Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Facebook does about face

In case you missed it, Facebook had changed their terms of service, which angered many users. The changes would have allowed Facebook to keep user data on the system even if the user deleted their account. The service has now retracted the change. See the below articles for further details.

Facebook Withdraws Changes in Data Use
By ALAN COWELL
Published: February 18, 2009
New York Times

After a wave of protests from its users, the Facebook social networking site said on Wednesday that it would withdraw changes to its so-called terms of service concerning the data supplied by the tens of millions of people who use it. (cont)
Previous article:
Facebook’s Users Ask Who Owns Information
By BRIAN STELTER
Published: February 16, 2009
New York Times

Reacting to an online swell of suspicion about changes to Facebook’s terms of service, the company’s chief executive moved to reassure users on Monday that the users, not the Web site, “own and control their information.”

(snip)

This month, when Facebook updated its terms, it deleted a provision that said users could remove their content at any time, at which time the license would expire. Further, it added new language that said Facebook would retain users’ content and licenses after an account was terminated. (cont)

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