RSS Alerts

Related Links

Related Stories

  • Search for security
    With more than 30 000 web pages being infected every day, search engine results could increasingly lead to malware infection. Kari Larsen asks what the search engines are doing to mitigate security threats, and how users can protect themselves.
  • Social networking - a risk to information security?
    As the popularity of social networking sites continues to mount, it becomes increasingly important to consider the information security risks posed in the context of a wider data loss prevention and reputation management strategy. Cath Everett reports
  • Spamming the socially active - spam diversifies to Twitter, IM, SMS, etc
    Once poison found only in email accounts, spam is now polluting every form of electronic communication from IM to SMS and from blogs to tweets. But how well is it doing outside its natural domain? William Knight takes a look at non-email spam
  • A blueprint for secure intellectual property
    Protecting intellectual property (IP) is imperative for any business. Providing a unique business model will encourage revenue, and keeping selected information from ambitious soon to be ex-employees should help to stave off the competition. Add a recession to the mix, complete with unscrupulous tactics, legal grey areas and an increase in redundancies, and the brewing threats might just boil over. Rob Stringer looks into the not-so-secret formula for keeping intellectual property secure
  • US standards drive Canadian information security
    An absence of legislation and the presence of the laissez-faire attitude has resulted in Canada being rather lax when it comes to information security compliance. Robin Arnfield looks at how US standards are driving the Canadian information security marketplace

News

Facebook backs down on owning rights to users' info

18 February 2009

Facebook has backed down from a controversial change in its terms which gave it rights to its users' information.

Founder Mark Zuckerberg posted a blog early this morning saying, "We have decided to return to our previous terms of use while we resolve the issues that people have raised."

The site had changed its terms to give itself rights over users' photos, wall posts and all other information even if users delete the content and cancel their membership on the site.

The move caused an outcry among privacy campaigners and more than
25 000 users joined Facebook groups to protest.

The new terms say, "If you choose to remove your User Content you acknowledge that the Company may retain archived copies of your User Content."

Zuckerberg explained in his blog last night, "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 e-mail work. One of the reasons we updated our terms was to make this more clear."

He insisted the company would not share people's information in a way they would not want, but this morning the company bowed to pressure and reverted back to its previous terms "while we resolve the issues that people have raised".

Zuckerberg said he expects a new version of the terms, written in "language everyone can understand", will be released in the next few weeks.

 

This article is featured in:
Compliance and Policy • Internet and Network Security

 

Comment on this article

You must be registered and logged in to leave a comment about this article.

Copyright © 2010
Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Terms & Conditions | Privacy | Website Design Working with water