SeVeN » Facebook

Facebook ~ Sucking up to its users?

SeVeN — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 20:11:46 +0000

Once again, after logging into my Facebook account, I was greeted with another message regarding their policies. Apparently they are now seeking input from their members:

Today we announced new opportunities for users to play a meaningful role in determining the policies governing our site. We released the first proposals subject to these procedures – The Facebook Principles, a set of values that will guide the development of the service, and Statement of Rights and Responsibilities that governs Facebook’s operations. Users will have the opportunity to review, comment and vote on these documents over the coming weeks and, if they are approved, other future policy changes. We’ve posted the documents in separate groups and invite you to offer comments and suggestions. For more information and links to the two groups, check out the Facebook Blog.

I suppose they learned their lesson from the enormous amount of bad press they received from their last policy change.

Facebook Changes Terms of Use Policy – Again

SeVeN — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 07:14:40 +0000

I just hopped on Facebook for a look see and this is what greeted me on my home page:

A couple of weeks ago, we posted an update to our Terms of Use that we hoped would clarify some parts of it for our users. Over the past couple of days, we have received a lot of questions and comments about these updated terms and what they mean for people and their information. Because of the feedback we received, we have decided to return to our previous Terms of Use while we resolve the issues that people have raised. For more information, visit the Facebook Blog.

Power to the people.

Facebook – Interesting Tid-bits & Privacy

SeVeN — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 22:43:33 +0000

I was recently chastised by a friend of mine who found me on Facebook. Basically, it was the, “What in the hell are you doing and I thought you knew better” type of lecture. And (with a slap to the forehead) I instantly logged into my account to delete it. This quickly brings us to…

Tid-Bit #1: You can’t delete your account. There is a deactivate account option, but all of your information is still there. Go ahead and try it – deactivate your account, then reactivate it. It’s like you never left. Spooky. In fact, Facebook has done some slight altering to their Terms of Service. How many of you actually took the time to read the TOS? You may find this interesting:

Tid-Bit #2: Even if you quit using the service Facebook retains the rights to everything you have ever uploaded:

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.

Upon discovering that my account will live on for eternity, I decided to go through the Privacy Settings. There are actually quite a few of these and I would highly recommend that everyone spend a few minutes going through all of them.

Tid-Bit #3: Nick O’Neill has an excellent tutorial set up at AllFacebook: 10 Privacy Settings Every Facebook User Should Know. I found number 3 to be especially important – “Remove Yourself From Google”.

Tid-Bit #4: Another site with some good information is Facebook Privacy Watch.

Of course, the obvious method of protecting your privacy is to never sign up for the thing in the first place. But for the masses who have already done so, myself included, you should at least do whatever you can to make sure that only the people that you want to see your information, can. I have actually gone through the Privacy Settings a few times now. It’s actually the most time I have ever spent on the site. But each time I managed to find some new checkbox or drop-down menu.

Tid-Bit #5: Any pictures that you upload to Facebook can find their way to everyone on the Internet. Even if your photo albums are set to be viewed only by your friends, you have no control over what your friends do with these photos. All someone has to do is right-click on a photo, save it or copy the link and send it off to whomever they please.

I recently conducted a Google search to see if I could find myself in any type of relationship with Facebook. I am happy to say that I came up emtpy handed.