Facebook’s “Statement of Rights and Responsibilities,” also known as their Terms of Use. At 7,000 words and 7 pages long, as anyone actually read it?
I’m about to, and lets see what we find. Choice quotes below.
You own all of the content and information you post on Facebook,
Well that’s good to know!
…you specifically give us the following permission…you grant us a non-exclusive, transferable, sub-licensable, royalty-free, worldwide license to use any IP content that you post on or in connection with Facebook (IP License).
So, even though we ourselves still own the data, we let Facebook do anything they want with it. This includes any other data on other websites with a “Facebook Connect” or “Like” button, as technically it’s “in connection” with Facebook. Note that the license granted to Facebook is transferable (to ?), non-exclusive, licensable, worldwide, and royalty-free; it gives Facebook a lot of flexibility.
Now after a few weeks, I don’t think any of us are surprised at what our data is used for. Facebook has so far already used our data to advertise for our friends and target advertiser’s ads to us.
This IP License ends when you delete your IP content or your account unless your content has been shared with others, and they have not deleted it.
A few years ago, Facebook used to still keep deleted data; glad to see they’ve changed that policy. This point generally echoes the general rule applying to the entire internet: anything online cannot be deleted (It does have offer the silver lining that if the picture has not been “shared,” it can be deleted).
You will not collect users’ content or information
I found this statement especially ironic due to the fact that Facebook is doing the same to us. Then again, we are using Facebook as a free service, so it’s definitely not an equal trade.
On a separate note, there was an earlier blog post about how the National Archives are logging everything on the Internet, including all tweets. In a sense, these rules actually help prevent others from abusing people’s privacy on Facebook. Of course, Twitter is also fundamentally different, as everything on that site is public, so they don’t need to go out of their way to address the private aspects of individual users.
Facebook users provide their real names and information, and we need your help to keep it that way.
I understand why Facebook would want un-anonymous discourse on its site by forcing everyone to use their real name, but part of me also detects a small undertone that this is especially valuable for advertisers. Companies don’t want to advertise to a fake profile, and by ensuring that everyone who views their ad is a real person, makes the ads all that more valuable.
In addition to Facebook’s Terms of Use, they have a whole section dedicated to Data Use Policy (probably mandated by that settlement) that describes in detail of all of the different ways Facebook can use your data. Some of the most eye-catching are:
We receive data about you whenever you interact with Facebook, such as when you look at another person’s timeline, send or receive a message, search for a friend or a Page, click on, view or otherwise interact with things, use a Facebook mobile app…We receive data whenever you visit a game, application, or website that uses Facebook Platform or visit a site with a Facebook feature…
While this is not surprising given Facebook’s role, it is surprising how Facebook is able to obtain data from so many different sources. In fact, Facebook is not the only website that does this. Any link on most websites usually sends information to servers indicating that this particular user in this area of the world clicked on this particular link at this particular time. Facebook is not the exception (more on this next week).
So after going through Facebook’s Terms of Use and Data Use Policy, nothing particularly egregious comes out. Facebook can use any information posted on their site for any reason at all unless deleted, and needs people’s real names to preserve the integrity of the site. Compared with the Terms of Service a few years ago, this is definitely an improvement, but it does reveal what Facebook is allowed to do with your data.