3 Ways You’ve Sold Your Soul To The Internet
Rene Abad
fyi
regards
rene
your info on the internet
You might already have some knowledge of what Facebook does with your
media. However, you may not have a total understanding, so let’s take
a look at the terms of service.
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.
It’s simple – if you put photos and videos up on Facebook, the website
could always give them to other entities (maybe for profit). Facebook
isn’t doing that (yet), so have no worries right now, and chances are
if you delete it, then the content might no longer be up for grabs.
However, if you simply deactivate your account, you may have something
to worry about.
When you deactivate an account, no user will be able to see it,
but it will not be deleted. We save your profile information
(connections, photos, etc.) in case you later decide to reactivate
your account.
To be clear, it might be better to delete your account instead of
deactivating it if you don’t plan on coming back. Also, check your
privacy settings and make sure that people you don’t know can’t
download your photos.
Twitter Borrows Your Thoughts
your pictures on facebook
Twitter has a sweet-sounding brand name, and its powder-blue user
interface dotted with innocent-looking birds could make even the
burliest of lumberjacks say, “Aww.” However, there might be one part
of the terms of service that you may have skipped over.
By submitting, posting or displaying Content on or through the
Services, you grant us a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free
license (with the right to sublicense) to use, copy, reproduce,
process, adapt, modify, publish, transmit, display and distribute such
Content in any and all media or distribution methods (now known or
later developed).
Here we have a very similar agreement to Facebook, but this is based
only on your tweets. What on earth could Twitter do with those?
You agree that this license includes the right for Twitter to make
such Content available to other companies, organizations or
individuals who partner with Twitter for the syndication, broadcast,
distribution or publication of such Content on other media and
services, subject to our terms and conditions for such Content use.
What does this mean? Well, your angry Tweet about your “dumb neighbor
who always mows his lawn too short” could end up on the national news,
and there’s nothing that you can do about it. Sadly, this could be the
case with even a protected account, and if you look further down the
terms, you’ll see that Twitter can modify your material as they
please.
Google Knows Where You Are
your information on the internet
Ever since Google+ dished out its “real name” policy – which is quite
similar to a certain Marvel-related registration act – there has been
concern over how Google can ban your account. This isn’t the only way
to get shut down, so that makes me personally worried. My Google
account is tied to my Blogger publication, my Google Docs, my Gmail,
and my YouTube channel.
That got me thinking – what other dirt does Google have on me? Here’s
a tidbit of its privacy policy.
Google offers location-enabled services, such as Google Maps and
Latitude. If you use those services, Google may receive information
about your actual location (such as GPS signals sent by a mobile
device) or information that can be used to approximate a location
(such as a cell ID).
Although this section potentially has good intentions, we see that
Google can track your location based on your phone. It reminds me a
great deal of that movie, Enemy of the State. The company could be
watching you at any time, so remember when you lied to your
mother-in-law about not being able to come over with the wife for
dinner? Google knows what you you were doing instead.