Facebook adopts a democratic policy process

Sunday, March 1, 2009

Merely weeks after quietly changing their terms of service, Facebook attempts to minimize the backlash by letting its members have input into any future policy revisions. Last week new information surfaced that Facebook would own the rights to the content on the popular social networking site. They were met with harsh criticism which led to many users removing content and/or cancelling accounts.

Social networking sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube and Twitter have been highly successful in gaining a large following based on their transparent, member driven, business models. Social Networking sites offer great demographic marketing information which could be resold for profit. Many of these sites are trying to make the leap to profitable online businesses, with advertisers eagerly seeking access to their large membership audience.

Facebook quickly reverted to its previous terms of service and has offered online town halls, which give users the ability to comment and craft the revised terms.

The forums will be available until March 29, 2009 and then the new terms of service will be unveiled. Facebook has asked members to base their recommendations on the following ten guiding principles:

Freedom to Share and Connect
Ownership and Control of Information
Free Flow of Information
Fundamental Equality
Social Value
Open Platforms and Standards
Fundamental Service
Common Welfare
Transparent Process
One World

For full descriptions of the principles.

What is clear is that we should be careful of the content we post for public consumption. The best way to avoid the sale of private information is to keep this information on our computers and take some time to read the fine print before we hit "Accept".

For more information on this subject, refer to this ccn.com article from February 27, 2009.