After all the comments over the long weekend and today, Facebook returned to their old Terms and Conditions. Tonight I got this message from my friend Alex:
Check the top of your newsfeed and trust me we learn from our mistakes.
And at the top of my Newsfeed there was an extra message:
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.
At first the change in T&C’s made me delete all my pictures and tags from Facebook. Just think about it, you give up all the rights, even if you deleted your profile and account. What made me decide to take action. The following text was taken from the new, now old, T&C’s:
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.
More details and discussion on Photoattorney
This is not the first time Facebook gets into trouble with the way they handle their users’ data. Beacon opened up a big can of worms too!
Picture from Flickr: Can of Worms under Creative commons
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