Facebook: All Your Data are Belong to Us

If you’re using social media, or basically anything on the Internet these days, you are really kidding yourself if you think you have true privacy.  That said, Facebook’s latest change to their terms of service states that they own all of your data, even if you delete your account.

We’ve run into things like this before.  Google Chrome had a simlilarly suspicious TOS that was made more reasonable after a similar public outcry.

Question is: will Facebook listen? It isn’t the first time they have come under fire.  Beacon and the new facebook were both a communication faux pas.  Can you blame Facebook though? They need to make money.  Nobody is twisting your arm to be on Facebook in the first place.   I respect that CEO Mark Zuckerberg put out  a post to respond to the situation at hand.  Mind you it would have been nice to see before all the public outcry, though at least they are addressing the situation.

My take on the matter: we aren’t paying anything to use Facebook, so we should be careful what we put out there.  That doesn’t mean that Facebook should be able to do anything that they want with our data though.  Still, I won’t be deleting my account anytime soon, and I won’t be advising clients to drop it from their plans either.

Will these TOS changes make you act differently on Facebook?  Will you drop out? Have your say.

Related posts:

• Facebook Changes Terms Of Services; Owns Your Photos Forever, Even If You Cancel Your Account (takepart.com)
• Zuckerberg Responds to Concerns About Facebook’s Updated Terms of Service (insidefacebook.com)
• Facebook Responds to Concerns Over Terms of Service (mashable.com)
• Facebook is not your friend, take 2 (bigsexymedia.com)
• Facebook: Relax, we won’t sell your photos (news.cnet.com)