Facebook's fine-print flub

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>> Sumi Das: Hello. I'm Sumi Das, ZDNet, here with our senior editor, Sam Diaz. Sam, thanks for being with us.

>> Sam Diaz: Sure. Thank you for having me.

>> Sumi Das: So there was a bit of an uproar on Facebook over the weekend because they have changed their Terms of Service Agreement. How exactly is it different?

>> Sam Diaz: That's right. They changed the Terms of Service Agreement. It's the license between you and the company, and what they did was they tweaked the language, but they took out two very key sentences, and those sentences were basically what allowed you as the user to delete your content. That's the notes, the videos, those photos, those 25 random things you've been writing, all of that stuff, you used to be able to delete it, and then quit the service if you like. While you're still more than welcome to quit the service if you like, but that content stays, and Facebook has the right to use it still.

>> Sumi Das:What does that mean for users? Are my videos, wall posts? Is that all going to be used for promotional purposes, or what the intent?

>> Sam Diaz: Technically, yes. The way the language is written, it could be done, but I don't see that happening here. I don't see that as the intent. I think Facebook really just needs to clarify legally what they can and cannot do with that content. You know, there's a, there's a, a problem that they did have in terms of that they didn't notify anyone correctly. Facebook has e-mails addresses for everyone of its users.

>> Sumi Das: It would have been simple.

>> Sam Diaz: They could have shot off a blast of e-mails saying like, hey, we changed our terms. You should check it out here, and everyone would have been notified, but they didn't do that here. And that's caused some people to think that something's up.

>> So what has been the response, the official response from Facebook?

>> Well, CEO Mark Zuckerberg, posted a blog entry that basically didn't apologize or say it regretted, but what he did say was to try to explain why he had to do this. So if you use the analogy of e-mail, I have a document. I e-mail it to you. So now there's two copies, right? You have one, and I have one. But if I deleted my e-mail address, and delete that document, it doesn't mean that it died. You still have your, your copy of it. And that's really what was the key here is that, you know, those things have to reside on the server somewhere for people who are still in the service to use it. He did acknowledge some missteps in the handling of this and the notification. So he did promise to, you know, come back later and give some updates on how they may change that in the future, but for now, it looks like these Terms of Service are here to stay.

>> Sumi Das: OK. People are protesting, but somehow or the other, I don't foresee a mass exodus from Facebook.

>> Sam Diaz: Yeah. I don't see a lot of people leaving right away either.

>> Sumi Das: Yeah. They're fairly addictive.

>> Sam Diaz: Yes.

>> Sumi Das: Sam, thank you so much.

>> Sam Diaz: Sure.

>> For more on this latest Facebook controversy and anything else happening in the tech world, head to blogs.zdnet.com.

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