Facebook rescinds change
In an about-face following a torrent of online protests, Facebook is backing off a change in its user policies while it figures how best to resolve questions like who controls the information on the social networking site.
The site, which boasts 175 million users from around the world, had quietly updated its terms of use a couple of weeks ago. The changes sparked an uproar after popular consumer rights advocacy blog Consumerist.com pointed them out Sunday.
Tens of thousands of users joined protest groups on Facebook, saying the new terms grant the site the ability to control their information forever, even after they cancel their accounts.
This prompted a clarification from Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s founder, who told users that "on Facebook, people own their information and control who they share it with."
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Zuckerberg also acknowledged that a "lot of the language in our terms is overly formal and protective of the rights we need to provide this service to you."
