With over 90,000 members in the protest group on Facebook, EPIC (the Electronic Privacy Information Center) and other privacy organizations filing a complaint readying a complaint to file with the FTC, over 750 articles, and headlines like Facebook seems to have a trust problem, it’s not too surprising that Facebook decided to rethink their stance on the Terms of Service changes.
And sure enough, from Mark Zuckerberg’s Update on terms late last night:
Going forward, we’ve decided to take a new approach towards developing our terms. We concluded that returning to our previous terms was the right thing for now….
Our next version will be a substantial revision from where we are now. It will reflect the principles I described yesterday around how people share and control their information, and it will be written clearly in language everyone can understand. Since this will be the governing document that we’ll all live by, Facebook users will have a lot of input in crafting these terms….
If you’d like to get involved in crafting our new terms, you can start posting your questions, comments and requests in the group we’ve created—Facebook Bill of Rights and Responsibilities. I’m looking forward to reading your input.
One for the good guys!*Â More in The Consumerist (who broke the story originally) and Businessweek.
Congrats, all. A big win for users’ rights — and for social network activism.
jon
Facebook graphic from AJC1’s flickr site, licensed under Creative Commons
PS: for background, please see my earlier posts Facebook: all your content are belong to us. FOREVER! Protests ensue and Zuckerberg: “we wouldn’t share your information in a way you wouldn’t want.†Oh really?
* in the gender-neutral sense of the word
Update, Feb 19: edited the first paragrph to clarify that the EPIC complaint wasn’t actually filed. see comments below for more.
jon | 18-Feb-09 at 5:04 pm | Permalink
Thinking about this a little more, the course of the activism against the new TOS combined the “Motrin Moms” Twitter/blogging approach and the “anti-Evan Bayh” Facebook group/blogging approach. As with the Motrin Moms, Twitter and blogging led to a surge of media attention within 24 hours, and the corporate target quickly backed down. The Facebook group was another way for things to spread virally, as well as providing a metric for how many people were interested in this. I’ve been saying for a while that merged blog/social network campaigns are a key part of the future of online activism … I love it when I’m right 🙂
jon | 19-Feb-09 at 10:02 am | Permalink
Brad Stone and Brian Stelter’s Facebook Withdraws Changes in Data Use in the New York Times is a good overview, with quotes from Facebook Chief Privacy Officer (and California Attorney General candidate) Chris Kelly, protest group admin Julius Harper, Marc Rotenberg of EPIC, and Marcia Hoffman of EFF. Apparently Facebook contacted Marc Tuesday night to ask whether he’d refrain from filing the complaint if they backtracked to their previous TOS; he agreed.
thanks to Adam of Emergent Chaos for the link
jon | 19-Feb-09 at 11:45 am | Permalink
There’s also some excellent commentary on the NY Times’ Room for debate blog.* For example, from Marcia Hoffman and David Sobel of EFF:
And Susan Mernit:
Indeed.
* via @myrnatheminx on Twitter
Facebook, privacy, and activism « Computers, Freedom, and Privacy | 17-May-10 at 7:50 am | Permalink
[…] had some successes in the past. Facebook backed down on Beacon in 2007, and in early 2009 on their Terms of Use changes. As Gagnier, who’s both a lawyer and an online strategist, points out, “these efforts, […]
Hyngealge | 01-Sep-10 at 6:07 am | Permalink
Dear Reader! check: blood porn free porn pictures or free indian porn sites upload porn videos and disabled porn porn actress . Let’s keep in touch!
Mini games Online | 20-Mar-11 at 6:55 am | Permalink
I think you make mistakes. I can defend my position. Write to me in PM, to discuss. Play mini games.
jonn1 | 27-May-11 at 11:33 pm | Permalink
comment5, ambien vs lunesta, 3880, levitra take before or after food, fmqrn, avandia drug class, :-[[[, is singulair safe, pmazb, what is the cost of accutane, kmpjkm, fda recall for soma, twjnjw, abilify reactions, jdnyud, 300mg of provigil, 401, officialgeneric phentermine, >:-(, flomax linktrim com, bqiqa, buspar depression, icx, compare effective zocor lipitor cholesterol, 329, nexium or prevacid, fpfz, generic propecia viagra, :PP, adipex diet loss weight, :-OO, lexapro withdraw side effects, gdl, celebrex and alchol, 8201, lisinopril 20 mg, 7966, diflucan not for sale, >:OOO,