Tuesday, Dec. 08, 2009
Rewriting Your Rights
If you post a photo to Facebook, the company is allowed to use it for promotional purposes (within the realm of your personal privacy settings). But once you delete your account, the content belongs to you again. At least, that's how it used to be. In February, Facebook changed its Terms of Service (TOS) agreement to claim ownership of any content posted to a profile — even after the user deletes it or closes the account. Naturally, people were outraged. Nearly 45,000 Facebook members joined site groups to protest the new TOS rules, and for once, angry Web rants actually made a difference. Facebook apologized and reverted to its old rules. Your embarrassing party photos are still yours to keep.