Facebook Terms of Service update causes outrage

17 February 2009 10:43 GMT / By Verity Burns

Facebook has updated its terms of service this month, claiming rights to all content uploaded to the site, even after you delete your account.

Previously, the terms had read that Facebook's rights to to any original content you upload expired after you closed your account. This important little paragraph has now been deleted.

The terms were officially updated on 4 February, however the changes have only just come to light after a blog site highlighted them in an article that has sent the news worldwide.

The change has caused outrage among users and non-user alike, with many people feeling they should have been alerted to the changes before they went ahead.

However, Mark Zuckerberg has been quick to respond to the controversy on the Facebook blog under the title "On Facebook, People Own and Control Their Information".

Zuckerberg offered a simple example to show why the terms of service had to change.

"When a person shares something like a message with a friend, two copies of that information are created—one in the person's sent messages box and the other in their friend's inbox. Even if the person deactivates their account, their friend still has a copy of that message.

"We think this is the right way for Facebook to work, and it is consistent with how other services like email work. One of the reasons we updated our terms was to make this more clear".

Zuckerberg added: "Trust us, we're not doing this to profit from you, it's so we are legally protected as we enable you to share content with other users and services".

Do you trust Facebook? Let us know what you think about the new changes in the comments section.

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