A friend sent me an article the other day about Facebook, where the author had an almost chilling reception to Facebook’s privacy policy/terms of use. In fact, last week alone I got at minimum three such emails asking what “a security guy” thought and since the new privacy policy was put into place I’ve gotten no less than 30 or 40 requests/invitations to join various groups that seem to have serious issues with this policy (btw – not all “security guys” wear tin foil hats).
Someone once told me not to put anything in writing (or on film) that I didn’t want my grandmother to see. The obvious extension of this is not to put anything out there that you wouldn’t want your employer, your neighbor, your future spouse or that child you haven’t yet considered having to see either. If you’ve ever gone to a portrait studio with the family you’ll notice that unless you pay a hefty additional sum then the portrait studio ends up owning the negatives of your photos. If it were Sears, it seems like they should ask you whether or not they can plaster them into every Sears in the world if they were to do so, but they wouldn’t have to. By having them take the photos in the first place you’ve provided them ownership of photographs of your family/child/self/dog/flea trap of a cat/whatever. Do you have a problem with this agreement?
A number of people are upset because Facebook put in their terms of service that they basically own anything you upload to their site, in perpetuity. Mark Zuckerburg responded to such privacy concerns that when people upload their data to Facebook,”people own their information and control who they share it with.” I’ve talked about Facebook’s stance on open networking in the past and their every attempt to protect privacy for users from one another. But in this case it seems people are more concerned about Facebook itself, rather than other users. Are you also concerned about Sears?
People are uploading massive quantities of photos, videos and even documents & sharing that data with their friends. I wouldn’t be concerned about what Facebook is going to do with your data. For now, it is in Facebook’s best interest to protect your data from being accessible to others. Because, Mark Zuckerburg’s vision was to provide that level of privacy for students. But, what happens when Mark Zuckerburg has to sell Facebook (ie – to Rupert Murdoch who I’m sure will still be buying companies in 2040 at +100 years old)? Are your pictures going to end up on the ‘skinny jeans’ edition of Facebook’s Girls Gone Wild? Will your children happen across your video clips on Facebook MST3K? I’m not too concerned with privacy, whether it’s Facebook or some other site. Why? Because I pretend that my grandmother will see all of it – and if it’s all some day assembled and sold as stock photography and video she very well may.