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.

A One Sided Debate

I was browsing around on Squidom, and I came across a HeyMonkeyBrain lens by lensmaster sarahjjac, about parents getting away with letting kids die in hot cars. I'd been waiting to come across a lens to put in the "Lens that made me cry" section of my profile, and finally found it. Although I didn't truly cry, I did cringe - a lot - and hugged my baby fiercly after I read it. Apparently, in the US, being stupid isn't a crime. Even when being stupid results in the death of a child. People who leave their kids in the car on hot days don't get charged when they die, because they claim they 'forgot' that the child was even in the car with them. Who does that?? That's the kind of lapse that should last 30 seconds, at best, not long enough for a kid to bake in the sun.

Leaving a kid in a hot car to die IS neglect!! is such an important debate - although how anyone can side with the offending parents is beyond me. As soon as I was done participating in the Duels, I immediately lensrolled it to my Professor Baby series. I'm a big believer in criminal stupidity. People seem to forget that just because someone is charged with a crime, doesn't mean that they will go to jail. People tend to sympathize with negligent people whose stupidity and disregard for others results in harm and death, because they could see themselves getting into such a mess, and would hate to go to prison for it. I think that everyone who 'accidentally' harms someone should have to go through the legal system. A judge decides whether what they did - and how sorry they are for it - is terrible enough to warrant a prison sentence. That way, everyone has to be responsible for their own actions.

"I forgot I had my baby with me" my arse! If the baby sitter did it, you bet your left eye they'd be rotting in a cell, because the parents would see to it. So who's responsible for getting justice for a child when it's the parents who screw up? Apparently nobody! If you think this is an outrage, I highly recommend heading over to sarahjjac's lens and putting in your 2 cents. She's provided a lot of angles and queries to really drive home her side of the scale. It's my favorite HeyMonkeyBrain to date.