Everyone Should Be Very Wary of Using Facebook

Facebook have changed their Terms of Service so that they can now use any content or information you put on their website in anyway they choose, anytime they want...even if you cancel your account.

[Update: Due to the huge user outcry, Facebook has removed these controversial changes. However the advice remains; only publish stuff on the web that you are happy to be seen by everyone and anyone forever. Assume that it can never be deleted]

Previously, when you closed your account, any rights Facebook had to the content you had added to your profile would expire; now it still belongs to them. This is the clause that has changed:

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.

And this is the paragraph that has been quietly removed:

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.

And the other sneeky clause that has been slipped in is:

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 summary everything that is published on Facebook is their property and they can do with it as they like forever.

Think carefully about the implications of what this means:

If your blog or website content is on Facebook, they own it. They can sell it, use it to drive advertising revenues, syndicate to others...you name it they can do it
If your photo is on the site they can do what they want with it. Stick it in adverts, allow others to use it, publish it places you don't want to be seen!
They can take your personal information and all the comments that you have made and store them in a database which they can sell access to the police, recruitment companies, marketing organisations, government agencies etc
What happens if someone else publishes pictures of you drunk, stoned, angry or naked? Facebook owns them. Tough.
What happens if someone else publishes your conetnt on Facebook without your permision? Who you goin' call!

Scary stuff.

If you don't want something you've done or said to be available to the world, don't put it anyehere on the internet.

You've been warned.

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Everyone Should Be Very Wary of Using Facebook

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