Alert: Facebook agrees to let third party advertisers use pictures without permission: Not a new policy!

If you are an avid Facebook fan, chances are you have seen the above phrase being passed around over the internet, in emails and on social networking sites over the past couple days.  Upon investigation, it appears as though this isn’t a new policy at all. The terms and conditions (please note the revision date of May 1, 2009) clearly state:

“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 (except to the extent your content has been shared with others, and they have not deleted it).”

So the question is “what does this mean to you”?  My response is simple, exactly what the title of the article implies: Facebook has rights to your content including all statements, videos and photos and you are NOT entitled to any money for use of your content.

Next time you answer the question “What’s on your mind” or post that embarrassing picture or comment on a video, remember that you truly have no privacy in a public forum such as Facebook.    If your personal image is important to you, I would suggest you review the Facebook privacy policy and reset your settings to protect you.

How do we protect ourselves and our content? 

First, take a look at your privacy and applications settings. 

·         Go to "Settings", "Privacy Settings", "News Feed and Wall" ,open the tab "Facebook Ads",

·         Select "No One" in the drop down

·         Save your changes