Unbeknownst to many of the 175 million users worldwide, two weeks ago Facebook revised its terms of use, specifically giving itself permission to access users' account information even after they've deleted their accounts. This information included users' photos, wall posts and personal information. When users caught wind of the changes in Facebook's terms, the backlash for Mark Zuckerberg was severe.
On Wednesday morning, Zuckerberg took to the Internet to clear up misconceptions among active users who were worried about the security of their information. On blog.facebook.com, Zuckerberg wrote that based on the feedback he had received regarding the changes, the Facebook team had decided to "return to our previous terms of use while we resolve the issues that people have raised."
While it's understandable that people are worried about their privacy and don't want people at Facebook to have access to their information -- especially after their accounts have been deactivated -- it is also ridiculous to assume that the information posted on Facebook on a daily basis is completely private, anyway.
The Facebook team has always maintained that the users of Facebook own their information and control with whom they share it. And that is true, to a certain extent. However, whenever people access the Internet, they should always assume that they're taking a risk in regard to personal privacy and should accept whatever consequences arise as a result of personal decisions made on the Internet. It is up to us to decide what pictures we want to upload and have floating around the Internet. Similarly, the personal information we provide and the language we use to sign a friend's wall is also left to our discretion.
In a similar blog post from Monday evening, Zuckerberg attempted to better communicate to concerned users the idea behind Facebook's security. He calls out users, claiming that we want full ownership of our information so that we can control others' access to it at any given time, yet we also want to be able to use information that we receive from others, like phone numbers or e-mail addresses, for other services.
According to the blog, "There is no system today that enables me to share my e-mail address with you and then simultaneously lets me control who you share it with and also lets you control what services you share it with."
Facebook's decision to alter the terms of use understandably angered people because it made us feel like our privacy as users was being violated. However, rather than get hung up on specific wording, a more responsible option would be to closely monitor the information we upload and allow to be linked to us online. When signing up for Facebook a few years ago, few of us likely sat down and carefully read through the terms of use multiple times before deciding to become a member of the Web site. Few of us would have immediately noticed the difference between the original sentence in the terms of use reading, "Facebook could not claim any rights to original content that a user uploaded once the user closed his or her account," and the briefly updated version, "You may remove your User Content from the Site at any time. ... (H)owever, you acknowledge that the Company may retain archived copies of your User Content." According to company spokesman Barry Schnitt's blog, within the next couple weeks, the Facebook team will be working on updating the terms of use in "simple language that defines Facebook's rights much more specifically."
This is good for users because in order to most responsibly take advantage of the Facebook applications, we need to know where we stand. We can't fully exercise our rights until we know what they are.
It's safe to say that some of the people most upset about this are those who have may not have used Facebook responsibly and are now concerned about the repercussions of that one picture from that one party that one night falling into the hands of someone who was never an intended viewer.
You've heard it time and time again. Be careful what you put online. We all want our privacy and that's understandable. It's one thing to obviously not want your information floating around out there freely, but don't be naive.
We should never count on technology to be 100 percent secure. It is a man-made resource, after all.