Facebook Changes the Rules: Your Content is No Longer Yours

As I was writing this I learned that Facebook backed down late Tuesday on the policy changes that my article warns about. Facebook's founder, Mark Zuckerberg, wrote on the Facebook blog that they have decided to return to their previous terms of service. That's a big win for those of us who balked at the new policies Facebook instituted this month. However, Zuckerberg said the move would be temporary. That means we need to keep monitoring Facebook's terms and privacy policy in case they return to invading our privacy and using what we post as they see fit.

So as you read this, know that Facebook has backed off, for now, but the information is still worth sharing.

Facebook turned 5 years old in February 2009 and with that anniversary posted new terms of use that are not good news for Facebook members.

We've all heard the warnings to take care about what you post to social networking sites lest a potential boss decide not to hire you because of that photo you posted where you and a friend are taking hits off a bong. Now there is a new concern for Facebook users - your photos, drawings, essays, anything you post to your profile (whether in good taste or not) is now the property of Facebook and they will retain the rights even if you terminate your account.

Here is an excerpt from the Facebook Terms of Service:

"You are solely responsible for the User Content that you Post on or through the Facebook Service. 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. You represent and warrant that you have all rights and permissions to grant the foregoing licenses."

So, if you post a sample chapter of a book you are writing to get your friends' feedback, beware - that chapter is not your chapter anymore - Facebook took the rights to it the minute you posted it. To add insult to injury, Facebook can create derivative works and distribute them. This means that Facebook can take that great poem you posted, possibly edit it, and submit it to other sites. Facebook can make money off your poem and you'll never see one dime. You may also find your photos posted on other sites.

I think we all knowingly give up a certain right to privacy when we engage in social networks on the Internet; however, Facebook is not only eliminating any right to privacy, they are also taking copyrights for all of your content.

But that's not all. Check out this particularly frightening excerpt from Facebook's privacy policy:

"Facebook may also collect information about you from other sources, such as newspapers, blogs, instant messaging services, and other users of the Facebook service through the operation of the service (e.g., photo tags) in order to provide you with more useful information and a more personalized experience."

Buried in the privacy policy is the following warning:

"Please keep in mind that if you disclose personal information in your profile or when posting comments, messages, photos, videos, Marketplace listings or other items , this information may become publicly available."

I read that to mean that no information is safe and that Facebook will use your information to attract advertisers - that's what that "more useful information and a more personalized experience" phrase means.

Obviously Facebook is out to make money and it makes money through targeted advertising. The more information you include on your profile, the easier the Facebook folks can sell advertising targeted to you. Thus if one of your favorite music groups is Coldplay, then you will likely become a recipient of ads for any Coldplay-esque bands.

To use Facebook as safely as possible:

Do not use photo tags and remove any tags from photos in which you appear. If you get a notification that you've been tagged, click it and it will take you to the tag and you can remove the tag. Tags don't just apply to photos. You can be tagged by friends who want you to use an app that gathers info about you such as "The Bucket List" or "25 Things About Me."

Respond OFB (off Facebook). If you don't want the whole world to know about it, don't post it on your profile. Remember that what you post on someone else's wall can also come back to haunt you. If I get a comment or a friend asks a question I rarely reply on Facebook. Since I have the friend's e-mail address I respond via e-mail.

Facebook is supposed to help us in our personal relationships. Yes, I've reconnected with several friends that I haven't heard from in years and it's fun to reconnect. But it's not my primary mode of communication. I like to pick up the phone and really talk, or meet for lunch.

Tom Hodgkinson in his column in UK's The Guardian noted that, "Facebook is profoundly uncreative. It makes nothing at all. It simply mediates in relationships that were happening anyway."

And now it seems like Facebook not only mediates, but steals our ideas and content for its own greedy purposes. Even though Facebook has backed off for now, I think we should all be diligent and actually read the terms of service and the privacy policies of any web site where we post information.

I'm keeping my Facebook account, but I'm being very, very careful about what I post and I regularly "untag" myself. I still prefer LinkedIn and use it to promote my business.