Thursday, February 19, 2009

Facebook's Privacy and Dependability Decreased


As you may know. Facebook has over 175 millions users. One of those many members is me and many of my friends. The privacy we signed up for has been taken away from us. The terms of service changed. A piece of ourselves stolen.

Facebooks terms of service reads:

"When you post User Content to the Site, you authorize and direct us to make such copies thereof as we deem necessary in order to facilitate the posting and storage of the User Content on the Site. By posting User Content to any part of the Site, you automatically grant, and you represent and warrant that you have the right to grant, to the Company an irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, transferable, fully paid, worldwide license (with the right to sublicense) to use, copy, publicly perform, publicly display, reformat, translate, excerpt (in whole or in part) and distribute such User Content for any purpose, commercial, advertising, or otherwise, on or in connection with the Site or the promotion thereof, to prepare derivative works of, or incorporate into other works, such User Content, and to grant and authorize sublicenses of the foregoing. "

If they decide to take your information and use it for a survey, or someone somehow get's your personal information. (for example a hacker)

"You agree to indemnify and hold the Company, its subsidiaries and affiliates, and each of their directors, officers, agents, contractors, partners and employees, harmless from and against any loss, liability, claim, demand, damages, costs and expenses, including reasonable attorney's fees, arising out of or in connection with any User Content, any Third Party Applications, Software or Content you post or share on or through the Site (including through the Share Service), your use of the Service or the Site, your conduct in connection with the Service or the Site or with other users of the Service or the Site, or any violation of this Agreement or of any law or the rights of any third party."

That's not what I signed up for. I signed up for privacy for justicei f it was undone, or if their site was inefficent they would take responsibility. But that shows you sometimes the fineprint is smaller than you think.