Facebook is asking its users for input over its policies in a radical u-turn following an outcry over its attempts to store members' content. More than 25,000 people joined Facebook groups to protest at the changes, with some threatening to deactivate their accounts.
Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of Facebook, said: ‘Users feel a real sense of ownership over Facebook itself, not just the information they share'.
Now a new Statement of Rights and Responsibilities will take the place of Facebook's existing terms and the Facebook advertising terms and conditions.
For the next month, Facebook is holding virtual town halls to let users comment on the draft policies. Changes will be put to a vote and will be binding if more than 30% of active registered users vote.
In the new draft statement, Facebook says its goal is to deliver ads that are ‘not only valuable to advertisers, but also valuable to you'.
While users can use their privacy settings to limit how their name and profile picture may be associated with commercial or sponsored content, they hand over permission to Facebook to use their name and profile picture in connection with that content. Facebook also states that it may not always identify paid services and communications as ads.
But is the site gambling too much on its users' maintaining its existing advertising and user model? Surely, if its users were to object to advertising on their profiles at all, the site would be in a very sticky position.
Mark Cridge, chief executive at Glue London, says: ‘They have never cracked advertising on Facebook. It is not a great model and if you ask people for suggestions don't be surprised if you get some negative responses.'
Patricio Robles, an Econsultancy blogger, says Zuckerberg's plans to overturn ‘restrictive' terms in favour of ‘open' policies is ‘idealistic and unworkable. It's also unnecessary'.
‘What's so hard about developing a reasonable terms of service that provides your company with protection while at the same time not going beyond what's necessary. Facebook seems to make everything more complicated than it needs to be because it appears to believe that everything it does is revolutionary'.
Cridge agrees: ‘It is ridiculous. They have operated like a nation state so when they open themselves up to become a democracy they are opening themselves up to all sorts of issues. It feels like a strange over-reaction (to the privacy concerns) and is a sign that Facebook is believing its own hype.'
Sam Decker, the chief marketing officer at Bazaarvoice, the social ecommerce online ratings and reviews company, says users were outraged by Facebook changing its policy to retain data since ‘people thought Facebook was trying to sneak things past them'. ‘Companies do things and there is perceived evil behind a move, even if there is not.'
However, he says Facebook is aware that it needs to take more notice of customers' opinions. ‘When they give feedback you have to listen and see why they are upset.'
He highlights the Dell Ideastorm website through which users can make suggestions to the computer company. ‘Of course there are many ideas suggested that Dell is not taking action on but at least customers feel they are being heard. If companies close the door, people won't engage with the brands.'
Decker says Facebook users will continue to accept advertising if the service adds value to their lives. ‘If advertising overtakes usability and social sites are over-burdened with ads, people will walk away.'
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