don’t have and hope to never have a facebook account. I don’t really see the need for it but hey this is just me and can 170 million users be worng?
Ha, Stu spelt wrong wrong.
Yeah these T&Cs are pretty fucked up. I use it just to spy on other people, I keep info about me very limited.
Good post. I think you need to remember a few things however.
1. Nearly all product service providers on the Internet share the same wacky terms and conditions. All serve to limit the rights of the individuals, knowing full well that the majority of users will never actually read them. What needs to be understood, is that to breach their users’ trust and implement a service that is grossly unfavorable will be the likely death of the service. Without their 100 billion users, Facebook is worth zero.
For a prime example of how an unpopular move can impact Facebook can be seen a year ago with the release of Beacon (some tool which showed people what their friends were purchasing). Negative feedback from the user base resulted in an apology from Facebook and a change to how the system worked: http://blog.facebook.com/blog.php?post=7584397130
2. Facebook (and too a lesser extent MySpace, LinkedIn and Twitter) are the communication mechanisms of “now”, just as BSBs, ICQ and MSN was the communication mechanism of “yesterday”. If people go about using these tools in a responsible way, I think there are some real benefits to be had. Avoiding this tool completely is like not getting a credit card because you’re worried about corporations tracking your credit history. The most important thing is that these companies are governed responsibly and for more than just making a large profits.
Also worth a read is Mark Zuckerberg’s response to the updated terms an conditions: http://blog.facebook.com/blog.php?post=54434097130
While I don’t agree with all he has to say, I agree that the issue is complicated. At the end of the day, if Facebook continues to screw its user base, a new product or service will come along to which the population mass will migrate.