Facebook terms, policy change again

Written by Tom Schambow

Wednesday, 25 February 2009 17:57

After being ridiculed by tens of thousands of people, Facebook reverted to its old Terms of Use policy Feb. 18 after it posted a new Terms of Use policy. The new terms allowed Facebook permanent use to anyone’s pictures or wall posts, even after accounts were closed.

With over 1.5 million users, Facebook deleted the sentence from its new Terms of Use policy. A Facebook group of over 64,000 people was created to show the resistance against the new policy.

Recently, Chief Executive Mark Zuckerburg tried to lessen the controversy by saying “people own their information and control who they share it with.”

Members were not satisfied with Zuckerburg’s response and wanted the site to change its Terms of Use policy.

“As Mark expressed in his blog post Monday, it was never our intention to confuse people or make them uneasy about sharing on Facebook,” company spokesman Barry Schnitt said in another blog post. “I also want to be very clear that Facebook does not, nor have we ever, claimed ownership over people’s content. Your content belongs to you.”

While Facebook has reverted to its old policy, students here have their own opinions about the policy change.

“The new terms on Facebook were a little over the top,” freshman Laura Hess said. “It is a place to socialize and stay in touch with friends. However, I think with the new terms, many people may stop using Facebook as much as they do now.”

It is unknown at this time how Facebook plans to change their Terms of Use policy to better fit their users. Until then, Facebook users should be careful posting pictures and comments online that they do not want shared across the Internet.

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