You probably saw it already. Another pointless warning message is making the Facebook rounds. The current status memo reads something like this:
ATTENTION: This Friday, Facebook will become owner of the publishing rights of ALL your private photos. You need to make a simple change: go to ‘account’, ‘account settings’, ‘Facebook adverts’(along the top), ‘ads shown by third parties’, choose ‘NO ONE’ then SAVE. Takes seconds to fix. And please share share share. (for those who haven’t done this yet..)
This message is not accurate and it is misleading. Facebook does not and will not own your photographs. You retain the copyright to your intellectual property. However, Facebook retains a license to use and display photos and other information members publish on their network. Following the instructions in the circulating message will not curtail Facebook’s overall license to use or display material you post to the site but, in the future, it may affect how your information is used in ads.
There are two separate issues that can be addressed here:
1st:
Facebook doesn’t “own” your private photos. In fact, section 2 of their Terms says “You own all of the content and information you post on Facebook”. They further state on their Facebook Ads Settings page: “Despite what you may have heard, Facebook does not give your personal information to advertisers—including your name, profile picture or any of your photos.”
According to those same terms, when you upload your photos or other intellectual property, you give Facebook a “non-exclusive, transferable, sub-licensable, royalty-free, worldwide license to use any IP content that you post. This 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.”
Why the non-exclusive license? Gives them the rights to have your content on their servers and serve it to others, in accordance with your privacy preferences.
2nd:
Yes, Facebook is now (and has been) integrating their content into third party websites, and doing something they call “social advertising” on Facebook itself. That’s when they for example show you, in your sidebar, that such-and-such friend of yours “Liked” a given page or product. If you don’t want that you can visit the Facebook Ads settings page, click on both Edit Third Party Ad Settings and Edit Social Ads settings and make sure you select “No One” for each of them.
Facebook is a free social network platform that makes money through advertising. They sell ads by mining our data and/or our content (if we let them).
After all, we’re always free to choose not to use it.
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