So, I decided to give Facebook a try. It has far less ads and had a more promising interface and API. However, after learning from my roommate that they had changed their Terms of Service, I have a different opinion of them. According to a post on Consumerist, Facebook now claims that by uploading content to their servers, you are granting them the right to use your content for whatever they want, indefinitely. They don’t need your permission to do so. Here’s the best part: if you close your account, or even if you delete content from your page, they still keep a backup of the content to use whenever they want. This angers me. A lot. So much, in fact, that I may be soon closing my Facebook and demanding that they remove my content from their servers, unless they want a fight.

Why is this an issue for me? Well, besides the obvious fact that Facebook is essentially stealing my intellectual property (stealing, according to Merriam-Webster is “to take surreptitiously or without permission.” Me uploading to your site is NOT giving you the right to backup my content for your own personal use whenever you feel like it!), they are doing it behind users’ backs. According to their privacy policy, if they make changes to their Terms of Service or Privacy Policy, they will either notify users at the top of the Privacy Policy page, via email, or their homepage. Let me tell you, a change like this can’t be contained to a freakin’ tiny line at the top of the Privacy Policy (which, by the way, has an effective date well before the aforementioned changes). If this is the kind of company Facebook is turning into, I want nothing to do with them.

Though I haven’t made a true decision, I am going to be reviewing content on my profile, and if need be, demanding in writing, that the content has been removed. For your own sake, look through your profile for any content that you wouldn’t want Facebook using as if it were their own, and remove it, and write them to make sure that it really is gone. And from now on, make SURE that you really want your content submitted to Facebook before you post it.

Todd, though I might not have agreed with your position on some of the aspects of the new facebook layout, I can see why you are timid of Facebook! Facebook, you are headed down a dark path!