The New Facebook Data Use Policy Explained

Your Reputation Precedes You…NetClarify Can Help!

Before I start this blog I need to make a quick copyright protection notice: 

In response to the new Facebook guidelines I hereby declare that my copyright is attached to all of my personal details, illustrations, comics, paintings, professional photos and videos, writings, and expressions of all kinds, as my sole and exclusive intellectual property, as defined in the Berne Convention, and by US law, custom, and practice. For commercial use of the above, my written consent is needed at all times and for all reasons, without exceptions.

If you don’t recognize that language, it’s from a recent craze of Facebook posts involving the new Facebook Data Use Policy changes. Of course, I’m just be comical, but many of my friends, and I’m sure tons of other individuals, have posted a full copyright notice to Facebook on their timelines. To no avail!

That paragraph is actually part of a longer post that individuals copied and pasted to their walls following the announcement of the Facebook privacy policy changes. The statement isn’t a new development, nor does it provide users with any legal protection, as snopes.com reported.

Recent Announcement

Facebook released its “Updates to Data Use Policy and Statement of Rights and Responsibilities” in the late on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving…a move that many corporations seem to deem the best time to release potentially negative news. Unfortunately for Facebook, the very thing they perpetuate, social media, prevented their escape from the brunt of the public distaste of the new privacy policy.

The End of the Facebook Democracy

The largest and most talked about change was the proposal to remove users’ rights to vote on future changes to the Data Use Policy. Now all proposed changes will have a “comment period” and the Chief Privacy Officer will be made available to answer questions. 

Facebook previously allowed any change to go to a vote if more than 7,000 people commented on the change. Once a proposal went to a vote, Facebook required 30% participation of all users to make the vote binding.

Sharing is Caring

The changes to the policy also include the addition of a clause that states that Facebook is allowed to share “information with affiliates,” meaning Facebook can share information about you across companies it owns, namely Instagram. Now all Facebook affiliate data could live on the same server, which may also facilitate the building of a more comprehensive profile of Facebook users’ personal data and site activity.

“You Blocked Me on Facebook?”

Facebook is also removing a clause that said: “you can control who can start a message thread with you using your ‘How You Connect’ settings.”  While on its face this change appears to make it difficult to block annoying users via private messages, a Facebook spokesperson stated that “you will still be able to block senders and manage which messages you see in your inbox.”  Therefore, this change is minor and is only to enable Facebook to make improvements in its Facebook Messages product.

The Data Use Policy changes are interesting and this will likely be the start of a trend toward even more changes as Facebook grows and deals with the challenges of being a public company with shareholders to please.

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