Facebook recently updated its terms of service, the contract between the Facebook, Inc. and its members, but reinstated its original terms of service Wednesday after members loudly and adamantly voiced disapproval for the new terms.
In its new terms, Facebook retained rights to user content even after users deactivated their accounts – a change that sparked dissent among many users.
For many, agreeing to Facebook’s or any other Web site’s terms of use is as simple as “just hitting accept,” said University sophomore Mikaylee Tevlin.
“I don’t want Facebook to own any of my stuff,” she said. “I don’t know why they need control over it.”
The original terms don’t stray far from the updated terms with stipulations such as, “By posting User Content to any part of the Site, you automatically grant … the Company an irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, transferable, fully paid, worldwide license” to use, display, reformat, excerpt and distribute the content “for any purpose.”
The updated terms, which were published earlier this month and revoked Wednesday, spelled out the same agreement more explicitly but changed one part of the contract. In the original terms, Facebook’s “worldwide license” over a user’s content expires when an account is deactivated; the updated terms lifted the expiration and claimed permanent rights to content, even after a user leaves Facebook.
University junior Melissa Greenleaf said these are not terms she would be comfortable with.
“If somebody deleted their Facebook, everything on it should be deleted,” she said.
On that point, she’s not alone. After tens of thousands of members joined Facebook groups and some users terminated their accounts to protest the new terms, Facebook officials created a group to involve users in the process of drafting new terms of use.
As of Thursday, nearly 74,000 members had joined the group, “Facebook Bill of Rights and Responsibilities.” There, Facebook officials deny ownership of user information, “even though that’s what it seems like to many people.”
University graduate student Devika Gates said she understands users’ negative reactions to the updated terms, which “came as sort of a shock to people.”
Facebook’s control of user information may seem like a violation of privacy, but Gates said users should also see Facebook for what it is.
“It is a business,” she said. “I understand they have to be strict about certain things.”
Gates added that communicating Facebook’s terms of use more clearly to future and existing members, so that they know exactly what they are agreeing to, should be a priority.
Greenleaf and Tevlin said they now question what they originally agreed to when complying with Facebook’s terms of use.
“For all I know, they own my soul because I have a Facebook,” Tevlin said.
To read Facebook’s original and current terms of use, go to www.facebook.com/terms.php.
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