(Photo by Con Karampelas on Unsplash)
Facebook is just another big corporation and it does what all big corporations do - maximize their profit. Towards this end they will do whatever is necessary and that means that if they will operate in gray areas if they have to.
Although I have a Facebook account but I personally never trusted Facebook and I had an account on Steem before I ever went to Facebook. I made my Facebook account in 2018 and one of the reasons to do so was to promote my Steem content there, but it didn't work out for me. As to why I don't think they are trustworthy, please read ahead.
After the recent Facebook issues that were brought to light, I took look at the whole situation from a fresh perspective. It got me thinking about how this problem was too big to understand all at once. So maybe if I took a look at it from just one viewing point at a time, then I'll get a better understanding about whether to trust Facebook or not.
So I started digging about just one thing - Pictures and Videos. What happens to your pictures and video content that you put on the Facebook? Take a look at the part of terms and services pertaining to the pictures and videos:
You own all of the content and information you post on Facebook, and you can control how it is shared through your privacy and application settings. In addition:
1. For content that is covered by intellectual property rights, like photos and videos (IP content), you specifically give us the following permission, subject to your privacy and application settings: you grant us a non-exclusive, transferable, sub-licensable, royalty-free, worldwide license to use any IP content that you post on or in connection with Facebook (IP License). This IP License ends when you delete your IP content or your account unless your content has been shared with others, and they have not deleted it.
2. When you delete IP content, it is deleted in a manner similar to emptying the recycle bin on a computer. However, you understand that removed content may persist in backup copies for a reasonable period of time (but will not be available to others).
Notice the areas in bold font. Those tiny little phrases can effectively change the whole case if you ever decided to take Facebook to the court for stolen pictures.
Non-exclusive: This means that while you can sell your picture, post it on other websites, or gift it away but at the same time Facebook can also do the same. Keep in mind if you have a picture you want to sell but you posted it on Facebook then a buyer comes along who wants to buy that picture. If that buyer wants exclusive rights to that picture then forget about selling it since you have already given non-exclusive rights to Facebook.
Transferable: Facebook can transfer the rights it has over your picture/video to another party of its choosing
Sub-licensable: They can sub-license your picture/video or the their rights to another party
Royalty-free: They do no owe you any royalty from what they earn after using your pictures/video
Worldwide license: They can do all of the above in the whole wide world
Now also remember that removing/deleting the pictures from your account doesn't mean much as they will be stored in Facebook's database for who knows how long. People claim that you can choose your privacy settings. They should bear in mind it is the privacy from viewing and not from Facebook
Personally I might delete the account but I will think twice about uploading anything that is worth something. That being said I agree that Facebook can have a certain usefulness but it’s not for me and I certainly don't find it trustworthy.
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