Controversial update of terms by Facebook

New York, February 17: The Facebook has changed certain terms in its Terms of Service. The users were not notified and no one even had an idea for almost two weeks until the blog, The Consumerist, came out with a story in order to bring the changes to public notice.

This action by the Facebook has caused a mass unrest among the internet users who are furious over certain terms that have been included in the new version.

An important change has been done in the last few lines of the Terms of Service. It says that whatever contents a user posts on the Facebook, it becomes the property of the site and even if the user deletes his account, the Facebook can retain the data in their archives and hold the right to use, copy, publish, stream, store, retain and create derivative works out of that data.

Earlier, the statement said that the user may remove the content from the site at any time. If he chooses to remove any content, the license granted to the Facebook to use it will automatically expire, however the user acknowledges that the company may retain archived copies of the user content.

In addition to this, the terms state that the Facebook has every right to use user’s name, likeness and image for any purpose, including commercial or advertising. This statement has raised a lot of eyebrows as it directly gives the Facebook a right to modify any content according to their wish and use it. Also, there is every chance that they misquote a statement for their benefit.

To top it all, the terms state that the Facebook reserve the right, at their sole discretion, to change or delete portions of these terms at any time without further notice.

The continued usage of the Facebook service after any such changes constitutes the user’s acceptance of the new terms. This means that they can change these terms as and when they feel like without the users even having an idea about the change.

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has however clarified Facebook’s motives. He said that that they have no intention to misuse any data that has been posted online on the social networking site.

“Changes to terms of service were necessary to keep in step with how people share pictures, comments and other information in the popular online community. We wouldn't share your information in a way you wouldn't want,” he said.

Some experts believe that there is nothing to panic about and the Facebook has done this only to cover themselves.

However, this issue has brought to light the lack of awareness regarding the potential harms that can be caused by using these social networking sites and for that matter by posting any data on internet.

Although it is not feasible to read each and every term and condition on each website, users can think twice before posting anything they don’t want to be misused by anyone.