Sanders Media

This is a question that has recently received a large amount of attention. In early 2009, Facebook came under fire from its users for a new terms of service (TOS) that seemed to allow Facebook to own any content posted on its website. After large scale user revolt, Facebook decided to revert back to it’s older TOS. I can’t say that I remember another online service ever being this sensitive to its users concerns. They have now held a user vote on what the new TOS should be.

The entire episode makes me wonder if any of what we put online remains ours. For me personally, it should be. While I understand that anything I upload or write will likely no longer be private, I feel that I should at least retain ownership.

However, it’s unclear how this will play out legally. We are used to ignoring the TOS for online services. This needs to change if we want to maintain ownership of our digital “stuff”.