Facebook Bill Of Slights?
The outcry began after it was noticed that Facebook slyly changed its terms of service on Feb. 4. The changes in the license granted the social network "an irrevocable, perpetual, nonexclusive, transferable, worldwide license to use, copy, publish, stream, store, retain and distribute any user content you post."
The vitriol that was spit at the social network prompted, Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, to post a blog announcing the company was reverting back to its pre-Feb. 4 terms of service.
Furthermore, Facebook decided it would work with users to create a Facebook Bill of Rights. According to a posting on the Facebook Bill of Rights page, the goal of the group is to allow people to "give input on Facebook's terms of use. These terms are meant to serve as the governing document for how the service is used by people around the world."
Currently the Facebook Bill of Rights group has more than 74,000 members and 802 messages have been posted to the discussion board. That activity is encouraging -- people are interested in having their say about the terms of service they will operate under.
But is the proposed Facebook Bill of Rights anything more than lip service? How can it be anything but a somewhat savvy public relations move by the social network to pet users on the head and let them feel they have a say in how things will operate in the future?
Zuckerberg and company attorneys ultimately will have the final say in the terms of service. An idea or two -- or more likely one general theme -- will likely emerge from any user discussion that occurs. That idea might be similar to this one, proposed by a Facebook user:
"I believe ALL facebook users should have the option to remove permanently any and all content and/or disallow Facebook from continuing storage or transmittal of content(s) created by a user, opting with "with whom" this information will be shared, as is implied at the initial creation of a user's account, by the originating TOS's." (sic)
It is apparent that Facebook got the message that users want to control their own information. But there will be an army of lawyers who have to have their say, advertising concerns that the company needs to consider and market knowledge that the company, in a manner similar to Google, will want to collect.
The idea that information can be posted to a Facebook account unmonitored and with no type of control just isn't going to happen. The end result of the Facebook flap will likely be one blatant clause listed near the top of the new terms of service that ensure users their information is their own.
But buried somewhere in the bottom of the document, obfuscated by legalese will be the numerous exceptions to the rules that allow Facebook to continue to retain the information that they are most interested in retaining.
Face it: This isn't about retaining the rights to photos from parties or notes where friends guess which song the lyrics you posted came from. It's about hanging onto the information that a company can eventually use to sell you things.
Remember that memo that went around recently where you listed 25 personal things about yourself?