Your Ass Belongs to FaceBook Bitch!

[3113]

Well, not anymore. But it did for a little while. The problem relates to this very short alteration in terms:

Facebook...initially assured users that when they removed items or quit the network, any rights it claimed to the uploaded material would end. But earlier this month, the company oh-so-quietly excised that assurance from its terms of service and reinforced its never-ending right to use anything anyone posts -- notes, photos, videos, personal details -- "on or in connection with" the site. It also granted itself broad rights to use members' names and likenesses on the site or in its advertisements.

Not surprisingly, there was a small protest over this. And now....

After outcry from just about every corner of the Web over Facebook's controversial change to its terms of use, the company has hit the rewind button. Facebook has reverted to the previous version of the terms -- one that doesn't include the disputed clause that granted the company permission to maintain user data indefinitely....The change came just a day after Zuckerberg's unsatisfying response to privacy concerns.

Now, Facebook is back to the drawing board to craft a less divisive set of terms. The company will put together a more approachable document with less formal language, Zuckerberg wrote on the blog. "Our next version will be a substantial revision from where we are now," he wrote. The loud dissent over the terms-of-service alteration was akin to that of a national protest. Zuckerberg has compared the website to an actual country in the past. Since then, Facebook's population has surpassed that of Bangladesh and Pakistan, making it the sixth most populous "country" -- for those who are keeping track.

But the Palo Alto company has taken the state analogy to a new level. The Facebook Bill of Rights and Responsibilities is a group page that the company created to collect suggestions from users about its terms of service, which Facebook is calling its "governing document." Every Facebook user is being alerted to changes in the terms with a box that appears at the top of the website once a user logs in.....It's certainly comforting to know that the almighty rulers of the Facebook nation are looking to run the virtual country more like a democracy than a dictatorship.

 

[jomar]

I, for one, appreciate their responsiveness. Facebook is too valuable for them to risk the citizens migrating to a different country.

 

[Selena_Kitt]

I've never trusted them. Something like this happened before. I won't open an acct there. Heck, I won't even GO there.

 

[voluptuary_manque]

I've never trusted them. Something like this happened before. I won't open an acct there. Heck, I won't even GO there.

Fortunately, I've never applied for a visa there and never intend to. There's nothing to fish or hunt in Facebook, anyway.