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Popular social networking site Facebook, which allows users to share photos and personal messages, recently took an about face when it decided to cancel planned changes to its user rules that would have meant it would own the information individuals post online.
Facing protests from tens of thousands of angry users and the threat of a formal legal complaint by several consumer advocacy groups, the company reversed changes to its contract with users that would have given it ownership in perpetuity of their photos and written correspondence posted on the service.
Facebook denied intentions to own user content, but said it would rescind the changes and restore an earlier version of its membership contract for its 175 million users. According to the New York Times, Facebook's chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, also invited users to contribute to a new Bill of Rights and Responsibilities, which he said would govern the site.
Before that announcement, the Electronic Privacy Information Center, along with 25 other consumer interest groups, had planned to file a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission. According to the Times, the complaint was going to accuse Facebook of unfair and deceptive trade practices, because the company had repeatedly promised users that they owned their content but appeared to be revising that promise in the new contract.
Facebook officials said the contract revisions still would have been dependent upon each user's privacy settings.
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