Facebook Fury: A Photographer’s Take

by Aaron on May 12, 2010

Facebook has been in the news again over the last couple of weeks as it has made some change to its privacy settings. Once again we’re seeing some folks choose to deactivate/delete their Facebook profiles in protest. Portland news anchor Stephanie Stricklen (pictured) tweeted last night about knowing several people who are deleting their profiles, noting that the level of chatter around Facebook is greater than ever before.

now i’m hearing from *several* folks who deleted their facebook accounts in the past few days.less than a minute ago via TweetDeckStephanie Stricklen
StephStricklen

Sure, Some Things About Facebook Suck

Facebook’s terms of service that, among other things

specifically give us [Facebook] the following permission, subject to your privacy and application settings: you grant us a non-exclusive, transferable, sub-licensable, royalty-free, worldwide license to use any IP content…

Yes, that means that Facebook is claiming a rights grab to use any photos (or other content) you post to their service. I’ll also be the first to admit that their rapidly-changing privacy and information sharing policies can be a bit confusing if one isn’t paying close attention.

On the Other Hand, Facebook is Perfect for Certain Photo Markets

While Facebook’s audience is expanding, the core group of users (especially those who use it actively) remain those who are currently in high school or whom have been in college/university over the past few years. This is the crowd for which Facebook was originally designed, and Facebook has become a core component of social interaction for the connected generation. If you’re a senior portrait photographer, well, Facebook is where your clients are at. Similarly if you shoot weddings, a good portion of your clientele (engaged folks between 18-30) are using Facebook.

Is Facebook Worth It?

Only you can decide if the terms of service and frequently-changing privacy situation are prices you’re willing to pay for exposure to Facebook’s services and users. From where I sit, a wedding or senior shooter deciding not to use Facebook seems like a damaging business decision. On the other hand, if one works mainly with corporate clients (annual reports and so forth), Facebook might not be as critical to one’s business. That said, keep in mind that everyone needs headshots, and everyone needs avatar photos on Facebook, and the two just might overlap.

Are you ditching Facebook over privacy considerations? Will you stick around since you need it for your business? Are you okay with things as they are?

These other posts might be of interest to you:

Tagged as: facebook, privacy, terms of service

Jon

TOS Language aside has Facebook ever actually appropriated anyone's images in an inappropriate way?

The only example I can think of was using avatar images of your friends next to ads. I've never heard of them using non-avatar images. Have they? Not that I condone the use of friends' avatars to suggest endorsement of products... that is a little different that taking images out of photo albums which I haven't heard of them ever attempting to do.

Regardless, I understand why they need "broad coverage" in their TOS since they do need to be able to display your images for you're friends and potentially next to onsite banner ads... to me actions are way more important than TOS in this case.
Metroknow

In general the constant "shifty" nature of the privacy settings really does suck - and FB's repeated practice of resetting things to open, or making new settings open, particularly without informing users meaningfully is ridiculous (it should all be closed by default IMHO, with options to open if you choose).

BUT, I think the recent media chatter has more to do with sensationalism than a real "new" threat, only because the truth is if you use the Internet, period, most of your information is easily discoverable by anybody looking for it. If you've ever typed your social into a web site, or your birthday, or your credit card, your info is out there if people know where to look. But that's not exactly newsworthy.

On the biz side, I think it's foolish to dismiss FB wholesale based on some lightweight news reports and sensationalized headlines. The solution is simple: Just don't put critical information in in the first place. Only type in the pieces you want to share with everybody. Provide the minimum, like a means of contacting you and what your business is about, but not your birthday, or any other piece of info you use to tie into your security settings elsewhere (favorite pet's name, city you were born, etc.)), and review your security settings once in a while. If you don't provide the info in the first place that you don't want shared with everyone, you shouldn't have much of a problem.
JustinS

My biggest beefs with the Facebook TOS and privacy settings are that a) they seem to default to levels that a lot of people aren't comfortable with and/or aware of and b) whenever they adjust things, it seems that my old settings are tossed out the window.

Oh, and I'm tired of them pimping my profile out and encouraging people to friend me. I know that's counter to the whole "social" aspect, but if I don't want certain people to find me I should have the option to stay hidden (yes, I know, nobody's MAKING me use the service to begin with...).
Elizabeth Buckwalter

To use this policy without losing your photos, just put a few up, and then have a link to your gallery. You can then put several fingerprints in the photo, so even if Facebook uses it, it would make them look silly if they claim it's theirs and your name is splashed across it.

And honestly, it's probably their lawyers trying to reduce liability. Like if someone uses Facebook for their album with those being the only copies and then sues Facebook if the photos are lost. It's another product of our sue happy society.