Facebook Owns YOU!

Well me anyway. Okay, paranoia time again.

Having logged into Facebook, I happened to look at its Terms of Reference and I have to confess I didn't quite like what I saw. Granted this probably has no relevance to most users, but the following set off some alarm bells:

"By posting User Content to any part of the Site, you automatically grant, and you represent and warrant that you have the right to grant, to the Company an irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, transferable, fully paid, worldwide license (with the right to sublicense) to use, copy, publicly perform, publicly display, reformat, translate, excerpt (in whole or in part) and distribute such User Content for any purpose, commercial, advertising, or otherwise, on or in connection with the Site or the promotion thereof, to prepare derivative works of, or incorporate into other works, such User Content, and to grant and authorize sublicenses of the foregoing."

They then go on to say something about, 'But we don't own your content'. Could have fooled me! Like I say for most users who just want to keep in touch there's no problem (although look at their terms on 'Third Party Applications'!), but I don't like what's implied. Well, I've stopped importing my blog into it for a start.

I suppose I already suspected a lot - I've written before of what they could do with our details - but the tone of the thing is just so damn proprietorial! To be honest Blogger is probably just the same. Do we really have to do everything ourselves! Or are there paid services that have an approach to our data that's a little less hands on. I don't like it, folks, I don't like it at all.

Careful people, O'Leary could go postal!