Facebook U-turn on privacy changes
Facebook has backed down on controversial changes to its terms of service that angered users and caused protests across the social networking site.
Two weeks ago the site altered its terms of service so that it continued to retain a copy of all a user's messages, actions and updates – even if they left the network. Until the change, Facebook's policy was to delete all traces of a user if they chose to quit the site.
After the potential scope of the new legal wording became clear, thousands of outraged Facebook users and privacy campaigners lobbied for the world's largest social network to revert to its old terms of service.
On Monday it seemed these calls were falling on deaf ears after Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg defended the changes in a blogpost, and suggested that users should trust the site with their data.
However, just 24 hours later the company decided to back down. In a message to users last night, Facebook said it would be reverting to its previous terms and conditions for the time being.
"Over the past few days, we have received a lot of feedback about the new terms we posted two weeks ago," the site told users. "Because of this response, we have decided to return to our previous terms of use while we resolve the issues that people have raised."
However, with Facebook's record of backing down on controversial changes before re-implementing them at a later date, privacy campaigners will be keeping a sharp eye on the company's moves.
In 2006 the site introduced its news feed – updates of activities shared between friends on the site. At first the change caused a major row, with users saying it was badly implemented and a gross invasion of their rights. However, after substantial tweaking took place and new controls were added, the news feed was reintroduced and is now considered the central selling point of the site.
The decision to revert to the old legal terms of use is the latest in a string of bad news for Facebook, which recently overtook MySpace as the world's most popular social network and now boasts more than 175 million users worldwide.
Last week it was revealed that the site had paid up to $65m (£46m) to settle a court case claiming that Zuckerberg had stolen the idea for Facebook from friends at Harvard.
Information from previous court documents also showed that the company valued itself at $3.7bn – substantially lower than the $15bn estimated when Microsoft bought a 1.6% stake for $240m in 2007.
Bobbie Johnson
Wednesday 18 February 2009 09.18 GMT
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News and Media Limited 2009
Facebook has backed down on controversial changes to its terms of service that angered users and caused protests across the social networking site.
Two weeks ago the site altered its terms of service so that it continued to retain a copy of all a user's messages, actions and updates – even if they left the network. Until the change, Facebook's policy was to delete all traces of a user if they chose to quit the site.
After the potential scope of the new legal wording became clear, thousands of outraged Facebook users and privacy campaigners lobbied for the world's largest social network to revert to its old terms of service.
On Monday it seemed these calls were falling on deaf ears after Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg defended the changes in a blogpost, and suggested that users should trust the site with their data.
However, just 24 hours later the company decided to back down. In a message to users last night, Facebook said it would be reverting to its previous terms and conditions for the time being.
"Over the past few days, we have received a lot of feedback about the new terms we posted two weeks ago," the site told users. "Because of this response, we have decided to return to our previous terms of use while we resolve the issues that people have raised."
However, with Facebook's record of backing down on controversial changes before re-implementing them at a later date, privacy campaigners will be keeping a sharp eye on the company's moves.
In 2006 the site introduced its news feed – updates of activities shared between friends on the site. At first the change caused a major row, with users saying it was badly implemented and a gross invasion of their rights. However, after substantial tweaking took place and new controls were added, the news feed was reintroduced and is now considered the central selling point of the site.
The decision to revert to the old legal terms of use is the latest in a string of bad news for Facebook, which recently overtook MySpace as the world's most popular social network and now boasts more than 175 million users worldwide.
Last week it was revealed that the site had paid up to $65m (£46m) to settle a court case claiming that Zuckerberg had stolen the idea for Facebook from friends at Harvard.
Information from previous court documents also showed that the company valued itself at $3.7bn – substantially lower than the $15bn estimated when Microsoft bought a 1.6% stake for $240m in 2007.
Bobbie Johnson
Wednesday 18 February 2009 09.18 GMT
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News and Media Limited 2009