In February Facebook updated their terms of Service so that users could no longer delete their data when they left the service. Data ownership online is a massive issue and not really one to tackle in a blog post but it is an important area that seems to be developing too slowly and one I feel compelled to blog about. Anyway back to the story… Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook responded to the outrage this policy change caused by saying that sharing data online inherently transfers ownership to the recipient/s. He used the example of an email exchange; even though you may delete the conversation chain from your inbox it still exists on the recipient’s end, and as it should.
But the difference is that an email conversions are fairly controlled in who the recipients are; unless you forward it on, but none the less they remain fairly private. Photos and comments and on people’s walls and picture are accessible to all your friends whether it was meant only for you or not.
The whole data ownership issue is a messy one because when it comes to online we have to reassess what we normally accept as our property. Once your photos, videos or words are online they are just a Ctrl + C away from being in someone else’s possession.
Robert Scoble of Scolbelizer.com argues that data ownership doesn’t matter on Facebook at the new terms of service amendment doesn’t change the users relationship to Facebook.
“Facebook already showed how they treat you by the way they can delete accounts; they have complete control and you have none…just realize your here to serve Facebook, not necessarily the other way around.” (From this post)
But either way this debate highlights that there is still much uncovered terrain around law and policy about online usage. There is so much grey in online usage and with the internet creeping further and further into our lives it’s an area that needs to be developed.
The Creative Commons is an organization looking at realistic ways to preserve ownership on the internet, offering a variety of copyright licenses for free to the public to protect their work. Find out more about Creative Commons here.
Personally I take Scoble’s side cause if you going to put a photo up on Facebook you know it will be seen but I think that Zuckerberg over simplifies the issue by comparing it to email exchanges. Read more about the debate here.
