Facebook recently amended its terms and conditions to claim lifelong ownership of uploaded content even after user profiles have been deleted. This gave concern to a significant number of Facebook users as previously a clause allowed users to 'permanently delete any uploaded content'.
Within 24 hours, numerous Facebook groups had been launched to protest with widespread media / blog coverage. Facebook quickly did a u-turn on the policy change.
However, they propose to develop an alternative clause as they believe the existing terms are unclear, as once a page has been published the information is out there on the web even if the content is removed from Facebook. I assume that they want to retain ownership as they are concerned that it would be hard / impossible to remove the non-Facebook content that might exist elsewhere that was based on the original Facebook pages. Critics are concerned that they may want life-long ownership for some form of commercial gain. Different people will have different views, to some extent based on the trust between users and the brand.
Lessons for companies big or small
- What policy do you have in place regarding customer data?
- Are customers / prospects clear about what you will do with their data?
- Does it comply with your legal obligations?
- Is it up to date?
Peter Hawtin is an internet marketing specialist with Brand New Way, a UK web marketing agency which helps companies to attract and retain valuable customers online.
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