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Facebook TOS Change: All Your Stuff is Ours, Even if You Quit
- trickjarrett 18y agoDupe of another frontpage story.
- tokenadult 18y agoThe other HN submission http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=482772 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=482772 links to a different Web source, so not exactly a duplicate. Just a hot new story.
- trickjarrett 18y agoCorrect, my apologies.
- ja2ke 18y agoExcept that the other HN story linked to the source on Consumerist, while this one links to "Mashable" which is an article regurgitating the Consumerist story.
- derwiki 18y agoThe timing of this article is ironic for me, since I just had a big argument with a friend about why I like Facebook less and less... There's one thing about this that confuses me: with a change like this to the ToS, why didn't they alert me and make me confirm that I agree with the new terms?
- josefresco 18y agoSimple, because the old TOS said they didn't have to. And why would they? "Hey we just changed our TOS to take even more control over your stuff, are you still okay with that? Yes/No" And if you're using Facebook now, you should be okay with the change because it's not like much has actually changed with regard to how FB is going to use/sell your data.
- naveensundar 18y agoOne TOS to rule them all : "We can change this TOS anytime and your agreement to this TOS implies agreement to any changes made to it" No need to have anything more in it.
- gruseom 18y agoThe timing of this article is ironic for me, since I just had a big argument with a friend about why I like Facebook less and less... Nope. Not ironic. Although... Mark Zuckerberg could have been eavesdropping with his ear to the wall, been shocked by what he heard, and just changed the company strategy to do whatever it took to make you happy again. Then it might be ironic! Which is just an excuse to bring up http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nT1TVSTkAXg http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nT1TVSTkAXg.
- Alex3917 18y agoAre people really worried about this? The only reason this is in the TOS is so they have the right to keep running their data mining algorithms even after you delete your account, in case they find a new way to leverage your data. It's not like they're going to start selling a poetry anthology of your stuff or something.
- olefoo 18y agoThen they need to make it explicit that they are retaining the right to store and access your data. It would be an interesting bit of performance art for someone to delete their facebook account and then file a DMCA takedown notice if they could show that their profile pic was still available within facebook.
- jachee 18y agoThis is exactly how I'm planning on getting my information taken down. It seems quite hypocritical of them to say in the same Statement (effectively): "All your Content are belong to us" and at the same time, further down the page, "We respect IP rights." Let's see if they respect my IP rights.
- raheemm 18y agoThis makes me seriously think about quitting FB
- mdonahoe 18y agoI just quit today. I was only logging in like once a month anyway. When I clicked deactivate account, FB showed be some random friends and said they would miss me!
- beingfamous 18y agoDoes it really matter? FISA will scrape it all anyway.
- iamelgringo 18y agoI quit a couple of months ago. It's just not worth it.
- dustineichler 18y agoIs this what happens when you have no business model?
- jyu 18y agoThey certainly have a business model. Advertising. Problem is, they haven't accepted who their paying customers really are: Advertisers.
- redrobot5050 18y agoMonetizing Facebook's Feed is tricky business. "Your best friend just got dumped by his cheating finance...brought to you by Carl's Jr." will not go over as well as Carl's Jr. intended. But it is pretty interesting how they microtarget ads. I've seen my staunch republican friend login to facebook. She gets ads like "Do you feel the election was stolen? Voice your thoughts here." Where as I get ads indie rock music sites and student loan "bail outs".
- d0mine 18y agoI see no reason to worry more than before. Has anyone read MS Windows EULA? EDIT: * Facebook has millions of users, its TOS allows it to do anything with your data. If you don't accept the TOS you can't use the service. * MS Windows has millions of users, its EULA allows it to do anything with your data. If you don't accept the EULA you can't use the OS.
- kragen 18y agoI am fairly sure that you are just mistaken. For example, Microsoft Windows's EULA does not, as far as I know, grant Microsoft any copyright license in your data. Maybe you can show me where I'm wrong?
- d0mine 18y agoFor example, Windows can just one day destroy all your data without any consequences. Is it enough?
- eggnet 18y agoWhat would you consider a fair action on MS's part? In this scenario I'll consider it a given that you have traced the loss of all of your data to a bug that Microsoft agrees exists and did in fact destroy all of your data.
- d0mine 18y agoI don't expect anything (and should not actually). If I lose my data due to a bad backup/updates policy it is my fault. The question is not about MS. I've picked Windows because it has a huge user base. My initial statement is equivalent to: if you take any software product that has many users then its legal docs effectively leave no rights to the end users. So it is not a big deal when Facebook changes its docs accordingly. I understand that software companies are forced to adopt such policies to survive. Therefore I rely on MS' good will that it tests updates before it releases them to the general public (even if it breaks all Windows boxes one day, people will be using it anyway).
- twopoint718 18y agoYuck. I had heard previously about how difficult it is to completely remove yourself from FB, but this getting unreasonable. Also I have an issue with the article: > Someone can still take your photo, slap it on Facebook, and now neither you nor the author of the photo can stop Facebook from using the photo in whichever way they please. I doubt that that's the case. If someone takes something to which I have a copyright and then places it on Facebook without my approval, I would think I have legal recourse. Isn't this what a DMCA takedown notice is for? Unless I'm misreading that quote.
- electromagnetic 18y agoNo you're absolutely correct. If someone takes your photo (I read about this for a childrens entertainer and someone duped her account) facebook will disable the persons account and likely depending on the situation may take extra steps (I believe in the case I'm thinking of, Facebook gave a list of the IP's and times the user had accessed the duplicate account from to the police in case they believed it was potentially criminal due to the nature of the womans job and the likely hood of the dupe being made by a pedophile). Facebooks ToS explicitly state that they respect the IP rights of others and that they will remove any infringing content, or for repeat offenders their account will permanently be suspended (presumably their email will be banned too). It also says they do everything in accordance with the DMCA. The one thing people don't understand about the DMCA is that whilst it might be evil, it also protects individuals as much as companies because every single photo, sentence or anything you or I make or write are immediately copy protected in all western countries.
- gdee 18y ago>> It also says they do everything in accordance with the DMCA. The one thing people don't understand about the DMCA is that whilst it might be evil, it also protects individuals as much as companies because every single photo, sentence or anything you or I make or write are immediately copy protected in all western countries. 1. Warning: Wrong conflation detected. DMCA != copyright 2. Warning: Wrong conflation detected. copyright != "copy protected" (copyleft = copyright, copyleft = "copy invited") 3. DMCA is neither universal nor universal to western countries. It's actually no universal to anything. Just an internal USA law.
- tokenadult 18y agoWhat does the "subject only to your privacy settings" phrase in the new ToS http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/terms.php http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/terms.php do for users? How do you set your privacy settings on Facebook?
- gaius 18y agoYou click on the word "settings" on your homepage.
- markup 18y agoMark Zuckerberg's blog post on the TOS change: http://blog.facebook.com/blog.php?post=54434097130 http://blog.facebook.com/blog.php?post=54434097130
- tokenadult 18y agoUpon reviewing the Facebook ToS as posted today, http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/terms.php http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/terms.php I see it continues to include the phrase "subject only to your privacy settings" as Facebook asserts what it can do with your content. Now I wonder if that is as much of a problem as Facebook asserting it will not respect your privacy settings at all (which would be very worrisome indeed). I see my reply below asking about this was read for the literal meaning of the too-brief words, rather than for my intended implication. My bad, for not being more clear. What I was trying to introduce to the learned discussion here is the idea that Facebook says, even after its revision to its ToS, that it will respect your privacy settings. So, if you have used the Facebook features to set your privacy setting so that only friends, or only a subset of friends, see most of your submitted content (as I did immediately upon signing up for Facebook), is this ToS change really that much of a worry? If you know how to set your Facebook privacy settings, and like the effect of those settings, the only people who have access to your submitted content are the same people to whom you have already shown it, right?
- known 18y agoFB is waste of time.
- justindz 18y agoI recently set up Facebook Connect on my poetry editor web app. When a user writes or updates a poem, they can have a link published in their news feed. Being very far from a lawyer, can anyone tell me whether the fact that the link is published to the feed now means that Facebook owns that the content on the other end under these same terms? I noticed something about using the "Share" link, but I don't know if that's considered the same thing. Appreciate the insight!