I was shocked not surprised when the big ruckus was made regarding Facebook and this data ownership debate. Facebook announced a revision to its terms of service. In short, it stated:

Users can no longer delete their data, nor will Facebook remove your data it when cancel your account (pictures, text, video).

I won’t go into a long rant about it, instead I’d offer two thoughts:

1. The conversations we’re not hearing behind closed doors are likely the real story here. Facebook needs to make money. People love Facebook because we continue to get value from it. There’s endless ideas out there in how the data could be used. FB is likely putting themselves in a position to slowly utilize that data (likely in different ways, within FB.com and outside FB.com). Is it right to do? Maybe, maybe not. But they need to make money, somehow. The internal project timelines they have for 2009 for features or AD strategies are likely influencing their changes they need to make to the TOS.
2. What’s also surprising to consider is the strong expectation that in regards to your data ownership on Facebook. If you think about how closely guard privacy to our banking and healthcare information — when did Facebook move up in people’s minds to this expected level of privacy?

I’ll side with Scoble on this one — I personally go through an internal “check” process in my head when I type, click, upload or send anything: this is the Internet, I realize I have little to no control over what happens. Anyone can use my content or data if they’d like. I’m ok with that. There’s great things about the internet that are built on ’stealing’ content. Take for example geocoded photos that appear in Google Earth or on Photosynth. In my opinion there’s an implied T.O.S. you’re agreeing to by using the Internet in general. If you’re worried that your content and data is so valuable or personal — then you should likely be using other mediums or thinking twice about using Facebook to distribute it.
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