Facebook and Problems with Social Networking
Issues concerning the ownership of personal data on the social network Facebook has been the topic of many discussions of late. At Download Squad, Gordon Finlayson in his post, Hey Facebook – Where’s the Respect? chronicles a similar problem earlier at MySpace. Gordon concludes his discussion with these words:
“Facebook and other social media sites need to establish exactly how far they can go when it comes to the user generated content that drives their world and ensure that lawyers don’t kill the golden goose by overreaching and draconian T&Cs. Ultimately Facebook needs to understand that when it comes to user generated content people do actually care and show some respect.”
Sarah Lacy at TechCrunch on the other hand follows the apologetics of Chris Kelly, Facebook’s Chief Privacy Officer in her post, Facebook: You Own All Your Data. Period. (But See You At The Next Privacy Uproar.) Sarah summaries Kelly’s PR work with the following statement:
“Kelly said in no uncertain terms that Facebook does not own your data and content, never did and never will. What’s more: Any reproduction of your data has to be subject to the privacy settings you choose as a Facebook user. You can sense his frustration amid a scandal that was essentially cooked up by Consumerist on the Sunday night of a holiday weekend without even calling Facebook to check if their assumptions on the Terms of Use changes were right.”
The discussions are interesting, but the potential misuses of the materials are truly fearful.
