It’s almost 99% of people who ticks the “I have read and agree” box without having actually read through Terms of Use when they register at social networking sites. Though recent news about the changes Facebook made in its Terms of use caused plenty of uncertainties and fears among people who regularly use that service. After many protests initiated by users those changes were cancelled and site administration returned to its previous version of Terms of Use. However overall review of the present Terms of Use published at Facebook still raises many concerns that I’m convinced people must be aware of:
1. Who owns the content uploaded to Facebook ? This is discussed in the section “User Content Posted on the Site”. At the moment Terms of Use say that once you have posted something on the site, you granted them right to use, copy, publicly display and distribute it without warning you. This may include using your pictures for advertising or commercials for example. Simply speaking, as long as you are registered user of the network they share with you the ownership rights over all your uploaded content. If you remove your content from the site the above mentioned right (or license) will automatically expire, however they may retain archived copies of that content. This again doesn’t secure you from any illegal access or use of your personal information in the future even if you have unregistered or removed all your content from the site.
2. What changes were made to Facebook’s Terms of Use recently ? Couple a weeks before Facebook announced change in a Terms of Use to its users. They deleted provision which was there to enable automatic expiration of license to use your content once you removed that content from the site. Instead new language was added saying that Facebook would retain user’s content and license to use it after an account was terminated. This meant to users: “Once you’ve posted something to our site, it is ours forever”.
3. What are the other threats in using Facebook ? In the very beginning of its Terms of Use Facebook states that once we use their site we are bound by the Terms of Use. Its then followed by the language: “We reserve the right, at our sole discretion, to change, modify, add, or delete portions of these Terms of Use at any time without further notice. ” This point may be of the fundamental danger for you as it means that if you read through and agreed with contract terms once at any point in time, you will be bound to that contract in the future even if they will amend it unilaterally. So the only way here to avoid any harm that may be caused by unfair ammendments is to check their Terms of Use for any changes every single day.
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