Facebook: In Addition...

I have had wonderfully mixed reactions to my decision to leave Facebook and let me assure both critics and supporters that I am in no way naive enough to believe or promote the idea that getting off of Facebook erases your cyber fingerprint. I believe I used the phrase “minimizing your cyber fingerprint on a global level”. If erasing my cyber fingerprint were the motive behind my decision, then I would not have started a blog using Google, because Google is the forerunner in the field of data mining. Let’s keep it real folks: the moment we log on to the Internet, we are being tracked and stored by someone, somewhere.

The problem I have with the Facebook Privacy Policy can be found after their “In addition” phrase nestled in the Statement of Rights and Responsibilities section with regard to information ownership. The following is taken directly from their Statement of Rights and Responsibilities:



By using or accessing Facebook, you agree to this Statement.
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2. Sharing Your Content and Information. You own all of the content and information you post on Facebook, and you can control how it is shared through your privacy and application settings.

In addition:
1. For content that is covered by intellectual property rights, like photos and videos ("IP content"), you specifically give us the following permission, subject to your privacy and application settings: 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"). 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.

2. When you delete IP content, it is deleted in a manner similar to emptying the recycle bin on a computer. However, you understand that removed content may persist in backup copies for a reasonable period of time (but will not be available to others).
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Simplified, they first graciously state the obvious, which is that you own all the content and information that you post on Facebook. Then, they tell you that in addition to, or along with that little nugget of truth, Facebook now owns it too, and you have just generously granted them broad and unlimited license to profit from your content and information in whatever manner they deem useful! As you continue reading, you discover that it is not just limited to photos and videos, but every click you make on Facebook is recorded, tracked, stored, and used. They admittedly collect data from your pictures, posts, messages, clicks, pokes, likes, searches, etc., and formulate a type of algorithmic equation to determine who your closest friends are and what your patterns of social behaviors are.

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to understand how this collection of information is becoming increasingly valuable to marketing, corporate and governmental interests. With multiple thousands of servers storing data, Facebook is sitting on a gold mine.

The privacy and application settings mentioned that allegedly give the users more control over their privacy simply allow limited control over who within the Facebook network can see or access posted information. These controls ultimately do not give users control over what Facebook itself chooses to do with the information. Additionally, information is available, in perpetuity (I could have just said indefinitely or forever but in perpetuity is so much fun to say!) not to Facebook alone, but now to third parties with whom users have just granted unlimited license of use for whatever purposes they deem useful as well.

Social networking from a human perspective is invaluable. In fact, Internet social networking sites are now being studied in a manner similar to the two scientists who studied the psychosocial aspects of the subjects of the Framingham Heart Study. They recently published findings that obesity is contagious or infectious within social circles/community (e.g., if your best friend is obese then your chances of becoming obese increase by 171%). Our personal social networks do influence our health and happiness on some level, either for the good or for the bad, whether we realize it or not, and there is no denying the simple fact that people really do need people! However, there are other more innovative and creative methods which can be used to communicate with our social networks that do not require us to relinquish individual control/ownership over our personal information and intellectual property.

People need to be informed and aware and make choices that are right for their individual life purposes. In an age where the value of privacy is rapidly decreasing while protecting our personal information is becoming increasingly difficult and complex, we need to think long-term as well as on a global level in those decisions to make sure that we are not unwittingly subjecting ourselves to practices and procedures that may potentially jeopardize our future prospects or our inherent/constitutional right to own and protect that which is rightfully ours!

~Solissea