Week 4 - Tutorial task

Select a social networking site and consdier its Terms of Service and whether you would change the way you use the site.


I don't use social networking much but I do have a Facebook page which I periodically view.

What are the kinds of content they allow?

I only found information in relation to content in Facebook's Privacy Policy that read as follows:

 "One of the primary reasons people use Facebook is to share content with others. Examples include when you update your status, upload or take a photo, upload or record a video, share a link, create an event or a group, make a comment, write something on someone’s Wall, write a note, or send someone a message. If you do not want us to store metadata associated with content you share on Facebook (such as photos), please remove the metadata before uploading the content."  (Facebook Privacy Policy, 2011)

What can the service do with your content?

Facebook stores all  the metadata associated with your uploaded content.
They may retain the details of transactions or payments you make on Facebook.
They also log site activity information including little things like 'poking'.
They will allow advertisers to choose the characteristics of users who will see their advertisements and may use any of the non-personally identifiable attributes they have collected (including information you may have decided not to show to other users, such as your birth year or other sensitive personal information or preferences) to select the appropriate audience for those advertisements.  The criteria advertisers may select can be seen by visiting Facebooik's advertising page. Even though they don't share your information with advertisers without your consent, when you click on or otherwise interact with an advertisement there is a possibility that the advertiser may place a cookie in your browser and note that it meets the criteria they selected.


What guarantees of privacy do they offer?

They claim to have been awarded TRUSTe's Privacy Seal which means their policy has been reviewed by them and complies with their programme requirements.  There are other organisations also listed for whom they meet the criteria but without researching each of them I wouldn't know if these are acceptable or not.

Would I change the way I use sites?

There is so much detail given in the Terms of Service that I would have to be very obssessive and persistant to read through all of it and understand what I am agreeing to.    I must admit that  have skimmed through the Terms in the past, which is why I use so few on-line social platforms.   It's pretty off-putting and hard to do on a regular basis.  To date I haven't had any ramifications from those sites I have signed up for (that I know about) but I am generally pretty careful.  It seems to me that unless individuals are effected very personally by the Terms of Service, not much will change in the way they use these services.   I can see that if your image or your information is used on the other side of the world and you never become aware of it or it doesn't impact on you in anyway, you just blissfully carry on with your life.




References:

Facebook Privacy Policy,   viewed 17 August 2011. last revision: 22 Dec 2011. http://www.facebook.com/policy.php)