Facebook backtracks. Loses face.

After 48 hours of intense user pressure Facebook has caved in and reverted back to its old terms. These, remember, still allow the company to hold on to your data, while their latest terms, had threatened to keep the rights to sell, re-publish and generally profit from your content forever - even if you deleted your account.

Given how many students and adults use Facebook (185 million at the last count) this had posed a real compromise of privacy, in ways that might not have become apparent to subscribers until years after content had been uploaded and profiles seemingly deleted.

Yesterday, the founder of the company, Mark Zuckerberg, tried to claim the change in terms of service were intended to ensure wall postings and the like remained online, even after the poster's account was deleted. What a load of tosh. It's quite clear Facebook was hoping it could slip in this important alteration and not be rumbled.

Now, Zuckerberg has been forced to climb down, at least for the time being.

What's my take on this? Remain cautious on what you post to Facebook and other sites like it. 

Facebook keeps your data - forever!!

A worrying change to the terms of service from global social networking behemoth, Facebook.

It's bad enough the media darling of online chatter wanted to keep your personal data archived indefinitely in their former TOS. Now it emerges that even if you deactivate your account, their new agreement with users gives the company perpetual rights to sell, market and re-distribute anything you've posted. Frankly, that's terrifying and users should think very carefully about what they upload to the site.

The only light at the end of this dark tunnel is that the company does permit a small get-out clause when it notes that these rights are 'subject only to your privacy settings.' In other words, if you don't let anyone see your content, by restricting access, then they might leave you alone. But given how people use Facebook it seems unlikely anyone will notice.

Read more here.

How private is your data online?

I have reminded my students on numerous occasions that placing personal information about yourself online can result in that data being seen by those whose prying eyes you might like to keep focused elsewhere.

There is a simple rule: if you don't feel comfortable with the idea of people seeing information about you, then don't publish it online. 

With that in mind I would like to share the following article. Although it's about a person posting images of themselves on Facebook holding guns from their collection, this is in America, so the guns are owned legally and no crime is being committed. Nonetheless, it's transpired that the individual's employers used something called Administrators Access to gain access to the user's profile.  

This allows a range of interested parties to apply for access to your profile. You can read the full online article here. Think about it. What have you posted that you wouldn't want a university admissions tutor to see or read? 

Be choosy. Be careful. As the saying goes, 'Knowledge is Power.' And the power of personal data that's been misconstrued or taken out of context might cost you dear at some point in the future.