NY Times fearmongers the persistence of content of Facebook
Published by Blake Robinson February 11th, 2008 in Facebook, Facebook privacy, facebook Business.
The NY Times today released an article titled “How Sticky Is Membership on Facebook? Just Try Breaking Free” that sensationalizes the persistence of user content on Facebook even after a user has deleted his or her account. It cites individuals who have deactivated their accounts only to find that some of their data remains after the deactivation. Content like wall postings and group messages and whatever else remain after an account has been deactivated.
After repeatedly contacting Facebook to delete that content, many of these ex-Facebookers are disgruntled that all of their data is difficult to completely remove from the service. Sadly, what we have here is a failure to read the user terms:
User Content Posted on the Site
When you post User Content to the Site, you authorize and direct us to make such copies thereof as we deem necessary in order to facilitate the posting and storage of the User Content on the Site. By posting User Content to any part of the Site, you automatically grant, and you represent and warrant that you have the right to grant, to the Company an irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, transferable, fully paid, worldwide license (with the right to sublicense) to use, copy, publicly perform, publicly display, reformat, translate, excerpt (in whole or in part) and distribute such User Content for any purpose, commercial, advertising, or otherwise, on or in connection with the Site or the promotion thereof, to prepare derivative works of, or incorporate into other works, such User Content, and to grant and authorize sublicenses of the foregoing. 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. Facebook does not assert any ownership over your User Content; rather, as between us and you, subject to the rights granted to us in these Terms, you retain full ownership of all of your User Content and any intellectual property rights or other proprietary rights associated with your User Content.
Stop being crybabies and live with the agreement that you made (but obviously didn’t read) when you signed up for the service.
Technorati Tags: facebook, privacy, ny times
3 Responses to “NY Times fearmongers the persistence of content of Facebook”
- 1 Pingback on Feb 12th, 2008 at 3:39 pm
Wah, metawhining is so cool. Stop being a fucking douche nozzle and understand that shitty user terms like that of Facebook is a problem, too.
Shucking aside, while terms of service might, at times, be somewhat draconian, the point is that users agree to comply with them when signing-up. Which is to say, that when you signup for whatever service, you’re entering into a sort of contract that says you agree to comply with the terms set forth by the company in exchange for the services rendered by the product.
Companies (and I’m not pegging Facebook here, because I believe their terms are perfectly reasonable and acceptable) sometimes have shady terms, but users seldom notice them until it’s too late, because consumers infrequently check the terms of service prior to consumption.
I’m not saying it’s cool, but I do believe that it’s ethically sound both from the perspectives of business and decency. Companies make their TOS available and it’s up to you to see whether or not you can live with them prior to making use of what they’re offering.
If you don’t do that, any suffering that befalls you is really the result of your own negligence and not the fault of the company whose intentions were transparent from the outset.