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.

Yeah these T&Cs are pretty fucked up. I use it just to spy on other people, I keep info about me very limited.