Facebook has been hit by a latest scandal as it had quitely changed its 'terms of service' to its users,only to be first noticed the blog The Consumerist two weeks after the changes were made.The major bone of contention is that anything you upload to Facebook can be used by Facebook in any way they deem fit, forever, no matter what you do later.Even if you close your account, Facebook still has the right to do whatever it wants with your old content. They can even sublicense it if they want.But one should keep in mind that Facebook is no stranger to scandals and controversies. After all, it was just 15 months ago that Facebook found itself in another scandal involving its ownership of seemingly private user information.
Read the following original terms of service by facebook.Sounds familaiar,well they have deleted the last few lines highlighted in orange colour.
You hereby grant Facebook an irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, transferable, fully paid, worldwide license (with the right to sublicense) to (a) use, copy, publish, stream, store, retain, publicly perform or display, transmit, scan, reformat, modify, edit, frame, translate, excerpt, adapt, create derivative works and distribute (through multiple tiers), any User Content you (i) Post on or in connection with the Facebook Service or the promotion thereof subject only to your privacy settings or (ii) enable a user to Post, including by offering a Share Link on your website and (b) to use your name, likeness and image for any purpose, including commercial or advertising, each of (a) and (b) on or in connection with the Facebook Service or the promotion thereof.You may remove your User Content from the Site at any time. If you choose to remove your User Content, the license granted above will automatically expire, however you acknowledge that the Company may retain archived copies of your User Content."
Additionally, the "Termination" section near the end of the TOS states:
The following sections will survive any termination of your use of the Facebook Service: Prohibited Conduct, User Content, Your Privacy Practices, Gift Credits, Ownership; Proprietary Rights, Licenses, Submissions, User Disputes; Complaints, Indemnity, General Disclaimers, Limitation on Liability, Termination and Changes to the Facebook Service, Arbitration, Governing Law; Venue and Jurisdiction and Other.
In full-blown legalese, Facebook basically told its users that when they posted personal information to their Facebook pages (including photos, the music they were listening to at that moment, or their favorite movies), Facebook owned that information forever and could use it in just about any manner the company wished.
According to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg had already responded on his blog, saying: "Our philosophy is that people own their information and control whom they share it with.When a person shares information on Facebook, they first need to grant Facebook a license to use that information so that we can show it to the other people they've asked us to share it with. Without this license, we couldn't help people share that information." This sounds in contradiction what the Facebook's new terms of service actually says.This has flared up everyone who actively use Facebook.facebook is clearly in a spot after scoars of bloggers have lambasted the site for its policies.For a major company to try this kind of thing once and fail is surprising, but hardly unusual. But to do so twice, in nearly the same way, as if it has learned nothing from the earlier experience, leads one to look for deeper explanations and motives.
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