Not Another Facebook Scandal

By now, nearly everyone has heard of the most recent Facebook scandal that has many people questioning the intentions of the popular social website. The offending terms of service agreement has been discussed all over the blog world, and in some places even made the evening news.

It seems that the online community is made up of two groups: those that are content to use Facebook, and those that love nothing more than discussing reasons to hate Facebook. The company’s new ToS was a very juicy topic for the anti-Facebook crowd, and even had many of the happy users wondering about the merit of the website they like so much.

What’s interesting is how utterly scandalized so many people seem to be over what is essentially a very basic and not uncommon user agreement clause. Although it is possible, it is highly unlikely that a large and profitable company intends to copy pictures of your last birthday party and sell them.

Facebook is not like a one-man business being run out of someone’s basement or van. They have over 175 million active users. They aren’t going to trick anyone into giving up their retirement fund and then scurry off to Mexico in the middle of the night.

Though they may choose to use members’ uploaded content for advertising, it’s not likely that they would paste your picture all over the internet without your permission. Knowing now how important customer satisfaction is, they have little to gain by abusing the trust of their users.

These types of broad, seemingly invasive user agreements are not meant to give websites total domination over your personal information (insert maniacal laugh here). They are meant to protect the company in charge from various lawsuits. If a misguided teenager uploads nude photos of herself to Facebook, and they end up on TotallyNakedChicks dot com, Facebook isn’t interested in paying for it.

Asking users to sign an agreement that gives Facebook ownership of all content you upload is necessary in a society where no one is responsible for their own actions, and common sense is not a requirement for survival.

Having one’s legal team work up a creepy-sounding contract is much the same as making sure all coffee cups say “Caution HOT!”. The only difference is the size of the print.