Facebook Begs Users to Stay

delete_facebook.png

This just gets better and better. No, wait, stupider and stupider. Apparently freaked out over Facebook's change in TOS, the lame explanation of it and the return to the old TOS, droves of people are canceling their Facebook accounts. And it must be droves because why else would Facebook show a message that pleads people going through the deletion process to stay.

The message reads, "Are you deleting because you are concerned about Facebook's Terms of Service? This was a mistake that we have now corrected. You own the information you put on Facebook and you control what happens to it. We are sorry for the confusion."

Please. Make it stop!

And if you really want to understand the issues surrounding this; ownership versus licensing, data usage and other stuff, be sure to watch Alisa Leonard-Hansen explain it all on her I'm Just Saying Show.

by Steve Hall    Feb-19-09   Click to Comment   
Topic: Policy, Social   

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Comments



Comments

Ah-hahahahaha.

And droves to come, one hopes.

A lesson to all would-be dictators.

Posted by: Jetpacks on February 19, 2009 2:18 PM

Wow, that's shooting yourself in the foot - only with a shotgun...

Posted by: Todd on February 19, 2009 2:36 PM

I canceled my account and as a sign of protest started my own network: www.fukface.ning.com.

Posted by: Mark on February 19, 2009 2:58 PM

Plenty of room over here.

Posted by: Tom on February 19, 2009 3:10 PM

I am sure the "mass exodus" will really be earth shattering.

Posted by: Patrick on February 19, 2009 4:42 PM

Just another sign that FB needs a seasoned leadership group that knows how to handle situations like this and can deal with them without throwing the company under the bus. With a little bit of PR before the ToS change was made, they could have avoided this whole situation; but when you make a change like that without any heads up, people get worried, and a lame apology isn't going to change that worry.

Posted by: Cory O'Brien on February 19, 2009 5:28 PM

Droves you say? How many?

Posted by: Wisey on February 19, 2009 5:52 PM

Shame, although it just goes to show you that people - not corporates with their own agendas - own their content, their rights, and will move on if they feel they're not being respected.

Posted by: Gino Cosme on February 20, 2009 9:07 AM

"By posting User Content to any part of the Site, you automatically grant, and you represent and warrant that you have the right to grant, to the Company an irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, transferable, fully paid, worldwide license (with the right to sublicense) to use, copy, publicly perform, publicly display, reformat, translate, excerpt (in whole or in part) and distribute such User Content for any purpose, commercial, advertising, or otherwise, on or in connection with the Site or the promotion thereof, to prepare derivative works of, or incorporate into other works, such User Content, and to grant and authorize sublicenses of the foregoing."

From the current TOS.

This sentence both says they can distribute & sublicense for 'any purpose' and then it says 'in connection with the site or promotion thereof'.

Clear as mud.

Posted by: Celes on February 20, 2009 9:12 AM