Facebook Now Owns Literally Everything You Put on Facebook. For Ever. Seriously.
The Next Web — ... Governing Law; Venue and Jurisdiction and Other. Essentially, do not upload anything that you wouldn’t be happy splashed across newspapers across the country. Do not upload anything which you wouldn’t be happy having used in some form of public advertisement or publication. If you plan on running for President, Prime Minster or any other public figure - get out and ban anyone from using your photo on there! via Consumerist ...

Facebook Terms of Service Switcheroo?
Andy Beal's Marketing Pilgrim — ... The source of all of this concern is an article on The Consumerist site. It appears that Facebook has changed its terms to imply that they own your content on your Facebook page in perpetuity whether you have your account open or not. While many of us are not too concerned about that fact because of the nature of the content we put on Facebook there may be some that whose hearts skip a beat or two with this knowledge. ...

Facebook Now Owns All The Content You Put On...Facebook
WebProNews Feed — ... alerted via Twitter about a change in the terms-of-service Terms of Service (TOS) at Facebook that could be pretty significant. Since I am not totally aware of the protocol for referencing tweets as sources, I will simply give you the whole deal here so the right people can get their Twitter props: @Mack Collier: RT @jeremymeyers: RT @NealWiser: Facebook Now OWNS Your Content? http://bit.ly/lEobm Please Re-Tweet (via @perrybelcher) The source of all of this concern is an article on The Consumerist site. It appears that Facebook has changed its terms to imply that they own ...

Updated Facebook TOS claims rights to your uploaded content, forever
Obsessable News Feed — ... If you use Facebook, then you may want to be careful about what you decide to upload to the site. The company has recently updated its terms of service to give Facebook the right to use anything you upload for whatever it finds necessary forever, regardless of whether or not you delete the content from the site, or even if you delete your entire account. ...

Did Facebook Changed its TOS Without Informing Us?
RotorBlog.com — ... If last week’s blog highlights was about the good things happening on Facebook,  this week started off with a not so good publicity for the social networking site.  The latest buzz to greet us early on was about a report by Consumerist regarding some changes with Facebook’s Terms of Services. Quite frankly, did you actually read that TOS before you signed up to Facebook?Anyway the Consumerist pointed out the Facebook has altered some essential elements of its ...

Facebook: All Your Stuff is Ours, Even if You Quit
Mashable! — ... The Consumerist has noticed a seemingly slight but very important (and disturbing) change in Facebook’s terms of service, regarding user-generated content. ...

Facebook changes terms of service to control more user data
The Open Road — ... or worse ("super poke," anyone?), it's likely that such friending and poking was intended to be private. Recently, however, Facebook changed its terms of service to ensure it has perpetual rights on personal content, including content deleted by its ... ...

Your Mobile Carrier Will Sell You for Pennies [GigaOM]
GigaOM Network — ... It looked innocent enough, until one dug underneath the surface, that is. Speaking of Facebook, have you read about some of the changes to its terms of service? The move may not mean anything to its 175 million-odd customers, but it’s a great example of the ...

Around the Web 2.16.09: Cellphone announcements from Microsoft, HTC phones and pirate trials
L.A. Times Tech Blog — ... Adobe Flash, according to a news release today. Engadget -- Sick of cellphones yet? None of the ones being unveiled in Barcelona are better than the iPhone, an observer says. Sillicon Alley Insider -- The iPhone is also helping people cheat at blackjack in Vegas. AP via USA Today -- Facebook's new terms of service say it will hang on to your content for as long as it likes. Consumerist -- The operators of the Pirate Bay, a BitTorrent service that helped people find ...

Facebook Makes Some Changes
WebProNews Feed — ... Updates Terms as Well as Business Profile Pages There are a couple of newsworthy Facebook changes going on. The first would be changes to the social network's terms of service . As Chris Walters at the Consumerist has pointed out , Facebook has removed the part of its ...

Facebook: Relax, we won't sell your photos
Webware.com — ... phrased Facebook's fresh policy as "We Can Do Anything We Want With Your Content. Forever," pointing out that Facebook's TOS spruce-up removed several sentences in which the company said its licenses on user content expired upon account deletion. And that's where the hysteria began. ...

Mark Zuckerberg Speaks Out About New Terms of Service As Users Cry Fowl
All Facebook — ... Over the weekend Consumerist published an article describing Facebook’s updated Terms of Service. Now users are up in arms over the updated terms. A search for “Facebook terms” on Twitter turns up ...

Zuckerberg: On Facebook, People Own and Control Their Information
Pulse2 - Technology News And Reviews — ... I knew there was something fishy about the Consumerist article that claimed Facebook had the rights to use your content for any reason even if you deactivate your account.  Gawker’s network built itself on stirring up controversy.  In this case, Consumerist took advantage of people fearing that Facebook is becoming too much of a “big brother” social network.  No need to freak out about your photos on Facebook as long as you can trust your friends. ...

The Facebook uproar over privacy: Part 2,139
SiliconBeat » O’Brien — Just to set some context, I’m about the last person you want to ask about things like privacy, because, for the most part, I just don’t care. Granted, I am perhaps totally alone on the Internet when it comes to this viewpoint. But there it is. So it was with a deep sigh and a giant eye roll that I read about the latest dust-up involving Facebook and privacy. In a nutshell, Facebook has tweaked its Terms of Service to say: You may remove your User Content from the Site at any time. If you choose to remove your User ...

News around the web: Facebook's TOS cause outrage
TechSpot — Facebook's terms of service cause outrage @ The Consumerist Coder's Half-Million-Dollar Baby Proves iPhone Gold Rush Is Still On @ Wired Casinos on alert for card counters using iPhones @ TUAW Still waiting for OLED TVs @ Crave Do We Need a New Internet? @ NY Times See more articles and reviews . Five years ago in TechSpot: IBM GXP Hard Drive fiasco Storage ATP EarthDrive 4GB USB Flash Drive Review @ Overclockers Online Thecus N3200PRO Three Bay RAID 5 NAS Review @ Futurelooks Video Western Digital's WD TV HD Media ...

Facebook Owns All Your Stuff. FOREVER.
Homotron.net — ... Indemnity, General Disclaimers, Limitation on Liability, Termination and Changes to the Facebook Service, Arbitration, Governing Law; Venue and Jurisdiction and Other. I've already disconnected both my Flickr account and the Homotron feeds from my Facebook account in order to protect the rights to my work. I suggest that if you want to keep any sort of rights to your content, do NOT post it to Facebook! What do you think of this scummy change? Facebook's New Terms Of Service: "We Can Do Anything We Want With Your Content. Forever." ...

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg responds to privacy concerns
L.A. Times Tech Blog — ... Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has responded to the privacy concerns raised in this post by Consumerist.  The post pointed out that a change Facebook made to its terms of service left the impression that the social network could keep and use copies of user content (e.g. photos, notes, and personal information) in perpetuity even if users removed the information and closed their accounts. "One of the questions about our new terms of use is whether Facebook can use this information forever," Zuckerberg wrote.  ...

Facebook’s Users Ask Who Owns Information
NYT > Technology — ... on Monday that the philosophy “that people own their information and control who they share it with has remained constant.” Despite the complaints, he did not indicate the language would be revised. The changes in the terms of service had gone mostly unnoticed until Sunday, when the blog Consumerist cited them and interpreted them to mean that “anything you upload to Facebook can be used by Facebook in any way they deem fit, forever, no matter what you do later.” Given the widespread popularity of Facebook — by some measurements the most popular social network with 175 ...

MetaData: Facebook Face-Off
Forbes.com: Technology News — The blogsphere erupted Sunday evening following an observation by the blog Consumerist that Facebook, the watercooler of this generation, recently tightened its policies for using the data that we all so freely share on its platform. The blog summed up the problem succinctly by asserting the new Facebook rules amount to: "We Can Do Anything We Want With Your Content. Forever." Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg fired back but sounded a bit wounded by the attack. "We wouldn't share your information in a way you wouldn't want," ...

Facebook's Zuckerberg: Our Philosphy Is Simple, Terms Of Service Are Not
paidContent — ... Baseline: When someone leaves the social net, their own copies of data disappear but anything they've sent someone else lingers on, like the grin from the Cheshire Cat, whether they want it to or not. As Consumerist explained, Facebook took out some language from the terms that made it sound like users could expunge everything having to do with their accounts. ...

Facebook’s TOS debacle: Be upset for a better reason
Between the Lines — ... - pics, videos, notes and so on - and walk away from the service with only “archived copies” left behind for Facebook. And one day, that legal language disappeared from the TOS. That means Facebook can continue to do all the things you allow it to do with your content as a user - stream, publish, copy, store, distribute and, yeah, even sublicense it for promotional purposes - even after you quit. And when the consumer watchdog site, The Consumerist, highlighted the missing language on its blog Sunday evening, the news started to spread. [image] Users are outraged, so much so ...

Facebook's Zuckerberg Calms Privacy Fears Over TOS Change
Today @ PCWorld — ... this month, updated its terms of service (those long pages of small text that too many of us almost never read) on February 4. The changes went under the radar, only until a consumer-oriented blog attacked them: "Anything you upload to Facebook can be used by Facebook in any way they deem fit, forever, no matter what you do later. Want to close your account? Good for you, but Facebook still has the right to do whatever it wants with your old content," flamed The Consumerist in its interpretation . However, Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook CEO, replied yesterday in a ...

Facebook Makes Some Changes
WebProNews Feed — ... Updates Terms as Well as Business Profile Pages There are a couple of newsworthy Facebook changes going on. The first would be changes to the social network's terms of service . As Chris Walters at the Consumerist has pointed out , Facebook has removed the part of its ...

News Bits: 50% Charges Against Pirate Bay Already Dropped
Contentinople: — ... to distinguish between megabytes and megabits. The defendants, who arrived in style yesterday, and their skull-and-crossbone flag-waving supporters , have been notably defiant: “It does not matter if they require several million or one billion. We are not rich and have no money to pay. They won’t get a cent," Sunde has said, according to CNET . Pirate Bay was launched in 2003 and has 22 million users. In other news: Facebook users revolted over the long weekend after the site made some changes to its Terms of Service . ...

Is Facebook really using its new terms of service to own your data?
VentureBeat — ... earlier this month for its 175 million users. But the changes went mostly unnoticed until the Consumerist blog published an article on Sunday sayng the new terms allow the social network to “do anything we want with your content, forever.” As is usually the case with such sensational headlines, the reality of the situation is far more complex. So here’s a quick look at what the issues were, and whether or not you should be concerned. ...

Facebook is a Lifelong Commitment for Your Kids
ParentDish — ... The popular social-networking site discreetly made a change to its user Terms of Service in early February, according to the blog, The Consumerist. Facebook recently ruled that ...

Are Changes to the Facebook Terms of Service Much Ado About Nothing?
eWeek - RSS Feeds — ... a controversy as users wonder who owns their content. Facebook users have been all a-twitter the past couple of days about a change in the social network’s terms of service. Facebook recently reorganized its TOS (terms of services) and, in doing so, changed some information pertaining to who owns the information posted on Facebook after a user terminates his or her account. The blog The Consumerist delved deep into the new language and, in a Feb. 15 post provocatively titled “ Facebook’s New Terms of Service: We Can Do Anything We Want with Your Content Forever ,” said: ...

Privacy Settings Every Facebook User Should Know [Privacy]
Lifehacker — ... 's new terms of service caused quite a stir this weekend , prompting many to drop their Facebook accounts altogether. Too hooked on Facebook to cut it off completely? It's time you learned more about your privacy settings. The ...

Facebook Fans The Flames Of Its TOS Change Overreaction
Techdirt — ... that actions on Facebook can create two copies of content. He says that when users add a friend or send a message, for instance, it generates two copies of the action: one for the user on each side. So say a user sends a message to a friend, then later deletes their account; the new TOS language clarifies that Facebook doesn't have to delete that message from their friend's inbox. As is often the case, the backlash over this change is largely an overreaction. ...

EPIC Complaining About Facebook To The FTC
Pulse2 - Technology News And Reviews — ... Marc Rotenberg.  The commotion around the controversy was started by the Consumerist.  Over 38,000 people have joined a group that object to the changes in the TOS. ...

EPIC ready to sue Facebook over terms
ZDNet Government — ... “We think that Facebook should go back to its original terms of service,” says EPIC Executive Director Marc Rotenberg. Facebook subtly but powerfully changed its terms of service a few weeks back but they were only recently noted by The Consumerist’s Chris Walters . The new language is incredibly broad: 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, ...

Facebook Launches Facebook Bill of Rights, Reverts to Previous Terms of Use
ReadWriteWeb — ... as early as February 9, it wasn't until The Consumerist posted "We Can Do Anything We Want With Your Content. Forever" that the deluge of criticism broke free. More than 6,000 diggs and hundreds of blog posts later, and suddenly ...

Facebook Reverses Privacy Terms Change, Goes To Users For Help
paidContent — ... (TOS) that some feared would give it perpetual ownership of users' material even after they delete accounts. Instead, it's asking those users - rather than just the lawyers - to help it craft new terms entirely. The Consumerist blog, over the weekend, kicked up a fuss over a line Facebook removed from its TOS that would have reverted user content to owners who delete their accounts. Founder Mark Zuckerblog ...

Facebook pulls an about-face to save face
GMSV — ... while it takes a fresh run at a rewrite, this time with less lawyer language and more input from the users. The controversy was touched off over the weekend when the Consumerist blog highlighted newly edited provisions in the TOS that appeared to give Facebook expansive rights over the use of any content posted by users, even if they later delete their profile and quit the service. Facebook hurried to explain that the change in wording was just a clarification, albeit “overly formal and protective,” to reflect the way the site works. “Our philosophy is that people own their ...

Facebook’s Barry Schnitt Answers Tough Questions
SitePoint — ... Most recently Facebook has come under fire over any number of important issues. The most fervent uproar has been with regard to rumor that the company intends to sell user data, or at least control it. I have offered my two cents worth with regard to any number of issues surrounding Facebook too, so in fairness I contacted ...

Facebook Retracts New Terms of Service [Privacy]
Lifehacker — [image] In a late-night blog post responding to the recent outcry over a recent change to Facebook 's terms of service, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the social network's TOS will revert to a previous version. Check out the new/old terms at Facebook , and be sure to jump into your account and dig into 10 privacy settings every Facebook user should know. Are you glad to see Facebook respond to user concern, or does the social networking cloud leave you as wary as ever?

Again, Facebook sparks controversy then bows to user pressure
Technology Liberation Front — ... Facebook sparked a major user uprising when it amended its terms of service earlier this month to grant the social networking site greater licensing rights over user-submitted content. The implications of Facebook’s amended TOS were originally uncovered by The Consumerist this past Sunday in a story entitled, “Facebook’s New Terms Of Service: ‘We Can Do Anything We Want With Your Content. Forever.’” The title pretty much sums up what the controversy was all about: under Facebook’s amended TOS, even after a user deletes his Facebook ...

Is Facebook Defending English From the Lawyers?
Bits — ... allows it to “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),” all the words, pictures and everything else created by its users. When you sort through it, the fierce reaction from Facebook’s users may indicate a new and useful sensitivity to legal fine print. Users’ fears were aroused Saturday when the Consumerist blog noticed that longstanding provision in the company’s terms of service and wrote that Facebook ...

Facebook yields to user outrage, reverts to old terms of service
Macworld — ... . The change went largely unnoticed until last weekend when bloggers caught wind of the change. The details were highlighted in an extremely popular blog at the Consumerist Web site where people felt Facebook's new terms of service meant "anything you upload to Facebook can be used by Facebook in any way they deem fit, forever, no matter what you do later." In a blog post on Tuesday, Zuckerberg had attempted ...

Facebook Bows To Peer Pressure
Forbes.com: Technology News — ... reverted back to its former terms of service Wednesday. "Over the past few days, we have received a lot of feedback about the new terms we posted two weeks ago," Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg said in a note on the company's Web site. "Because of this response, we have decided to return to our previous Terms of Use while we resolve the issues that people have raised." The hubbub over Facebook's terms of service erupted last weekend after the Consumer's Union's Consumerist.com blog posted an entry explaining what the terms of service changes would mean--basically, that ...

What We Should Learn from Facebook Terms of Service Flap
Wired: Epicenter — ... what it rights it keeps once a user decides to quit the service. Many bloggers, some reporters and a vocal super-minority of Facebook users rejoiced at the Tuesday night mea culpa from the 175 million user social network. But the story really shows how predictable responses are to still unresolved issues of who controls information in a world of search engines, private networks and a culture of media sharing. The flap began on Sunday when the Consumerist blog noted the change in Facebook's Terms of Service. That led to stories from the wire services ...

The Blog That Ignited a Privacy Debate on Facebook
Bits — ... , a consumer advocacy blog that usually covers shopping complaints and offers tips on dealing with irritating telemarketers and product refunds. The controversy began after senior writer Chris Walters, acting on the tip of a reader, published a post Sunday evening detailing the newly adjusted provisions that said Facebook would retain the right to use its customers’ content even after an account was terminated. “Nothing on the site has ever created as big of a stir,” Ben Popken, co-executive editor of The Consumerist, said in an interview. By Wednesday, the original blog ...

The Facebook shell game continues
The Inquisitr » Technology — ... The previous TOS; courtesy of Consumerist, and now the one they say they are temporarily returning to until they can come of with something better goes like this ...

Facebook: You Own All Your Data. Period. (But See You at the Next Privacy Uproar.)
TechCrunch — ... Kelly said in no uncertain terms that Facebook does not own your data and content, never did and never will. What’s more: Any reproduction of your data has to be subject to the privacy settings you choose as a Facebook user. You can sense his frustration amid a scandal that was essentially cooked up by Consumerist on the Sunday night of a holiday weekend without even calling Facebook to check if their assumptions on the Terms of Use changes were right. ...

Facebook Needs To Follow And Not Lead On Privacy Policies
WebProNews Feed — [image] I took last week off, and it was a big week for Facebook watchers. Facebook decided to change its terms of service , putting its millions of users on notice that Facebook owns their data and isn't planning any opt-out mechanism. Now, to many observers, including Chris Brogan and me, it's not news that free Web services own the data posted to them, but this Facebook announcement caused a firestorm , and Facebook backed off before the week was out. Watching this play out caused me to realize why Facebook is dumber than Google. So, Mark ...

Facebook’s Zuckerberg to Address User Privacy Concerns at Press Conference Thursday
Today @ PCWorld — ... in hopes to clarify what user generated Facebook content it owned. Originally the change went largely unnoticed until a bloggers caught wind of the change. The details of the terms of service change were highlighted in an extremely popular blog at the Consumerist Website where people felt Facebook's new terms of service meant "anything you upload to Facebook can be used by Facebook in any way they deem fit, forever, no matter what you do later." On February 17 Zuckerberg hoped to ...

Facebook Doesn't Get it: Users Want Control, Not Voting Privileges
Wired: Epicenter — ... The hoopla that brought about this most recent publicity stunt started when the consumer advocacy blog Consumerist outlined controversial changes to Facebook’s existing TOS. The wording of the document implied that, once posted, Facebook owned the rights to your images, words and anything else you put up on the site. ...

Research proves that we'll practically sign anything
Technically Incorrect — How many contracts have you signed without even checking to see whether you've agreed to donate your spleen and other entrails to a Bulgarian vulgarian who lives in Krk, Croatia? Well, those clever professors at DePaul University thought that "hundreds" might be your answer, because they did something very strange. Yes, they brought about an interesting piece of research. It was not inspired by the raising of voices and emotions about Facebook's terms of service. But it might now be dedicated to it. They dragged 91 students in from various interesting ...

Facebook Governance Results: Well Under 1 Million Votes
All Facebook — ... According to Barry Schnitt of Facebook, the company promoted “the vote to users in a number of ways, including messages at the top of everyone’s profile (in multiple languages), ads, virtual gifts, stream stories from users who vote, and reminders on the blog and Official Facebook Page.” Unfortunately the effort didn’t pay off but it most definitely squashed the uproar that took place in response to a Consumerist article, months ago. ...

Facebook's Ingrates
Forbes.com: Technology News — ... its 200 million active users to vote on how the site should be governed. The move was aimed at quelling public outrage after a Consumerist.com blog post chastised Facebook for the way it handles user data. When voting began on April 16, Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg said that new governing initiatives will be binding if at least 30% of active Facebook users participate in it. That's about 60 million users. Turns out only 640,000 people, or 0.003% of the social network's active users, cast their vote. Voting closed Thursday. Does this mean Facebook will recant? ...

Lessons learned from Social Media governance
PolicyBeta — ... In February, Facebook attempted to change its terms of service overnight without broadly notifying users.  A blog post on The Consumerist drew attention to the changes and urged account users to express their disappointment in the lack of disclosure and transparency demonstrated by the social network in crafting and ultimately implementing these major privacy changes.  User frustration spread in the form of Twitter hashtags like #TOS, blog posts, and, ironically, Facebook groups where users voiced their opinion and held the company accountable.  Within 72 hours of this backlash, ...

Creative Commons Facebook App Licenses Your Facebook Content [Social Networking]
Lifehacker — [image] [image] Ever since Facebook unveiled its new terms of service, users have been concerned over content ownership issues . For those still concerned, the ...

PicoPlay Is a Lightweight, Minimalist Audio Player [Downloads]
Lifehacker — ... Facebook's new terms of service brought to light the serious privacy concerns that changes to user agreements can bring about. Web site TOSBack monitors 44 ...

TOSBack Monitors Terms of Service Changes to Google, Facebook, and 42 Others [Fine Print]
Lifehacker — [image] [image] Facebook's new terms of service brought to light the serious privacy concerns that changes to user agreements can bring about. Web site TOSBack monitors 44 ...

TOSBack Monitors Terms of Service Changes to Google, Facebook, and 44 Others [Fine Print]
Lifehacker — [image] [image] Facebook's new terms of service brought to light the serious privacy concerns that changes to user agreements can bring about. Web site TOSBack monitors 44 ...

You Own Your Tweets … But So Does Twitter?
Technologizer — ... Twitter’s terms look a lot like the ones that got Facebook into hot water earlier this year. They’re not word-for-word the same, but you see a lot of similar language: use, copy, scan, reformat, modify, edit. ...

How Facebook tried to put a shine on $9.5m privacy suit
Technology: Technology blog | guardian.co.uk — ... information than other sites out there - and as long as you trust it, Facebook can use that "privacy" (its access to your private data) to its advantage. Lose that trust, however, and millions of people could turn away from Facebook - even it does have 300 million people on board. Beacon was the biggest mistake the company has made in its short life, though it has chipped away at other areas of what we consider public and private with things like the news feed and terms of service. But Facebook's staff know that they have to be seen to be getting privacy ...