Surely by now you have all seen this headline concerning Facebook on the Times. Or maybe you have logged in already today and seen Zuckerberg's pseudo-apology. Basically, there was a tremendous outpouring of protest to fbook after changing their terms of service to state that they "owned" the information that users put on - even after they had deleted their identities.
The funny thing to me is that, despite my love/hate relationship with them I didn't know the terms of service had changed recently until it was pointed out to me.
Its heartening to see that the community has mobilized in this way to demand what they think is fair of terms of their digital rights to privacy, but had it not been for this class I would have been completely careless about my participation despite the fact that joined partly to make sure my younger siblings were keeping themselves in check. It may be true that the kids are more savvy about these sorts of things.
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[I PUBLISHED THIS ELSEWHERE, BUT IT'S RELEVANT HERE TOO]
Actually, check this out: "Facebook Withdraws Changes in Data Use."
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/19/technology/internet/19facebook.html?hp
The truth is, legally, companies don't really have a leg to stand on when people start suing them for certain violations of their rights. There is something in the law that suggests that if your "fine print" is too fine and long and exhausting, reasonable people cannot be expected to read it all. Thus, these people cannot reasonably be expected to know what they've signed and are, therefore, not accountable for it and are exempt from the "terms of service" that pop up on all these Web sites and applications. Now, Google is pretty smart and makes its "terms of service" relatively short and understandable, so consumers will have a tough time proving they shouldn't be held accountable for what they've signed or, better said, "clicked." But all those other sites and software publishers need to wise up, or they will face a lot of legal action in the future . . . and lose!
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