When people post photos or other content on Facebook, chances are they’re not thinking about what Facebook can do with them. People are freaking about it now, though (again). The reality is that much of this stuff isn’t news; Facebook has always claimed rights to your photos and content.

Here’s Facebook’s recent Terms of Use statement:

You hereby grant Facebook an irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, transferable, fully paid, worldwide license (with the right to sublicense) to (a) use, copy, publish, stream, store, retain, publicly perform or display, transmit, scan, reformat, modify, edit, frame, translate, excerpt, adapt, create derivative works and distribute (through multiple tiers), any User Content you (i) Post on or in connection with the Facebook Service or the promotion thereof subject only to your privacy settings or (ii) enable a user to Post, including by offering a Share Link on your website and (b) to use your name, likeness and image for any purpose, including commercial or advertising, each of (a) and (b) on or in connection with the Facebook Service or the promotion thereof.

And one main reason why people are freaking out is the removal of the following text:

You may remove your User Content from the Site at any time. If you choose to remove your User Content, the license granted above will automatically expire, however you acknowledge that the Company may retain archived copies of your User Content.

So now Facebook is basically saying you can’t take it back… even if you delete your account. Mark Zuckerberg himself explains that On Facebook, People Own and Control Their Information, though.

Maybe I’m not freaking out about this because it’s always been the case that the Internet is forever (my first web page from 1995 still out there in cyberspace proves that). Similarly, Creative Commons licenses can’t be revoked.

So it’s not surprising that there are no take backs and we all agree to the rules of the game when we sign up:

We reserve the right, at our sole discretion, to change or delete portions of these Terms at any time without further notice. Your continued use of the Facebook Service after any such changes constitutes your acceptance of the new Terms.

As for me, I don’t post photos I really care about on Facebook (they’re mostly snapshots of people). Instead, I post most photos on Flickr with Creative Commons licenses. I also don’t import the full content of blog posts or write Facebook notes and instead, pull an excerpt from the original source. And I never assume the privacy settings work because you never know, especially since the settings are confusing and unclear that it’s easy to assume you have certain rights and expectations of privacy when it could disappear either through a narrowly communicated policy change or an unexpected technical glitch. Don’t forget about Friendster’s rollout of the anti-stalking anti-privacy feature.

Also, for everything I post, I make sure I am okay with my manager and former managers seeing it… they are my Facebook friends after all.

Unfortunately, not everyone has the same level of discretion for posting content about others. One nice step toward the right direction is if Facebook would let users approve tagged photos and content first before it’s associated with them. What people post on their profiles about you will still require a conversation with them, but at least you would have some control over your profile before the information is released.

Technology has always been flawed, protection is not impenetrable, and there is no such thing as privacy on the Internet. And no matter how hard you try, you can’t control the Internet and its users; if people really want to republish/distribute your photos, they will even if they technically don’t have the right to do it and unfortunately many don’t know any better. It’s more exposure and convenience yet higher risk. It’s a double-edged sword.

UPDATE Feb 18 2009: I was logged into Facebook and saw the following notice:

Facebook has reverted to their old Terms of Use and returns the following statements… at least for now:

You may remove your User Content from the Site at any time. If you choose to remove your User Content, the license granted above will automatically expire, however you acknowledge that the Company may retain archived copies of your User Content. Facebook does not assert any ownership over your User Content; rather, as between us and you, subject to the rights granted to us in these Terms, you retain full ownership of all of your User Content and any intellectual property rights or other proprietary rights associated with your User Content.

The Power of the Internet community speaks. I wonder how much of the group effort is about PR damage control and making the users feel better because they were able to voice their opinion. It will be interesting to see how much feedback will actually be incorporated. Is it possible to have a constructive conversation in this type of situation when the masses who are affected are involved and likely biased?