My two cents on the Facebook controversy

Facebook started a furor yesterday when it changed its terms of service, allowing the company to retain all content posted to the site, even for users who have deleted their accounts from the system. Previously, when a user left Facebook, all of the content he or she posted would no longer be used by Facebook. Under the new terms, any photos, emails or other content can be used by Facebook for any purpose it deems acceptable. That does not mean that Facebook will publish its users' content, but it can if it wants to do so.

How about this for an idea: Facebook should immediately revert back to its old user agreement through the end of March. Announce that it will implement its new terms of service effective April 1st and allow people to cancel their accounts before then under the old terms. Then, if people retain their accounts past March 31st, they will have done so knowing that their content can be used by Facebook according to the new and less restrictive terms.

Doing so would mean that Facebook would negate much of the negative publicity it generated and we would have more choice about how our content is used.