Recently facebook made some new changes to the Terms of Service agreement. This is not uncommon except for a little clause change that can significantly impact you the end user. You no longer have content ownership once you post something on facebook under their current terms of service.

Basically the new terms state that any content you upload to their service becomes their even if you cancell you user account. That mean any picture you post they can use in an ad campaign and will not need to pay you for it. Any ideas or unique content becomes theirs to use with as the please.

The old clause stated that when you canceled your account or removed content there license to use that information would expire. The previous Terms of service were stated as follows;

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.

The new Term of Service states;

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.

What is scary about this is the fact that you dont even need to post a photo of you but someone else can and it can be used without your permission.

Should you write an exceptional note or develop a unique catchphrase, and it goes national on tshirts, mugs, big brand campaigns there will be very little recompense to you because you have handed over your rights to facebook.

I understand facebook doing this to protect themselves from lawsuits but I also believe they have a responsibility to protect their users rights.

Reality Check : The fine print in an agreement is not always as it seems. Read it carefully and know the implications for you. There is more I could say on this issue but really the point has been made. Be careful what you post and make your friends aware that they too need to be careful about what they post about themselves and you.