Beware Facebook's New Terms of Service

[helen.HH]

I quit facebook last year...
Never really liked it... don't miss it

Does not surprise Me...Good Riddance !

 

[Timmyjoe]

Thanks for the heads up. Just went to Facebook and deleted all the photos I've ever uploaded to there.

Same reason I stopped using Flicker years ago.

Web ain't a safe place to share copyrighted content.

Best,
-Tim

 

[lam]

If you're not being sold the product, then someone is selling you as theirs.

Therefore, only upload photos of your cats, dogs, and only post political/family rants. That way the only people they can sell the data to is themselves.... 🙂

I deleted my first facebook account last year, after realization that when you "log out" you really don't "log out". There are cookies from Facebook that stay enabled and monitor all your clicks. 🙂

This whole debacle ties into the "Click farm" businesses, Does anyone really think these internet applications which somehow stay online and through regular maintenance just EXIST in the nothingness?

 

[Rogier]

**** Facebook. I can't find much "social" in "Social Media" its all about me myself and I...

 

[Lawrence Sheperd]

Where exactly does it say this in the facebook terms? What section/subsection? The nearest I can find is...

It right here in the proposed Statements of Rights and Responsibilities:

https://www.facebook.com/legal/proposedsrr

Section 10.1

"About Advertisements and Other Commercial Content Served or Enhanced by Facebook

Our goal is to deliver advertising and other commercial or sponsored content that is valuable to our users and advertisers. In order to help us do that, you agree to the following:

1. You give us permission to use your name, profile picture, content, and information in connection with commercial, sponsored, or related content (such as a brand you like) served or enhanced by us. This means, for example, that you permit a business or other entity to pay us to display your name and/or profile picture with your content or information, without any compensation to you. If you have selected a specific audience for your content or information, we will respect your choice when we use it.

If you are under the age of eighteen (18), or under any other applicable age of majority, you represent that at least one of your parents or legal guardians has also agreed to the terms of this section (and the use of your name, profile picture, content, and information) on your behalf.

2. We do not give your content or information to advertisers without your consent.

3. You understand that we may not always identify paid services and communications as such."

Subsection 1 would seem to trump subsections 2 and 3.

 

[Nomad Z]

It right here in the proposed Statements of Rights and Responsibilities:

Thanks. Didn't see that in the T&C pages. I wonder if they'll send me an email about it. Not that I care - I have zero personal info and zero photos on it.

For what it's worth (addressing the general readership), it is beyond me why people use these 'free services' for hosting their photos, especially in light of the regular and on-going changes in terms that erode their rights to control their content while seeking to commercially exploit same. I always thought that buying a domain and some hosted web space is the way to go.

 

[Lawrence Sheperd]

No problem NomadZ. It took me a while to mine down to the proposed changes. Comment period is now officially over. I did not receive anything from Facebook notifying me of the proposed changes. However they must have sent something out since the several tens of thousands of responses to the Facebook page requesting comments supports that supposition.

 

[Lawrence Sheperd]

Well, I realized most of you are probably much more established photographers, and so have a much greater worry about theft of work and income than I do, so never mind. None of my business, what do I know?

I think most of us have long ago given up on the hope of any sort of financial or locational privacy. However, the issue of using my likeness (home page icon) or content (photos that I have uploaded) strikes closer to home, regardless of the fact that the financial info is potentially more damaging. The thought of my face showing up in an ad for * insert wildly inappropriate product here * somehow rubs me the wrong way. I don't make any money from my photos and never will, but, to me they are very personal creations.

We probably shouldn't be so upset, since Facebook are just clarifying a long-standing policy spelled out in their terms of service. Shame on me for not thoroughly perusing them before signing up, but I've voted with my feet and have shut the Facebook door behind me.

RichC's analysis on page 1 is spot-on.

edited

 

[noisycheese]

I tend to ignore emails like these - we see far to much spam nowadays - but this does seem to be true. Therefore I deleted all my photographic work from my facebook account leaving only some everyday snapshots..

You can rest assured that this email is not spam. I have been a member of ASMP ( http://asmp.org/ ) since 2003 and in those ten years, I have never recieved even one spam email from ASMP or a third party spam email due to ASMP selling my email address.

Ignoring the Facebook alert issued by ASMP is everyone's prerogative - which in turn makes stealing and exploiting your photographs and any other intellectual property you post there Facebook's prerogative.

Facebook is not the "one big happy family" that generation Y and Z types as well as hipsters desperately want/need to think it is. It is a multibillion dollar global corporation that is controlled by amoral, greedy businessmen/women who don't think twice about exploiting other people and stealing their photographs "for the good of the company." Their actions make this fact undeniable.

I pulled all my work off of Facebook a few months ago and won't be posting more there in the future.

@Brian,
This is exactly why I have never put even one of my images on Facebook to begin with. Never have. Never will.

 

[Ronald M]

Why would it come as a surprise to anyone that companies like this are run by greedy people?

What always surprises me, on the other hand, is the huge number of givers on the internet. Open source developers who build really useful software, people who run forums like this, people who put up sites providing really useful information and all for nothing...

Encourage the good guys and shun the Facebooks of this world, would be my advice, which is free.

😀

Absolutely.

 

[Roger Hicks]

. . . frankly I do know pro photographers who put their work online and then spend hours on "Google Images" each month, making sure they are not being copied. I cannot talk them out of the worry -- that a church newsletter will use one of their photos for free -- and ruin them financially and personally.

It's not the financial loss to me: it's the financial gain to them. Rip off a few bucks here, a few cents there, from a million people, and you've making serious money. More to the point, it's just damnably unsavoury. Church newsletters, people's screen-savers: that's one thing. But when a huge corporation steals pennies from the poor, I want to see someone's head on a spike.

Cheers,

R.

 

[Highway 61]

It's not the financial loss to me: it's the financial gain to them. Rip off a few bucks here, a few cents there, from a million people, and you've making serious money. More to the point, it's just damnably unsavoury. Church newsletters, people's screen-savers: that's one thing. But when a huge corporation steals pennies from the poor, I want to see someone's head on a spike.

Cheers,

R.

Absolutely.

I am now wondering how long it will take for flickr doing the same thing.

 

[isoterica]

It right here in the proposed Statements of Rights and Responsibilities:

https://www.facebook.com/legal/proposedsrr

Section 10.1

"About Advertisements and Other Commercial Content Served or Enhanced by Facebook

Our goal is to deliver advertising and other commercial or sponsored content that is valuable to our users and advertisers. In order to help us do that, you agree to the following:

1. You give us permission to use your name, profile picture, content, and information in connection with commercial, sponsored, or related content (such as a brand you like) served or enhanced by us. This means, for example, that you permit a business or other entity to pay us to display your name and/or profile picture with your content or information, without any compensation to you. If you have selected a specific audience for your content or information, we will respect your choice when we use it.

If you are under the age of eighteen (18), or under any other applicable age of majority, you represent that at least one of your parents or legal guardians has also agreed to the terms of this section (and the use of your name, profile picture, content, and information) on your behalf.

2. We do not give your content or information to advertisers without your consent.

3. You understand that we may not always identify paid services and communications as such."

So even if you are a child we will exploit you under the premise that your parents gave us permission to.. Way to go FB!

My daughter had to sign up with FB for one of her college classes, there were.. dialogues held on there. She did not personalize her profile, used a fictitious name which the instructor agreed to and posted no content of worth. It is unfortunate though that schools or classes actually require people to use such a network.

Additionally, one can delete all they want but if your posts or photos or anything has ever been 'liked' then it is still out there on each of those individuals profiles. Still, deleting is better than continuing to accept their policies.

I got on there to communicate with out of country family several years ago and after about a year and a half I left. I did not like the invasion of privacy and the overall behavior of the general FB populace. It's only gotten worse since, so I am glad I made the decision when I did.

 

[Bob Michaels]

Facebook is a for profit company. They do not charge users directly but generate revenue by selling users data for targeted marketing purposes. This is nothing new. They always have.

Because they are a large company dealing with a massive number of small disorganized users, they will always create terms of service that are most beneficial to them including eliminating any restrictions on what they can do with your information or data. This is nothing new. They always have.

If you have any friends who still believe that most on-line services who do not charge users are there primarily to make users happy and not to make a profit, be cautious of those friends. They are out of touch with reality.

 

[Rogier]

I know first hand of two of my clients who have a teenager who was refused for colleges because something they wrote on FB years ago. It wasn't even that bad either... 😡

If you have / want to be online better have a "nice" picture perfect online profile to avoid trouble in the future....

So even if you are a child we will exploit you under the premise that your parents gave us permission to.. Way to go FB!

My daughter had to sign up with FB for one of her college classes, there were.. dialogues held on there. She did not personalize her profile, used a fictitious name which the instructor agreed to and posted no content of worth. It is unfortunate though that schools or classes actually require people to use such a network.

Additionally, one can delete all they want but if your posts or photos or anything has ever been 'liked' then it is still out there on each of those individuals profiles. Still, deleting is better than continuing to accept their policies.

I got on there to communicate with out of country family several years ago and after about a year and a half I left. I did not like the invasion of privacy and the overall behavior of the general FB populace. It's only gotten worse since, so I am glad I made the decision when I did.

 

[jarski]

cant say am surprised, just once again disappointed. old saying 'if you don't pay for anything, you are the price' is proven true again 🙁

 

[Mackinaw]

On a related note, it's estimated that as of September, 2013, Facebook has 1.15 billion users. Most folks don't read the fine print or, if they do, they don't really care.

Jim B.

 

[fdarnell]

Zuckerberg is a true communist - he believes he has a right to know everything about everyone and do whatever he wants with the information for his own purpose. I figured this is coming, as it will with ALL other internet sites. The only answer is to make it go dark. The dark forces are taking over everywhere. Prepare for the digital dark ages. We will be spied on, sold, lied to, copied, abused and treated like dirt.

Markie's mother and father must never have told him the most important words: "It's NONE of your business"

The only answer is the OFF switch.

 

[fdarnell]

People will quickly see that Eric Kim's way will be the only way on the internet. Everything on the internet is considered free. Act accordingly. It will ALL be stolen and used without your permission. It's the way it works.

Again, use the OFF switch.

 

[Roger Hicks]

I understand, but it means you are not the type who could, for instance tolerate, a retail store. People will shoplift. One has to balance putting the goods out for everyone to handle vs. those who will steal. . . .

No. It's the exact opposite. A few (or even lots of) small-scale thieves are, to me, morally very different from a single, large scale thief using its bully status to steal from millions of individuals.

Cheers,

R.