Did you know that until recently Facebook could use pictures from users’ account, even if they had been deleted?
After receiving flak from users,
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Facebook reverted back to its old user information policy last Wednesday, at least for the time being. Users attacked the popular social networking service, when a sentence was changed under ‘Terms of Service,’ that gave Facebook permanent rights to all users’ photos, wall posts and any other information they have on their profile, even if user deleted their account.
A Web site called The Consumerist noticed the changes, and said, ‘Make sure you never upload anything you don’t feel comfortable giving away forever, because it’s Facebook’s now,’ according to a CNN report.
The news caused thousands of Facebook users to immediately close their accounts.
Many users expressed outrage, and did not want to allow the social networking site to use any of their profile content for any purpose or at anytime. Over 130,000 users joined the group called ‘The People against the New Terms of Service.’ This made Facebook return to its old policy until the new terms are worked out, allowing users to post items and delete them without worrying about Facebook reserving them for future use.’
One Fairfield student understood the complaints but suggested that people should be aware of what they post online.
‘When I saw the terms of agreement I didn’t really think anything had changed,’ said Silvia Manent ’12. ‘I see why people are angry and all but you have to realize that we are using a service and that we should just be careful and think before posting.’
Charlotte Adinolfi ’12 agreed that Facebook should be allowed the rights to information that is currently on a user’s profile, but should not be allowed any kind of rights to the information if the account is deleted.
‘I think that Facebook is over asserting their power with this new change,’ she said.
‘ As a result of the protests of its users, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, wrote in an online blog that the next version of its terms of service will be a revision of what the company currently utilizes to determine the way that people share and control their personal information, and will be written in a language that everyone can clearly understand.
Zuckerberg also claimed that Facebook users will be able to have more input in the formation of the new terms.
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