Mark Zuckerberg vows a return to normalcy on Facebook. Fear the normal.
Not to inflict any Bob Dylan terror on everyone, but Facebook has some serious licensing, privacy and free speech principles just sort of blowing around in the wind with all the smug self-satisfaction of a gaggle of dirty folk singers.
Two weeks ago, Facebook announced they would change their terms of service. They proceeded to change a section to the following:“You hereby grant Facebook an irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, transferable, fully-paid, worldwide license (with the right to sublicense) to (a) use, copy, publish, stream, store, retain, publicly perform or display, transmit, scan, reformat, modify, edit, frame, translate, excerpt, adapt, create derivative works and distribute (through multiple tiers), any User Content you (i) post on or in connection with the Facebook Service or the promotion thereof subject only to your privacy settings or (ii) enable a user to post, including by offering a Share Link on your website and (b) to use your name, likeness and image for any purpose, including commercial or advertising, each of (a) and (b) on or in connection with the Facebook Service or the promotion thereof.”
This code granted Facebook the — they use a lot of adjectives, so let’s settle for something all-encompassing — Temple of Doom right to edit, license and even sublicense any user’s content however Facebook pleased.
This language actually is the same as the old Terms of Service. Read that again. All Facebook did was excise the following:“You may remove your User Content from the Site at any time. If you choose to remove your User Content, the license granted above will automatically expire, however you acknowledge that the Company may retain archived copies of your User Content.”
Without these lines, the Terms of Service granted Facebook control forever, hinging on the moment a user posted their content rather than his active status. But, lest we forget, that license exists right now, regardless of the proposed changes. Facebook owns everything posted on Facebook, excepting certain areas protected vaguely by privacy controls.
The logical progression of Facebook’s proposed changes to their Terms of Service suggest Facebook retains all user information and content regardless.
Try deactivating: Facebook forces users to delete all friends, wall posts, information and groups individually — friend by friend, post by post — like some online Soviet guilt trip procedure at the gulag. And at the end of that exercise, Facebook informs the deactivating user his information will remain there waiting for him.
Zuckerberg and Facebook have reneged on the official side, of course.
Maybe Facebook ought to bust out the starch and iron some of these details out a bit before they announce decisions that affect a system used by 175 million people.
Because, look, this is like the expository 15 minutes of some “Neuromancer,” “Bladerunner,” “Watchmen” moment in our sci-fi movie lives where all the sudden 20 years fade to black, and we’re all up in a police state where Gannett regulates news, Facebook owns a catalogue of damning personal information and some Socialist Christian party’s taken over.
Consider where Facebook may be in 20 years — who will own 175 million people’s information then? Harrison Ford will not save us.
Katherine Miller is a junior in the College of Arts & Sciences. She can be reached at katherine.m.miller@vanderbilt.edu.
