Facebook asks users to shape its new Terms of Service
By Dave Parrack
Facebook has taken the hint. After being ripped apart by users, privacy groups, and journalists over its over-the-top, unnecessarily harsh new Terms of Service, the company is asking those same people to help shape its future. Facebook may still own you, but at least it’s doing so transparently.
Ten days ago, Facebook quietly changed its Terms of Service. The new TOS stipulated that not only did Facebook own all the User Content uploaded to the site, which it could then use any way it saw fit to, but that it did so forever, even if you delete it and cancel your account.
Many of us predictably rallied against this move. The majority of users who were aware of the changes realized they were bad. I personally recommended people stopped uploading anything to the site which they wanted to maintain control over. But some went further, deleting their account without delay.
Facebook realized it had a mutiny on its hands, and so changed the TOS back to the old one. But that always bound to be just a short-term fix. And so it has proved to be so. Facebook is now giving us, the loyal user base, the chance to shape the future policies and relationship it has with us.
In a new blog post, Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, sets out how the whole thing is going to work, and provides links to the two documents which are set to be the framework to the new Terms of Service. Facebook users are invited to comment on the ‘Facebook Principles‘ and the ‘Statement of Rights and Responsibilities‘.
This is a nice idea and certainly more appealing than its strategy of old, which basically involved slapping up a new TOS and expecting people to either not notice or not care. But this effort to be transparent and open will only work if the users actually have any power to change things.
In a conference call with Inside Facebook, Zuckerberg states that votes on changes to policy and wording will be held, but the details are vague to say the least. I’d like to think Facebook has turned a corner and is now committed to involving rather than excluding its millions of users in the decision-making process, but I still have my doubts. Only time will tell whether this is just hot air or not.
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