Facebook Averts FTC Privacy Complaint
An about-face by social networking site Facebook last week regarding its terms of service headed off a complaint to federal regulators prepared by the Electronic Privacy Information Center. The Wednesday decision to restore Facebook's original policy and its commitment to a more transparent, participatory process regarding future changes to its operating procedure came hours before the watchdog group planned to file a complaint with the FTC. The EPIC filing was supported by more than a dozen consumer and privacy organizations, officials said.
The modified terms of service announced Feb. 4 were widely criticized, EPIC said in a Monday e-e-mail blast. The group argued the company's revised policy "adversely impacted Facebook customers, eviscerated wide-recognized privacy rights, and unilaterally and retroactively transferred control of user generated content to Facebook." The modifications were made without any meaningful notice to Facebook users, EPIC said, noting the transfer of rights was an unfair and deceptive business practice. Under the revised policies, the Web site "asserted broad, permanent, and retroactive rights to users' personal information - even after they deleted their accounts," EPIC said.
Previous EPIC complaints at the FTC have related to Microsoft Passport, Choicepoint, and the Google-Doubleclick merger. In response to user concerns, Facebook established a new Bill of Rights and Responsibilities and is seeking comments from users. The page includes these statements from the company:
1. You own your information. Facebook does not. This includes your photos and all other content.
2. Facebook doesn't claim rights to any of your photos or other content. We need a license in order to help you share information with your friends, but we don't claim to own your information.
3. We won't use the information you share on Facebook for anything you haven't asked us to. We realize our current terms are too broad here and they make it seem like we might share information in ways you don't want, but this isn't what we're doing.
4. We will not share your information with anyone if you deactivate your account. If you've already sent a friend a message, they'll still have that message. However, when you deactivate your account, all of your photos and other content are removed.
5. We apologize for the confusion around these issues. We never intended to claim ownership over people's content even though that's what it seems like to many people. This was a mistake and we apologize for the confusion.
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