The task I have chosen for today is discussing the Terms of Service for Facebook. As I opened Google to search for the terms, a wall of text hit me in the face. Found a comfortable position on my chair as I prepared myself to read what I was sure to have my head spin sooner than later. Having ignored these terms before while I was signing up and instead was just clicking the 'next' button, I knew I was in for a surprise.
My initial reaction was the confusion at how all these terms related to me, and through further analysis in trying to break down exact meanings I was saddened to see that my Lecturer was actually right about Facebook. Everything you upload onto Facebook was archived and stored, in addition to that deleting informaiton on your account was not actually deleting them, just has them unavailable to others.
"When you delete IP content, it is deleted in a manner similar to emptying the recycle bin on a computer. However, you understand that removed content may persist in backup copies for a reasonable period of time (but will not be available to others)."
I personally know that when you empty your recycling bin, what you deleted is still retrievable because your hard drive still has it stored. So, essentially what Facebook is saying is that they have your material forever.
Another thing that particularly caught my attention was the fact that we gave Facebook permission to do practically whatever they wished to do with our intellectual property rights (videos, pictures etc). "You grant us a non-exclusive, transferable, sub-licensable, royalty-free, worldwide license to use any IP content that you post on or in connection with Facebook." In other words we allow Facebook to use any of our images, videos, messages, information that we have posted on Facebook or anything in connection. This is ridiculous, Facebook could in fact use my drunken party pictures in a magazine and get away with it!
Through some research I did manage to find out that there are a large number of people who do not support Facebook's Terms of Service, well the new one at least. The old Terms of Service at least stated "when you closed an account on their network, any rights they claimed to the original content you uploaded would expire." The new Terms states that Facebook as rights over all our content, even if we delete everything including out accounts.
Realising how my lecturer was right about everything he said regarding Facebook so far, there was one last issue he stated which I had to look further into. He said that the applications used on Facebook (which there are so many of) can actually gain access to not only my own personal information, but that of my friends also. Once you click the "allow" button to use the application, it has 100% full access to everything. The part of the Terms of Service that proves this is "When you use an application, your content and information is shared with the application, and your agreement with that application will control how the application can use, store, and transfer that content and information."
So here I am, sitting in a pool of disappointment as I come to realise that I let the application "How Good are you in Bed??" gain full access to everything on my Facebook account.....
I am really regretting uploading so many things, I dont even want to use the messaging or chat service offered on Facebook. Hmmm, I might move on to Skype now? I hope they don't secretly record you....(searches Terms of Service for Skype).
References :
Facebook Terms of Service
http://www.facebook.com/terms.php
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